by Darrell Bain
In years past, there had been many enhanced pets in the underground city, but as supplies and crucial components grew scarcer, most of the pet population had been eliminated. Stories filtering up about the havoc being wrecked on earth by enhanced animals had hurried the process along. Bandit's mate had died in an accident a few months before, and he was just now regaining some of his happy-go-lucky inquisitiveness and playfulness. The two white rats were refugees from one of his girl friends’ biology lab, one of a latest line bred for dietary experiments. Fortunately for them, a small gene deviation had been discovered before the experiments began and he had agreed to take the animals before they could be euthanized. Only through his position as the pre-eminent electronics engineer in Moon City was he allowed to keep the animals, and that had been becoming more problematical all the time.
Sean reached out to let Bandit catch his hand just before he hit the floor then lifted him back up to the table.
“Thanks, man."
“No problem,” Sean said. He leaned against the hard back of his chair and began watching the animals resume their game. The rats couldn't talk, of course. Even their larger than normal skulls didn't have enough room for language facility, but they understood a good deal of English nevertheless. He was worried, but hadn't let his pets know what the problem was. Several days ago, Rob Passing, the Moon City security chief had approached him with a proposition. He could go on the impending exploration mission in the earth-controlled spacecraft. In return, he had to attempt the seduction and subversion of one or both of the female companions one Jamie Da Cruz, and through them, try to obtain enough information to make seizing control of the spacecraft possible.
Sean's worry was that he didn't have enough information to judge the worthiness of the mission. To hear Passing tell it, Da Cruz was the devil incarnate, but he wasn't so sure himself. Despite rigid censorship, some details of the battle for control of the alien technology had filtered back up to the general population, carried first by floater pilots on earth, and from there by shuttle pilots at either spaceport. It sounded to him like the powers that be had made a hash of the whole episode. Nevertheless, he knew what the stakes were, and his sympathies lay with his own people.
The signal light of the holodoor blinked and announced a visitor.
“Come on in,” Sean said.
Rob Passing came into the room. Sean could almost see him licking cream from his chin and wondered what the council member had been up to.
Passing settled lazily under the light gravity into the only other chair in the room. He eyed the rats and raccoons distastefully. Sensing his displeasure, they scampered back into the bedroom.
“I fail to see what makes you want to keep those animals around, Sean. They're the cause of all our trouble."
“They have their uses,” Sean said quietly.
“Maybe once. Not now. We can't afford them any more."
Sean flinched inwardly. What was on his mind?
“Anyway, I'm not here to talk about those damn pests. You leave tomorrow for the spaceship. Let's review your assignment again". Passing knew it wasn't really necessary, but he was uneasy. He had no real hold on Sean as he did on the Worley girl and it bothered him. His only recourse was an appeal to his loyalty, and being what he was, he had little faith in that string. It wouldn't hurt to try, though.
“We've been over it already."
“Let's go over it again. You remember what I told you about Selene's projections? The situation on earth is getting worse. Actually, I think her projections are optimistic. Unless something drastic happens, our whole economy is going to crash in not too many more years. We'll all be dead in fifty years if something isn't done. Our only chance is to gain control of the workings of that spaceship. If we can't, and we have to go hunting for another planet to live on, the earthers have told us flatly that they will take only a ratio of our population to theirs. And they will do the choosing."
“Why isn't that fair? They would leave most of their population to their fate, the same as for us."
“You still don't understand. Even with all the deaths on earth, they still outnumber us a thousand to one. How would you like to be one of only, say, ten spacemen in a population of a thousand earthmen? Think of the friends you'd leave behind. Think of you being left behind.” The words came unexpectedly but Passing saw that they had hit home and tried to conceal his glee. How much did Sean Johnson love life? Maybe this was the key to his cooperation, if not his total loyalty.
Sean flexed the muscles in his arms. Like most of the later generation of Moon City inhabitants, he was tall, but rigorous exercise kept him from being quite so slender as most other men and women his age.
“Is that what you're saying? That if I don't get what you want, I won't be picked for the immigration, if it occurs?"
“That, my boy, is it. Your name will be erased from the population files before those earth bastards ever get a chance to scan them. On the other hand, do your best for us and I'll do my best to see that you're one of the ones picked—if worst comes to worst.
Passing rose happily from the chair, bouncing a little and prepared to leave but paused at the edge of the holodoor. “And take those damn animals with you when you go. Maybe if we're lucky that coon will kill the whole bunch of those fucking earth pets. He disappeared through the opaque projection, leaving Sean still sitting quietly with his thoughts. He disliked Passing but he had to feel a little grateful that the problem of what to do with Bandit and Randy and Pandy was solved. Did he plan on me being grateful? No. I don't believe that. He just doesn't like pets.
* * * *
The floater Jamie and Jeannie were in began approaching the Florida Enclave. From the air, Jamie could see that it was fully as large as the Houston Enclave, although perhaps not so heavily populated. Its main function was the transfer of vital cargo back and forth from earth to space. The shuttles were all controlled by Moon City Pilots, specially trained to withstand the six times heavier gravity of earth, at least for short periods. Earth had not been allowed a presence in space since the breakdown of its economy, although Moon City and the Satellites still accepted a very limited number of immigrants, those possessing vital skills only. The satellites traded weather and landsat data to earth, but only at exorbitant prices in trade goods. The two cultures were becoming more and more divergent, and in recent years, only their mutual needs kept trade and contact going. It was an unstable situation, and becoming more so. Twice in the last decade, the Houston Enclave had been left bereft of hurricane tracking information until the last hours before landfall because of the high prices demanded for weather information.
Jeannie was once again looking out through the passenger bubble, wide-eyed at the unaccustomed sights, and grateful to be far away from the chaos enveloping the Disney Enclave. She spotted a landing shuttle on the tarmac in the distance, and pointed it out to Jamie. It squatted like a bird of prey, wings already extended in readiness to become airborne. Tiny figures scurried in apparent slow motion from the distance, readying the craft for the return to its natural habitat. Both of them studied it intensely, as if they could penetrate its innards just from staring. Fuzzy Britches purred unconcerned in Jamie's lap. From the air, most things looked the same to him, and he had soon lost interest in the vast vistas of uncontrolled countryside.
The floater settled gently to earth, less than a hundred feet from the shuttle. A single woman detached herself from the crew and came to meet them. She walked slowly, as if wading through molasses, and Jamie deduced that she was either the pilot or an attendant. As it turned out, she was a copilot, detached temporarily from her ship in order to shepherd passengers rather than cargo, and was not really happy about it. She made short shrift of herding them onto the loading platform and into the bowels of the craft, where Masters, Kristi, and their pets were already aboard. This time, even the cats were relegated to cargo, much to their disgust, but the humans were assigned seats. For the first time, Jamie saw the other four rangers be
sides Masters and Kristi being assigned to the spaceship. It seemed to him to be an awfully small contingent, but he understood that on this trip, scientists, engineers, and other specialists would have priority. He was pleased to see that Judy Neilson was one of the rangers, and doubly pleased to see that she was wearing new Sergeant stripes on her arm. Judy had saved his life on at least one occasion when he was with her in the wilds, and probably more than once. She was one of Kristi's former lovers before He and Jeannie entered the picture but she seemed to be holding no grudges, for they were seated side by side, chatting amicably. Judy was not all that pretty, but she was slim and had a nice figure. She wore her brownish hair cut short. She smiled briefly at him when he waved. There was no time to talk, even to Kristi, for the captain was evidently in a hurry.
“Liftoff in three minutes. Settle back. Be sure your belts are tight,” the co-pilot said, the tone of her voice indicating that she could care less whether they were strapped in or not. Jamie hoped she had secured their pets, but he wouldn't have bet the farm on it. She waded through the (to her) thick gravity field and secured the pilot's compartment. Engines revved, and the shuttle began to move.
Before Jamie had a chance to become properly used to the motion, the shuttle screamed into the atmosphere, pressing him hard against the backrest of his seat. The last thing he noticed before the acceleration became really uncomfortable was how heavily armed the rangers were. Their weapons belts took up a spare seat beside each of them, menacing in their lethality, but a comforting sight all the same. Whitmire was still taking no chances.
* * * *
Weightlessness, and stars, stars in multitudes such as he had never imagined, brilliant pinprick white against blackness so fathomless that it had no beginning and no end. Jamie floated against the restraining straps, peering out of the view port in astounded wonder. It was a sight such as he had never imagined, nor been able to imagine. He lost himself in the wonder of it until suddenly his stomach decided it wanted to return to earth and the comforting pull of gravity. He gulped air and his stomach roiled uneasily, but he didn't quite vomit. Beside him, Jeannie seemed not to be having any trouble. And she's Probably Regnant! By sheer force of will he kept his last meal where it belonged and looked around the passenger compartment. Judy Neilson was bending her face over a bag, trying to contain little globules of matter drifting from her mouth, but everyone else appeared to be stable, if not serene. He wondered how the pets were doing.
He needn't have worried. Fuzzy Britches and Woggly were playing patty-cake, bouncing each other against the restraining safety nets where they were confined. Wolfgang and Conan were uttering soft barks and whines in dog language, intermixed with occasional words which had no canine equivalent. Only Princess looked like she might be in some distress. She kept her claws securely fastened to the netting, not quite understanding why she couldn't feel weight pulling at her from where (to her) she hung upside down above the other pets. The comments of the other pets reassured her, however, and presently she hung quietly, as was her usual wont.
The frowning attendant cracked the pilot compartment hatch, checked swiftly, and re-secured it, as if she were checking for dead bodies, and finding none, was satisfied. Her voice came over a speaker. “We match with your spaceship in one hour. Stay secured,” and that was all she had to say.
“Alvarez could use her as a receptionist,” Jeannie remarked, referring to the retired chief of the Houston Genetic Engineering Section whom they had once worked for. His animosity toward Jamie and his pets, and laxity in his security arrangements of his personal files in the office had almost cost them their lives at one time. Jamie had once aspired to his job, but that was far in the past now. For the present, he was Jamie Da Cruz, sole proprietor of the alien thought disk, and now reluctant space explorer, albeit a happily married one, insofar as marriage had any meaning any more, and a prospective father at that. It could have turned out far worse, he thought.
* * *
CHAPTER EIGHT
The spaceship was huge, much larger than the shuttle they were in. Two smaller landing craft hugged opposite sides of the vessel, tiny in comparison. Jamie was just beginning to realize how large the great cylindrical machine was when his vision was obscured by a maneuvering rotation by the shuttle's pilot. He (or she) must have been good, for he felt only the faintest of bumps. There had been no hesitation by the combined Moon City and Earth Engineers in crafting a ship that might be used not only for exploration but also for immigration of humans from the solar system should that prove necessary. Metal was no problem, nor silicates, nor oxygen; it was hydrogen and nitrates and rare earths that the trans-earth population was perennially short of.
Jamie felt his ears pop as the pressure adjusted between the mated airlocks. He unfastened the restraining straps, then helped Jeannie with hers. They still had to wait, hanging weightless while the rangers off-loaded first, then had to wait again while he was detailed to the baggage compartment to shepherd the pets. It was no easy task. All of them except Princess wanted to play tag once they were freed from the safety nets. For twenty minutes, he was as busy as a mother trying to corral three-year-old quadruplets. The task was compounded by his own lack of experience in free fall, but at last he got the animals past the spaceship airlock and into the ship proper. There, he drifted helplessly, surrounded by furry creatures bumping into him from all directions until finally he was rescued by a large black man with kinky gray hair, wearing the standard Enclave coveralls, but adorned with bright silver stars on matching shoulder epaulets.
“Welcome aboard, Mr. Da Cruz. I'm Captain Hawkins. Could you use some help, here?"
Jamie shook the outstretched hand, grateful for the intervention. “I sure could. All these guys want to do is play.” He released the Captain's hand and plucked Fuzzy Britches from his hair.
“Girl,” Princess corrected from where she was attached to the seat of his coveralls. Lady didn't bother. She figured the large dark man should be able to tell the difference, and if he couldn't, he would be no friend of hers.
“I'll apologize if you'll let go of my pants,” Jamie told her. Princess just clung tighter, and Jamie decided to let her be. At least it would be one less pet he would have to keep up with.
“Come on, I'll show you your quarters. Just take it easy. Push off gently. As soon as we get away from the hub, we'll have a little gravity, although not much. We're gradually taking the spin off.” Hawkins demonstrated the proper way to move in the near weightless environment, and as promised, a little weight soon returned. Jamie's stomach did a flip-flop, and suddenly there were walls, ceiling and floor again.
Jamie was soon completely lost, but the animals could have re-traced the route. A good portion of their sense of smell had been replaced by their greater intelligence and language facility, but it and their directional sense was still much better than any human's.
Jamie's family had been assigned one large compartment and two smaller ones, with one bath common to all. Hawkins demonstrated the facilities to him and the pets then opened the door to the larger room. Jeannie was already seated in front of a computer terminal, exploring the controls. There was little, of course, that she did not already know, having worked with the designers almost from the start. Every living compartment naturally would have access to most of the files of the main computer when it was installed, and be able to interface with the ubiquitous body computers, but for the time being, only she, Jamie and Kristi could activate that part of it controlling the ship itself.
Jeannie turned away from the holoscreen as she heard the door slide back in it’ s tracks. “Hi,” she said brightly.
“Hello,” Captain Hawkins said. He peered at her closely. “Unless I'm mistaken, you're the young lady who is holding my ship for ransom. What do I have to do to get it back?"
Perfectly serious, Jeannie said “Get us away from earth. John Whitmire is a dear man, but I'm not at all sure he wouldn't have me returned to earth if he could."
“
Well, I'm willing to get away as soon as we can. We're uncrating the mainframe now. Are you ready to get to work?"
“I am working,” Jeannie smiled. “I've already run the checks on the terminal connections. As soon as they plug Big Boy in, I'll check all the interfaces, and I can do that from here. Nothing to it."
“Big Boy?"
“That's what I call the main computer."
“Oh. Well, can you access the bridge from here?"
“Bridge?"
“Control room. On a ship, we call it a bridge."
“Oh. Sure. And I fixed it where you and your vice-captain can do the same from your quarters, but nowhere else."
“Hm. All right, sounds as if you're as efficient with computers as I've heard. I'll leave you with it, and see what we're doing with the gravity generators. That's the only thing left."
“How long will that take?” Jamie asked as Hawkins’ body computer slid the door open for him.
“Only a day or so, then another day to check everything out and we'll be ready to leave. Oh—” He turned. “There's a ship's guide in one of the files. It will show where the mess is, and how to get around the ship. Let me—"
“I've already found it,” Jeannie said.
Captain Hawkins had a rather peculiar expression on his face as he took his leave, as if he had opened a birthday present and a gremlin jumped out of it.
* * * *
While Jeannie worked with the computer, Jamie and the pets explored their new home. There wasn't much to it. One side of the large compartment was taken up with a triple bed in addition to the computer alcove, and the opposite wall contained barely visible storage drawers, leaving it essentially blank as a background for holoprojections. The smaller compartment was partially blanketed for the pets to sleep on (the designers not aware that the cats, at least, preferred to sleep on people), and the rest of the room was taken up with a storage closet for clothes and other personal belongings, and a very small food and drink storage area, sufficient only for snacks. Apparently they would be eating most of their meals in the ship's mess.
