Outcast

by Guerin Zand

  The evening ended, and I headed back to my residence with my family in tow. Gamma fell asleep in my arms before we arrived. I took her to her room with Prima and put her to bed. I think Gamma really enjoyed the big dinner party, and she definitely had fun playing with Sid and Nancy’s kids. Maria headed off to her room to get some sleep and Prima and I did the same.

  Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke to Prima slipping into my bed. There had been nothing physical between us since she joined my crew and became Gamma’s nanny. We were closer than ever though. We had spent a few years pretty much as a family. Whenever I mentioned family, I included her in that group. I started to wonder why she had all of a sudden decided to move our relationship to another level, but then I remembered seeing her, Maria, Stella, Milly, and Cindy talking. They had all huddled together after Gamma took off to play and had a little conversation off to the side. I asked what they were talking about when Maria came over afterward and I was told it was nothing. I think she was lying to me.

  “Prima, what are you doing?”

  Prima put her hand on my chest as she kissed me. “Do you want me to leave?”

  Ok, that was a dumb question. It’s probably hard to believe, but the great Guerin Zand had been in a bit of a dry spell for quite a while. Prima’s seductive superpowers were still a force to be reckoned with. She was going to do to me whatever she wanted, and there was nothing I could do to stop her. I just shut up and didn’t say another intelligible word the entire night. The next morning I got up and headed into the shower. Prima joined me to make sure I didn’t miss a spot. I couldn’t help thinking about those Orion slave girls from Star Trek. I was so screwed, literally!

  We finally made our way out to the kitchen where Maria and Gamma had started on their breakfasts. Maria gave me a funny look, and I ignored her.

  “Did you have a bad dream, Nana?”

  “Why do you think I had a bad dream, Gamma?” Prima looked puzzled.

  “Because you slept in Papa’s bed. I always sleep in Papa’s bed when I have a bad dream. He makes me feel better. Did he make you feel better?”

  Maria started laughing. I looked at her and said, “I don’t want to hear a word out of you, young lady.”

  “What? I didn’t say anything.”

  I just shook my head and made my way to the beverage dispenser for a cup of Joe. While I was cajoling a breakfast of steak and eggs out of the food replicator, I heard Prima say to Gamma, “Yes, your Papa makes me feel better too.”

  “Did he show you his move?”

  “MARIA!”

  After that, Maria couldn’t hold back her laughter. Prima and Gamma joined in and I tried to think of a reason to leave the room. I couldn’t come up with one. Finally, the replicator signaled my breakfast was ready. I grabbed my dish and coffee and took a seat at the kitchen bar with the rest of the family. They were all still laughing. I just dug into my meal and tried to ignore them. Maria was about to say something when I gave her one of my dirtiest looks.

  “Come on, Gamma. Let’s get you changed and I’ll take you over to play with your new friends.” Maria picked up her little sister and looked my way. “We’re going over to the Cyletherean compound, so Gamma can play with Sid and Nancy’s children. We should be gone for most of the day, in case you’re interested.”

  “Whatever. Have fun.” That’s all I could think of to say. Maria still had this funny look on her face. She continued to laugh, shaking her head back and forth as she took Gamma to get changed.

  “Is there something wrong, Guerin?”

  “No, Prima. I mean, it’s just sort of awkward.”

  “What’s awkward?”

  “You and me. Your Gamma’s nanny and this may cause some problems.”

  “It was just one night, Guerin, if that’s all you want. I just wanted to be with you. We don’t have to…”

  “We don’t have to what, Prima?”

  “We don’t have to make it anything more serious if you don’t want to.”

  “Why would you say that, Prima?”

  “Because, I know you’re still in love with Milly.”

  “But you know that’s not going anywhere. I know you’ve talked to Milly about us. I do care about you, Prima. I care a lot about you. You are part of this family now, and I don’t know, it’s a bit confusing. If we get more involved, and things don’t work out, Gamma could end up getting hurt. You know how much she loves you.”

  “And I love her, Guerin. I understand, I think. If you want to leave our relationship as it is, it’s ok.”

  “No, it’s not, Prima. Don’t you think I wanted to be with you last night?”

  “Well, yes, I mean you seemed to want that last night. Maybe that’s all you wanted?”

  I kissed her and shook my head. “No. That’s not all I want.”

  “Then why have you never, you know, done anything?”

  “I guess it was just simpler the way things were. I didn’t want to ruin that. My life is kind of complicated, and a relationship is just going to make it even more complicated. It’s not that I don’t have those feelings for you. If anything, I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Ok, I’m an idiot. I know I wasn’t saying anything right. I had been avoiding getting involved with Prima because, well, I don’t know. I knew I had to move past my Milly obsession. Hell, it was déjà vu all over again. I went through this same thing when I met Anna, but still, it was easier then. I wasn’t always running into Milly.

  Another reason I left for parts unknown after Anna’s death was to avoid Milly. I couldn’t handle being around her and dealing with the feelings I had for her so soon after losing Anna. When I came back, I decided to try and pick up with Milly where we had left it so many years ago. We both still had the same feelings for each other, but still, it wasn’t going to work. Maybe it was my stupid hang-ups I had about relationships that I grew up with. Knowing that we couldn’t be together wasn’t reason enough for me to give up. It wasn’t like she no longer loved me. Our relationship seemed to be in this perpetual limbo that we couldn’t escape from. I just wanted to run away again. Then I wouldn’t have to decide. I could have my fun where I found it and avoid anything serious.

  I did love, Prima. We had spent nearly two years living together and raising Gamma. She was more than sexy. What guy wouldn’t be happy with her? But all of this crap wasn’t fair to her. Ok, maybe I was just coming up with excuses for not committing myself one way or the other. Prima was waiting for me to say something and all I had was these excuses.

  “I’m sorry, Prima. I guess I’m kind of an idiot when it comes to this stuff. I know how you feel about me, and I want you to know that I do love you. After these past years together, I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it. I just want to take it slow for now if that’s ok. I’m not saying I want things to go back to the way they were. I want to be with you. We need to explain things to Gamma. I think maybe if we ease her into seeing us together a little more over time it might be best. Is that ok with you?”

  “Of course that’s ok with me, Guerin. I don’t care if you want to be with other women still or whatever. I just want to be part of your life and I want you to be part of mine.”

  “That’s not it, Prima. I don’t want to be with other women. If we’re going to be together, your relationship with Gamma will change as well. You won’t be her nanny anymore. You’ll be her mother. Even your relationship with Maria will change a bit. You know that we never go out together, I mean just you and me. We always have Gamma and/or Maria with us. We should start, I guess, dating? We can leave Gamma with Maria and spend some time alone with each other. I know you were planning on going with Maria and Gamma to Earth for the celebration, but perhaps you should stay here with me. Maria can take care of Gamma on her own.”

  Prima just nodded yes. She stood up from her seat and wrapped her arms around me. I think she was happy. In the middle of that hug, and a few well-placed kisses from Prima, I had a thought. I was going to have to star
t eating my Wheaties or this woman was going to kill me!

  The next week everyone left for Earth for the celebration. Prima and I stayed behind, but I decided we should go to Earth and have a little fun. We didn’t join the others. Instead, we took the Ryvius and we went to China for a nice Chinese meal, Kansas City for some real BBQ, and several other spots on Earth I wanted to share with her. We spent two weeks alone and just got to know each other better. I was glad Prima wasn’t a vegan. I had to eat a lot to keep up my strength and salads weren’t going to cut it.

  I think taking on a squad of Alacian synthetics would have been less exhausting than spending two weeks alone with Prima. There were more than a few times I wanted to tell her I needed a break, but when she unleashed her superpowers, I could never remember what it was I wanted to say. When everyone returned from Earth, they all said we should have joined them. The celebration was a lot of fun and we missed a really good time. I was just glad they were back. Prima was sleeping in her own bed for a change until we figured out how to break things to Gamma.

  Chapter 30

  Back to Work

  Before returning from Earth, the team procured a plethora of items for trade with the ASTN. The Ranger crews took their cargo ships to Earth and loaded them up with mostly dry goods and items that could be stored for a long time. Coffee, tea, chocolate, wine, beer, and whiskey were of course probably going to be among our most popular exports. We also included wheat, rice, corn, and other grains as well as materials such as cotton and silk.

  The cargo ships we had procured from the ASTN didn’t have true temporal stasis storage like the shuttles. For the transportation of perishables, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, we had holds that could replace the atmosphere with a stable gas, such as helium. While this would slow down decomposition, along with lower temperatures, there were many types of bacteria that could still live under these conditions and break down the perishable items. For the immediate future, we would only transport such items for the crew’s food supply.

  This brought up another concern when transporting anything from Earth to an alien world, or vice versa. Biological contamination. Luckily, the Collective helped out with this. Over the millennia, they had put together a quite extensive database of all the known organisms on the many explored worlds throughout the universe. A lot of microbiological organisms actually were common to many worlds. It was the unique organisms that could cause problems. We don’t really think about it, but our own bodies are crawling with a variety of bacteria and viruses. Using the bathroom on an alien vessel or planet could unleash a deadly plague. You can’t simply remove these from your body, that would kill you. Many of these aid in simple physical processes such as digestion. Similarly, our food and beverages contained many biological agents that could be deadly to other races.

  The universe had built in protections to prevent a lot of issues. A different race’s immune system would handle many of these foreign organisms. A full list of these organisms was transmitted by the Collective to the civilized worlds before contact was ever made between different worlds. For those problem organisms, immunizations are provided as well as process enhancements for waste treatment plants.

  The truth was, these micro-organisms were the most traveled forms of life in the universe. On all the planets inhabited by space-faring races, there had already been such extensive cross-contamination that the list of organisms on all of these worlds was the same. Earth had been contaminated over the ages by the visitors we never even knew about. Still, some care had to be taken. The Rangers had been through extensive training on this subject and the Collective would provide that training to the new Terran space command. Before traveling to any foreign world an analysis was performed and precautions, if any, would be taken.

  The Ryvius and Voyager had Collective food and beverage replication technology. The Terran ships had a basic food synthesizer that Diane’s teams had come up with. These replicators were already in use in the off-Earth settlements and facilities. Our technology was rather simple compared to what the Collective had, although it worked using the same basic approach. We grew a rather basic and bland protein sludge used for the base. The Terran design was very much like a 3D printer that you fed different designs and it would produce a facsimile of familiar foods. It would shape the food, inject flavoring, coloring, and fiber to try and simulate the food’s texture.

  We had the shaping and flavoring parts pretty accurate, but the coloring and texture were something else. Yes, we could replicate a steak, but it looked weird and the texture was not even close. If you were brave enough you might eat a replicated steak, but basic food bars with flavoring were the norm. We added these replicators to our ASTN cargo ships, but all our Terran operated ships also carried fresh foods and included galleys for cooking. I’ll leave out how the recycling operations on these ships were integrated with our food and drink. You don’t want to know.

  So anyway, the Rangers returned to the Earth ship with their hulls full of goods and we were ready to start operations in the ASTN. We unloaded all the cargo ships products to Collective stasis holds initially. When we had customers, they would load up the ships and make the deliveries. We still had a while before that would happen. Once our trading partners had become more established we would deliver goods directly from Earth.

  The Rangers first destination was the planet Trinix. This was a very Earth-like planet and the inhabitants were very close to humans in appearance. It was also a major trading hub in the ASTN. Contacts with many races throughout the galaxy would be initially made there. My old friend Froshjen still operated on this world and he agreed to help us set up our first trading post, for a reasonable fee of course.

  Steve and I were going to Trinix first with our new crews and ships. We would land at the main spaceport on Trinix, introduce ourselves, and handle the first contact protocols. Traveling with us would be the team that would open the initial facilities on Trinix. After first contact, we would arrange for living quarters for the Trinix team. Froshjen would introduce them to the appropriate officials to negotiate a lease on a facility at the spaceport from which they could operate. We would be bringing samples of the Terran goods with us for examination, and as gifts to the different interested races. Then hopefully we would have customers and orders to fill. Having been to Earth in the past, Froshjen had been helpful in selecting what goods he thought would be most popular.

  We had already decided on the cargo ship crews and the Trinix outpost personnel. The crews for the Ryvius and Voyager were handpicked by Steve and myself. On the Ryvius, I was the captain of course. Senri was the chief engineer and pilot. She quickly earned the nickname ‘Chief’ from the rest of the crew. There was also my family, Prima, Maria, and Gamma, and Huiliang was joining us as well. Besides taking care of Gamma, Prima would be helping in the galley. Huiliang would also be helping in the galley as well as acting as the secondary navigator. Maria was the primary navigator, secondary pilot, and co-pilot. The rest of my regular crew was a 13-person squad made up of former marines who had cross-trained for other ship duties. One was designated as chief of security and that was her primary and only job. Kelly was known to the rest of the squad, and other crew, as ‘Boss’. For the most part, this squad would be responsible for the assorted ship duties.

  The only reason that both the Ryvius and Voyager crews were selected from former marines was that our ships would be the first responders in case of emergencies. We were the only ships equipped with portal drives and could respond at a moment’s notice. All the other Ranger ships did have a minimum of two former marines with a Boss designated as the primary person responsible for ship security. The Trinix personnel included six former marines for facility security. They, and their weapons, would be cleared by Trinix security forces whom they would have to work with.

  There were no formal ranks on the ships other than Captain, Chief, and Boss. Those three had the most authority and ranked in the order I just listed them. We had taken from the Collec
tive the idea that rank wasn’t important. If someone asked you to do something it was because they needed it done. If you weren’t busy, you did it, even if you were the Captain.

  When I went to the Ranger selection panel to assign a squad to the Ryvius, I had a few specific requirements. They had to be top candidates and they had to have shown the ability to think for themselves. I wanted people who followed the rules but weren’t afraid to ignore those rules when needed. I wanted a pirate crew. Roger and the rest of the panel selected 5 women, including Kelly, and 8 men. As I mentioned earlier, I already had five women on my crew, so in the end the females had the males outnumbered 10 to 9. The women tried to insist that we couldn’t count Gamma in that ratio. I called bullshit on that. A child female should probably be counted as 2 on the trouble scale. The women on the crew laughed at that. All of the men agreed with me. When Diane requested to travel on the Ryvius I refused. I told her she had to join Steve’s crew.

  Steve had a slightly smaller crew. Jackie was his Chief and his navigator. His pilots came from the squad he was assigned. Diane was a floater and would not be a permanent member of the Voyager crew. His squad was made up of 9 men and 4 women. The Trinix team numbered two dozen. They would be split up and Steve and I would take half on each of our ships.

  We were ready to start. We loaded the crews onboard the two cruisers and got everyone assigned quarters. The ships’ Chiefs coordinated with the spaceport for a departure time and our route exiting the Earth ship’s controlled space. Since this was our first time with our crews on board, we were going to take the ships out for two months on a shakedown cruise. This was to get the crews accustom to their duties and life aboard the ship. The Trinix team was not too thrilled by this delay and thought it would have been best to do this before they boarded. They were right, but I didn’t see any reason that they shouldn’t spend some time learning the ropes of space travel as well as everybody else. Only the cargo ship crews had spent any significant time in space during Ranger selection. I told them what a lot of people had told me in my lifetime. “It will do you good.” Before we departed the Earth ship, I had both ship’s crew and passengers assemble in the mess halls for a short briefing.