RoustWriter: Blog

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...After boarding Ship, they walked to the hatch that allowed them to enter the pocket planet where the aliens now lived. A moment later, they stepped through while feeling the sensation that told them they were now on a pocket planet. Jeff was beginning to worry that things were moving faster than he was comfortable with. He kept feeling as if he were missing something. What the hell do I say to Adrienné? Hey. Ready to cook some sweet rolls? Or is it bake instead of cook? Hell, I don't even know the correct term for what we're going to do. How am I supposed to help her?

Diana rapped on the door to the women's quarters, but this time it opened almost immediately. Adrienné stood smiling the biggest smile Jeff had ever seen from her. "Oh, I am sooo anxious," she exclaimed, "and I am even wearing shoes just as you directed, Diana," she proudly declared.

"Excellent," the Clan Queen said while trying not to show her amusement, then a little louder so everyone could easily hear. "We have to walk a couple of hundred yards to the Retreat where we live, so everyone should have shoes on."

Only three didn't have shoes on, and that was corrected as they hurriedly retrieved and slipped them on.

"We'll go back through the hatch to Ship, then on through Ship to an outside hatch. Once we're outside, we'll walk across the back grounds and enter the Retreat through the garage door."

"What is a garage?" one asked.

"It's where we keep our cars," Diana answered.

"What are cars?" another asked.

"What is outside?" yet another inquired.

"You have never been outside?" Diana asked incredulously...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...Darkness found them gathering up tools and covering the trenchers and tractor as clouds began moving in. "Crap, I hope it doesn't rain," Dave said as he and Jeff finished tying the tarp down. "The water system is complete except for a couple of connections and filling the ditches, but that's going to be a bitch with everything turned to mud. At least, we weren't bothered by animals."

Jeff grinned at his friend. "Ship told me she had to move a saber-tooth a mile away three times before he got the message."

"I didn't realize her tractor beam would reach out that far."

"In space, I think it will reach several times that distance, but when she detected the tiger, it was still a half-mile or so away. With so many trees in the way, she couldn't just move him with the beam, so she moved to his location, picked him up with her beam and moved herself and him a mile away before releasing him. She had no intention of hurting him. The third time she moved him, he gave up and changed direction."

"Crap. I would never have thought a wild animal would come around with all the noise the equipment was making."

"Well, as Morales says, 'this isn't Earth,' and the animals here don't necessarily act precisely the way animals do on Earth. For all I know, the tiger might have thought the noise the equipment was making was just the normal sound of an animal that he wasn't familiar with. Or perhaps he thought we were trespassing on his hunting grounds. Or maybe he is smarter than animals on Earth and wanted to check us out. Crap, who knows? I'm just glad we didn't have to kill him. Morales would be pissed, because he would have thought he would have to skin the tiger and scrape its hide, and that would have been after a long day of work. No way would he have let that beautiful pelt go to waste. I'm sure all of us would offer to help, but our help would probably screw up the hide."...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...Evie interrupted them as she looked at the equipment while they all stood in one of Ship's massive cargo holds. "I know that Ship uses her inertialess drive, and consequently, we don't feel any acceleration, but shouldn't the tractor be tied down, anyway - just in case?"

Before Jeff could answer, Ship spoke up. "It is secured. It is gravity locked to the deck. My inertialess drive has never failed and never will fail, but if it did fail, somehow, the equipment would not be affected in the slightest."

"Sorry," Evie said. "We're accustomed to securing everything to the truck or trailer to keep it from moving around while we're on the road."

"All of my movable equipment aboard, when not in use, is gravity locked to the deck. Should my internal gravity or inertialess drive fail, nothing will drift around or crash into anything else," Ship assured her.

As Jeff ushered them out of the cargo hold, Evie, thinking maybe she should have kept her mouth shut, looked at her husband and blushed while he chuckled, but she decided to try again, anyway. "Well," she said, "what would happen to humans if your gravity or inertialess drive failed… Eep," she gasped out as her feet suddenly seemed to be glued to the deck mid-step.

"Human beings are fragile; therefore, I would protect them from crashing into something," Ship smugly said as Evie was suddenly able to walk again.

"Point taken," Evie said. "I should have kept my mouth shut."...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

...The First Officer was obviously curious, so Jeff said, "When we go on the trip I told you about, Morales and his three women will come with us. They live in a cave on another planet. We are going to install a tank and the piping to run water from a spring to their home."

"A spring?"

"Where water comes up from the ground."

"Water is scarce on my home planet. We had sufficient on board the Raider because we stopped off at a nearby water world and filled our tanks as we began our journey. With our recovery systems, we lost little during the trip. Do you plan something similar on your trip?"

"I have large water tanks on board, and they are full. I, too, will lose little during our journey," Ship broke in to assure him.

"If I remember correctly, roughly seventy percent of Earth's surface is water - mostly saltwater. But three or four percent is also covered by lakes, and most countries also have underground sources of water. We do have some arid sections, and there are countries where water is scarce, but generally, there is plenty of water for most of our population - so far," Jeff commented.

Jeff and Diana said their goodbyes and went back into Ship proper...

Have a goodun;

Roust

This week with Arlene and Jeff:

..."Remember, their society probably differs greatly from the one you are accustomed to," Ship said in his mind.

"No shit," he muttered under his breath.

"Sir?" the First asked, obviously deeply worried.

Jeff hesitated for a couple of seconds. "What type of games did you have in the rec room aboard your Raider?"

"Sir, there must have been an error in the mapping of your language into my mind. 'Rec room' does not interpret."

"Lounge, rec room, recreation room, someplace to relax and enjoy yourself while associating with your peers."

The First continued to stare at Jeff, obviously not comprehending.

"You… had nothing like that on your ship?" Jeff asked with little hope in his voice.

"We did have an observation deck where we could look out at the stars, and there was a Steward who would provide food, but you were expected to eat and leave. It was generally reserved for higher-level officers, and even then, there were seldom many there."

"And no women, of course," Jeff said with sarcasm that the First did not pick up on.

"No. The females were - technically - not allowed out of their area. I violated the rule by taking those two to my quarters."...

Have a goodun;

Roust