PROLOGUE
The boy sat with his back to the house. The
twin suns had heated the brick and helped take the chill out of the cool evening
air. He watched as the wind played through the fields of wheat, and marveled at
the amber and brown colors that seemed to shimmer before his eyes. The stalks
were heavily laden with grain, and he groaned thinking about the weeks of
harvesting ahead. His family's homestead overlooked the best plains in the
land, and in his lifetime, he had never been hungry. In the distance, the suns
reflected off the Middle Sea, and in a few months, it would be too cold to go
swimming.
As he sat against the house and listened to
the rhythm of a chair rocking back and forth, he started to doze off, but a
sound brought him quickly awake.
The man in the chair began to cough
violently. The boy jumped to his feet and began to pat him on the back. "You
okay, Granther?" he asked.
Clearing his throat, the old man whispered
for some water. Sipping it from an earthen cup, the old man winked his thanks
and sat back with a look of contentment. Granther looked out over the plains
and enjoyed the feeling of the suns on his face. He knew he did not have much
longer on this planet and he wanted to savor every sight, every sound, and yes,
every taste.
He shivered with a chill at the thought and
pulled the blanket tighter around him. "Can I get anything else for you,
Granther?"
"No, son," he said as he closed his eyes and
began to rock again. The boy watched him for a few moments. Granther looked so
small and frail, and the boy sat holding his own breath and watched the old
man's labored breathing, hoping it wouldn't stop.
This side of the house was their favorite
spot when their work was done.
They would sit and look out over the fields,
the Middle Sea, and Granther would tell him stories. The boy smiled at the
thought. "Granther...can you tell me the creation story? It's my favorite!"
With his eyes closed, the old man smiled. "It's
my favorite, too." He opened his eyes and the boy could see the sparkle in
them. "Make me some Ka, Ja root tea, son. I need something to ease the pain in
my throat," he said and coughed so violently, it seemed to shake his whole
frame.
The boy hurried to make the tea, and as he
heated the water, he thought about what the villagers said about Granther. It
was well known he was one of the original settlers brought from Earth by the
Gentle One, so he was at least a hundred and ten years old and the last of the
Firsters.
When he died, the last bond to Earth would be
gone, and the link to the stories would also vanish. He felt a deep sadness at
the thought of Granther passing into the Death World. Stirring in the root
powder with a wooden spoon, he stopped. The spoon had been his mother's
favorite, having been carved by his father. Unfortunately, they had already
begun their journey to the Death World.
His parents had been sent to Ka'an, the city
of the Gods, as representatives of the Seven Ruling Families of the Plains to
request help from the Senate against the Barbarians, who were attacking the
villages along the border. The boy's father had been one of the richest and
most influential men on the Plains, and due to his generous nature, was well
thought of by the HighBorn and common people alike.
While in Ka'an, a plague struck the city and
killed his mother and father and over half the inhabitants. The bodies of his
parents hadn't even been returned to him, out of fear of spreading the
sickness. No one knew why the tragedy had descended on the Republic, but the
local seer woman had been seen screaming in the Public Square that the plague
was a punishment from the Gods. A retribution for the Romans turning their
backs on the Gods and forsaking the ancient rituals.
The boy wasn't sure why it had happened, but
he was left without his parents and in the care of his great-great-great-great-great-Granther...
And many acres of crops. The neighbors would help with the harvest as usual,
and in the tradition of his father, he would give away all he didn't need.
The tea began to boil and he carried it
slowly to the old man.
"Granther," he whispered to wake him up. The
old man reached out his hand to take the cup, but he was shaking so badly, the
boy had to press it against his palms and help him guide it to his lips. After
a few sips, the Ka, Ja tea seemed to help calm the tremors in the old man's
frail body. He sat up straighter in the chair and adjusted the leather straps
on his breastplate. The boy had never seen Granther without his armor,
especially the breastplate. King Attu had given it to him after the First
Barbarian War, and it was a badge of honor. Granther pulled back his shoulders
and held his head high.
He cleared his throat and began, "This is the
story that has been passed down from my father and from his father's father.
Our family lived in a land called Italae, many years ago. The Roman Empire
stretched as far as the eye could see, and it would take many months to travel
from one end to the next. In our family were the common soldiers and farmers,
but also many HighBorn artisans and philosophers. When the Roman Empire began
to crumble, due to the Law of the Twelve Tablets, our family fled with many
other HighBorn into the wilderness.
They traveled deep into the heart of the
unexplored country to start a new life.
"Our people lived a peaceful existence for
many years, but about the time I was born, we were under constant attack by the
Barbarians, and the land was in chaos. The Gods began to battle around us in
the skies and the Barbarians were as numerous as the rats in our feed bins."
"How old were you, Granther?" the boy asked.
"I was just a young boy then, oh not much
older than you are when it all happened."
"What happened?" the boy asked, his eyes
going wide with excitement.
"Give me a minute," Granther said and took a
sip of his tea. "As a young boy, it was hard for me to understand why our
village was always under attack.
My village was not overly rich; true, we made
the finest tools and weapons in the region, but we were willing to trade.
"We had good farmland and plenty to eat in
the winter and overall, we were a happy people. I would play in the fields with
my friends..."
"What did you play, Granther?"
"I knew you would ask that," the old man said
with a laugh and began to cough again. He had to sip on the tea to catch his
breath and wet his throat.
"Sticks would become swords, and we would
battle the Barbarians and save our village single-handedly. It was on such a
day that we heard a real battle in our village. We could hear the sound of
metal hitting metal and the screams of men dying. I ran back to find the
Barbarians on the attack, and our people heavily outnumbered.
"Yet we held our own; you see, we had some of
the finest soldiers trained by the Royal Roman army. The farmers were also
great fighters. When you use a tool all day and fight off wild boar and the
like, you can fight a man with a sword or a spear. My friends and I were not sure
if we should join the battle. What was I going to do with a stick? I thought
about the sword that hung over our Sacred Shrine, but there was no way I could
reach my home without going through the thick of the fight. So I stood my
ground and watched as we slowly beat the savages back out of our village.
"One of my friends cried out, and I looked to
where he was pointing. On the horizon, there was a wall of blue shimmering
light moving swiftly toward us and engulfing everything in its path like a
flash flood. The battle was forgotten, and we ran in terror. As I looked over
my shoulder, the wall of blue rolled over us, and I was frozen in place. I
could not breathe, yet it was not an uncomfortable feeling. I was moving, yet
there was no sensation of doing so. The sky turned black, and I caught glimpses
of balls of fire and rocks passing by at amazing speed.
"Then it was all gone, our village was still
the same, the sky was the same color of blue, and the battle was re-joined in
earnest. I looked at my friends, but they were still frozen. I even raised my
arms to try and wake them up. As I followed their gaze, I was frozen too. In
the sky, there were now two suns, where there had only been one.
"Where there had been vast plains, now there
were mountains pushing up through the clouds. The battle stopped as the men
sensed something was not right, and the
savages fell back to regroup. I found my mother and father and we went to the
town center to discuss what had happened. We could only stand in awe and look
at the land around us. A man walked into the village and said..."
"'My name is Attuicus,'" the boy said loudly.
"Yes, yes," Granther said with a smile. "'My
name is Attuicus,' and he instructed us to follow him. I heard someone say they
thought he was dead. This just brought a smile to Attuicus' face. He led us
outside the village to the Barbarians and he raised his hand in the sign of
peace. Climbing on top of a rock, he began to address the crowd.
"'My name is Attuicus, and I am here to help
you,' he said. 'The fighting is to stop. You are to live in peace!'
"One of the Barbarians came forward through
the crowd. 'I am Chief Messa,' he announced and looked with contempt upon our
people. 'Until these people leave our land, there will never be peace.'
"Attuicus climbed down off the rock and
approached the Chief. 'This land is for you both. Live in peace, my friend.'
"The Chief shook his head. 'This is our land...
You are to leave,' he stated again.
"Attuicus smiled sadly. 'Again, I say both
your people have been Chosen by the Gentle One for this land. Roman and savage
alike, can and will live in peace.'
"Messa screamed in rage and pulled out his
sword. How dare this man insult a warrior chief by calling him a savage!
Attuicus made no attempt to move or dodge the man's blade, and we gasped as it
looked like he would be cut down.
The sword bounced harmlessly off him.
"'What sorcery is this...?' Messa demanded.
"'You may leave now,' Attuicus told him and
turned his back as an insult to signify the chief had been dismissed. 'Return
when your mind is open to peace.'
Making a sign to ward off the evil of that
place, Messa gathered up his men and women and departed.
"'You have been Chosen to make a new
beginning on this planet. Use it wisely, my friends,' Attuicus said to our
people and he then walked out of the village and disappeared.
"The man, or creature, named Attuicus, would
return from time to time when we needed help. The children began to call him
King Attu, and the name stuck. Our people moved out over the plains, and our
numbers have grown. The ground here is so fertile, you just have to breathe on
it to make the crops grow, and now over time, all that is left of the village
is the house you are living in today.
"The Gods built the city of Ka'an and allowed
King Attu to rule from on high. Many of our people followed him and began to
forsake the land that is our lifeblood. For me... Well I prefer to work the soil
and feel the ground squish up between my toes. Ah, ha, ha," he laughed as the
boy shook his head in disgust.
The laugh turned into a deep cough, and the
boy patted him on the back to help loosen up the phlegm in his lungs.
He spat out the obstruction and took another
sip of tea. Finally, he looked at the boy. "So began the start of the New Roman
Empire, and this is our creation story, my son."
The boy laughed and clapped his hands. "Thank
you, Granther."
The old man smiled and then pulled the
blanket closer around him as the suns slipped behind the clouds and he felt a
sudden chill. They sat silently for a few moments and watched as the suns moved
slowly across the sky. Granther began to rock back and forth in his chair and
dozed off. He coughed softly in his sleep. The boy tucked the blanket closer
around Granther's frail frame. Tenderly, he rubbed the back of his hand across
the old man's cheek, and Granther awoke with a start, his eyes wide in fright.
"I'm sorry, Granther, I didn't mean to
startle you."
"It's okay, son," he said.
Waiting for the old man to catch his breath,
he finally asked, "Can you tell me about the battle of the Gods?"
"Trying to wear me out today, Toka?"
"No, Granther...I just never tire of hearing
your stories."
Granther thought for a moment and sipped on
his tea. He cleared his throat and gathered his strength.
"The God battle came fast and furious," he
said in a loud voice. "I had spent the day in the fields and was resting in my
chair when it happened." The old man had moved to the edge of his seat and was
waving his arms as he described the fight. "I guess I was not much older than
you are..."
"That's what you said during the creation
story," Toka said with a laugh.
"When you get to be my age, son, you forget
some things, so give me a little leeway." Toka began to laugh. With Granther's
stories, Toka had to give him a great deal of leeway. "All right," Toka said
and tried to sound exasperated.
"Anyway," Granther said, "I was sitting here
chewing on a weed and thinking about, oh, I guess girls and such. A ball of
flame came out of the sky and hit the ground so hard, it knocked me right out
of this chair. When I picked myself up and brushed the dirt from my clothes,
the flames had died away.
"Then I saw a man and a...a creature locked in
battle. The creature was so hideous, that even today I have nightmares. Their
fighting tore out trees by their roots and scattered boulders as big as this
house." His arm knocked over the tea and the cup shattered on the ground as the
old man motioned with his arms.
"Look out in that field," he pointed, "Why,
there is where one of their heels dug out a hole."
Toka looked at the dip in the field and
snorted. "The last time you told this story, you said it was an elbow."
Granther sighed. "When you tell your children
the story, you can make it whatever you want...but until then..."
"I know, I know...it's your story."
"As the battle continued, the man seemed to
weaken and shrink in size.
More men and women began to appear to do
battle with the creature, but they were swept aside like leaves in the wind.
Just when I thought the man was done for; another man appeared out of the suns
and grabbed that creature by the scruff
of his neck. The being howled in rage and almost broke my eardrums. The new man
had a flowing robe that was so bright, it hurt my eyes to look at him. I heard
him ask the victim of the attack if he was all right. The man shook his head
no. 'Come, Jupiter,' he commanded. 'By the Gods!' I swore and then covered my
mouth. I had just seen a battle between two Gods. Few mortals ever see such a
thing happen in their lives and live to tell anyone, so I fell to the ground in
fear and peeked through my fingers to watch my final moments on this planet.
"Jupiter was standing with his breath coming
out in jagged, short gasps, and he looked as if he was in pain. The other Gods
began to arrive and helped the King of the Gods to stand. Jupiter pointed at
the creature.
"'Keep that Abomination away from us!' he
said weakly.
"'I am the Gentle One. I am here to help
you.' The Gentle One looked at the creature and it disappeared from our sight.
"'Come, my children,' the man in the flowing
robe said, 'You have been severely weakened by this attack.' He touched Jupiter
and the God seemed to recover some of his strength and his pain disappeared.
"'Thank you,' Jupiter said, 'we will come
with you.' Gathering them together, the Gentle One folded time and space and they
disappeared. Since that day, the Gods have not been seen, or heard from..."
"Not even in Ka'an?" Toka asked.
Granther shook his head sadly. "No, not even
in Ka'an, the city of the Gods."
"Granther, you really saw the battle of the
Gods?"
"Sure did, son, sure did."
"I think that's my favorite story," the boy
said with a look of satisfaction on his face.
Granther gave a soft chuckle and closed his
eyes again. He began to rock back and forth in his chair and started to doze.
Toka was going to let him sleep, but a question sprang to his lips.
"Do you think the monster will ever come
back, Granther?"
But Granther did not seem to hear and
continued to rock. Toka looked out over the plains and tried to visualize what
the battle had looked like as it raged across their fields. Grabbing a stick,
he ran off into the grass, fighting off Barbarians and slaying monster Gods.
Granther opened one eye and smiled as he
remembered the games he had played as a child. Then at the thought of the boy's
question, the smile went away.
"If it ever does return, my son, I fear for
our world," he whispered. "If the Gods cannot destroy it...I fear for you most of
all."
CHAPTER ONE
Captain Dav Vad heard the alarms sound and
forced herself to relax as the Vitae Gel was sucked out of her lungs. The
oxygen, mineral and protein gel had helped sustain her body in the stasis
chamber for twenty years. The captain was nude, except for a small headset that
connected her to a sleep program and the bridge computer. "Control...have we
arrived yet?"
There was a slight pause. "We have arrived at
the coordinates on file, Captain."
"Very well then," she answered. "Standard
orbit. Prepare the colonists for disembarkation. I'll be up in a moment to go
over the figures."
"Yes, sir," the Control answered her.
I always tighten up on these long trips, she thought as she stretched.
Cupping her hand, Dav bent over and began to
squeegee the gel from her skin.
Suddenly, she doubled over and began to vomit
gel. "Aaach...I hate this stuff."
She gasped and wiped it off her chin. "I
always seem to swallow some of it."
She admired herself in the mirror. There was
something about her hair that didn't seem right. It seemed to be unnaturally
long for such a short trip.
When the crew had left Earth, they had shaved
off all their hair. Even though their bodies didn't age in stasis, their hair
continued to grow.
I'll have to check the computer for my
protein mixture. It wouldn't be good to arrive on Aqua looking like an outback
beast woman, she giggled to herself.
Besides that, with all the hair, she could
clog the filters.
As Dav looked in the mirror, she saw a woman
with long black hair that fell in ringlets down her ramrod straight back, but there
were also highlights of red throughout, due to her mixed heritage. She needed a
shower and after a few minutes in the auto salon, she was bathed and had her
hair cut. After slipping on a uniform, she admired herself in the mirror again
and saw the ramrod straight back.
Ramrod straight back, she thought in shock. "I'm
a civilian now," she whispered as she tried to relax her back.
When she looked in the mirror, she could see
her back was ramrod straight again. Too much of the military background coming
back to haunt me.
Oh well, why fight it, she thought with a shrug of her shoulders.
Her arms and legs showed scars from the
countless sword and knife fights she had been involved in that not even modern
medicine could cover up. Not that she would ever want them removed. The scars
were an honor of sorts. As her skills as an apprentice of the sword had
progressed, the Master had put more scars on her to add to her collection, and
to the Master's surprise, she had even given him a few.
Opening the front of her shirt, she examined
the scars along the right side of her navel. Still tender after all these
years, she thought as she traced the
scar with her finger. "This is the scar that cost me my military career," she
whispered.
It had been during the Fren-Cana Revolt on
Luna Roush III. A group of terrorists had tried to take over a military day
care center on her base. On her base. The nerve of those people. What an
insult!
When Captain Vad heard the gunfire, all she
could think about was the children. Charging in, she killed four of the
terrorists with her parade sword. The fifth put a gun against her abdomen and
fired. Instantly, she retaliated and cut him down. The pain from her wound
washed over her and she dropped to the floor. A pool of blood had begun to form
by her head.
"My goodness! Someone is bleeding a lot," she
said to a medic who had arrived on scene. By the look on the woman's face, Dav
began to realize the blood was hers. Reaching down to her side, all she could
feel were her intestines spilling out onto the floor. She tried to hold them
in, but the blood made them too slippery. As she began to go into shock, the
room went dark and the medic slipped a mental block on her brain and put her
into a coma.
Captain Dav was put into a Vitae Gel stasis
tank, while the replacement body parts were cloned for her abdomen. Upon waking
four years later and undergoing extensive surgery, she discovered a military
court had given her the High Medal of Utmost Courage and a general medical
discharge for "unacceptable risk to personnel under military care". Mainly, it
had been the children, even though they
hadn't been in the room. That she had risked her own life to save them hadn't
been taken into account.
The captain had been tried and convicted,
while still in a coma, by a military court five hundred light years from Earth.
The court had even tried her for dereliction of duty and abandoning her command
while she was being rebuilt in the Vitae tank. In her mind, it was like putting
soldiers on trial while they lay bleeding on the battlefield. She shook her
head in disgust when the Military Command made her sign her discharge papers.
With a heavy heart, she was put on a civilian shuttle to return to Earth. It
was the longest flight of her life. How was she going to explain to her husband
that she had lost status?
So what does a fired military captain do who
can fly anything from a glider to a seventy-five trillion megaton space
fighter? Maybe roll up in a ball, turn my face to the wall, and kiss life as I
know it good bye. For her, that was not
an option. Never had been and never would be. Lead, follow or destroy was her
motto!
Upon arriving back at Earth, she discussed
the situation with her contract husband and Dav told him about a promo she had
seen for one of the new emigration planets on the shuttle. To her surprise, her
husband, who complained about the cold Panamanian winters, jumped at the chance
to get off planet. They looked over the brochures together and decided on a
planet called Aqua.
It showed a lifestyle of perpetual Caribbean
cruises as major advances in technology now allowed for vast floating cities,
and they could envision themselves lying on the pseudo beaches all day and
dancing in the night clubs until they dropped with exhaustion.
As the controlling interest in the marriage,
Dav went to the Emigration Office and waited for her application to be reviewed
before they could get permission to leave Earth. Because the waiting room was
crowded with all types of rabble, she kept one hand on her gun and one eye on
her wrist pad. She wasn't used to mingling with people of this status. "Get
used to it, " she muttered to herself. The crowd tried to back away from the
dogs that sat protectively at her side.
"Number twenty-seven?"
"That would be us, " she whispered to the
dogs and they set up a protective screen as she walked to the desk.
"Dav Vad?" a man asked from behind the
blastproof screen.
"Yes."
"Good afternoon, Miss," he said with a bow. "You
are respectfully requested to speak with the Commander of Emigration."
Frowning, she let herself and her dogs be led through a door behind the desk
and up the stairs to the main offices.
They passed through seven heavily-armed
checkpoints before stopping before a massive oak door. No one asked for her to
check her weapon in at the desk. "Someone must really trust me...or are powerful
enough to fear no one..." she whispered to
Yang.
The door opened and a slight man stepped out.
"My name is Commander Timmons," he said as he welcomed her into his office. "Please
come in." He made room for the dogs and even opened an extra couch for them to
sit on.
"Your dogs are beautiful," he started out.
"Thank you," she said, patting them on their
heads.
"Panamanian German Shepherds?" he asked,
frowning.
"That's correct," Dav said, surprised he knew
of the breed.
"What are their names please?"
"Yin and Yang," she said and they put out
their paws.
Commander Timmons looked at her to see what
the dogs wanted.
"They want to shake hands," Dav said with a
laugh.
"Oh my goodness," Commander Timmons said as
he walked around his desk and solemnly shook the paws of both dogs. "They are
amazing," he said as he took a seat.
"They're standard military issue," she said, trying
to keep the dogs from getting a big head. Yang growled at her.
"Did he understand what you just said?"
"He can understand up to two thousand
commands," Dav said.
"I've read about them, but this is the first
time I've had the chance to meet such exquisite dogs."
"Thank you," Dav said and the dogs also barked
their thanks.
Timmons jumped up and poured her some brandy
and offered her a cigar.
After lighting hers, he sat back in his seat
and looked out the window.
Dav could see the spaceport through the
window behind him and felt a little homesick. Space had been her life for
hundreds of years and here she was, now getting ready to take her last flight
forever. Timmons seemed to be ill at ease and he rolled his cigar back and
forth between his fingers. Clearing his throat, he finally looked at her.
"I know you're probably wondering why I asked
to see you today."
So it begins,
she thought and answered, "The thought has crossed my mind."
Putting the cigar into a holder, the
commander clasped his hands on top of the desk. "I'll come straight to the point.
I'm looking for a captain to command an emigration freighter to a planet called
Aqua."
Her ears perked up as she shook her head no. "I
have an abdominal injury and cannot handle the eighteen gees of acceleration,"
she said.
"Um...yes I had heard about your injuries," he
said softly. "I understand the military sent you back here on a civilian
shuttle due to your injury, but have you heard about the new Horstman Drive?"
"A little," she answered wearily.
"With the new drive and the life bay
stabilizers, you won't be effected by the gees and therefore, I believe you
won't have to worry about your injury."
"Interesting...but what does this have to do
with me?"
Timmons began to laugh. "So now we get down
to the negotiations. More brandy...no? Very well then," he said. Taking a sip of
his brandy, he leaned back in his chair and looked at her. "As you know,
emigration is very expensive..."
She snorted. "How well I know...two tickets
have just about..."
"Eaten up your life savings..." he finished for
her. "And with your ah...discharge from the service, you don't have a pension to
fall back on."
"You've researched my background quite well,"
she said frostily. Yang's ears stood up at the tone of her voice.
Timmons glanced at the dog and paused for a
moment, as if afraid to offend her again. He decided to take a different tack.
"My company has a new ship that's more
efficient for emigrating."
"What you mean is, it'll make you more money!"
The commander coughed apologetically behind
his handkerchief. "To put it bluntly, yes, that's correct."
Before she could say anything else, he held
up his hand. "At the risk of offending you again, if I may add, I know you're
spending everything you have to make this trip to Aqua. You'll arrive at your
new home with little to no credit.
Correct?"
Dav looked down at the floor. It was hard to
admit to her drop in status.
"Yes, but..."
He interrupted her. "Did you see the entry
fee for Aqua?"
"Entry fee...I thought it was included."
"Ah then...you didn't read the fine print in
the contract?" he asked and looked at her in a fatherly way.
She shook her head no.
"As a professional courtesy from one captain
to another, I'll let you in on a little secret," he said and leaned across the
desk and whispered in a conspiratorial tone to her, "If you cannot pay the
entry fee, the government of Aqua will assign you the job of scraper. Your job
will be to remove the parasites from under the floating cities. Those damnable
parasites attack the underside of the cities, and almost capsized one of them
before they were beaten back by the scrapers.
"You would be called a scraper!" He said the
word scraper so that it sounded like s-crap-er. Her eyes went wide in
disbelief. "From captain to scraper," he intoned, "the lowest rung on the
social ladder!" He paused to let the words sink in. He might as well have
smacked her across the face. Status on Earth was everything. Yin growled.
Yang looked at Yin. "Should we tear him apart
for insulting our pet?"
"Are you crazy? There are over a hundred
weapons tracking us right now.
I'll just leave the commander a little
present for when he goes to sleep tonight."
Yang grinned as he lifted a leg and peed on
the man's pillow.
"You've made your point, Captain Timmons,"
she said with disgust in her voice. "What's your offer?"
He smiled at the obvious insult of being
called captain instead of commander, and realized he had drawn psychological
blood.
He laid out his proposal quickly. "Your
emigration and entry fee will be paid in full. You will arrive at Aqua with
chits for food, water, housing, utilities, etc for fifty full years-Aquarian
time, I may add. Also, you will be given enough goods, luxury items really, to
trade on their open market at one hundred times the going Earth rate. You know
how these pioneer planets love the finer items from Earth. You will live quite
comfortably," he said and sat back in his chair with a smug look on his face.
"You must really be making a lot of money,"
she said as she looked past him out onto the spaceport.
Again, he coughed apologetically behind his
handkerchief. "Let's just say I'll be able to retire early. I may even sign up
for emigration to Aqua myself."
She began to laugh and focused again on his
face. "You can always trust a man who's honest about his own self-interests.
Hell, Timmons, you just threw your proposal out on the table."
"Quite so," he laughed, ill at ease. "But do
we have a deal?"
Dav looked at him for a moment. To be a
captain again...to go into space...and to have status...! She didn't even have to
think about it. "Where do I sign?"
Timmons looked at her in surprise. "Are you
sure you don't want any more details?"
"Sure I do...but if I'm hired, I expect to be
addressed as captain," she demanded.
"That is quite proper, you know," Timmons
said as he poured her some more brandy.
"Captain..." he said, putting emphasis on her
new title, "we've been building a new type of ship over the last five years
equipped with the New Horstman Drive. It can carry ten different and variable
types of colonial necessities, with the power to stop and offload at ten
planets along the way."
Dav whistled. "Whew, usually a colony
consists of twenty thousand personnel, but times ten, you will make some money."
"If I may be so bold as to make a minor
correction. Your ship will carry one hundred thousand personnel, times ten,
plus all their personal effects and heavy equipment."
"How big is this ship?" she asked as she did
the mental calculations in her head. It had to be huge.
"You've been away from Earth for a while,
haven't you, Captain?" he said with a faint smile on his face. Walking over to
his monitor, he called out, "Lunar view please."
"Yes, sir," the Control answered.
A view of the moon appeared on the screen and
Timmons looked at his watch. "It will be a few more moments, Captain," he said
and offered her an ashtray for her cigar.
Tapping the ash into the tray, she took
another puff and blew out the smoke as she sat back to watch the monitor. Yang
laid his head in her lap as they waited and Dav played with his ear. He closed
his eyes and looked like he was in heaven.
"Here she is!" Timmons said, his voice
charged with emotion.
A black spot was moving across the face of
the moon. "She's gigantic,"
Dav whispered in awe.
"The
New Beginnings is the largest ship ever built," Commander Timmons said
proudly, "and we have ten more in the process of being completed as we speak."
"New Beginnings is a quaint name," Dav said.
"I picked the name out myself," he said,
beaming.
"How long will it take to reach Aqua?"
"Approximately twenty years," he said. She
had to snap out of her daydream to listen to what he was saying. "You will make
ten Control/computer assisted, pre-coordinated drops. Offload the colonists and
supplies and end up on Aqua."
"What about the ship?"
"Just instruct the Control to return to Earth
and when it gets back, we'll update and use her again for another colonial
effort."
"This sounds almost too good to be true." She
thought for a moment. "I thought the brochure said it would only take five
years to get to Aqua."
"Oh those are the pioneer vessels our sister
company runs. I'm afraid we already have a captain for that ship," Timmons said
and shuffled some disks on top of his desk.
"When do I leave?"
"There's a two week window of opportunity for
departure, Captain. You could leave for your command tonight if you so desire."
"Maybe," she said, thinking. "I have some
accounts I need to close out here on Earth before I leave."
"Would you like to speak to your spouse
first, Captain?"
Dav shook her head in the negative. "He'll go
along with what I order, I am the controlling interest in our franchise."
"Very well then, Captain. I'll send over the
contract tonight."
"No need," she said, "I'll sign now."
A contract appeared on his desk and she
pressed her thumb onto the paper. She felt the bite of the needle as it took a
DNA sample and stored it in memory.
He spoke into his monitor. "I need a company
shuttle for Captain Dav at the front gate," he ordered. Shaking her hand, he
said, "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Captain."
"Thank you, Commander Timmons."
She smiled to herself. As captain, she again
had status.