Vatican Ambassador

by Mike Luoma

  “Good, because this is your wake up call,” Anita’s voice rings out from a hidden speaker.

  “Right,” BC says.

  “We’re leaving for the asteroid base in one hour. Please be ready,” she says, and the com clicks off. BC

  gets up and gets freshened up best he can.

  A change of clothes and a shower would be better. Like to be able to check my messages, too. See some news; find out how bad this thing is spreading now. There’s no outside contact here. And now we’ll just, what, bip out to the asteroids? We’re moving pretty quickly. The room alarm rings in an hour. BC opens the door on Anita, waiting for him.

  “Ready?” she asks him.

  “I guess,” BC says. “I would have liked to have gotten a shower in.”

  “Fussy, fussy,” she chides him. “You’ll be fine.” She makes a show of smelling him. “You don’t stink too bad, Campion,” she says with a laugh. “The ship is waiting for us at the lock, the same place we came in. Come on.”

  BC follows Anita through the base to the airlock. She opens the door and then steps aside so BC can step through first.

  “Go ahead,” she says. “Time for your universe to expand!”

  BC chuckles in spite of himself and steps though the airlock into another ‘flasher’. It’s a different ship than the one we came over on yesterday. Looks bigger, at least inside. I wonder what the outside looks like? Doesn’t look like anyone’s home. BC looks down the long, empty corridor in both directions as Anita cycles the airlock closed behind them.

  “Big ship?” he asks Anita.

  “What?” She says, figures out what he said, “Oh. Yeah, big ship. Bigger than the last one we were on, anyway.” She gestures up the corridor to their right. “Let’s head to the bridge.”

  “Is this gonna be a long trip?” BC asks her.

  “Nah, the bridge isn’t that far,” Anita says. Before BC can protest she laughs, “A joke! The trip won’t take long, either. We’ll travel up off the elliptic, turn on the Transpace drive, and be there almost instantaneously! The longest part of the trip is flying far enough away from a planet’s gravity well, up to where we have to be in order to make the jump safely, and then flying from the transit point on the other end down to the asteroid base. The Transpace event is surprisingly fast. Whole flight takes about an hour.”

  “Just an hour? Wow!” BC is impressed.

  “Some of our interstellar trips are even faster,” Anita tells him. “We can transit from almost anywhere, but don’t dare to do so into the asteroids. So we’ll take a little while to fly in to the base. It’s in a busy neighborhood. The safe point is a lot further out than it is for most of the planets we visit.”

  I’m still wrapping my head around that one...

  The corridor branches. BC stops, and then follows Anita down the left branch.

  “We don’t want to transit in open space around here, you know? Too many stray rocks,” she says as they walk. “We’re here.”

  She punches a code into a panel in the wall that opens the sealed airtight door they’ve come to. She leads BC through another airlock, and on to the bridge of the ship.

  Man, this sure looks different than that UTZ Cruiser’s bridge I was on during the war. So simple looking.

  They’ve stepped into a low, domed room, paneled in white enamel and glass, bordered by chrome molding. The “back” of the room is solid white, the “front” of the dome entirely clear. It’s like being inside an invisible cookie dipped in milk... with a pilot inside... A woman sits in a white sculpted chair in the center of the room, her ebony skin a striking contrast to the stark white dome interior. Her smile is even more striking as she stands to greet them. I think I’m in love... maybe lust... she’s beautiful!

  What the fuck?

  Her chair and the bank of controls she had been looking at have just melted into the floor behind her. Anita elbows BC, “Is that cool or what? Oh, stop leering at her!” she chastises him.

  “Welcome aboard, Anita!” The woman says. “Is this Ambassador Campion?”

  “It is!” BC says and extends his hand.

  “Bernard Campion, this is Sensha Williams. She’ll be our pilot. Sensha, this is BC.”

  “BC?” Sensha asks.

  “My friends call me BC,” he says. “I hope you will, too.”

  “You’re quite a charmer for a priest,” Sensha says.

  “NcC Reform and all, we’re all pretty loose these days,” BC quips.

  “I see,” Sensha says. Anita doesn’t say anything. The bridge grows quiet.

  “It’s quiet,” BC observes.

  “I like it that way,” Sensha says.

  BC looks around. “I like the way your chair melted into the floor there like that,” BC says, awkwardly trying to maintain the conversation and break the silence. “Um... alien tech?” he asks.

  “We came up with that,” Anita and Sensha say practically in unison. “The Project,” Anita explains further.

  “Pretty cool,” BC says, nodding. “Does the ship have any weapons?” he asks Sensha.

  “Sure does. I like it that way, too,” she says.

  “Where are your gunners?”

  “You’re looking at them.”

  “You?”

  “Me. I can do everything from here: guns, conventional drive, and Transpace drive. It’s all at my fingertips,” she says proudly.

  “But this is a big ship!?” BC protests.

  “Is it? Maybe by your standards. But we’ve had the time and developed the tech, and incorporated the tech we found on the alien base and on other worlds. Makes this ‘big’ ship seem pretty small. And you should see some of the Flaze Vehicles, if you want to talk big!”

  “Really?”

  “Oh yeah,” Sensha assures him. “Well, you two ready to rock?” she asks.

  “Sure. Where do you want us?” Anita asks her.

  “Hold on a sec.” She turns and waves her arm. Her chair and the console melt back up into existence. She leans over and presses a series of buttons on the arm of the chair. Two more chairs melt up into place behind Sensha’s. “Have a seat,” she says.

  “Cool,” BC can’t help but say it as he walks over to a seat. Anita sits down next to him.

  “I guess we’re ready,” Anita says.

  “Good. We’ve been moving up off the plane and we’ll be transiting soon,” Sensha tells them over her shoulder. BC can see her tapping at the console in front of her. Then she sits back. BC feels a lurch in his stomach. He hears and feels a low rumble.

  “How long until Transpace?” BC asks, after a few seconds.

  “Now,” Sensha says.

  BC waits.

  Nothing?

  “When are we going?” he asks.

  “We just did,” Sensha says.

  “Wow,” BC says in admiration.

  “I’m good,” Sensha says. BC can hear the smile in her voice. “And now...” she pauses for a second,

  “…we’re here!”

  “At the base?” BC asks, puzzled.

  “No, at the transit point near the base. I’ve got to fly us in to the base itself.” BC feels and hears another low rumble. “We’ll be there in about an hour,” she says.

  “I told you that,” Anita says to BC.

  “It’s still good to hear it from the pilot,” BC says. “Travel by flasher, who woulda thunk it? Ooof!” BC

  gets jerked to the side as the ship lurches.

  “Damn!” Sensha says to herself. “Sorry about that,” she says back over her shoulder to BC and Anita.

  “Just a little bumpy in the ‘roids. You know what they say,” she says, and she and Anita say it out loud together, “’Roids are a pain in the ass!”

  “What, is that the ship’s bumper sticker?” BC jokes.

  “No stickers on my ship,” Sensha says way too seriously.

  “So sorry,” BC apologizes. “I was joking.”

  “Can’t talk now,” Sensha says, “Gotta dodge the rocks!”

>   BC watches out the clear screen in front as they dodge through the rocks for about an hour. Small and large asteroids pass slowly by, some spinning, some just hanging in space. After a time, he notices a small dot in the center of the screen grow larger and remain centered.

  Must be the base...

  There’s a light at the center of the dot. Both light and dot grow larger and larger as BC watches. The light gains form, becomes a square, then the outline of a square, in the center of the dot which has grown into a large asteroid that keeps growing larger.

  Looks like a platform, carved into the rock.

  They approach the platform slowly.

  Huh... bigger than I thought.

  The craggy face of the asteroid disappears from view as they near the platform. The entire square of light around the opening passes beyond BC’s sight before their ship is even within the opening. BC begins to make out details. The opening is honeycombed with doors and hatches of differing sizes. They look to be heading for one of the smaller doors in the middle of the larger opening. It opens. Light pours out to greet them. BC sees landing lights flashing inward in sequence, beckoning the ship in to land. Sensha brings them in slowly, smoothly. They touch down with just a small thump.

  “Thank you for flying the Sensha Express!” Sensha says with a chuckle. “Off you go! They’re sealing a walkway up to the door you came in through as I speak! They’ve been expecting you, of course.”

  “Thank you, Sensha,” BC says. “It was a pleasure to meet you, and a wonderful flight.”

  “Aw, cut it out,” she says.

  “Yes. Please. Do .Cut. It. Out,” Anita says menacingly.

  “Better stand up, you two,” Sensha rebukes them. “I’m about to make your chairs go away!” BC and Anita both snap up to their feet as Sensha chuckles some more. The chairs melt away into the floor.

  “After you,” BC says with a sweep of his arm. Anita shakes her head.

  “Gimme a break,” she says with a touch of exasperation. “I’ve gotta go first. You don’t know where you’re going. Don’t even pretend you’re a gentleman!”

  “Fine, just go ahead.”

  “Just go all ready,” Sensha says to them.

  They make their way back through the ships corridors and out through the airlock, then cross the walkway into the base itself.

  The number of people and the bustle of the place strike BC immediately. Wow... There are people everywhere! It’s like Lunar Prime in the good old days! Makes their moon base look completely deserted. Hey, where’d she go?

  “BC!” Anita calls to him through the crowd. She makes her way back to him. “I thought you were right behind me. Come on.”

  “Sorry, a little distracted,” BC says. She turns and heads back into the crowd. BC follows close behind. Who are all these people?

  She heads down a hallway, turns a few corners. She walks quickly. BC keeps up. The crowd thins as they walk into a quieter area.

  “This is the residential area,” Anita tells him as they walk. “They’ve set up a room for you nearby.” She gestures ahead, to their right.

  This part of the base looks like any hotel on Earth, the Moon, or in orbit. Anita stops in front of a room on the right whose door is ajar.

  “Here we are. Your room!” she says. “Get some rest, freshen up, and relax. I got word on our way here that the old man isn’t up for visitors today. You’ll meet him first thing tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow? I thought he was waiting to see me?”

  “He is. He’s waiting until tomorrow to see you. Tomorrow. He’s an old man, BC,” she explains.

  “Gotcha. I understand. What am I supposed to do in the meantime? And I need to let the Vatican Mission know I’m going to be away longer than planned.”

  Anita spreads her arms out in an overdramatic gesture of welcome. “Freshen up, and relax… your room, sah,” she jokes. “We’ll send word to your secretary that you’ve been delayed, okay?” she asks. BC shrugs. “Fine.” He walks into the room. “No windows, huh?”

  “You’re deep inside a rock,” Anita says. “Not much to see.”

  “Point taken,” BC agrees.

  An awkward silence ensues. BC breaks it. Awkwardly.

  “Um, do you want to come in?”

  Anita blushes. “No! I mean, I can’t,” she stammers. “Not right… I’ve got to check in, and there’s stuff I… I gotta go,” she says. She quickly turns and closes the door behind her on her way out. That was weird. Didn’t think there was anything between us. She’s cute in that rugged sort of way, I guess. Didn’t really notice her eyes til just now. Beautiful brown eyes. And she blushed! I swear she blushed! What’s that about?

  Not that anything is normal anymore! A secret base in the asteroids. Super ships. Alien races. Killer plagues. And the way she looked just then… Stupid! Let’s not be stupid, BC. Remember, she did try to kill you! I always fall for the dangerous ones. Talk about stupid. Well, they’ve got full facilities, at least. All the amenities of home. High tech and high class. Might as well take a shower, get some rest, and get ready to meet the dead legend that ain’t so dead after all. I can’t believe I’m going to meet Van Kilner!

  Anita stops by the next morning to lead the way. She and BC walk through the residential section, through what appears to be manufacturing and labs. They exit the labs and begin walking down a featureless corridor, which then leads to another long corridor, followed by a third hundred-yard length. Anita and BC walk down one long connecting corridor after another.

  Corridor after corridor… We have to have walked at least six miles!

  “You know, you’d think since you folks can travel to distant stars and faraway planets, you at least might make it easier to get from place to place in your own facility,” BC grouses.

  “Van Kilner doesn’t like to be too accessible, even to those in The Project,” Anita explains. “So, we walk.” The corridor ends. They turn, and start down still another. Another turn, another corridor. No windows, no doors, no other branching corridors, just a long tunnel of connecting corridors winding through the asteroid.

  Finally they arrive at a blank gray wall: no apparent door, no apparent controls.

  “Here, hold on a sec,” Anita says.

  “Where am I gonna go?” BC asks.

  “Shh!” she shushes him. “Doctor Van Kilner? It’s Anita Capituna. I’ve brought Bernard Campion, the Vatican Ambassador, with me, as you requested,” she says in a loud voice. She and BC wait in silence. BC begins to speak. She cuts him off with a quick, “Sh!” and a flail of her arm and a look that could boil blood. He stays silent.

  They wait in silence for what seems like a long time.

  It’s been what, two minutes, really? What’s this guy’s deal? Eccentric old bat, no doubt. The outline of a door appears in the blank wall, and then slides silently aside.

  “Come in,” a voice says.

  Anita walks through the door. BC follows cautiously behind her.

  Whoa!

  BC is stunned. Stepping through the doorway into Van Kilner’s quarters is like stepping into another world. Light brown wood paneled walls and a brown, cream and white marble floor replace the grays and whites of the endless corridors. Stained glass windows backlit by hidden, golden lighting line the walls of the foyer, casting multicolored shafts of light across the floor and across BC and Anita as they walk through.

  BC marvels at the artwork, the mosaics of cut, colored glass in the windows. Each depicts a different subject: Earth on a field of stars; the landscape of an unknown planet, with two moons rising above the horizon; ships in combat in space; a vast field of asteroids; a bright red nebula; a cool blue spiral galaxy. Each window is a work of art. Most depict scenes and places BC has never seen before.

  “Whoa!” BC lets out an involuntary gasp. The gravity eases as they advance further in to Van Kilner’s quarters, lessening its grip. BC suddenly feels pounds lighter, and there’s an extra spring in his step.

  “He keeps the gravit
y at about a quarter of Earth normal,” Anita explains, noticing BC’s surprise. “Helps keep him healthy. He’s… old,” she says haltingly. “We’re expected. We’ll meet him in the arboretum.”

  “The arboretum?” BC asks.

  “It’s where Van Kilner takes his visits with his guests. It’s just ahead, on the right.”

  BC follows her a short way down the corridor. She places her palm flat against the wall and a door appears. After a minute, the door opens. The smell of damp wood, wet leaves and fresh loam washes over BC.

  “Mmm… smells like Earth,” BC says.

  “You can see why it’s the old man’s favorite place,” Anita agrees.

  The arboretum isn’t like any on Earth, though. Van Kilner’s taken advantage of the light gravity. Trees and plants grow up from the ground, out from the walls, and down from the distant ceiling somewhere far above. Trees, plants and vines interweave overhead, creating a dense canopy that makes it impossible to judge just how high the roof of the arboretum is. Light sources abound, placed to feed the forest with photonic goodness.

  “Birds?” BC asks as he hears chirping off in the distance.

  “Birds. And bugs, too. No real pesky insects, just useful ones.”

  “Just us useful bugs…” BC comments.

  “At least you’re useful,” BC hears come from behind him. He turns to see the legendary Dr. Van Kilner, floating in a chair hovering two feet off the ground. He’s still recognizable from all the news coverage of thirty years ago, but he shows the years in the lines in his face and the stoop of his back. He looks old, but not ancient.

  Smaller than I thought he’d be… he’s one of the giants of history. Guess you kind of expect someone like that to be… I don’t know… bigger?

  “Go ahead, say it,” Van Kilner says with a chuckle. “I know what you’re thinking. I hear it all the time! ‘I thought you’d be taller,’ right?” He chuckles again. “You must be BC. Hello, Anita, thank you for bringing him to me.”

  “You’re welcome, sir.” She turns to BC. “BC? I’d like to introduce Doctor Hans Van Kilner. Doctor Van Kilner, may I present the Vatican Ambassador to Lunar Prime, Father Bernard Campion. We can call him ‘BC’.”

  “Good!” Van Kilner extends his hand to BC. “Formalities are done! I think they’re important, but I’m always glad when they’re over!” He and BC shake hands.