by Robin Miller
I said, "well the one thing I have time for is a good hole, but I would have no one else do the stone than you."
Digger, "it's nice to have my work appreciated. Got your message, Stony did talk to me about the job, but he wanted a cut and I was already on another job at the time. But your call was enough of a contract for me to start for you. I'll build your bunkers for the same cost as the first one, and take my payment from you not Stony. If this is not acceptable, this will be the only one I'll do for you." I said, "no no, that's far, I only asked him to call you to save time. I didn't think about the contract or the cost. You just send the bill to my bank, and they will take care of you, don't worry about Stony."
I told him were the other two sites with ready holes for clubs were, and that the rest would be ready in a day or two. He said it would take two to three days for each of them, if there is as little digging as this one. I asked him to put a 3 foot across hole in the center of the roof, for the exhaust fan, and cut the front and rear doors the same as the other club. He said the center hole can be formed out before the poor, but the doors and any other holeslike for water or power, should be cut after the stone is hard. I said youknow best.
Digger, "the next two months will be my best ever. I may even take a vacation after the job."
I said, "I know a nice pleasure planet only three days away, if you want transport I can make it happen."
Digger, "I'll keep that in mind."
I bid him a good day, and went over to the hotel site to see how things were going. They had the first uprights in place, and were working on tying them together with cross beams. Stony had a trailer with a long table on one side for the building maps and a computer. As I walked up he said good morning, and I returned the greeting then said, “I put Digger under a personal contract, so don’t worry about the clubs.”
He said, “fine, one less thing to do.”
I told him about the other two sites that were dug, and that the rest would be ready in a day or two. He said he would send prep crews over to the sites so they could put the upright in as soon as they were done with the steel on this one. I told him to keep the men working but not to rush himself. He said quality first would be his daily motto, and asked how the war was going. I told him what I knew, and he said, "putting in steel may be a problem when the metal eating robots get here, but I’ll put a watch guard on around-the-clock 20/6. Don’t you worry sir, I’ll not let any of those scrapers get at our work."
I said that's the best we can do, and bid him a good day, then went to Central city and my club for a drink. I sat at my booth and made myself a rum with juice and ginger ale. Then called the space station to talk to the lab about the Flarn. The technician said, "it has both a proton pump inhibitor and a saliva reducer, both are needed for good digestion, so you are still hungry and thirsty but the Flarn is 98% air with a sweetener, longtime use is not recommended.”
After hearing this I decided not to eat anymore Flarn, at least not around mealtime. Jolly Jack, the bartender, asked if I needed anything. I told him I just came in for a drink and was fine. He asked how goes the war and I said I was hoping to run into Newsy so he could tell me. He laughed and asked if we were going to have a problem around there. I told him some of the robots were bound to get past us, but most would be on the coast. As to the ones that end up around here, a good club would do the job. He said what about a blaster. I said only if you are in the desert, I don't want any holes in my club. He nodded in agreement and went back to work. I was feeling stronger now, so I finished my drink and went to another site where Owsee had mined the crystals already, and used my telekinetic enhancer to move the sand and make a hole for the club, and one for the hotel. I was tired faster this time, and decided to go get the big ship Tubby and retrieve a ship or two for the port to fix so we could blow them up. My list took me to a repair shop near the coast. The man that ran the place had two ships, about the size of a house, that he said had a number of leaks along the seams and just would not hold air. He said all they needed was the remote controls and a bomb, but he didn't have the parts or money. I told him if he wanted to do the work I would buy the parts for him. He said to be honest I'm not much more than a welder, and don't do much in the way of other repairs. I told him I was the same way, which is why I let others do what they know best. But not to worry, I have some people that can do the job right, and these two ships would blow up a lot of metal eaten robot spiders. He had a kind of bulldozer and helped me get the ships on Tubby. Then I told him he better dig up a hole and put the dozer in it, as a lot of the robots may fall nearby. He said that was a good idea, and I left with the ships. When I got to the shipyards I told them these two should be in good shape except for a few leaks that don't matter. They said they would look them over. I asked where my children were, and they said the Twins went to the club for lunch, about two minutes ago. Lunch was on my mind as well, so Id jumped me over there, as soon as I had taken just a few steps away. We had gotten the take a step and a flight, then another step, routine down well. With her cloaked most of the time, I would look and feel as if I could just fly by will alone, it was great fun. As I walked over to the table I said, "good to see you have the sense to stop for lunch. What are we having?" Prowler said, “we are having a fruit salad, then mushroom stuffed chicken breast with cheese."
Kitten, "and a baked potato."
I said, "and I thought it would be pizza for sure. Jack! I'll have the same." Jack, "right away sir."
I said, "so, how come no pizza today?"
Kitten, "we're getting older, making better choices."
Prowler, "we are eating less and watching what we eat."
I said, "well then don't eat the Flarn, I found out it's not that good for you." And I told them what the station told me about it. They said the report was not that bad, as long as people don't cut out eating real food to eat Flarn. "Flarn," Jack said as he gave us a fresh bowl of nuts. "Did someone say Flarn? It was everywhere yesterday and nowhere today."
I said, "we were talking about how it may not be that good for you." Jack, "anything that taste that good is bound to bebad for you, but then that never stopped anyone from ordering a smorgesh pie, is there anything else I can get you?"
I said I was fine, so did the children. Newsy stopped by and asked how the war was going.
I said, "you tell me, you seem to always have the to-the-minute news." Newsy, "the fighters went out this morning to make another attack, and are on their way back now. Owsee's port has seven ships that they fixed up to use against the M.E.R.S. or “Scrapers” as some are calling them."
I said, "make that nine."
Newsy, "and there is a goal of 1000 mines to be ready to put in orbit against the menus heading our way."
I said, "a thousand, that would be good."
Newsy, "is there anything else I can tell the people?"
I said, "these robots looked to be about four days away, and will mostly come down on the southeast coast, we predict. But there may also be some in other places as well, and a good club is your best defense. Don't worry, these things don't want to eat you, just your ships, your power plant, the sewer pipes and a few toasters."
Newsy, "nice touch, I'll use that."
Then he left just as our food came. As we ate I asked the children how the ship repair was going?
Prowler, "it's going well, we came at just the right time."
Kitty, "there are lot of pilots that want to leave Laureate before the Scrapers get here, and they need some repairs."
Prowler, "so it's mostly just us working on the old ships."
Kitten, "each one is just a little different than the other."
Prowler, "so we are learning a lot, we just got done putting the remote in the ship you pulled out of the lake."
I said, "the two I brought in are in good shape, except for some air leaks that don't matter, all they need is the remotes and an engine test."
Prowler, "the hardest part is breaking into the old computers, the ha
rdware is no problem putting in."
I said, "well then good luck in breaking into the two ships I just dropped off, but I’m sure they will be no problem for two hackers like you, I'll try to get you some more."
We had our lunch without saying much else, then wetried the chef’s spice cake for dessert, I thought it was good. The Twins thought there was too much spice. When we were done Kitten said she was going to walk to her music lesson now. I said I could give her a ride but she said she rather walk. I asked Prowler if he wanted a ride over to the shipyards, and he said why not. So we took my ship for the short hop. After dropping him off I went to another site for my club and hotel to move some dirt. Just digging the hole for the club tired me out, but I also did the hole form the base of the hotel, somehow. Though it left me a bit shaky, so I just went back to the shipyard where I left Tubby, and took off to get some more ships. I wondered how the other ports were doing it, there were not many ships like Tubby that could move a small ship. Mostly you would just have to fix a ship where it was. At least until you could get it to fly, and these were ships that no one ever wanted to fly again, because there was too much wrong with them. No one wants to take off in a ship that is just one short-circuit away from crashing. As a matter of fact, that was a worry on my mind. That when we started to launch the ships full of bombs, some of them may just fail and come crashing down, perhaps on a house or the city. We of course would do our best to see to it that didn’t happen. I can only hope the other ports would do a good job as well. Still it was on my mind to write a program for the remote control computer, to have ships take off in a direction that would be the safest way to go. That would mean to determine where a ship is, and the safest flight plan for that area, such as over water or desert, or even forest until it got into space. Then forwarded to go where we wanted, until we were ready for it to blow up. I was not going to write that program, for sure. Maybe I could do it, but it would take me many week. The Twins were good at programming, I hoped they could knock it out quickly. Once again I would ask my children to do something, maybe no one else could do as well, in order to save the planet. But what if we had a tragedy like a ship falling on a city. It would be said I left the program, that may have been responsible, to my children. But if I ask the Plexon chief engineer who the best programmers are, he would say that they are my Twins. If it was not for the fact that they were my own children, maybe I would have no problem looking at them as the prodigies they were. Even though they only look to be about eight or nine years old. The fact that they had not even seen their first birthday was the thing most did not know. They growth in these past months had been remarkable, though Kitty tells me it's just a katalackeons way and they would slow down soon. But it was not just their bodies that were growing fast, it was their minds as well. They never forgot a thing they saw or read, or heard. I think they may have been passed me by the time they were a month old. Yes it was hardfor me to look past their age, but I most of all knew what they could do. My nextstop put me in the deep desert. I had a map to a ship that had been out there a long time, with no one to claim it, at least that was the information. When I got to where the ship was supposed to be, I could only see sand. I asked "Id" to look for it, and she found it almost completely covered. I used what strength I had to uncover the ship with my telekinesis. It was a large cargo carrier, way too big to bring back. It had a big hole in one side, and a number of the hull plates were buckled. I went inside her to find the main computer was still online, and her last pilot a pile of bones on the floor, must of died in the crash. The readouts said the engines were working, or able to. He most of blown out a panel on the way down, lost his air and soft crashed here. This was a good find, and it was just a tip that led me to her. Most would look at the big hole and figure she was junk, or maybe when they saw the bones they left out of respect. I thought about that for a moment, then took the bones out and put them under the sand. I thanked the pilot, or his bones, for his ship and wished him rest in peace. I then gave the engines a test and took her up a bit. It was much smoother than I thought it would be, and hovered just fine, even though she was more than half the size of Tubby. Or to put it another way, as tall and fat as my hotel and three times that long. It was no Tubby, but then Tubby was a flying mountain! As I checked out thecontrols I found a weapons panel. I played with it and targeted a sand dune, then Bam! No more sand dune, just a blast hole. “That's too good of a weapon to let this ship get blown up,” I thought to myself.
I looked over the controls again, and that was setting one of five. No way was I going to scrap this ship, this one's a keeper. There were other buttons on the panel that I did not want to push until I had something other than sand to hit, why waste ammunition? I took the ship to Owsee’s port, and I told them not to put the remote controls on this one, that it was my own salvage. I then went back to Tubby, on my liven ship, and headed for the next ship on the list. When I got there I could see the ship was in the woods, and no way to get to it by myself. That was the last one on the list, so I flew back to the port to look over the damage on the other ship I found. I wondered if we could make it airtight for space before the M.E.R.S. got here. We could sure use of firepower. Kitten was back from her music lesson and looking over the ship. She said, "I was told you flew this ship in?"
I said, "that's right, no problem with the engines, and she's got some good firepower too. If it can be fixed in time it couldhelp us in this war." Kitten, "the big hole in the side is no problem, but she also has 12 buckled panels and all the seams will need to be checked. Maybe we could get the bridge airtight, but the whole ship is a stretch."
I said, "well no matter what, we are not blowing this one up. I claim salvage." Kitten, "if some of the engineers from the space station could help, now that the fighters are done, we may get her ready in time."
I said, "that's a fine idea, I'll talk to them myself. How are the other ships coming?"
Kitten, "I just got back from my music lesson, but they won't be done today, unless we work late."
I said, "we still have a few days, no need for the two of you to work late." Kitten, "I probably should not take time for music lessons until the war is over." I said, "I think we can still take time for things like music, food, sleep, and a bit of private time. When it's time for everyone to push it to the edge, I'll let you know."
Kitten, "well, if we don't get any more ships in and we get a few engineers from the station to help, I think we could have this one done in three days or less." I said, "that would be good, as it’s firepower is more than any other ship we have. By the way, I have a program that needs to be written, maybe you and Prowler could work on it tonight."
Kitten, "what kind of program?"
I said, "a master program for the remote control computer. One that will see to it they take a safe course into orbit, we don't want one to fall on a city or something."
Kitten, "I can see you're concerned about all these old ships, that no one even wants anymore. You have to wonder how good of a job the ports will do on fixing them, just to blow them up."
I said, "that's what I'm talking about. So if one does drop out of the sky, I want it to fall in the desert or water, even the woods are better than on someone's house."
Kitten, "it's not going to be an easy program to write, but Prowler is very good at programming."
I said, "yes, he may find this one is fun, it will certainly be a challenge." We looked the ship over a bit more, then went to the other ships I had brought in that they were working on. Kitten told Prowler about my new ship, and the program I wanted them to write for the others.
He said, "that should be interesting," and took a drink of his soda. I asked if they needed anything, and they both said that they were fine. So I got on my liven ship and went to the space station to talk to the engineers about helping the Twins. When I got there the dock crew was reloading the fighters with ammunition, but the engineers were in engineering, so I went down there to ask some of them to help the Twins. They were
of course happy to help, and we all went down to my new ship, which I was still trying to come up with a name for. I told them not to work too late, there was always tomorrow, and that there was a shuttle to the station every hour from the port. I then went over and told kitten the engineers were at the ship to help, and she said thank you, then went over to talk to them. I went to the club to sit down and have a drink, it had been a long day for me and I was tired. From my booth I checked the website for votes on the storytellers, I wanted to know how that woman did last night. Her numbers were high, some of the best yet. I was glad, as I wanted her for story land Park. I looked over the numbers for the other storytellers to pick the 10 best, and it was not a hard job, there were only two that came in close but did not make the cut. They would be on my callback list for story hour on the radio. I then called the station to ask how many more there were that wantedto try out for story land. The announcer said there were no more, last night was the last of them. I said, “okay then, you can tell people we/I plan to open story land Park in four days.”
She said, “no problem, I'll slip it in.”
I then let my pipe and started to call my top 10 storytellers. I told them I had a room for each of them in my hotel, and wanted them to move there as soon as they could, the park would open in four days. We talked about free food at my club and 300 credits a week. Some of them were not home when I called, so I would call them back later. Each one I talked to was happy to get the job, and ready to move within a day or two. I then called the employment agency and told them I was looking for employees for story land Park, and gave her a list of jobs, and how many I needed for each. I told her to have the people e-mail me for an appointment, and gave her the address. I would have to find time to interview these people for each of the food and drink stands, three people for maintenance, a pair of security guards, someone to take credits as they came in, a lifeguard for the beach, and a manager to run the place when I was not around. I was up to 17 people already not mentioning the storytellers. I made myself another drink then called the box company for the small boxes we would put the pizza and sandwiches in. I called my bottling plant to order the soda we would need. I talked to my chef to find out what it would take to make large amounts of pizza and meat sandwiches, and called the food distributors to made the order, telling them just where to put it so I did not need to be there. I re-lit my pipe and tried to think of what I was forgetting, there is always that one more thing. I walked myself through the park in my mind, then it hit me, trash. If few trash barrels would not do it. I need a trash compactor near the stands, so all my people had to do was to move the bundles of compacted trash. I found what I needed online and put in my order, telling them just where to get it up. There, I said to myself, that should just about do it. I thought I had done all that I could do to be ready for a first day. If there was anything else, I didn't know what it was yet. I then checked the time and found it was about sunset, so I went over to the shipyards to get the Twins. Prowler was working on one of the ships I brought in, and Kitten was with the engineers, doing some welding on my new ship. I told them we needed to call it a day and go home for supper. The others said they would work until they lost the light, which would not be too much longer. I said, "if you all are planning to go to the club, don't worry about what I will say. We all need to have a little fun now and then."