Titanium Texicans

by Alan Black

  Purser Rojo said, “I can’t prove it, but it looks like someone is taking kickbacks from either the Saronno Produce Association or the Saronno government.”

  The captain nodded. “Be that as it may, we can help you get your land back, but they still control the processing plants, so they’re going to keep acting as the middle man, cheating you out of your labor and overcharging us for processed spice.”

  Tasso said, “But you have four agricultural-processing units in the attic. Can’t you use them and buy direct from the farmers?”

  CHAPTER 18

  TASSO LOOKED at the adults in the room. The room was silent. Everyone was looking at Tasso as if he had sprouted wings. “What?” Tasso asked. No one responded, so he used a verbal command and called up the attic spreadsheet on his dataport. Since the spreadsheets were on the open shipnet, he didn’t need his biometrics to get through the firewalls. He sent the spreadsheet to the large wall monitor. He split the screen and displayed his map of the attic next to the spreadsheet. “See, there?” He wanted to point, but remembered the handcuffs on his hands. “Sorry for the map, I kind of made it myself to help find things. They’re right near the intersection of row ZC and column 173. I mean, I saw them there, but I’ve been working in the back right corner where I found the extruder. That’s section ZZ and 001. I’ve only marked some interesting stuff as I walked around, you know … to check out later.”

  Rodriguez nodded, “Like the cannon?”

  The captain cleared her throat, “Like the what?” Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  Tasso said, “I found a cannon in row BR, column 017. There was some other stuff like that in the area, but I only noticed it in passing by. Honest. I wasn’t snooping.”

  The captain shook her head. “Señor Menzies, you’re like a hand-knit shawl. Every time I pull a loose thread, the whole thing threatens to come unraveled.”

  Rodriguez laughed, “Welcome to my world, Captain. I found out about this from Tasso today, during the search for Tio Gabe. I reported the possibility to Commander Shanklin. And I only say possibility because I want to go see this thing for myself.”

  Tasso said, “I don’t get it. Why is it a surprise about any of the stuff there? The spreadsheet and map are on the shipnet for review. My written job description said I should keep all written work there.”

  Graham said, “That’s standard procedure. It’s kept open for review by your supervisor … dang it!”

  The captain nodded, “Dang it, indeed. That’s another thing to add to my Tasso Menzies list of things to do. The next time I want to talk to this boy, remind me to block off a whole day, not try to squeeze him in on a Saturday afternoon. Okay. I have a dinner party to get to, are we done here?”

  Graham nodded.

  Rodriguez and Anisa stood up to go.

  Bill cleared his throat. “Sorry. No.”

  The captain said, “We are done if I say we’re done. That bit on the tax invoice was the last thing on my list. You’re not going to push this, are you?”

  Bill said, “I do have one more item I didn’t want to commit to your agenda. I didn’t want it open to public review, like your meeting agenda was.”

  “But I’m the captain, can’t I order … okay, okay, okay, what is it?”

  Bill said, “It does concern Tasso, but we should dismiss Security Sergeant Rodriguez and Trainee Anisa Rojo-Graham.”

  Rodriguez sat back down. “Sorry, but if my prisoner stays, then I stay as he’s still under arrest for felonious assault.” He had been eager to leave at the start of the meeting, now he was obviously grasping at straws to stay in the room.

  Graham looked confused, “Your prisoner?”

  Tasso twisted around and wiggled his fingers at her. He remembered the handcuffs even if everyone else in the room had forgotten. He wanted more sweet tea and more pizza. Being hand-fed by Rodriguez in front of a room full of adults and Anisa had been so embarrassing he hadn’t asked for more. The handcuffs weren’t uncomfortable, but they did limit his range of motion.

  Anisa sat back down, “I’m staying if Tasso is staying.”

  Graham said, “Now is not the time to be stubborn, Daughter.” She looked at the captain. “Lil, this subject may be sensitive to Tasso. I think we should limit the spread of this information.”

  Tasso laughed. He remembered thinking earlier that he’d decided to begin laughing at insults instead of getting angry. He wouldn’t have punched Cruz earlier if he’d remembered his advice to himself. He wouldn’t be in handcuffs now. He would’ve had a second piece of pizza, maybe a third, if he could control his temper. He also had solved another piece of the who-was-related-to-who puzzle. Anisa was the daughter of the captain’s baby sister, First Officer Rosa Graham. He’d have to work out later how this young captain was the grandmother of one trainee and the aunt of another trainee, even though the two trainees were close to the same age.

  “First Officer Graham, I thank you for your kindness and … sorry, I don’t know the word. You’re trying to spare my feelings and I appreciate that.”

  Anisa said, “Consideration is the word you’re looking for, Tasso.”

  Tasso grinned. He definitely liked it when she said his name. “That’s a good word and exactly what I was looking for. You’re being considerate. Since I came on board, my every step, no, my every misstep has been on video for everyone’s amusement. I’m not sure I have any secrets left that can’t be shared, certainly among this group.”

  “Very mature, Señor Menzies,” the captain said. “Okay, Billy, go ahead, but this better be good. If I’m going to miss out on Jesus Cardona’s barbecued beef ribs and brisket this’d better be worth it.”

  CHAPTER 19

  PURSER WILLIAM ROJO nodded. “I hope this’ll be worth all of our time, but Tasso, you stop me at any time if we get into an area you deem too personal for this audience.” He waited for Tasso’s nod and continued. “I did some additional checking on Tasso’s missing biological father. I didn’t want to assign any staff to help, so I’ve been doing it myself in my spare time. There were some details of Tasso’s tale that matched up with the details from the reports on the missing Tomas Ortiz of Ortiz Freightliners. But, I didn’t want to contact Ortiz until I thought a valid connection was possible.”

  The captain nodded, “No reason to needlessly renew any old pains. Go ahead.”

  “Well, I finally sent off information on Tasso’s story to the Ortiz office on Panacea when we were in port there yesterday. I kept the details as sketchy as I could.”

  Tasso was surprised. He hadn’t even known they’d been in a port. It wouldn’t have mattered to him, but he promised himself that someday he was going to set foot on another planet.

  “I got an answer from The Ortiz.”

  The captain said, “Already? That’s a quick response from a support office, especially for an office on a back water planet like Panacea.”

  Bill shook his head. “No. I didn’t get an answer from the Ortiz office. I got an answer from The Ortiz herself. That is with a capital T. Grandmother Marisol Ortiz, the head of the Ortiz clan sent me a personal request for more information. Tomas ‘Tas’ Ortiz was her son and he’s been missing for almost eighteen years. The anguish at having lost her only son was still evident in her voice. Her plea, no … she was begging me for information on her son. And that’s the problem.”

  The captain nodded, “I told you to keep Tasso out of the communications. We wanted to play this close to the vest, right?”

  Bill nodded, “All information we have on Tomas Ortiz comes from Tasso’s life. Marisol Ortiz confirmed her son’s last message was from Saronno, although she didn’t offer any information on what might have been in the message. That is more of a coincidence than I’m willing to accept. I want permission to let them know about Tasso. Doctora Valenzuela can send them Tasso’s DNA scans and anything else he can tell us.”

  “Tasso?” the captain asked. “This is your call. We’re not going to prod into your personal
life any more if you tell us to stop.”

  FO Graham said, “But Captain, doing a favor for the Ortiz clan would mean more profit to us than the feelings of one trainee.”

  The captain shook her head. “No. I’m aware of what it could mean to us to be the ones to give Marisol Ortiz a grandson. Dang, I’d have played brood mare to his stallion if he hadn’t gone missing. Any connection to Ortiz Freightliners would add shipping lanes to our portfolio if nothing else. This connection might be the foot in the door we need to partner up on some of their busy shipping lanes. But, I will not, repeat not, invade a crew member’s privacy to gain credits.”

  Tasso wanted to let the whole subject drop. Nevertheless, he said, “Captain, I know what it’s like to lose family, mine are all dead … or should be. I can only imagine how much harder it would be to actually lose family and not know what happened to them. I know I’ve been angry for … well, most of my life, because my biological father was lost to me and I don’t know how or why. I’ve been angry for almost as long because my mother killed herself and I don’t know why. If we can find out anything about this guy Tomas Ortiz, maybe it’ll bring comfort to this woman and maybe to me, too.”

  Bill said, “Well, the DNA is about all we can send along with the recording from Tasso’s dataport with Bruce Menzies and Aric Moffatt about the death of the man.”

  Tasso would have slapped his forehead if his hands were free. “I should’ve remembered. I have my grandfather’s dataport downloaded into mine.”

  The captain asked, “Do you think your grandfather knew more?”

  Tasso shook his head, “No. He would’ve told me, but Grandpa downloaded my grandmother’s dataport when she died. I’m sure he downloaded Mother’s too. I haven’t read it through. I should, but … well, I’m not ready to.”

  The captain nodded. “I can understand how it might be an emotional thing to do. I had a hard enough time going through my mother’s cabin and personal belongings. Going through her dataport would’ve been too hard.” She looked thoughtful. “It still might be too hard.”

  Bill laughed, “It might be too hard for you, since you were her favorite.”

  The captain laughed with her brother, “That’s what you say, turd.”

  Bill laughed harder, “No, Sis. I’ve been through both Mom and Dad’s dataports. Mom even said you were her favorite. Dad liked Rosa best. Still, I’m comfortable with it. They loved me, but you were first born. Rosa’s the baby.” He looked at Graham. “The middle child always gets screwed.”

  The captain said, “Tasso, can we scan through your dataport for information related to Tomas Ortiz and any possible connection to you and your mother.”

  Tasso nodded. “I guess, but I want to know … no, I don’t … yes, I do. I don’t know. I mean, my whole life is in there. I haven’t looked, but for all I know my grandfather has dataport recordings going back to his grandfather or more. It’s all … so … well, personal.”

  Bill said, “I’ll run a search pattern based on data we already know and related time frames. I’ll send only that information to Marisol Ortiz. It’ll all still be here when you’re ready to look through it.”

  “Okay. Everybody go home. Meeting adjourned,” the captain said.

  Rodriguez turned to Tasso, “Sorry, but I still have to take you down to the Security Office for arrest and investigation.”

  Anisa said, “But, it’s his birthday! Can’t you let him go for now?”

  Tasso smiled. “Thanks, Anisa, but I’ve never been put in jail before. A birthday is as good a day to try that as any.”

  CHAPTER 20

  TASSO GRUNTED as the side panel for the packing crate on the huge agricultural-processing machine popped loose. The wood panel banded in metal was heavy. An anti-moisture barrier lined the inside. It ripped with a high-pitched screech as the panel cracked and slammed down at him. He dropped to the deck feeling the rush of air buffet him as the panel crashed to a stop against the side of another box across the aisle. The panel groaned and creaked, but it didn’t break and crush him. He crawled out from under the panel. The machine still had the crate on three sides plus the top and the bottom. He wondered why a manual on opening the crate was not on the crate. There should at least be a warning that a person could be crushed to death by pulling the wrong lever. There was a small note on one side that said ‘caution – packing materials may be heavy’. It definitely wasn’t worded strongly enough. “Lesson learned,” he said to himself, “or I hope so. We’ll see whether I learned it or if I ever do that again.” He didn’t plan to uncrate the whole machine. He’d only opened the one side to give him easy access to the manual and controls.

  He checked his dataport for Tio Gabe’s location. The man was still at ZZ-001, the back corner where Tasso had begun cleaning the attic. ZZ-001 was where Tasso had built a sleeping pallet out of old packing material. The old man was napping there and didn’t appear to have moved.

  He wasn’t worried about Tio Gabe’s health. Doctor Valenzuela had put a medical alert patch on the old gentleman after his disappearance. It would alert the medical department if he was in any physical distress. She also set the patch to send an alarm to Tasso’s dataport, so he could get to Tio Gabe in an emergency. She explained the patch was a precaution only, Tio Gabe was as healthy as a horse and mentally stable, no matter what other people thought. Tasso hadn’t known horses were a standard of health, but if the doctor said so, he was willing to accept it as fact.

  So far, Tio Gabe hadn’t removed his locator Tasso had strapped to his wrist, although Tasso replaced the packing strap with a little more fashionable material. He made a special watchband for his supervisor, attaching the locator and his dataport for communications to his wrists without using packing straps. Tio Gabe seemed to treat it as jewelry; showing everyone he didn’t have to clip his locator onto his coveralls.

  It only took a small adjustment on the extruder at Cherry’s Lingerie Shop to make a watchstrap with connectors to fit the locator. Tasso managed to figure it out by reading through several sections of the manual. Cherry was now having difficulty keeping the locator-dataport wristband combinations in stock.

  Tasso was amazed so few people bothered to read the manuals for the equipment they used every day. He still read every manual for everything he could get his hands on. Living on a working spaceship was like living in a library. There were manuals everywhere connected to everything.

  FO Graham’s team of trainee educators had tested his reading level and they passed him with high marks. They were dismayed at the limited range of literature selections Grandpa had given him to read. They wanted him to begin reading all manner of books. They were still arguing over what the best course of reading material would be. He was happy enough to read procedural manuals from other departments around the ship. When they tried to get him to read something called Great Expectations he balked.

  He might’ve had more time to read if Security Sergeant Rodriguez and his supervisor Security Commander Shanklin decided to file assault charges against Tasso for his attack on Cruz. Tasso could’ve either spent a lot of time in jail or confined to his quarters. The whole affair confused Tasso. He admitted the attack. He was guilty. Why they didn’t file charges was a question he was determined not to ask! He refused to file charges against Cruz for battery, as Rodriguez suggested. Besides, a battery was a line of army artillery, wasn’t it?

  He was happy he didn’t have to be on lockdown and was able to continue reading manuals. Here in the attic he could poke around the machinery and read at the same time. That was why he popped open the packing around the agricultural-processing unit. He identified the units with marker tabs at the request of Bill Rojo. The purser was excited to verify the units really existed. Tasso pointed out the possibility of mismarked crates, so they investigated and found out the crates contained what they said was inside. Bill hadn’t been able to find out any information on where the units came from or where they had originally been going. Tasso had crawled into
the crates and come out with serial numbers, but they were still waiting for a response from the manufacturing company. Tasso hadn’t heard anything since, and his curiosity about the machines got the better of him.

  He checked the time on his dataport. He still had a few hours left before he had to get cleaned up. The captain ordered him to attend tonight’s football game. He was looking forward to spending some time with Anisa, but from what she said, they wouldn’t get to sit together.

  He’d worked at Cherry and Ain’s last night, since the store was open on Thursday evenings. Gordo and Cherry agreed to go with Anisa and him to the football game. Gordo claimed to be an expert in the game. Most others in the store didn’t dispute his claim. Tasso really wanted to be alone with Anisa, but at the same time, he didn’t. Even with Gordo and Cherry, they might still be alone. The two seemed more focused on each other than anyone else.

  He’d worked at Cherry’s every night since Sergeant Rodriguez released him from the Security Office late Saturday night. He even went in when the place wasn’t open. Cherry gave him the lock-out codes for the door. He used the after business hours time to run through the manual becoming more familiar with its applications and extruding products. He managed to keep ahead of most of Cherry and Ain’s inventory requirements by filling the store’s racks when customers weren’t around to slow him down. He spent time on Wednesday and Thursday night with customers making special request products or special color matches. He was constantly surprised at the creativity of his customers and continued to be amazed when they complimented his creativity.

  He also used the time when the store was closed to generate thousands of feet of packing straps, web-nets, hoses, and tie-downs for dozens of departments who gave orders to Cherry and picked up the goods during the store hours. He managed to make each department’s straps in different colors with their department designation imbedded in the webbing. Cherry had negotiated special pricing on equipment for the ship. The pricing was much less than the ship wanted to pay and much more than Cherry and Ain wanted to charge. Tasso only had a cursory understanding of capitalism, but even to his inexperienced ear, the whole negotiation sounded backwards.