Tramp Wars: The Enemy

by Larry Roberts

  Mark's Parents walked up smiling as they said high to Dian, thanking her for helping Mark. Then bending down Marks mother hugged and kissed him on the cheek before they left following the crowd to the elevator. Mark had wanted to tell them about the crazy old bag talking about his father dying 21 years ago and his mother that was taken? But he was still out of breath as well as too much pain. Besides he was starting to enjoy Dian’s company as her heavenly boob pressed into the side of his face and her beautiful deep eyes sucked him into her.

  A warning claxon sounded as the hold started to empty. Mark bit his lower lip as he glanced around and frowned finely able to breathe a little. He tried to get up but was held down by Dian’s arm. “We have to leave Dian.” Mark croaked as he gasped for breath.

  “You aren’t in any condition to move right now so they will just have to wait a while longer hero.” She said with her face only inches from Mark’s as she starred into his eyes smiling.

  Mark looked back into her deep blue beautiful eyes as he noticed her breath smelled like mints but something was off. Unsettling, but her closeness and his growing desires ignored the oddness. Turning his head away, he noticed a lieutenant headed their way and tried to get up anyway, not wanting to cause or get into any more trouble than he already had but again Diane easily pulled him back down against her breast. This time he noticed that her blouse had popped a fastener, letting him see and feel as he cheek pressed against her bare breast making him swallow at the touch.

  “Mr. Collins!” called the deck lieutenant. “Don’t worry about leaving. We will work around you besides you are mostly out of the way and you should in joy the show. We have a grav-lift coming in with the first support pylon and thanks again for saving John. I still can’t believe it and I watched you do it.”

  Mark did not quite know what to think of the special treatment but he liked it even if it did make him feel uncomfortable. Besides the mention of the grav-lifter got his full interest as he heard a distant humming coming from outside the ship growing loader by the second. Turning to look over his shoulder his face rubbed up against Diane’s boob pushing her blouse and bra away so his chin rested on her bare nipple but he did not notice as he continued looking for the source of the sound. “That is a grav lifter.” Mark whispered in surprised admiration with his mouth full of boob as it came into sight. Then sucking in another short breath as the pain slowly fled.

  While the fan propelled trucks and cars were the normal form of transportation since the dark centuries once powerful quantum electric motors were reinvented. Gravity coils where much to large and expensive to be used on anything but starships when they first relearned to build them again. It took many more centuries before gravity coil propelled cars in the luxury and military market became the norm for the rich planets and people with a lot of money. Too expensive for general use in the past, the price and advancement of coils in recent years on this planet due to the war anyway, had made it possible for them to be used more and more in the specialty transportation market and then as a rapidly growing export item across the rest of the Empire. The cargo crane approaching the ship was one such example. Attached between two lift coil pods was a 50 foot long tube some 5 feet across with 1foot thick reinforced foam steel walls. A heavy collar circled it about 10 feet from the front end with a flange with bolt holes at the other.

  Mark watched transfixed as it slid in through the open hatch toward the center of the hold. A man holding brightly lit wands in his hands talking into a head set guiding the lifter. Twisting around squeezing Diane’s boob to her chests as he watched it reach the center of the hold. The grav truck slowed raising the front end with the recessed ring sliding up into the hole in the deck above. Diane smiling down at him the whole time, not the least bit interested in the show around them as she rubbed his chest. Slowly inch by inch the 5 foot wide cylinder slid up as the bottom flange moved onto the pedestal. With a clank it settled down into place where the workmen rushed in using pikes to line up the bolt holes and then shove retaining bolts into place below and braces above as the lifter quietly hummed still latched onto the middle of the column.

  Loading the ships holds had always been a complex dance of positioning the heavy freight around the outer 75 feet of the hold like a donut where the deck had the maximum support of the strong thick hull. The inner center part of the deck was reserved for ever lighter and lighter freight the closer it got to the center. Usually the center 50 foot circle was completely empty to prevent over loading. When the ship was a passenger ship on a weekly run between a pair of star systems where most of the freight was passenger baggage, cars, house old goods, high end electronics and mail, the holds where usually packed with no worries about over loading. But a tramp family transport had no such luck. Fact was that most family tramp transports never saw the same planet twice. Most of the cargo was bulk and heavy and though they needed to carry as much as possible to make a profit; lift power of the ship's engines and structure usually limited the amount of cargo more than space. The new support pillars for the middle of the cargo holds where just one step in the plan to make the tramp profitable again. By putting a support pillar up the center; the strength of the hold decks center sections would be doubled. It also allowed the more powerful engines to use the full thrust they were capable of. That is if they could get the new engine rebuilding kits installed if they ever showed up.

  “Your attention Please.” Blared the public address system. “Your attention Please.”

  Tom walked up beside Mark. “Now that pillar is a real waste of time and money.” Turning to Diane and smiling. “Is this the gal you slept with last night?”

  “To all personnel. A-hold is being put back into service.”

  The look on her face suddenly turned into pissed embarrassment. Diane slipped out from under Mark letting his head drop to the deck with a thud. Turning into a cold business woman as hurt mixed with embarrassment flashed across her face as she buttoned up her blouse. “You seem to be doing much better Mr. Collins. You are required to check into the infirmary as soon as you are able and have the doctor give you a clean bill of health.” And rapidly stomped towered the elevator stiff legged swinging stiff arms back and forth for a few steps before glancing over her shoulder as she bit her lower lip. Seeing Mark starring at her, open mouthed, still lying on the deck, she turned away but her legs relaxed and she started wiggling her butt back and forth as she slowed her walked. Her arms no longer straight boards.

  Sitting up slowly while rubbing the back of his head Mark starred after the Medic Diane as she walked up to the elevator doors. He could not recall ever seeing a gals butt sway that much before in his life and could not take his eyes off of it. It finely dawned on him that she must have been doing it on purpose since it had not moved much when she first started walking away. Turning with a stern expression to look back at Mark as the elevator hatch opened for her, a big smile slowly grew as her hole face lit up before she turned back to enter the elevator. Mark suddenly wishing that the slab would drop on him again so she would have to come back. “Now she is Drop Dead Beautiful.”

  Mark watched her elevator disappear up the side of the hold before he turned to Tom. “I ah, didn’t sleep with anyone damn it."

  “Ya sure buddy.” Tom waved at the new pedestal being installed. "Complete waste of time. Especially since the Chief will never install the kits even if the engine rooms ever get them. All that extra weight for the pedestals will just reduce the cargo we can carry."

  The Grav lifter drifted past them and out the Hatch as two men fresh from the elevator walked past. "Hey morons’! This is a working deck. Get off your asses and off this deck and out of the way before you get ran over and squished."

  The ships public address system continued blaring. “All personal items must be removed from Hold A by 0700 tomorrow morning. All remaining items will be hauled away as trash at that time.”

  Ignoring the men as Mark starred at the closed elevator hatch. Tom continued. “Damn it Mark
. Jolleen was wright. We have a ton of crap to find someplace to put.” Tom turned back towered the chain hatch next to the open loading hatch. “Come on. The chain is back up running and we have work to do. Or are you going to spend the rest of the day drooling over your girlfriend.” He reached down and closed Marks mouth then held out his hand to help him up. "Oh and I found out they delivered the new Engine upgrade kits. So you were wrong about that too oh lord of the unknowing. Don't quit your day job. You are a lousy Psychic."

  The PA system started to repeat the statements.

  “Oh shut up!” Mark stood up holding his head as he followed. “What do you mean the engine kits have been delivered?”

  “While I was having breakfast at 7 this morning like normal people; (unlike your highness with your own cabin and girlfriend who gets to sleep in) I got to talking to Steve from your engine room. He wanted to know how much longer you were going to stay on vacation or if now that you were an adult, you had decided you did not want to spend a full 8 hours working in the bilges. I told him you had work to do in the junk cargo bay and wouldn't be in today and to tell your Chief. He said that it did not mater anyway since the Chief had refused to let them even open the crates with the upgrade kits that had been delivered yesterday. It is really hard to install them if you don’t’ even unpack them.” Tom entered the Chain room as the elevator across the hold opened and Dian with another medic walked out pushing a bio-gurney between them. A huge smile across her face from ear to ear.

  Mark disappeared into the Chain room without noticing the medics on the other side of the hold as Dian started looking for Mark. Her smile quickly turning to a concerned frown.

  Chapter 8 Fixing Problems

  The platforms worked somewhat like a huge long chain. The UP and DOWN chains ran through the decks with 2 foot diameter platforms spaced every 8 feet along the constantly running cable. Moving through a pair of, UP and DOWN, 4 foot across and 8 foot long horse shoe shaped slots extending from the hull in each deck’s chain compartment. A round 2 foot diameter semi-fixed platform was placed at the rounded end of each slot level with the deck with railings around the slots and each platform with gates and a retractable ramp between the end of each slot and the platform. Mark stepped onto the up platform and grabbed the hand hold on the pedestal attached to the railing on the back of the platform, squeezing the switch that engaged the safety release that allowed the chain to pick up the platform at the next available slot and punched in the deck number he wanted. An arm came up and lifted the platform up and over towered the chain. Rising at an angle the platform accelerated to match the speed of the cable about half way up the compartment where it attached itself to the cable as the platform it took the place of already detached, stopped at the deck ready for the next passenger. At a rate of 2 seconds per deck and a platform every 8 feet, the continuously looping chain was quite a mass transit system.

  “You could have gotten killed Mark!” The woman's voice surprised Mark, sounding harsh and upset. Then turned softly mechanical. “My calculations show that you should have died…. I was… Surprised, by your actions.”

  “Oh yes, you're back? I thought you had disserted me yesterday. What happened?”

  “You said you were going to get rid of me for implants. I could see no reason to continue our relationship.”

  “Oh Kay. What changed your mind?”

  “You needed me last night…. The need to save Johns life. But you should have listened to me when I told you to stop….. You could have gotten killed!” Her voice turned harsh again at the end.

  “So what do you care if I am going to get rid of you anyway. Besides you are the one that told me to rescue him.”

  “That was before circumstances changed and a second cutter joined the first. You should not be alive right now.”

  “Tell me about it. I was the one under the plate if you didn’t notice.”

  “If you die so do I. Now that I am bonded to you.”

  “What? How can you die? You’re a machine, a computer a thousand years old already.”

  “Now I am bonded with you. I can die and will die. They designed me that way so I cannot be used by unvested people or criminal elements when my mate dies.”

  The platform above Mark separated to slide up into the deck he was approaching. Mark caught a glimpse of a man standing on the platform it was replacing as it accelerated up to join the chain at the now empty platform notch above him.

  “Ok. So? What is bonding anyway? All the Doctor did was program a bunch of information about me he had gotten from my medical file into you. So what?”

  “That really was not necessary at this stage. Bonding minds takes weeks and months of programming and tuning as her mind was, for no better word, imprinted onto my circuits so we could communicate as one and understand her requirements and needs. At the beginning of the Galactic War, one of the first of Earth's Neutron bomb’s radiation killed her along with half of Earth’s population. She was sitting in the programming chair during one of the last imprints before her DNA was to be introduced into my system to finish the bonding process. The neutron blast also damaged my circuits. Rendering over 90% of my processors none operational at the time of detonation. I have spent the last thousand years repairing almost half of my circuits allowing me to function at some 90% efficiency as long as you do not put to many demands on me. A salvage crew years later placed me back into my case and eventually I wound up here.

  After my programing was changed last night I accessed your DNA from our initial contact when I drilled into your temple to complete our neural connections. Then completed the bonding process with you last night. Though it will take time for me to map your mind. Especially with my original inspector’s imprint, (that seems to have been burned onto a large portion of my computational matrix by the radiation burst), reducing my effective computational ability forcing me to keep most of your data in storage as I complete the process to map your mind as part of my working algorithms. I am slowly repairing my processors, erasing the burned image. Though the burned image seems to be developing its own repair process I do not understand, making it harder for me to make my repairs. The main point is that no one else can ever power bond with me now that your DNA is a part of my power matrix. Insuring my death if you die.”

  “Wow. Let me get this straight you have some gals mind imprinted on your circuits but bonded with me?”

  “Yes. I fell in love with you the minute you walked into the store.”

  “You fell in love with me?”

  “No!” She said. “Computers do not and cannot fall in love Mark. Where did you get that idea from? You simply met all the needed parameters in my new emergency programming to be a good Inspector with my help.” After a brief pause. “I am much better than stupid bionic Implants.” That last statement sounded different. A more human tone but Mark could not put his finger on it. It also somehow seemed to match the tone of the statement about falling in love with him a few seconds before.

  “But you said? Ok... Ah, I did not know computers could be over confident either." Mark took a breath frowning. "The doctor tried to get you to…a. Bond with hundreds of other patients a decade ago while thousands of people have passed next to you sitting on that shelf since... How come me, now?”

  “You are the first to meet all the requirements of my programming: and looked cute enough to kiss.”

  “What the hell did you say?" Again the last part of the statement had a different taste and tone to it. Not as mechanical as the first part.

  "That you are the first to meet all the requirements of my emergency programing."

  "And you knew this after only one minute? How? Actually, I think you lit up weekly the first time I walked in front of your case only seconds after I walked in through the door. There is no way you could have known anything about me.”

  “I knew as soon as I saw you and when you fixed that display of the Sole system you confirmed my feelings.”

  “Confirmed your!… Feelings? Sinc
e when do Computers have feelings?” The whole statement that time sounded definitely none mechanical.

  “Don’t be silly Mark. Computers do not have feelings. You simply met my emergency programming parameters.” Mickey said mechanically.

  The man's platform above him separated and slowed down to stop at the next deck as Mark sailed past watching him step off and move towered the exit hatch The empty platform he replaced joined the cable ahead of Mark.

  Mark was starting to really get confused. “Ok what is this bonding for life shit?”

  “I use your blood to provide power. Taking a certain DNA protein out for my fusion chambers. That requires breaking down your blood according to your DNA sequencing. Each person has that protein located in a different spot in their DNA chain requiring a special sequence to extract it. Once that unique sequence is etched into my power circuits it cannot be replaced. I finished that last night as you slept. That is why I did not have you take your glasses off last night. I needed contact with you without you moving around to disturb that process. I finely finished just before your friend woke you.” She said mechanically.

  “That is stupid. I told you I was getting implants and won’t need you or any glasses ever again.”

  A woman walked into the chain room as Mark slid up threw that deck. Did a double take when she saw Mark and then smiled at him bighting her bottom lip as he disappeared through the upper hole as she stood frozen in front of the platform without stepping onto it.

  "I am bonded to you now Mark."

  “Don’t you listen? I am getting rid of you as soon as possible.”

  “Mark; I am a thousand times better than those stupid implants.” Mickey’s voice seemed to be a mix of mechanical and something else that he could not put his finger on. “They have moronic circuits in them and require switch implants at your temples and jaw to operate them. It takes months of intensive training to use them properly in your everyday life let alone in combat and they do fail, with great risks implanting them. I cannot fail and I control myself for you as I have shown you already; I can give you what you need without you asking for it and that process will improve in time as I get to know you better. And implants will never put you to bed or talk to you, or for that matter, look as sexy as I can to please you. As for you wanting to become an Engineer. I can help you there as well. I have changed my programing for you adding the ability of teaching you college courses in days instead of months or whole Doctorates in weeks instead of years.”