“You guys know folks there?”
“Some of us have distant relations still on Earth.”
I marveled. It was a strange or perhaps felicitous event that I’d met his folks. But they were in trouble. Perhaps I landed here for a good reason? I wondered how could I help them. As if on cue, the old man motioned for me to follow him.
We went down another flight of steps and then into another small lift tube that slowly moved first downward and then across. When the doors opened we’d arrived at a communal living space and several people, mostly women and children were standing at a table looking or picking through metal parts on wide tables. Some of them turned to stare at me. One of the women looked questioningly at Gerard. The others seemed nervous at my presence. Gerard put his arms lovingly around the woman that came forward to meet us. She shot him a quick disapproving look at his holster.
“My dear Elsa, this is Bob Astor, the man our grandson mentioned.” Elsa’s bright gray eyes perked up with light and she smiled. The tension in the room changed immediately.
“It’s good to see someone who was supportive of our dear Peter and believed him,” she said. She reached out an oily, dirty hand. “How do you do?” she asked cheerfully.
“I’m doing fine. How do you do, madam,” I said courteously.
“Just call me Elsa.”
“Some of those villains we’ve been dealing with tried to kill the poor fellow. His ship, along with the other wreck is still out there. We might be able to salvage something if we hurry. Bob might have some valuable materials that were shot down that he needs to retrieve.”
“I’ll send a couple of the older boys to salvage them and help him find what he’s lost. We can use all the metal materials we can get,” said Elsa. Her statement reminded me of the scavenger culture that had grown up on Mars.
“There was metal that I bought from them before they tried to do me in. It’s in a heavy box. I need that box.”
“Just metal?”
“It’s a special kind of metal. I can go with the boys, in case they run into trouble.” I put my hand on my hilt. Everyone’s eyes dropped to my gun, Elsa’s disapprovingly, but she said nothing. She turned to two boys who were working on a broken mech.
“Hal, Will Jr, help Bob find that box and be quick about it! You boys be careful out there,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am!” they said. Elsa turned to me.
“Those are my great-nephews,” she said proudly. They dutifully ran to get their space suits and goggles on and I followed them back out to the surface, of which we went a completely different way out than when I came in with Gerard.
The boys and I piled into a rickety buggy, parked in a special lot near the surface and sped out to the crash site of my ship. One of the boys pointed to the first wreckage. There was a large buggy of people coming in and I saw that the buggy was piled high with ship parts and other scavenged materials as we passed each other.
“I think we salvaged just about everything we could from that ship. Tanner and his crew are the last to come in with stuff from the first crash,” said the tallest boy. He looked to be about fifteen. “I’m Hal, by the way.”
“Good to meet you, Hal.” The other boy was perhaps ten.
“We have to do it quickly too for the gangs come soon after, sniffing around. They aren’t opposed to reaving for gold or silver or something they think has immediate value either.”
“So they reave but you guys salvage, huh?” They both gave me sidelong looks.
“We only take from a crash site if no one is able to claim it. Sometimes we do it in space too, if we have the fuel to get off the satellite. But that doesn’t happen too much anymore. But some of the pirates and smugglers kill and then take what they want. They don’t respect people’s property. They’re reavers for sure.”
“Yeah, especially The Collector and his goons,” said the other boy. I hated that these young ones knew about such a horrible person.
“Gotcha. Why do they come here? What’s here that they want?” The younger one shrugged slowly, reminding me of Jonah. The elder of the two seemed to have some insight on the matter.
“Several reasons. I think they see this satellite as a hiding place. It’s discreet. Not many law enforcement officials patrol the satellite.”
“Perhaps that will change now that Venus is becoming an important destination spot?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. The moon is growing in population and a lot of people still don’t know much about Atticus station or Gan Ning. Or they pretend not to.”
“Yeah. They’ll patrol Venus and the space station around it but not the old satellites. We’re not important enough. And I heard that The Collector pays off some of the law enforcement people around here,” said the younger boy. “so that they won’t come here and patrol the place. There’s no expensive property here to protect so no one cares.”
“But Venus is being built up. Which means more traffic. Won’t people notice more illegal activity around here?” The older boy snorted. Both of them shook their heads.
“You’d think so but there’s some company we think, and the elders think too, that is behind the harassment with the gangs. Grandpa thinks it’s a mining company named Hussa and another one too. I think the gangs work with them behind the scenes to try and intimidate us. You see, some years ago the elders here were digging tunnels like we always do for more underground housing and space and came upon a diamond mine. Grandpa sent some of it off to be processed and the money we used to buy tools, another shuttle, food supplies, seeds, farming equipment and also to send some of the younger members off-world to college. But when looking for a buyer for the stones I guess word got out there was a new mine with no heavy security forces to protect it. So some goons came sniffing around from one of the lunar mining companies, Kappa Mining, and then The Collector came sniffing around here too. They’re working together. At first, they tried to buy us out but this is our home. Has been for generations. It’s getting scary now. They came a few months ago and blew up some of the houses and destroyed one of our water farms, killing some of our folk. So we’ve taken most of our most vital systems and homes underground now.” I shook my head in disgust.
“Why don’t you guys buy weapons?”
“We’re peaceful. Violence just creates more violence.”
“It can stop an offender in his tracks if applied right.”
“Yeah but we can’t fight them head on, even if we tried. Even if we wanted to, we don’t have the training or the manpower. Besides that, we don’t have enough proper equipment to mine the diamonds safely. Some of us are very sick because of the primitive mining techniques we have to employ. Or at least that’s what the elders say. We can’t mine anything much without injury or sickness. We certainly can’t fight those goons off.”
“How do you survive their attacks?”
“So far, we have a good defensive system but it’s breaking down.”
“I see,” I sad sadly. “What about the man who stood up to them? Did he try to work out a deal?” The little boy shook his head.
“No! Uncle Wes went against the rules! He tried to fight them with guns and it didn’t work. It was horrible what they did to him!” cried Will Jr.
“I understood why he went off like that. It was after they killed so many at the water farm. He lost his temper. But it got him killed too,” said the older boy mournfully.
I rattled my mind to understand how I could be of any use. I wasn’t comfortable with this idea of non-violence when one’s life was in jeopardy but if that was their way then I had to find a way to work around it. I had no right to try to change their principles or culture. Call it my own pseudo-prime directive, if you will.
These people needed help. I was sure someone I knew could give them the aid they needed. It was just getting into contact with them that was going to be problematic.
We reached my ship. The old burned out mech was still there. I felt a twinge of sorrow for old E-TOC. It had come to the
end of the line with no fanfare, no one to mourn it’s passing. An ignominious end. It at least deserved a glorious reincarnation as something useful by Edgar in Odd Parts Lab for all its troubles. It might find new life here under Gerard’s care. The boys and I grabbed E-TOC first and put what was left of the mech into the back of the buggy.
“What’s your box look like?” asked Will.
“It’s dark gray, about this high. And very heavy. Oh, I forgot! We’ll need a hover-carrier-”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. We’ve got that, plus attachments and a tow kit stashed under the buggy.” We got out and carefully picked through the rubble. The smoke was now nearly dissipated, rising in thin tendrils. After about a half an hour of diligent searching, the boys found it partially hidden in the dirt. Hal pulled out a compartment from beneath the buggy and to my amazement unfolded a rather large and durable looking hover-carrier, turned it on and waited as it rose and levitated about a foot off the ground, then unhooked two long ropes and metal hooks attached. When the hooks didn’t work, as the box had nothing on its smooth surfaces to be hooked to, Will grabbed a large suction funnel and attached this to the box, used it to pull the ton box onto the carrier. I helped to push it there with my bionic arm, which shocked and delighted the boys. This took some doing. They were amazed at my strength. Then they attached the carrier to the buggy to tow it. After I got in and looked over the metal, which still looked good and undamaged the boys went back to salvage what they could find before it got too late.
They were quick, efficient and cheerful but also cautious. They kept looking up at the sky. Dumping all kinds of supplies and materials from the ship that weren’t completely destroyed into the buggy they climbed back in and Hal put the buggy in overdrive. It was outfitted with an especially powerful motor. Along the way the ride was rough and gave us fits and starts, then it shut off with a shudder.
“What happened?”
“The weight of the box and the other stuff. It’s taking up a lot of fuel and we’re already practically on empty.”
“Do you have a spare fuel source?”
“Yeah. A power cell on the underside of the buggy, right there.” Will pointed to a slim tube fuel cell. I got out and grabbed it and handed it to him and he took out the old power cell and slid in this one. We were on our way again, to my relief.
“Hopefully we’ll get back home without breaking down!” It was a rough, fast ride back. I nearly lurched out of the buggy, twice. We arrived just in time to hear laser fire explode behind us. A ship similar to the one that shot me down was shooting at us, coming in fast.
I had my gun but it wouldn’t do much unless the ship was right on us. It was still too far away for the sea pistol to do much damage. The older boy sped up even faster, I watched him maneuver the vehicle admirably, avoiding laser fire; the kid’s nerves were of steel. Will watched the enemy ship silently as it chased us. We dove down into a large working traffic tunnel that quickly closed up and barricaded any entrance and exit. All around I could hear sirens and a General Use program’s Virtual Voice warning that all exits and entrances were being locked and barricaded just as laser fire nearly rained down on us overhead again.
After that close call, I thought of a plan.
A group of families surrounded us protectively as we parked and climbed out of the buggy.
“We got it!” crowed Hal.
“What sort of defenses do you have down here to protect yourselves?” I asked
“Not much in the way of new technology. We still use the old style fort shields.”
“Take me to your defense headquarters. Let me see what you have. We ought to be able to do something more about this.” Gerard stepped forward.
“We’re safe underground for now and the shields are up and working at one hundred percent capacity. Supper is being prepared in the lower level dining area. Let’s eat first, then we’ll talk later.”
“Alright,” I said, apprehensively. I wasn’t sure how relaxed I could be with the enemy just above us but they seemed rather relaxed about it. But I followed them down.
. . .
Dinner, or supper, as they called it was solid, fare and quite delicious. Nothing fancy, but who needed fancy? We had pork sausages, from the shared animal farms they kept that were well hidden from attack, sauerkraut, pickles and other fermented vegetables – they fermented most things after a time to preserve them for long periods of time when waiting for fresh produce to grow or be shipped in, with several mustard varieties, and some brown bread. There was also ice water which was particularly refreshing and delicious, filtered, with cucumber slices. And particularly precious for a place like this. To my delight, there were no food pellets to be seen anywhere! That didn’t mean they didn’t have a stockpile of them somewhere but it was good to see such quality, hearty food on such a meager looking satellite for what appeared to the ignorant, a poor colony.
After supper, I was introduced to several of the families here that I was eating with tonight.
There were the Kramers, the Cobbs, the Penns, the Abbots, the Browns, the Townsends, the Butterhills and the Waverlys. I happened to be in family unit one or the Green Complex. These particular families who lived in this part of the town took care of maintaining defense and tending the fruit tree groves of their community. Half of them had quite a few children, at least five children each, some more than that. I think I developed arthritis after all the shaking of hands. One little girl, barely three years old, just came up and hugged me at my knee.
They took me out to the orchards. Hidden in a small valley underneath a special greenhouse dome they used defense technology, a shield that made it look like bare rock and dirt from outside. Roger Butterhill took the lead in walking me through the orchards.
“Right now the system we use captures sunlight and buffers it so that the trees don’t get too much of it and uses it to feed them the next day.”
“What kinds of fruit trees do you have here?”
“Mostly the kind you’d find in some temperate rain forest regions. Apple and pear trees. Fig trees. Cherry trees. We have about seven different varieties of apples and four pear varieties. You can only get Green Ginger apples here on Cupid’s Bow. They aren’t grown anywhere else,” said Roger proudly. I had to admit, Green Gingers were some of the most delicious apples around. Even better than Honeycrisp. They were large, crisp, slightly tart and juicy and flavorful and possessed the spicy note of ginger in them as well.
I came upon a large spread of Ananas Reinette apples. The scent was heavenly in the orchard and not too far off I spied a beehive and a small crowd of beekeepers some yards off. The valley went on for miles as well as the orchards. A patch of beauty on this ugly little rock, hidden from their enemies. Gerard came toward us.
“Let’s get Bob over to defense station.”
“We’ll see you later,” said Roger. His wife Frances, who was very pregnant was standing by him. They waved at us as a small rover came and picked us up.
“How long has the community been here?”
“We’ve been here for about seventy years. Started out with only three hundred people. Some came back after leaving for college and helped build up the community. Even those who haven’t moved back share what they’ve learned or send us resources when they can to help. Peter often helps out the Friends with new information and news and even contacts on where we can purchase fuel and materials for cheap. He’s also gotten several of our young ones scholarships to go to college for free. It’s helped us to thrive. But now we’re in real trouble.”
“How did the community decide to come here in the first place?”
“Many years ago when space in the solar system was the final frontier if you had the money to buy land out here it was cheap and you could buy it if it was available and if a large company hadn’t laid claim to it already. So that left rocky satellites and large tracts of land on the moon and other places in the system open for small business owners and private individuals to buy and bu
ild their own farms, communities or businesses.”
‘I think I remember hearing about it. The Great Space Run?”
“Yeah. My grandfather, Clarence, with the help of some others of the faith bought this rock. At the time the US. government had owned quite a few of these abandoned satellites in space, most of them built or captured by Fair Space, which had gone out of business many decades ago. You ever heard of them?”
“I’ve read about the company.”
“Well, the prices back then were dirt cheap. Asteroids, abandoned artificial satellites, low rent area space near the Belt, land on the northern parts of the moon and its dark side. All that stuff way back then was so cheap it was crazy. No one wanted those properties at the time and since my grandfather and his peers had the knowledge to transform it they purchased this asteroid and brought their families out here. Some of them were scientists, some businessmen, and women, some farmers. We’ve gone through one change in weather system companies. The one we use now is less expensive and also less complex or the quality is lacking. It became too outrageously expensive to license a better one and they won’t allow independent business owners to purchase one of the superior ones outright – simple wicked greed and discrimination if you ask me, but other than that we never had issues with outsiders until two years ago. It started right around when they decided to really start building up Venus and also when they started looking for mines in space other than the moon in earnest. That diamond mine we have has been both a boon and a bane.”
“It’s a shame how the little guy is treated out here. What exactly would you need?”
“Well, we need new equipment to fix our defenses and strengthen them.”
“What kind of shields are you using?”
“We use a series of fort shields that can withstand a lot of laser fire, even bombs. And also a second type of shield that can misdirect or fool outsiders into thinking they are flying over undeveloped land rather than our farms and gardens. But these systems are very old and breaking down. Even with our fixes, which work well. One day they will fail completely.”
Mission: A Venus Affair Page 9
