Every Last Mother's Child
Page 95
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The next morning, Lisa left Abby with Sally, then gathered Georgia and her cameras to go to the port. Lisa knew this would be a great time to get some photographs. She was a good photographer, and if she hadn’t been trained as a healer she would have chosen to be a photographer. She felt a little guilty about using her connections to be at the space port just to get some photos.
“Georgia I want to go to the port and photograph the first lifts,” Lisa told her lead agent. Georgia thought it was a bad idea; but knew better than to argue with her charge. Besides she had discussed the issue with the Marshal the day before and knew it was going to happen. She had seen Lisa’s work. Lisa was an outstanding photographer. She had heard of the photo that Lisa had taken of one of Trenaport’s fire chiefs catching a baby thrown by the child’s mother from a burning house. As the child passed a window filled with fire, it looked like a tendril of flame was reaching for the baby. The photo was on display at the Trenaport Fire Department headquarters. So without argument Georgia escorted her charge to an unmarked staff car for their drive to the space port.
Their driver took them to the sprawling space port.
It was one of the many places that would be used as a staging area to take people to the “I’m Outta of Here”. It shared space with the Trenaport Harbor. In the past if hadn’t been unusual to see old fashion boats docked opposite the landing craft pads and see people go from the landing craft to a cruise ship that sometimes looked like an old pre empire sailing vessel. Trena’s tourist industry was such that people came from around this portion of the galaxy to take a sea cruise to the ice caves, or to see the Princess Falls and other sites around the oceans of Trena. Everyone had been surprised when Queen Agatha’s father had started the cruise business. Others soon followed suit. As their car pulled into the port Lisa remembered the vacation she and Michael had spent on the Queen of the Seas, an old style sailing ship with square sails. She smiled as she saw the empty slip as their driver took them to hangers where the evacuees would be processed out, her daughter Abby had been conceived on the Queen of the Seas.
“Good morning Lady Wilson how can my officers serve you?” the chief of the port police asked. He met them with a small contingent of uniformed officers. He didn’t want this woman on the port today but there wasn’t anything he could do to stop her.
“Chief,” Lisa said knowing what the man’s problem was, he didn’t want her there. He didn’t want the additional commotion at the port her presence would cause. “I want to spend an hour or so at the embarkation areas. I want to record the first lift to orbit of the evacuees.”
“Lady Wilson,” the chief replied, “it’s going to be a zoo...”
“I know,” Lisa said, “That’s why I am here.”
“I can’t let you just wander,” the chief said, “The marshal will have my head if something happens to you. I might as well catch a shuttle to Dungeon and check in. I would be safer there.”
Lisa saw a lone man sweeping a pile of trash down the passage, she quietly snapped a picture then heard her implant say. “Lady Wilson please don’t push it.”
Lisa keyed her implant and sub vocalized. “I won’t Kellogg.”
Georgia also noticed Kellogg, as the non-descript man continue to sweep trash into his trash pan and dumped it in the can on his cart and moved on. Although he was part of the evacuation staff there were a couple of agents on the protective detail who wanted to have a vigorous counseling session with him for putting their lady in danger a couple of weeks before.
“One uniform and only one uniform,” Lisa said, “I know you’ve got undercover operatives in that crowd, and I know you’ve been running sniffers, and other stuff that finds bombs and weapons.”
The chief nodded, he was also certain that the Mounties had a few people in the crowd, and he wouldn’t be surprised that one or two of the Thonian families in the crowd weren’t part of the Mounties.
“Okay Lady Wilson; but please, please be careful,” The chief said. She nodded and they went to the embarkation area.
The embarkation area was indeed a zoo. The port authority had taken over three hangars, to process evacuees as fast as they could. There were long lines snaking into the hangars. The Trena Red Cross had set up a canteen in a corner of the waiting area. People were milling around, children were running around and shouting, babies were crying. Adults were crying. Lisa wandered the crowd quietly taking pictures, talking with people. Georgia violated several protective detail rules by not only carrying Lisa’s cameras; but snapping a few pictures of her lady assisting others. A woman with five children was struggling to diaper one baby, while trying to keep the other children from running off. Lisa stepped closer to the woman as she struggled with the baby and quietly handed the woman the diaper bag she had dropped and then quickly reached out and grabbed a five year old who was getting ready to bolt. She held the five year old until the woman was done diapering her baby. When the woman was done she looked up at Lisa; seeing her for the first time and said, “Oh Lord! Your Marshal Wilson’s lady!”
“Yes ma’am,” Lisa said as she set the child down on the bench where his brother had been changed. “May I take your picture?”
“But I am such a mess?” The woman said brushing her hair back, as she did, her husband come up with a box of donuts and drinks. He handed her a cup of coffee. The coffee had been provided by the Red Cross in one of their infamous cups. This was one of the many pictures that Lisa took; a family waiting for word to go onto the transport. Over the next few hours Lisa hovered around the family and took hundreds of pictures. Georgia took several pictures also. Through it all Kellogg was within eye sight. Pushing a broom, handing someone a cup of coffee, covertly blocking a reporter’s clear shot of Lisa. No one got to within six feet of Lisa that Lisa didn’t want that close. She photographed the family picking up their stuff and boarding their transport, taking the last picture as the landing craft closed its boarding way.
“Let’s go home Georgia,” Lisa said as they went through the hangar to where their car was waiting. Lisa was exhausted and was only thinking about getting to the car and off her feet.