Interlude 2
Time: CY 9785 AD 4862Location: the Hephaistos solar system
The empire’s enemy had spent years planning its assault. In addition to its conventional forces, its agents had heavily infiltrated the empire's military, from which they carried out a campaign of sabotage, and assassination. Attacked from both within and from without, the empire that the starship had been built to defend began to crumble. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies quickly fell to the attackers, leaving only the Triangulum galaxy under the control of the empire.
| Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 |
Alternity - Chapter 3
New Texas
- New Texas
- Feleena
- Last Man Standing
Location: New Texas
Beka looked out of the Maru's cockpit window at the town before her in disgust.
Beka hated planets in general and New Texas in particular. This would be her
fourth trip to the planet and each trip made her dislike the place even more.
They wouldn't be here at all, except that with the recent black listing Dog
Star Lines had given them, jobs of any sort were becoming hard to find. and
they were in no position to turn down any sort of work.
Currently the Maru was resting at what passed for a spaceport near the town of El Paso waiting for a labor crew from the town to show up and help unload the ship's cargo. The spaceport, like far too many Beka had seen on other planets, had seen better days. It had originally been several acres of level, vitrified ground, enough area for the largest freighter to land, surrounded by a number of buildings, including warehouses, workshops and a traffic control center. The landing area was now broken up and overgrown with vegetation. In one part of the landing field, Beka could see some sort of four-legged animal grazing on the weeds that grew through the cracks in the landing zone. At the edge of the spaceport was the abandoned hulk of a magnetic levitation railroad engine. Once used to ferry goods from the spaceport to the planet's capital, the engine was now a rusting hulk, abandoned when trade with the rest of the Commonwealth collapsed and repair parts became unavailable.
The majority of the buildings were run down and deserted, many of them apparently having been dismantled, probably to be used as material in other construction.. The single well maintained building was what had once been the traffic control center. The remains of the planet-to-space radars it had once controlled were lying broken on the ground at the edges of the spaceport, their components cannibalized to be used as repair parts for other pieces of equipment. . From a previous visit Beka knew that the only remotely modern technology the building contained was a ship-to-planet communicator, which could be used by incoming spacecraft to announce their arrival, and arrange for a crew to help unload the incoming starship’s cargo.
Unfortunately for Beka's temper, when she announced her arrival she received a recorded message telling her that the port manager was 'assisting one of his prize mares foal, and would be back later'. As a result the Maru and Beka had had to spend another day in orbit. Beka had no idea what a mares foal was nor how it could be assisted, but she did know that she resented having to spend a day in orbit waiting to arrange for a pick up of her cargo.
"Well here we are, Boss," said Harper. "It's been a while. I can't wait to get out and look up old friends."
Much to Beka's annoyance, Harper loved the planet and the town. He had made friends with half the bartenders and all of the working girls in El Paso. He said the town reminded him of some movies he had seen when he was living in the refugee camps. He called them spaghetti westerns, but what a two street town with wooden buildings, and dirt roads that had animal droppings in them had anything to do with pasta was beyond her.
"You can have the place, Shorty. As far as I'm concerned the only reason the Nietzscheans didn't bomb this armpit of the galaxy was that they figured that leaving it as it was was more damaging to the Commonwealth than leveling it would be. Why anyone wants to live where the weather is either hot and dusty or pouring rain, and the only export is a thousand kilos of bad temper which will kill you if you turn your back to it is beyond me."
It wasn't just the weather that she disliked, but the place was downright primitive. They mostly used animals for transportation, for Divine's sake. Harper had explained to her how it made sense. The planet had no real manufacturing capability, and imported vehicles and repair parts were prohibitively expensive. The transportation animals, horses he called them, didn't need to be manufactured, nor did they need fancy refined fuels or expensive repairs in order to operate.
The horses were bad enough, but the primary export of the planet was duroc meat and hides. Durocs were herd animals that combined the size of cattle with the temperament and tusks of wild boars. Prior to the Fall, their meat had been considered a delicacy, and clothing made of duroc leather was the pinnacle of fashion. Nowadays the price they fetched off planet barely covered the cost of shipping them off world. When the Maru left they would be carrying a cargo hold full of the smelly things. Their stench would undoubtedly permeate the entire ship.
If the planet was bad, the people were even worse. When the planet had been settled the settlers had deliberately chosen to recreate an ancient Earth lifestyle. The original settlers had actually gone as far as to change their names to honor what Harper said were historians of the era. In her mind anyone who would voluntarily eschew Commonwealth technology had to be crazy.
A cloud of dust was approaching. That would undoubtedly be their reception committee, come to pick up the mail that the Maru was carrying. The planet was so isolated that the major mail and cargo carriers didn't want to spend the time making trips to the place. Beka didn't blame them. If jobs hadn't become so scarce lately she wouldn't have taken this particular one either.
"Well let's get this over with, gang," Beka said to her crew members, all of whom were crowded into the command deck with her.
"When we are finished would you like me to accompany you and the others into town Beka?" asked Rev.
"I think you'd better stay her Rev," answered Beka. If you start wandering around town we're likely to find your hide in front of a fireplace somewhere."
"Hmm" said Harper looking at Trance speculatively. "You and me with a bottle of wine on a Rev skin rug. There are possibilities there."
Both objectives of his speculation decided to ignore him.
"Ok, let's do it." Beka said, as she led Trance and Harper off the Maru to greet their clients while Rev went to the cargo hold where he could assist with the unloading. The air smelled even worse than she had remembered. To her complete disgust both Trance and Harper seemed completely nonplussed by the stench.
The cloud of dust resolved itself into not just the cargo handlers but what to Beka seemed to be the entire population of El Paso. The assemblage was led by an aircar so old that Beka wondered if it had been made prior to the civil war. The car banged and wheezed and seemed to be staying afloat only by dint of the drivers will power. Behind the ancient vehicle were two large wagons drawn each drawn by three pairs of the creatures Harper called horses. Behind the large wagons was a collection of men, women and children, some on foot, others in horse drawn wagons or riding horseback, all of them acting as if they were seeing a spacecraft for the first time. What disturbed Beka most about the scene wasn't the crowd, but the fact that the road the crowd had approached over had once had been the magnetic levitation rail line. Animal drawn vehicles had become the mainstay of technology on a planet whose inhabitants had once traveled the stars.
The air car lurched to a stop and the driver emerged. He walked up to Beka and extended his hand. Beka recognized the owner of the hand and groaned to herself, it belonged to the town mayor. If things went as they did the last time she was here, the mayor would spend the next hour making a speech about how welcome the Maru was, and how important the cargo she would be carrying back to the rest of the universe was. The mayor started to speak and Beka went into autopilot, nodding, smiling, and acting as if she was really paying attention to what ever drivel the mudfoot was spouting. After what seemed to be an eternity but was closer to 45 minutes the mayor concluded his welcoming remarks and re entered his air car, which with a sound like an explosion in a metal works factory, got off the ground and headed back to town. About half of the crowd followed him, while the other half, along with nearly all the children, remained behind to gawk.
After the obligatory exchange of pleasantries with the men driving the wagons and their crews, Beka and Harper set about overseeing the transfer of the cargo from the Maru to the wagons. Trance, always fascinated by new life forms and the opportunity to make new friends, began to get acquainted with the horses and some of the younger children in the crowd. Somewhat to Beka's surprise, the townspeople didn't seem perplexed by Trance's appearance, though the children were fascinated by her tail, some of them going so far as to pull it to see if it was real. Apparently they saw so few offworlders that they didn't realize just how unique Trance really was.
The cargo had to be brought out of the Maru's cargo hold using a manually operated winch. The work was slow and labor intensive, with constant interruptions as children and dogs got underfoot, and parents and owners of same ran into the work area to retrieve their errant offspring or pets. And of course there was the constant refrain of questions the townspeople were asking. Questions like 'Where was Vexpeg?', 'Were Harper and Trance married?' 'How long would they be remaining this visit?', Was the flight suit she was wearing considered fashionable off world?', and of course 'Where's my stuff.?' The day was already hot, and what little breeze there was seemed to be hotter than the surrounding air. By the time the offloading was done, Beka was drenched in sweat. The only good thing about the heat, was that as the day got hotter the remaining members of the crowd stopped pestering her and went back to town and the relative coolness of the buildings in town.
"Well that's it, Boss," Harper exclaimed when the job was done. "Our chariot is awaiting us to take us to town." He indicated one of the wagons
"Why would I want to go into town, Harper?"
The blonde engineer walked closer to her and gave and exaggerated sniff. "To take a bath would be one good reason."
"The Maru has perfectly satisfactory sanitary facilities Harper."
"I said a bath, Boss, not just get clean. You have to admit that turning the water on, getting wet, turning the water off, soaping down, and then rinsing of again may get you clean but it sure isn't as satisfactory as a long hot soak."
"Come on, Beka," Trance entreated. "A bath sounds like a good idea. Besides, I want to see the town, and I don't want to go alone."
"Well you could go with me my purple princess. I can show you all the sights."
"I think I'd rather go alone. Come on, Beka, pleasssseee."
The idea of Trance wandering alone in the town, or, worse yet, being escorted by Harper, was enough to convince Beka that she had best accompany her crew members on their visit. With a sigh of resignation she went back aboard the Maru to retrieve some clean clothes, then climbed into the wagon, being careful to stay well clear of the horses. Despite what Harper said about them, anything that big, with teeth that large had to be carnivorous.
The town consisted of two cross streets lined by buildings. The buildings, few of which were more than two stories high, were made of sun dried brick with wooden false fronts. As they rode into town Harper pointed out several saloons, a bank, and the livery stable. Set somewhat off by itself was a building with a steeple which Beka surmised was a church, school, or both. The driver of the wagon took them to the only hotel in the town. At four stories it was the tallest building in town. There was a sign hanging over the entranceway, it said simply 'Hotel', underneath it in smaller letters were the words 'A. B. Guthrie Proprietor'. A uniformed bellhop was waiting for them when they arrived and took them up the stairs, bypassing the front desk, to the fourth floor to what he called a luxury suite. Harper handed the bellhop something which Beka assumed was a tip and the bellhop with a nod of his head vanished down the stairs.
The suite was a single large room, one of six on the floor. The room was furnished with a metal framed bed large enough to sleep two comfortably, a wooden desk with a slat back chair pushed up to it, and a pair of drawers. Attached to two of the room's walls were glass objects which Beka assumed were some sort of illumination devices. The room was ventilated by means of an open window, through which a hot dust filled breeze was blowing Along with the dust, the wind carried an aroma that Beka was reluctant to ask the source of. In one corner of the room was a porcelain bathtub. Harper explained to the others that it was the presence of the tub, complete with a hand-operated pump, that made the suite a luxury suite. The majority of the hotel's tenants had to use the common tubs.
No sooner had Beka closed the door to the room than there was a knock. Harper opened the door and Beka saw the bellhop who had escorted them to the room standing in the doorway carrying two buckets of steaming hot water. Harper spoke a few words to the attendant in a tone too low for her to hear and the man placed the buckets just inside the door and hurriedly backed away before Beka could ask him what the water was for.
"Ok, Harper, you're the expert. What do we do with these?" she asked in exasperation.
"They're for the bath, Boss. You didn't want to take a cold one did you? The tub has a pump that you can use to fill it up with, but the water isn't heated. That's what those are for." He pointed to the buckets sitting on the floor that were slowly leaking their contents onto the wooden planks that made up the floor. "You'd better hurry if you want to take a hot bath."
"You're kidding, right? Are you going to tell me next that this place doesn't have toilets?
"Oh it has toilets all right,"reassured Harper. "They're right down the hall. Or you can use that." He pointed to a large ceramic pot. "The maid will collect it in the morning We just doesn't have hot water is all. " There must be some odd sort of rodent living within the walls decided Harper, that whimpering sound couldn't have come from Beka.
Harper proceeded to demonstrate how to fill the tub with water by pushing on the handle of the hand pump. Eventually the tub was filled with water. Beka tentatively reached into the tub to touch the water.
"Brrr! That's cold!" she exclaimed.
"Harper promptly dumped one of the buckets of hot water into the tub. By this time the bucket was only three quarters full, the other quarter having leaked out of the bucket and onto the floor. "There, that should help. I'll let you finish adjusting the water temperature by yourself." He gave her a leer then added. "Unless you want to get in and let me do it for you."
"Not on your life."
"Well, in that case, I told the bellhop to bring up two more buckets of hot water in half an hour, so Trance can have her soak too. While you girls are soaking, I'm going to use the public tub, then go over to McMurty's and see if Feleena is there. Will you girls be Ok without me?"
Beka took her gauss pistol out of the holster and held it up before Harper's face. "I think this can handle any sort of trouble we might have. Nothing these mudfeet are going to carry can compare to this."
"Ok then. I'll be back here later tonight. Don't worry about paying for the room. I made arrangements the last time we were here."
"Well, all right, Harper," said Beka dubiously, "but if you run into Wister or any of his men get straight back here. I imagine the medical facilities in this place are as primitive as the plumbing."
As soon as Harper left the room, Trance turned to Beka. "Who's Feleena?" she asked.
Beka had been hoping that Trance wasn't going to ask that question. The woman in question was a prostitute who worked in a brothel near McMurty's saloon. Harper had met her on their first trip to this benighted place, and had formed a relationship with her. She didn't want to tell the younger woman the unvarnished truth, she suspected that Trance's feelings towards the Maru's engineer were becoming more than just friendship, but she didn't want to lie either. Trance was perceptive enough to tell if Beka was lying, so she decided to simply tell a half-truth.
"She's a friend of Harper's."
"A good friend?"
"Very good." Beka emphasized the very, the implication was obvious.
"Oh," said Trance. Getting clean and smelling nice had suddenly become much less important than it had been a few minutes ago.
- New Texas
- Feleena
- Last Man Standing
| Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 |