Chapter 29: Insurrection

Monitoring public broadcasts, the locals certainly look human, but their mood and attitudes expressed in the broadcasts is downtrodden, listless, subdued, beaten, and resigned.

Where would we find a counter culture if it exists? Where are the rebels if any exist? Among the most self sufficient. Farming communities I think. Maybe I’m biased because I was a farm boy before I became a business empire tycoon. We need to do low level flyovers of farms and ranches, but if we are seen, we may cause panic. Time for an invisible paint job. A remote area to apply the darkmatter paint must be found.

The painting method is straight forward spray painting. Apparently, spray painters are a unique elite group among the PLUS. They guard their secrets like they were top secret industrial processes. On earth, every teenage boy who worked on his own car knew spray painting.

There is an alternative. Electrostatic painting. Using electrical charges, to apply paint. Combine that with the roll and tip technique my dad taught me, I believe it may be possible I could paint Sea Hag in orbit. Worth an experiment. My cyborg body can withstand exposure to the near vacuum of space. Insulation from radiation and temperature extremes are needed. That will require some innovation to create a homemade space suit.

Does it need to be a suit exactly? How about a customized cyborg body specialized for painting? Why would I need legs in space? A human body wouldn’t amputate legs for a special mission, but mine can be unbolted. Do I need two arms, or any? Do I need to roll and tip to create a glossy surface? Couldn’t a rolled surface be adequate for an invisible paint job? Who would notice if it had a glossy appearance or not, when it’s invisible?

Bundle my torso in insulation so I have a cylindrical shape, and cover me in an oversize roller sleeve. Pressure feed the paint to the roller sleeve and give me some lightweight gravitics to maneuver with. Those helium bladder ballast weights from the Merfolk should provide all the drive my truncated body needs. I’m ready for a test run.

Not too shabby. There are numerous holidays in the coating to repair, but a little brush work will touch those up. Give me back an arm and a pressure feed brush, and I’ll quickly finish up.

Great. Doesn’t look great, it’s invisible. If it weren’t for the lighted doorway intentionally left open for me, I couldn’t even see or find Sea Hag to get aboard again. The ship is completely invisible and so is most of me. I’m a two coat painter. One coat on the project, the second coat on me. If I were doing this on the ground, I’d be a three coat painter.

If I painted an area on the ground with darkmatter paint, could I see all the way through the planet, or perhaps just down to the core? I intend to test it sometime when I have nothing more urgent to do.

For now, I need to get clean and reassembled. Then, we go searching for rural communities of do-it-yourselfers.

Plenty of farms and ranches but few people outside. Wonder why? There’s a fellow working on a tractor I would guess. Now my problem is, how to talk with him. First, I need clothing similar to his.

A few farms distant, we can see clothes drying on a clothes line. Where are my invisible paint stained clothes? I’ll sneak in and borrow some things, using my body gravitics to fly away.

“Brenda? Stay in communications with me because I can’t see the ship and you can’t see me. Open the door when I ask for it, so I can find you and get aboard again.”

“Maybe you should get some female clothes too. Wouldn’t we look friendlier as a couple?”

“You have a point, and who would be reluctant to meet a beautiful girl like you? Maybe you should do the talking. Oops? Since this is a PLUS hegemony planet, coach us with PLUS speech and translations. We will try the PLUS language on the farmer mechanic. JoAnn? Stay in the loop in case we need emergency evacuation. Here goes.”

Swiping male and female garments I judged by eye would fit us, Brenda and I dressed liked natives. W walked from the grounded ship parked beneath some distinctive shaped tree like vegetation.

“Hello, need some help?”

Brenda addressed the farmer in the PLUS language. He responded in a different language, but obviously understood because he offered me a wrench.

I looked at what he was working on, and realized he needed me to back him up on a nut while he wrenched on the opposite end. Nuts and bolts on this planet look exactly like earth nuts and bolts. Simple devices are often universal. How many ways is there to make a knife for example?

Brenda continued to chat him up as I worked alongside him. She said we are from a different humanoid planet and the PLUS mistakenly dropped us off here. The farmer said it ain’t the first time that happened.

Meanwhile, I’m checking out the implements on the tractor and the tracks it has already left in the field where it’s parked. It’s the local version of a cultivator. Obvious to an old farm boy like me. Sturdily made, too.