Chapter 9: The Herald Interlude

Technically, she was a coach operator, and so it was noted on her pay slip from Red Triangle Lines Corporation. The ship she flew was only a D-180 Long Range Shuttle, but she called it a ship. Despite the fact that she was the entire crew of the ship, she considered herself a star ship captain. Out here in the Fornax satellite, it was not necessary to operate full-size Leyland or the truly big MB Space Buses. She never had more than ten passengers, and her shuttle had room for 180 individuals. Today, she had not a single passenger as she approached Annapurna. Well, that was not entirely true; she had four cages of chicks and a transport crate with two goats. The Union Traffic Connection Act of 3200 said that every planet of the Union had to be connected to the rest of the Union via GalNet, Mail, and Space Bus, and so there was bus service to even the most remote planet. Annapurna most certainly counted as remote. Not that she minded; she loved her job; she routinely flew to sixteen of the sixty-five colonies here in the Fornax Four Cluster. After Annapurna, she would head on to ‘Five Hundred Lakes’ and from there to ‘Greenandblue’. There she would take on twelve passengers, heading back to Fornax Hub Station.

The D-180 dropped out of Quasi Space, and Terri pulled the communications sensor head from the ceiling. Then she straightened out in her seat and established contact with Annapurna Port. “This is Captain Terri ‘The Redhead’ Finley calling Lazy Al of Annapurna Port. I am coming in with mail, 2,000 chicken chicks, and two special passengers for Carl. Got anything or anyone going out?”

Lazy Al usually responded right away, as she knew the man had a crush on her, and she loved to tease him about it. This time it took a few moments, and Al responded without activating visuals. “You are permitted to land. You are to unload your freight, and everything is perfectly in order here.”

Terri’s neck hair stood up straight; something was not right here. “Why don’t you come on visual? I am wearing the uniform blouse that is a little too tight, the one you like.”

“Yes, there is delight in myself to see you in a garment that does not fit. The visual sensor is damaged.”

“Now she was certain there was something fishy going on. Did he smoke too much of the herbs Carl collected and maybe something else more potent?

“Hey Al, what is Gloria thinking about the fact you are flirting with me all the time?”

There was a pause, and then the response came.” Gloria does concern herself with matters of pre-mating rituals I am engaging in.”

“I believe that.” Gloria was on the old advertisement poster for Dunmark Nuc Gas, that hung on the wall behind Al. Gloria was a cartoonish spaceship. “Whoever talked to her, it wasn’t Al.”

She changed channels and called the Ranger station on Fornax Hub and told them that there was something strange going on and she forwarded them the recorded transmission and her explanations. Then she opened the channel to whoever it was and said, “I know you are not Al, and I have alerted the Rangers. Whoever you are, you are in trouble, Mister.”

“How unfortunate for you then. I must kill you then before your message reaches whoever you called.”

Whoever it was did not know about the instant communication and therefore was not a Union. So there was alien, unknown, sentient life out here after all. It did not sound very friendly, but the Rangers would know how to deal with that. If not, there was a Destroyer stationed at Fornax Hub. Thinking about that, she called Fornax again and told them about the latest development, and maybe it was better to send the Destroyer and the Navy right away.

A small ship appeared coming up from the planet. It was nothing her Computronic could identify. It was, however, armed; the purpose of the four barrel-like extensions on the potato-shaped craft were clearly weapons. She reversed course and shifted her engine past Red Line in the hope of reaching Quasi Space and Trans light speeds before the Alien could make true on his threat. Her shuttle was not armed and had only standard civilian shields, good enough to deflect micro meteoroids and atmosphere but not to deflect weapon energies.

--””--

Perryton

Jones Port on Perryton was a big city with over 6,000,000 inhabitants. The town was located at the bottom of a massive mountain range, and the buildings and constructs hugged the C-shaped bay of a turquoise ocean. The dominant architecture style appeared to be Retro Fundamentalism, with buildings made of most likely local materials, stone facades of reddish granite, and old-fashioned square windows. Retro Fundamentalism was void of frills, statues, or integrated art. The buildings had straight lines and angles. The tallest building was only about twenty stories tall. No slideway bridges cluttered the skyline, like they did in many other cities. A few buildings were clearly not of human design, like the spherical pinkish-gleaming Saresii Meditation Temple or the lemon-shaped Wurgus Tech Center.

The streets between the buildings had tree-lined slideways with various speed lanes.

The planet’s space port was located on the other side of the mountains and connected via tunnels and not visible from the town.

Before we left, Commander Letsgo had ordered us to stay together in small groups and not to get in fights with Marines or United Stars Army personnel. The Quartermaster transferred our first pay since we joined. Narth was pleasantly surprised to see 12,000 credits on his newly issued credit strip. I knew a cadet was making 1,500 a month. This was quite some money. To me, a thousand credits was still a lot of money; the amount of credits on my credit strip was actually beyond my comprehension.

Narth held up his credit strip and glanced at the number. “I have monetary means.”

“You never had any money before?”