The Final Sunset

by Trevor Herron

  “Don’t worry Rothman I’ll help you.”

  “Oh yeah,” Rothman snarled, “like you’ve helped me up to now. You couldn’t keep your bloody trap shut.”

  “You wouldn’t want me to lie to the police, would you?”

  “Ha! I wouldn’t mind betting you’re going to be busy in the Kuiper Belt or somewhere just as remote for some time to come.”

  “Well as a matter of fact…”

  ###

  She lay in the hospital bed frail and worn out, the years and the responsibilities had been cruel to Hola but she had never once complained. A nurse entered her ward all bonhomie and cheer.

  “And how are we this fine morning?”

  “This half of the we feel rather tired and worn out. How does your half of the we feel?”

  The nurse couldn’t help herself she burst out laughing, “You’re irrepressible, irresistible and irascible and I love you. Well no wonder your half does not feel so well it didn’t finish its breakfast. Come on now three cups of coffee don’t have much nutrition. I’ll get the kitchen to prepare you another and this time I’ll feed you.”

  “Don’t treat me like a baby.”

  “Why not? You’re behaving like one.”

  “Oh what can I do about it. You’re on your feet and I’m flat on my back.”

  “And that’s how it will stay if you don’t eat and take your medications. Do you want to sit in the wheelchair out on the veranda?”

  “I would love to. Thank you, you’re a marvellous nurse.”

  “Flattery will get you everywhere,” and she helped Hola into the wheelchair.

  ###

  She sat for hours staring at the laboratory perched on a hill where she had worked and laboured for so many years. Now it was due to be demolished. Oh well, both of them had fulfilled their usefulness. A new laboratory was being built pity they couldn’t build a new Hola to go along with the new lab.

  Well maybe not we all have to recognize when we’ve run our race and she had run hers.

  Occasionally she dozed and in dozing she conjured up so many faces from the past. A special face from the past was leaning over her and gently wiping the drool that had formed at the corner of her mouth. she was not sure if he was an apparition or real. She had not seen Jean-Paul for more than ten years now.

  For a long moment, she couldn’t recollect; was Jean-Paul still alive? She forgot so many things these days. It made no difference any way; apparition or not she was still happy to see him.

  ###

  “Jean-Paul,” but no sound issued only she didn’t know that, “It’s time for you to hand over to the next generation. You’ve done your part and I don’t want you to finish up like me. That is if you haven’t already. You still have enough in you for a little enjoyment before your time comes. God knows you deserve it. I sentence you to six weeks Rest and Recreation.”

  Jean –Paul shook his head lovingly. She had tried to say something to him – if only he knew what. The nurse warned him that she often forgot who was who or mixed things up but for now she was lucid and when she was lucid her mind was still razor sharp.

  Damn she thought, there’s always something about me not working, my mind, my voice or my memory.

  Suddenly he knew what she had being trying to say, “Yes you’re right it is time to handover especially when you find the youngsters know things you don’t. Hola do you know what a shock it is when you find out what you think of as advanced science is history to them.

  They’re quicker on solutions, but then again they have more advanced machines to do for them than we had. Their computers have personalities and they make friends with the damned things.

  With computers like that it’s no wonder they’re more advanced than we were. But in our defence I will say we had to learn in classroom situations while knowledge to them is ingrained in a system devised by the greatest mind the world has ever known. And I know this because I had the privilege of seeing that mind at work. Cometh the hour cometh, in this case, the woman. Who but you my dear friend could have done what you have?”

  But Hola never heard him her mind had retreated to that dark place where the minds of the elderly found surcease.

  ###

  CHAPTER 2

  THE SECOND GENERATION

  “Alvin, I’ve had enough of this bullshit. I mean, what the hell, all this building and frantic work; for what? We do nothing but slog our guts out, day in and day out.”

  “The old folks say our sun is going to fry us, you know like to a crisp, man so we gotta build and get outta here before it happens.”

  “Crap man, how old are you? What has changed in those twenty years? When I was a kid forty-four degrees was an average day. It’s not much different now; forty-four point one or something stupid like that. At that rate it’ll take an oven ten thousand years to get hot enough to cook me. Man that’s just old folk’s spook stories.”

  “Yeah I think they just like to see us work so they can tell us how hard it was in their day.”

  “They also said that we’d get a big fire every now and then, but have we? Have you experienced any great fires?”

  “No man, a couple of bush fires that’s all. Everything seems to happen before I was born and I suppose if I ever get the chance to check it will also be after I’m dead. Even here the last flare or whatever they call it happened before I was born. The last one they say was conveniently before any of us were even born. They claim the shield they built stops us from getting cooked.”

  “I Don’t believe they built no shields.”

  “Course they didn’t.”

  “I rest my case. I wouldn’t mind betting that this originates with one or more of the Ancient’s superstitions Like Santa Claus.”

  “Yeah but that doesn’t make this life any less boring. I’d like to do something different; not just, work, work and more work. Wouldn’t mind spending a week with that travelling Fun Fair. I mean our guys have made them stay a million kilometres away but they’ll give us a lot of free rides as introduction if we can get there.”

  “Of course I’ve still got a few of their hand out discs.”

  “Hand out, especially, uh, that one. You know the one I mean.”

  “Yeah I know the one you mean? Boy that’s some hologram but if the Secretary General finds out you’ll be in deep shit. He doesn’t encourage, what does he call it? Oh yes; fraternising. Takes our minds off the job in hand. Traveling Fair and Brothel. What the Hell is a Brothel?””

  “Who knows but I bet it is fun. Fuck him, anyway but he’s right. I play that O-gram every now and again, especially to get my mind off the job in hand. I mean look at them, they’re not shy, those chicks are not like ours they have fun and they invited us to join them but the Old Farts here don’t like us to enjoy ourselves.”

  “Yeah man they see something wrong with young people enjoying themselves. The old bastards are so narrow minded they have two left ears.”

  “Man, that music, not the crappy kind that they play here that’s supposed to push our productivity up,” he sighed, “The kind that gets your blood pumping, makes you happy.”

  He lay on the bed with his hands behind his head and his eyes rolled back into a deep reverie. He let out a long sigh, “The girls…. The fun…The girls,” his voice longing and far away, “The girls…Did I mention the girls?”

  “Maybe once or twice; just casually in passing. That’s the trouble its always in passing I wouldn’t mind a stopover every now and again.”

  “Yeah I follow; I mean I play that O-Gram occasionally just to drool over the girls.”

  “Really? I would never have believed that of you,” and they both gave a lascivious chuckle.

  “Yeah the guys are weird looking but man the girls are something. Not like ours, greasy hands and overalls, the only thing they can talk about is souped up hyper-drives and
ways to atomise hydrogen peroxide to get an extra unit of RSD out of our drives. But, man those chicks, they make me feel that there’s more to women than hyper drives and Titan rated burning efficiencies. I give every one of the alien women a Titan rated burning efficiency of 150%. That’s about my temperature when I think of that tape”

  “Tell me about it. Hey! How long do you think they’ll wait?”

  “Not much longer I should imagine.”

  “Maybe we can get a craft and get out there before they go.”

  “Yeah but it still costs bucks and I’m overdrawn for at least six months.”

  “Me too, but man I can’t stop thinking of anything but those girls. Maybe we can scrape up enough for me to get in. I can always tell you…”

  “Oh boy you must be the original wise guy.”

  “They said they’d make a deal; take holographs of us at work all the time, then us at play, the games we’ll get to play? And the holographs they get to use in their advertising campaign. No harm in that. Their speciality they said is Rest and Recreation, refreshes hard working men, they say. All they wanted was a few before and after shots.”

  “Jesus, but that Forsetti Fry bastard was bloody rude to them. Who does he think he is, anyway? He’s only a security guard for the secretary general.”

  “Seems we’re not the only ones in the Galaxy that work all the time. If we were the only ones, they wouldn’t need an advertising campaign. Maybe we should break away from our lot and see about a business of our own.”

  “They’ll arrange a program and everything so that when we returned to work we’d do so completely revitalised. Revitalised! Man, even that word sounds magic. When they come back that will also be a good time to speak to them about setting up a business of our own. They seemed like nice guys I’m sure.”

  “We can forget about being revitalised now. I mean the Secretary General was downright rude to them so that we’d be lucky to get as far as the gangplank of their ferry.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Dammit I’d also like to try a walk on their moon. The O-Gram says the air is exhilarating, nothing like it, they say. You come out of the tunnel in love with everybody. It would do away with war and crime throughout the Galaxy if they had enough to export.”

  “I’ve got an idea. Let’s grab a two seater SCSS. Look we can tell those Travelling Fun Fair and Brothel whatever that is we’ve come to test out their equipment and report back. An official ship will lend some credence to our story; that could even get us some real high-grade treatment.

  Our guys will get a chance to see how we’ve benefitted from the experience and they’ll give us some time out there.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “No, but maybe we could do deal with the Garinos and sell the ship to them, then we could easily finance enough of the young people to our side and the Secretary General will have no option but to give in. If he doesn’t want a teenage revolution on his hands,” Alvin looked pleased with himself; shit! What a business man he would make?

  ###

  The two-man star-ship sliced through space looking for all the world like a comet but moving hundreds of times faster than any comet. The senior flight controller in the tower knew a warp speed ship had passed only because his gauges said so. The ship itself was travelling too fast to register on human senses but the circular field sensors in the tower registered its passing and tracked its speed and direction by field cover penetration.

  “Am I right; that was that a Defence Force craft?” he demanded of the controllers. Which one of you gave permission for a military craft to overfly civilian airspace at warp speed?”

  Silence greeted his question. Only now did the roar of the passing ship fill the control tower, “Who …?” but he knew that the speed barrier, being not only broken but shattered would take some time to resync the system.

  Right now who gave a military craft permission to over-fly a civilian area?” he was able to get out at last.

  “No one sir. The craft was illegal There is no flight plan registered for it by any craft under Earth’s influence. What you saw was a centrifugular assisted launch into space to achieve instantaneous warp speed. Only a military craft can carry out those kind of manoeuvres”

  “What section did the craft belong to? Can you find out?”

  Just then the inter service communicator buzzed, “Excuse me sir but I think we’ll get some of our questions answered now.”

  “Major Codrington what can you tell me about a flight of yours that almost took us all too pieces here.”

  “Two young men in prescribed uniform came in. They produced Primary Defence papers authorising them to take a warp speed two seater but the men who took the ship didn’t belong to any defence unit, although they knew a lot about defence procedures. Wait a bit I’ve got some news coming in.”

  The screen browned out for a few minutes. When it came on again the major said,

  “The man driving the ship is one Calvin Henkel, evicted from the Defence Air Wing for unacceptable behaviour toward female conscripts. The man with him is Xavier Gorman. He and Henkel have been almost inseparable for some time now, real partners in crime.

  Any idea of their destination?”

  “They’re not even trying to hide that. It’s obvious.”

  “The Deep Space Fun Fair and Brothel is that back again?”

  “Right first time. They tried slipping in last night but we pushed them back behind a two million kilometre Territorial Space limit now.”

  “So What are you going to do?”

  “That’s out of my hands. The law is very clear on what happens in cases like this. The order is already out. Destroy the craft. Too much information can be leaked to potential enemies and I don’t really see this lot becoming our new best friends.”

  “And the two youngsters…?” the question was ignored but that was answer enough on its own.

  “I really hope these people are not going to be a problem. Let’s go see the governor.”

  ###

  “You are assuming that those two are absconding to this …er… Travelling Fun Fair?”

  “Not the Fun Fair per se but their ferry station. They don’t allow any flying craft but their own at the Mother Ship. These irresponsible young fools will park a fully equipped military craft on their doorstep; unattended and with the keys in the ignition, so to speak. We have only one option.”

  “And you believe this is what they’ll do?” the Governor asked Forsetti Fry.

  “No doubt about it sir.”

  “They have no other destination within reach of their craft and they both have a reputation for being immature pleasure seekers. It’s not a difficult toy to assemble.”

  “We lose a fighter craft but I suppose that’s better than losing the technology but what happens to the two young men?”

  “They become, what in another time and place would be known as Incidental Collateral Damage.”

  “Yes I see. Bring me the papers; I’ll sign the DMC & O order, Destruction of a Military Craft and Occupants by atomization. That is the correct definition of this action; is it not?””

  “Yes sir,” several voices answered in unison.

  Notify these people that we want to talk. Not a genteel conversation but one that lets them know – we want to talk. We will go to them. I don’t want them anywhere near us or our equipment.”

  ###

  The markings on the ferry craft Welcomed visitors to a Garinos Pleasure Dome and that the Reception would greet the visitor inside. Long lines of pleasure seekers lined up waiting to be shown to moorings and escorted to the busy ferries. Music blared, lights flashed and blinked and recorded laughter filled the large docking area.

  The blinding flash of an electron discharge atomised the stolen craft, its occupants and the power supply of an unmanned ferry belonging to the Garinos. The
reception ship suffered some minor body burns electronic damage. Nothing that couldn’t easily be repaired.

  The onslaught was quick and final. No shockwaves, no explosions only a flash of light like a torch being switched on and off. Mme Jeza d’ Belle, ruler of Garino screeched her anger at the loss of such a prize.

  “I want to know what they have to hide, find out,” she demanded of her officers

  ###

  “Terrestrial base this is Garino’s ship 1 a trader innocently plying our business among the Five Constellations, you may recall that we spoke once before.”

  “I recall and you may recall we refused your previous offer and denied you access which you ignored and made contact with some of our people. Do not try our patience any further.”

  This time we are not making any offers we are stating categorically that we want retribution for the damage you have caused to our ship in line with the treaty ratified by all the worlds of the inner and outer Inter-Galactic Travelling Nations. We are therefore despatching a craft with settlement experts on board to take possession of commodities and materials deemed to be sufficient compensation.”

  “Madam I am advising you that a delegation from my people will attend your craft. We will not be ferried by you or your staff but will attend your home ship directly and we will be carrying an armed force. Over and out.”

  ###

  “Well What do you say Mr Secretary?” Forsetti Fry asked in his soft voice. He had been named for the Norse god of Justice but he looked more like an avenging angel. He was tall and thin with deep-set eyes and thick black eyebrows; his eyes were always concealed by dark shadows. He had large hands attached to bony wrists that protruded from shirt cuffs always a little too short for his arms.

  Forsetti Fry favoured black suits and highly polished black shoes. He was not a good looking man but he was a strong man physically, mentally and emotionally.

  “Prepare for war I suppose,” The Governor said “That’s supposed to be the best way to prevent war, so the saying goes. I think we have a lot they want.”