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Alternity 2 - Chapter 6
Date: CY 10091 - AD Mar 5168 Day fiveLocation: Mohendjo Daro spaceport
The young man at the customs inspection station reminded Beka of Harper. While he was dressed in an absolutely immaculate uniform of some sort, unlike Harper's general slovenly dress, he was every bit as irritating as her engineer could be. He adamantly refused to let them leave the customs station in possession of their personal firearms.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, Sir, but without proper authorization from Mohendjo Daro federal police, I can't let you leave the spaceport with your personal weapons."
Beka took a deep breath to help calm herself and flashed the identification card that Andromeda had furnished her. She and Tyr had arrived on Mohendio Daro late the previous evening and been informed that the customs office was closed and that they wouldn't be able to leave the Maru until the office opened the next morning. It was early morning local time but her biological clock was on Mobius time and it was late evening according to her body, and dealing with an officious customs inspector was not something she really wanted to do. "Is this sufficient authorization?" she asked.
"Argosy Criminal Investigation Service Special Investigations Division? What's that? I've never heard of it." There was puzzlement and a touch of hostility in his voice.
"We try to keep a low profile," explained Beka. "
"Those don't look much like Argosy uniforms to me," complained the customs inspector waving his had to indicate Beka's flight suit and Tyr's leather vest.
"We wouldn't be very low profile if we came here in uniform now would we," explained Beka a touch of irritation beginning to show in her voice. "Look if you're that concerned why don't you have your superiors contact High Guard H.Q. on Mobius? A fast courier could get there and back in about a day."
"Right," sneered the inspector. "We have a courier on call at all times just waiting at your beck and call. The next scheduled courier to go that way won't be leaving for another four days. Now you can either hand over your weapons nicely and be free to leave the spaceport, get back aboard your spacecraft and go back to Mobius, or you can press the issue spend time in our lockup until the courier gets back from Mobiu with someone to bail you out."
Tyr decided that it was time to get involved in the discussion as Beka's reasonable approach wasn't working. "Boy," he said in a quiet but menacing tone. "Do you remember the incident on Sinti IV a few months ago? The one where the communications tycoon Jacob Jarvits was killed?"
"I think I remember something about it in the news feed," responded the young man obviously puzzled by the change of subject.
"A combined air and ground assault. I understand the casualties among the civilian population were quite high. And of course the entire Sinti government resigned as a result."
"Some sort of terrorist attack is how the newsies described it," said the customs official.
"Hardly," Tyr's voice was even softer but somehow it had become more menacing "The Sinti government was interfering with an SID covert investigation. So we used a more direct approach instead. Now are you going to let us and our weapons through or shall I be forced to recommend to my superiors that we use a less covert approach here as well?"
"Err, I, uhh.." the young man began to stammer. "Maybe I should pass this on to my superior sir."
"Maybe, boy," growled Tyr, "you should just let us through."
"Yes Sir, Ma'am," said the thoroughly cowed young man. "Everything appears to be in order. Have a nice visit."
"Mass civilian casualties?" asked Beka when they were out of earshot. "The government replaced? Wasn't that a bit overdone?"
"He said he heard about it on the news feeds," explained Tyr. "Anything they reported would have been exaggerated far beyond what really happened. Why did you suggest they contact Mobius? It could have been awkward extricating ourselves from the lockup when the reply came back."
"I wasn't worried about what HQ would have reported," answered Beka. "All courier communications are routed through HQ's command and control entity."
"And," queried Tyr.
"HQ's AI, to use Harper's words, has the hots for Andromeda. Andromeda agreed that if he backed us up should a query come in about our bonafides she would date him."
The expression on Tyr's face turned from his usual one of stony indifference to one of shocked disbelief. "I find it completely incomprehensible that a machine could have the hots," he said hots as if it was something revolting, " for another machine. And even if it did how can a computer date?"
Seeing an opportunity to skewer Tyr with a metaphysical dagger, Beka continued her discussion of AI love lives. "It's all done with through a shared VR matrix. Andromeda explained it to me. It's quite fascinating and the possibilities for creative sex are really quite amazing For one thing physical stamina is no longer a consideration you can .."
"Enough. I have no desire to learn the details of the sex life of machines."
Beka took the opportunity to sink the knife in deeper. "You know Tyr, your really shouldn't limit your experiences this way. The GDF Inflexible Defender should still be in spacedock when we return to Mobius. I'm sure Andromeda could fix you up with her. She's really quite attractive, though you might find her a little overly pneumatic." She cupped her hands in front of her breasts as she said the word ' pneumatic'"
"Disgusting," muttered Tyr.
Beka twisted the knife. "Oh well, It's probably for the best anyway. From what I've been told you're probably not man enough to handle her anyway, Harper now..."
What ever else she was going to say was directed at Tyr's back as he strode towards the spaceport exit ramp, his walk just short of a run.
Beka caught up with Tyr at the car park where the Nietzschean was inspecting the car they had rented while approaching the spaceport. It was a four wheeled vehicle that looked like the vehicles Beka had sen in some of Harper's historical vids of old Earth.
"Primitive," muttered Tyr.
"No, primitive is when you use animals for transportation," answered Beka "This runs on electricity rather than oats and doesn't shit on the road." At Tyr's confused expression she continued. "It's a long story. I'll tell you about it some day. But for now why don't we get on the road and find our professor."
After exchanging their FTA crowns for the local currency, at an exchange rate that made Beka wonder if the pirate organization she had helped smash had simply relocated and adopted a more lucrative profession, they got into the car. Tyr took the drivers position. He allowed the cars autopilot to navigate them through the spaceport and the nearby city of Palmyra which according to the cars navigation system was the second largest city on the planet, and planets commercial and financial center. But once they were safely outside the city limits he deactivated the cars autopilot and began to drive using the manual controls. "Better to learn how to use the manual controls when we don't need to use them than to have to learn when we have to use them," he explained.
As they drove Beka stared silently out the window. At first Tyr was pleased with the silence but after a while he realized that something was bothering his companion and asked what the problem was.
" I looked at my fathers logs before we landed, explained Beka, "Palmyra was listed as a class 'B' spaceport then. Now it's a class 'C' spaceport and the majority of the landing pads are empty. I doubt that even a fourth of them were filled but his log stated that he had to remain in orbit for a day until a berth opened up."
"Planets do backslide Beka," consoled Tyr. "Mohendjo Daro wont be the first nor will it be the last."
"It isn't just this one Tyr," responded Beka. My father's old logs listed nine planets that had class 'A' spaceports. According to the most recent FTA travelers' advisories only three of those still have class 'A' spaceports. Two more are class 'B.' The rest are all class 'C' or or even 'D'. And it's not only that. I went to the Salvager's Ball last year. Most of the families I knew as a girl were missing There aren't nearly as many ships in the ports as my father reported in his time. We're dying Tyr, we're slowly but surely dying."
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