by Ben Winston
He was, but he didn't want to tell her that. Besides, a military courier ship had dropped him off. Liners only stopped at this moon when they had cargo or passengers that were coming here. It was an event that doesn't happen very often at all, and as such, would be remembered. “Oh, no, no, I mean I do have a bit of money, but that's for equipment and seed. No, I worked cargo on the Dawn Rose to pay for my passage.”
The Dawn Rose was a tramp freighter that he had seen getting ready to lift as he was leaving. Since working off passage was how the poor people managed to get around the kingdom, the story was completely believable, as well as completely unverifiable since the freighters never kept records that would mean extra taxes.
“Isn't that dangerous to do now? I'd heard that some Captains would lock-up the person in order to get more work for nothing?” She asked, only curious now that her suspicions about him were put to rest.
His enhancements allowed him access to the planetary data net, and his clearance let him discover the name of the current Captain of the Dawn Rose. “Captain Primrose seemed a decent and fair man. He didn't even try to keep me, although he did offer me a job, should I have a change of heart. I, in turn, offered him a place to visit if he ever had any long layovers here.”
She smiled, completely relaxed with him now. “Do you mind my asking who your Uncle was? My family's lived here since forever, and being a small town, everyone knows everyone else.”
“Sure, I don't mind. My uncle was Axel Ashcroft. I never met the guy, and Dad says he's actually my great-uncle, but just calling him uncle makes for easier explaining,” John replied in a self-assured way. With this cute little gossip-monger in the know, it should lessen the time it takes for him to become accepted in the community.
They chatted for a few more minutes before she pulled over to the side of the road again. “It was wonderful to meet you, John. I'm sure I'll see you again, soon.”
After leaving the pretty young woman, John began walking towards town again. He needed to head for the township commissioner's office. That was where he was told that the title to the land was awaiting him. He would also need to purchase a hover truck, and find out where all the old farmers hung out, so he could learn how to work the land here. It didn't matter where you came from, there was always a diner or a cafe that saw a terrific business from the elders of the town as well as the farmers.
Granted, it had been almost forty centuries since he left the remnants of his father's farm on what was left of old Earth to join the military. But there are some basic principles that will never change. He'd also been accessing every bit of information he could find on the net about farming on both New Terra as well as here on Bethel's Anvil.
All the information in the world doesn't count for shit in the face of years of experience. Basically, he knew just enough to ask the right questions, but that was it. He hoped the elders would accept him, and give him advice.
Chapter 02
After arriving at his new home, John sat his duffel on the counter in the kitchen and dug out a ration bar. He'd eaten what would normally be a huge meal. It was a requirement to share a meal with the elders. There was an unwritten law someplace that required elders to make sure the younger generations ate as much as they could possibly hold, and then nag them to eat more.
Of course, John could have eaten what they would have considered an impossible amount of food. His enhanced body burned far more fuel than a normal one, but he was trying to blend in, so he kept himself reigned in and ate pretty much what a twenty or so year old farm boy would eat. However, the fact remained that he needed to eat the equivalent of another meal that size to make sure his body had the energy to keep him healthy. Hence the Marine Corp Energy Bar.
John could survive on nothing but three bars a day, and actually had once or twice. The bars did have a variety of flavors, but when it came right down to it, you were still eating the same damn thing day after day.
He ate while he unloaded the Gen-Toyo Engines, 'Pack Mule ' heavy hover truck. Most people simply called the workhorse a ‘Mule’. It was the standard vehicle one needed if they had a farm. He got a pretty good deal on a used mule that was still in good condition.
He carried in groceries and a few personal things he'd purchased just to make his life a bit more comfortable. Then he picked up the last box and smiled to himself. Inside was packed to the top with tackle and lures for his new ‘vice’; fishing.
He'd been so animated over it that he was sure the entire town knew before he'd left for his property. The Commissioner had given him a platen map of his new home, surprising him that it was so large. Especially if you considered that almost half of the area was under water.
His farm, although huge by comparison to other farms in the area, only barely touched the shore of what was almost a freshwater, inland sea.
John stood at the big picture windows overlooking one of the secluded and sheltered coves that he actually owned. He could see where Axel had maintained a private beach and actually had a floating platform anchored a short way out into the cove.
Although most folks referred to Bethel's Anvil as a planet, it wasn't one. It was one of many moons of a super-planet, Bethel VI. This moon was strange for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it shouldn't even exist. Bethel's Anvil was well outside the habitable zone of Aeonis - A, the G-type main sequence star at the heart of the system. Aeonis – B was a small, hot, blue dwarf that provided little light, but gave off a tremendous amount of heat and ultra-violet radiation.
Bethel's Anvil had a revolutionary period and a rotational cycle that mimicked old Earth's spring, summer, and fall seasons almost completely. Its heat was mostly geothermal, but also got some heat and sunlight reflected from the main planet, and sometimes at night, you could actually see one of the two binary stars of the Aeonis System. Other than having parts of a really big planet in the sky all the time, it was almost exactly like he remembered Earth.
Some scientists believed that Aeonis was supposed to have been a trinary system, but for some reason, Bethel never achieved critical mass. Of course, if it ever changed its mind, Bethel's Anvil would never even see the ignition spark.
Standing there, he remembered the first time he saw this lake. The area had been a battlefield for months; most of the trees had been destroyed by the sporadic, but heavy, fighting. The ground looked like it had been plowed by a crazy blind man. As far as you could see in any direction, there was nothing green growing.
Command hadn't been able to figure out how the lizards (the race that had been defending this planet for the Dominion) had been able to maintain a fighting force on planet when it had been blockaded for months.
One day, John had followed one of the Lizards as it ran from the fighting. He knew command needed the information, so he didn't kill the fucking thing. As it turned out, the Lizards were amphibious, and the lizard dove into the water from an overlooking bluff a couple of miles north of where he now stood.
John, being enhanced, followed. He lost sight of the Lizard, but his enhanced senses told him it was only a few meters ahead of him. What puzzled him was the fact that it continued to dive into the depths of lake.
Just as John was going to be forced to turn back, a bright light lit the depths just ahead and below him. In the light he clearly saw the Lizard, swim under, then up into the light, just before it snapped off again.
A thrice-damned base! That certainly explained a lot, but how had Command missed this? He immediately used his enhancements to try to contact his direct command, and was shocked when he couldn't! How could they be jamming a sub-space link? If they could do this, then the war would soon be over ... with the humans losing!
He turned around and swam as fast as he could for the surface. He was being warned of a possible decompression event as well as a system shutdown due to extreme oxygen deprivation. Either one could be fatal in a combat area, but he had to risk it, he had to reach the surface and report. He instructed his computer interface
to transmit the data from the entire chase if he was unable to when he reached the surface and had a good signal.
The computer replied that it had reestablished the link so he sent the information immediately, with the addendum that he would soon be null-function due to decompression and Oxygen Deprivation.
“Major Aster, be sure to surface in a face up attitude. Then contact me again once you have regained function.”
“Who are you?” John asked.
He heard a chuckle. “Don't worry, I'll be listening for you.”
John barely heard the reply as his enhancement computer shut him down. He had been almost to the surface anyway, so when his body broke the surface, it began re-oxygenating his system, and removing the nitrogen bubbles.
His memories were interrupted by a voice from his front door.
“Hello? John?” A young woman's voice called out from the area of his front door.
When he got to the front door, he found two smiling young ladies. “Good afternoon, Gloria, it's good to see you again. Who's your pretty friend?”
Gloria's eyes twinkled with mischief and her friend just beamed at his compliment. “John, this is my best friend Mary. Her real name is Marebella, but she thinks that makes her sound old.”
“Nonsense, it's a beautiful name! It makes me think of one of those fancy dancers you see in those big city shows,” He offered the new girl his hand, and she took it. “It's a pleasure to meet you. My name's John.”
“Hi! Wow, you really are, uh, nice. I thought Gloria might have been pulling my leg,” Mary replied. John thought she might be dissembling, but for the life of him, he couldn't understand why she would. In light of the new mission he'd been given, he would get all the information he could about the girl, and have her checked out.
“Nope, my Momma raised me to be polite in almost every situation, and my Daddy taught me how to handle the situations where manners have completely failed,” John replied.
“Oh?” Gloria asked, still smiling. “How do you handle those?”
“Simple, you either walk away, or you take the beating. If you fight, and lose your temper, you could really hurt or even kill someone,” John replied.
“So, if you came across someone hurting me or Gloria, what would you do?” Mary asked. She'd lost her smile, and seemed a little leery of him now.
“Well, that's a different issue all together. I'd stop the assault, and hold him until the authorities arrived. Unfortunately, he might have to attend his trial in a hover chair,” John replied and Mary's face lit back up. “But I'm sure you two ladies didn't come all the way out here to find out my thoughts on violence. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I thought that we could come up here and help you get settled. You know, help clean out the cupboards, and dust the furniture,” Gloria replied.
Mary smiled shyly, “We also thought we could make dinner for you. Sort of a ‘Welcome to the town' thing.”
He knew he didn't need any help, but at the same time, he also knew that refusing wasn't really an option. “I think I could probably use the help. My Momma always claimed that the only thing a man can clean is his plate at dinner.
“You mother was a very wise woman.” Gloria quipped and pulled her shirt over her head. John was about to protest, because it didn't look like she had anything on under it.
Mary saw the look on his face and chuckled. “Don't worry, John, she's got her bikini top on. She's not drunk enough to start getting naked.” Then she pulled her shirt off to reveal her own swimsuit top. John was glad the mono-kini hadn't become popular here yet.
“So, where would you like us to start?” Gloria asked.
“Honestly, I don't really know. I had just gotten here and gotten the mule unloaded, so I haven't even had time to look around the house. I suppose we should start in the kitchen, then the bathroom?” John suggested.
“Bathroom first,” Gloria said, setting the order. “We'll need that long before we'll need the kitchen!
They got most of the lower level cleaned; both bathrooms, and the master bedroom. Mary was the one to actually cook dinner. They had planned a meal and brought all the fixings.
The food was so good that John had a hard time feigning being full. Mary was an exceptional cook. After the wonderful meal, John helped clean up by loading the dishes into the cleaner.
A short time later the three of them sat in the lounge to watch the 'sun' settle on the far side of the cove.
“We honestly did come up here to help get you settled in, but we also had a question to ask you on behalf of everyone in the area,” Gloria asked.
“Ask; the answer's always 'no' until you do,” John replied.
“Well,” she began. “During the summertime, almost every sixth-day eve, and sometimes running the weekend through, there is a huge party in ‘Party Cove’. It's really a big deal to the town, because it's when everyone gets together, and blows off all the steam from the week.”
“Sounds fun, but I didn't get the question,” John answered.
Mary smiled when Gloria bit her bottom lip. “Uh, you own it.”
John still looked lost. “I own what?”
“The cove,” Gloria said. “You own Party Cove, and we need your permission to use it.”
“Oh, how did Axel handle it?” John asked.
“He allowed it, but he also had a set of rules that had to be followed. Since they were good rules, no one objected. In fact, we're still using them,” Gloria admitted. The statement told John that the town had continued using the cove after Axel's death.
“I don't see why not. It actually sounds like it's more of a tradition than anything. How long has the weekend party been going on?” John asked.
“No one really knows for sure,” Mary replied in her soft voice. “But both Gloria and I were conceived there.” She chuckled. “I think most of the town was conceived out there, to be honest.”
“Okay, so as long as the rules are followed, and no one is breaking the law or getting hurt, I'd hate to be the one to put an end to it,” John replied, then changed the subject. “I know what Gloria does, so what do you do to keep your sanity, Mary?”
“I just finished attending the Royal Medical University on Bolovier's Planet. I'll be doing my residency at the Medical Center in Threshold,” Mary said. “I plan to specialize in bio-molecular enhancement.”
John felt a shiver run down his back, and a warning flag in his mind. “Do you intend to stay here? There can't be much call for that kind of thing out here on the frontier.”
“Actually, there's a tremendous need for it,” she explained. “Since the end of the Dominion Wars, farming and industrial accidents have been producing the major patients for enhancement. Limb replacement, or regrowth is, unfortunately, a growing field.”
John nodded. “You only answered half the question. Are you going to stay here?”
“I want to, since this is pretty much a central point to all the local planets, but Threshold doesn't have a Bio-Mol section yet. They've been shipping the patients all the way to Bolovier's for treatment,” She explained. “Chances of rejection double when the patient has been in stasis.”
The trio talked until the two girls said goodnight and left. John had gotten a lot of info on Mary and sent in the request. He grabbed another supplement bar and wolfed it down. Since he required only four hours of sleep, he changed into a pair of work-out shorts, and a tee-shirt, then he walked out to the machine shed to see what kind of equipment Axel had.
John was a very fit, very muscular man. His enhancements had increased every aspect of his body including muscle mass, reaction time, and stamina. The muscle mass, even though it looked impressive, by no means was an indication of his true strength. If he could get a decent grip on it, he could probably toss his new mule at least halfway to the beach. Swim across the entire lake and back. After a short rest he could run to the city of Threshold.
So, he would need to figure out how to be able to exercise without anyone seeing him.
He decided he would contact one of the other Guard, and see if they could send him one of their counter-grav weight benches and special treadmills.
He pulled open the door to the shed and was happy to see clean and well repaired equipment. It was used, and some of the more expensive implements were pretty old, but John was willing to bet they still worked as if they were new.
Although it was now ‘night’ on this planet, the main planet Bethel was still high in the sky, which meant it was still daylight. The light reflected from the main planet was what gave the smaller moon its daylight. It wouldn’t actually get dark here for a few more days.
Next he checked out the Hydrogen generator and storage tank. The set-up was at the back of the shed and had its own access on the outside as well. Again, he was impressed to see that the generator was in very good shape. It looked brand new, but the model hadn't been made in over a hundred years.
Someone had bled the storage tank down and shut down the containment fields. John wasn't upset with this because of the volatility of Hydrogen. He saw that the back-up batteries had a good charge, and the control screen read green and ready, so he turned it all on. It would take the system most of the night to switchback over to hydrogen power, but when the sun once again rose, the solar panels would recharge the batteries.
Seeing that everything was much better than he'd expected it to be, John asked his computer to access the local Royal Cartography Archives and create a route for him to run. He reminded the machine that the route would have to be covert, since he had no way to explain the distance or the speed that he would be running.
While it was working on that, he stepped back outside and began stretching and doing his warm-ups. As he finished up, the computer informed him it had a graphic for him to look over.
The graphic was a map of the area with a small, thin line that seemed to be following an old, unused trail that followed the shore of the lake. The computer had him heading north along this trail. Two and a half kilometers to the north, the trail left his land and entered into a Royal Preserve that separated his land from the city of Johnstown.
