Titanium Texicans

by Alan Black

  Rodriguez held his hand to his ear. “We got a call. Ernie Montoya says Tio Gabe came in for a beer to The Horn and Saddle Bar down on Deck T. Ernie says Tio Gabe only had one beer, but Ernie didn’t see him leave. It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes ago.”

  The captain said, “Ten minutes! He could have hit an elevator and still be anywhere on the ship. There is a bank of elevators outside The Horn and Saddle.”

  Rodriguez nodded, “Yes, Captain. If he stayed on any deck from T to GG, we couldn’t run a scan to find him. The live cattle we’re hauling will muddle any signal we try—” He stopped, again putting his hand to his ear. A grin spread over his face. “Um, we found him, Captain. Sheri from Dolly’s Place on Deck R met him in The Horn and Saddle. She decided to … a-h-h-h … give him a freebie. She heard the search warning and called it in. She says she’ll walk him back up here and she’ll get his locator and dataport put on him as soon as he is … um … well, as soon as he’s finished.”

  The captain tried to frown, but a grin broke out across her face. “She called in his location when he still had a leg over? That was mighty courteous of her.”

  Rodriguez shrugged. “She said he didn’t mind her calling. I guess he was somewhat distracted. Sheri is an ample sort of woman.”

  The captain nodded. “I know Sheri. You should try to squeeze past her in a tight corridor to appreciate what sort of ample she is.”

  Bill Rojo laughed, “Sis, every single male on this ship lines up to squeeze past Sheri every time she uses a tight corridor. And I swear she has all the tight corridors charted on the ship.”

  The captain squeezed Rodriguez’s arm. “Thanks, Timmy. Good job hunting down Tio Gabe.” She pointed a finger at Tasso. “And you, Menzies. Keep your dataport ready. We’re going to talk before the day is out.” She and her brother left the attic.

  Rodriguez nodded at Menzies, “Nice calling this to our attention when you did. It all turned out good, but it could’ve gone the other way. Tio Gabe is getting a bit muddled in the brainpan, and we wouldn’t want him getting hurt somewhere. You let me know when your schedule gives you a training rotation in security. Not only this, but you handled your ‘fall’ in the shower with the right force and with tact.”

  “Should I wait here for Tio Gabe?”

  Rodriguez nodded and smiled. “You were looking for him in the first place, right? So, you wait. Sit a while and relax. I checked your posted schedule and you aren’t scheduled to work today, anyway. Don’t worry about him. Sheri is taking care of him and she’ll get him up here safe and sound.” He followed the captain out of the storage bay.

  Tasso sat and waited. He wasn’t sure who Sheri was. He figured out what they meant by ample, but he searched his memory for the phrase ‘throwing a leg over’ but he didn’t recall ever hearing it before. He was searching for the phase and others like it on the shipnet when a woman and Tio Gabe entered the bay.

  The woman kissed Tio Gabe lightly on the forehead and left. Tio Gabe allowed Tasso to pin his dataport to his coverall. Tasso fixed the old man’s locator to his wrist with a thin packing strip. It would take snipping shears to get it off, so he was sure the old man wouldn’t get lost again today. Tio Gabe seemed distracted, but strangely, more lucid than normal.

  Tasso’s written job description and instructions didn’t say anything about letting crewmembers use reconditioned equipment from the attic. He asked for permission, expecting to have to unravel one of Tio Gabe’s verbal mysteries and wasn’t disappointed.

  Tio Gabe said, “There isn’t any reason crew can’t use anything we find in here. It takes a senior officer’s approval to take anything off the ship. As Obi-wan says, ‘Let the force be with you.’ I desire an exposition with the brother of death.”

  Tasso frowned and followed Tio Gabe all the way back to the man’s cabin. The old man slipped off his shoes and slid into his bunk. He was snoring loudly before Tasso closed the hatch behind him. He leaned against Tio Gabe’s cabin hatch and double-checked the shipnet on ‘death’s brother’. He had a vague idea of what Tio Gabe was saying, but until he read about it being a reference to sleep, he wasn’t absolutely sure.

  “Gabe napping?” a man said.

  Tasso nodded and looked up into the face of Tio Gabe’s neighbor. “Yes, sir, whatever he was doing seemed to make him sleepy.”

  Al asked, “Where’d they find him?”

  Tasso shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m not sure it’s my place to say.”

  Al said, “Good lad. A closed mouth is the way it should be. As long as they found him and brought him home.”

  Tasso nodded. “A young woman named Sheri found him and brought him back.”

  Al laughed and said, “Sheri always makes me sleepy too. Good for Gabe.”

  Tasso whistled to himself all the way back to the attic. It didn’t take long to re-find the extruder as he’d previously logged its location into the database. Now he changed its location to the lingerie shop on the promenade. He loaded the machine onto a small sled and was back on the promenade before he had whistled through the same song more than three times.

  He paused at the door of the shop and knocked on the doorframe.

  Cherry was talking to a customer. She looked up and smiled. Her wave invited him into the shop. The extruder trailed along behind him. The machine was small but still took up a lot of available aisle space. Cherry was trying to explain to the customer that the shipment of ribbons hadn’t arrived. The customer was trying to explain how it didn’t matter if the shipment hadn’t arrived; she needed the ribbons she ordered.

  Tasso was hesitant to interrupt, so he waved and finally got Cherry’s attention. “Cherry, I can get your ribbons now. Tell me the specifications you need.” He popped open the control panel to the Thurmand Corporation plasti-cellulose extruder, called up the manual, and thumbed through the index until he found the chapter on ribbons. He thumbed through the subheadings until he found a section actually labeled women’s hair ribbons. It startled him when he noticed the preceding section covered horsetail ribbons. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would put ribbons on a horse’s tail.

  “Ahem.”

  Tasso quit reading the manual on horsetail ribbons. “Sorry. I got distracted.”

  Cherry laughed, “And I thought it was my beauty that distracted all the young men around here. I’m devastated to know a young man can be distracted by a technical manual.” She turned to the woman next to her. “Dee, please let our technician know specifically what you need.”

  The woman went into a barrage of color names meaning nothing to Tasso.

  “Miss?” Tasso interrupted. “Please forgive my ignorance, but I don’t know what you’re asking for.”

  Cherry said, “Red ribbon, Tasso.”

  Dee snorted, “Red? I should say not. I need it to be more of a cross between crimson and ruby.”

  Tasso spun a few dials until the readout turned red. He pointed at the screen. “Is that the color?” Tasso spun dials back and forth as the woman said darker-lighter … brighter-darker … more intense.

  Suddenly, Dee shouted. “Oh, Madre de Dios! That is perfect! Young man, you are an artist.”

  Tasso grinned, “Thank you, but all I did was turn a few knobs. You’re the one who designed the color. I’d say that makes you the artist. What did you need extruded?” Normally, he would have been shy around any woman, but Cherry made him feel so welcome and at home, that he felt comfortable around this customer. He hoped Cherry would help him if he did or said something stupid.

  Dee said, “I need a ribbon about one and a half inches wide. I need two three-foot lengths for my hair, six six-inch lengths for Trusty Rusty’s mane, and one six-foot length for his tail.”

  “That’s easy to do.” Tasso decided to throw caution to the wind and say whatever came to mind. Cherry would tell him if he stepped out of line. Besides, he was still feeling good about winning a fight against four to one odds. The captain and security complimenting him for findin
g Tio Gabe made him feel more confident and sure of himself as well. Anyway, how much more trouble could he get into than he already had coming for fighting with other trainees. He certainly expected to catch punishment from someone as a result.

  “This color will be as pretty as a sunset after a rainstorm in your dark hair. May I ask, does Trusty Rusty have the same hair color as you?” He started to blush at his own bold statement, but the look on Dee’s face washed away his embarrassment.

  Dee looked startled and pleased at the same time. “That’d be the best compliment I’ve heard all day if you hadn’t just asked if my horse had the same coloring as I do.”

  Tasso looked confused. “You have your horse with you?”

  “You don’t?” Dee asked in surprise.

  Tasso shrugged. “Well, I’ve seen pictures of horses. I even saw a horse from the air once, a few months ago, but I’ve never seen one up close.”

  Dee said, “Well, I never. I don’t know what this ship is coming to when they hire on help who doesn’t know a horse from a cow.”

  Tasso laughed, “Well, miss, I suppose if I was presented with a choice, I could always read their manuals.”

  Dee looked shocked, shook her head, and laughed. “Cherry, you’re going to have to take your new employee down to the lower decks. And you, señor, when you get down to the Double C, you stop in and see me. I’ll introduce you to my horse, Trusty Rusty.” She thought for a moment. “No. He isn’t my color. No one in their right mind would name a black horse ‘Rusty’. He is … well … rust colored. Does his color matter to me getting my ribbon?”

  Tasso shook his head. “No, I wondered if we needed the same color on the ribbon for your horse. The manual to this extruder says horse ribbons should be a bit stronger than a regular hair ribbon. Thicker means it holds its shape better when under physical activity.”

  He punched a few buttons. A length of ribbon shot out of a slot on the side of the extruder.

  Dee gushed over the ribbon as if holding a diamond studded gold bar. Tasso ran a second length of hair ribbon and a third.

  Dee said, “Wait. These are longer than I needed. And I only needed two, not three.”

  Throwing his last bit of caution to the wind, he said, “When I saw how perfect it’d look in your hair, I got carried away. My grandfather always said it is easier to cut twice than it is to make do with something cut too short. It’s a bit longer than you asked for so you can cut it to the exact length you need. And the extra piece is a gift from us for having to wait for your ribbons.” He twirled the knobs as directed by the manual, extruding out multiple lengths of horsetail ribbon. He handed them to Cherry.

  Dee and Cherry wandered off, chattering about the perfect color match.

  Tasso went back to reading the manual. He found a section on hatbands. Without asking, he spun dials and extruded a hatband the exact color of the hair ribbons. The machine extruded the hatband with plastic clips at both ends for proper fitting to a hat. He had an idea and extruded another item.

  He carried the hatband up to the counter where Dee was logging in payment for the ribbons. “Miss, do you wear one of those big hats when you ride your horse?” He was sure she did. He’d seen many pictures of cowboys and cowgirls on horses all over the ship. Everyone wore those hats. “I didn’t know for sure if you’d be interested in purchasing a special matching band for your hat?”

  Dee looked goggle-eyed at the hatband. “It’s fantastic. Of course, I want it. Ring it up, Cherry. Oh my! Your new employee is a gem.”

  Tasso smiled, “Thank you, miss. It’s a pleasure to make pretty things for a pretty woman. I know you wouldn’t be interested in this matching belt. I made it as a test for Cherry’s new extruder. Do you think her other customers might want this type of belt?” The extrusion was thicker and much wider than most ribbons, composed of four different bands in a flat weave. He designed it with three ribbons of Dee’s special red and one shiny jet-black ribbon matching her hair color. The extruder even punched holes in one end and added a buckle attachment on the other.

  Dee said, “I’m speechless.”

  Cherry laughed. “Tasso’s had that affect on me, too. I don’t know what we’d do around here without him. Shall I ring the belt up?”

  Dee said, “No, not yet. Let me look at some of those buckles. I need a new one to match this belt. Wait, you won’t flood the ship with ribbons of this color will you?”

  Tasso shook his head ‘no’. “I’ll log this color in so we won’t make anything else of this color for anyone except you. It’s your special signature color.”

  Cherry said, “We may have some colors that get close, but nothing exactly your color.” She was obviously tap dancing backwards to protect the store from making promises she couldn’t keep.

  Eventually, Dee logged in payment for her goods and left the shop.

  Cherry looked at Tasso in surprise. “Who taught you salesmanship?”

  Tasso said, “Like what?”

  Cherry said, “You know, complimenting her looks and how the ribbon matched so well. How it was now her special color!”

  Tasso was alarmed. “I’m sorry if I said something wrong, but she is pretty and the ribbons did highlight her coloring well. It’s easy enough to tie a color to her name so we don’t reuse it. The manual says it can generate around a hundred thousand different colors, so you can make a bunch of reds without repeating one.”

  They heard Ain chuckling in the back room. “He’s matched you again, Cherry. You’d better hire him for real before some other store steals him and his magic box away from us.”

  Tasso shook his head, “Oh, I can’t. I already have a job as a trainee working in Aunt Aggie’s attic.”

  Cherry said, “We don’t want you for full time, just work here part time to pick up some extra dinero for spending cash. We’re only open on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, plus Saturdays and half a day on Sunday afternoons. You have to help us, where else are we going to get someone who knows how to run the ribbon maker?”

  Tasso said, “You’d pay me to work?”

  Cherry laughed, but stopped when Ain stepped around the corner.

  Tasso tried not to stare at the woman. Where Cherry was bright-eyed and glowing, Ain was dark and regal with intense eyes. The women were about the same age and both were blonde, but that was where the resemblance ended.

  Ain said, “I will try not to hide my face from my new friend. Tasso Menzies, you are a part of our little store just as you have become a part of our hearts. Money is of no consequence.”

  Cherry wrapped an arm around Ain. “She’s right, Tasso. You took a simple hair ribbon order that would’ve made us no more than a one-credit profit. You turned it into a fifteen credit—”

  “Seventeen point seven four credits,” Ain interrupted.

  Cherry laughed, “Yeah, what she said. Tasso, you’ve already paid for your employment with this one sale. If I know Dee, she’ll be talking about her new purchases all day long. We’ll have more customers in here than we can take care of.”

  Ain said, “Let’s move that display of socks and have Tasso set up his machine there. At least, we can get it out of the aisle.” After they firmly settled the extruder into a place in the corner, Ain went to wait on a couple of female customers. The women went directly to the lingerie section.

  Tasso spun the extruder around so when standing at the machine, his back would be to most of the store, especially the women’s underwear section. He didn’t know if his presence would make the women uncomfortable, but he was positive their presence in that part of the store would make him uncomfortable.

  Cherry said quietly, “Ain doesn’t really do well around men. She’s getting better, but if we have male customers come into the store, she’ll disappear into the back. I can usually take care of things then, but if you could jump in and help, that’d be perfect. Don’t worry about pricing and where things are on the shelves. You treat all of our customers like you treated Dee and we’ll all do fine.
In addition, Tasso, after the delivery this morning, we have a pile of stuff in the back. We broke down the boxes for reuse, but can you help me move the packing material to the trash compactor in the back alley?”

  Tasso shook his head, “No. You can’t throw that stuff out. Packing material is exactly the type of stuff the extruder uses to make the stuff it extrudes.”

  Cherry laughed. “You mean to tell me we made fifteen credits—”

  “Seventeen point seven four credits,” Tasso corrected.

  “Seventeen point seven four credits profit from trash? Plus, the ship’s recycling center isn’t going to charge us a trash fee? Wait, you didn’t even use our trash?”

  Tasso shrugged and answered, “I filled up the extruder with packing material from the attic before I brought it down here. Why, is that good profit?”

  Cherry’s eyes rolled as she mentally tallied. “I don’t know where Ain got her credit figures, but I think both of us calculated the sale based on the normal cost of goods. Since we didn’t pay for any goods, then the total sale was profit, except labor and overhead.”

  “And that’s a good thing?”

  “Good! It is about three times what normal profit is. About fifty-three point twenty-two credits profit! You just generated a record sale day in one order. You keep this up and we can retire to the beach somewhere before we’re too old to enjoy the cabana boy.”

  “Actually,” Tasso said, “I’d rather go back to my valley on Saronno. It isn’t near a beach, but I do own a hundred and sixty square kilometers of my own.”

  Cherry stared at him. “You own—”

  Tasso pointed at a pair of women who’d walked into the store. He hoped to distract Cherry from asking about his place. He knew his valley wasn’t huge and the rest of his land was useless unless he could find hope’s crystals somewhere on it. As Grandpa always said, there’s always hope. Moreover, his whole family was buried there.