by Alan Black
Tasso was surprised to see the captain in a special booth at one end of the field. He noticed she shouted, cheering along with everyone else, while maintaining a conversation with a man wearing a blue and red spider jersey.
Gordo saw him looking at the couple. “That gentleman with our captain is Captain Delgado Rojo of the Araña Rojo. He’s our captain’s first cousin.”
Tasso nodded. “Do you have to be part of the Rojo family to be a captain?”
Gordo laughed, “Oh no, but it doesn’t hurt. It’s their company and they own the ships, after all. Nevertheless, when you’re a Rojo, you’re raised from day one to run a spaceship and lead a crew. That kind of training is invaluable. Me? I was raised on a ranch by my father to wrangle cattle. I’ve got to tell you there is nothing more boring than looking at the ass end of a cow, day after day, all day, every day.”
“So you’re happy you went to space?” Tasso asked.
“Happy!” Gordo laughed. “Happy he says! Mi amigo, if I’d not gone to space, I wouldn’t have met Cherry. I wouldn’t have met my good friend Roberto and his most wonderful family. I wouldn’t have met you. What’s not to be happy about?”
The Scorpion’s quarterback threw a pass directly into the hands of a Spider defender, interrupting their conversation. There were groans and moans in the crowd to match the cheers from the blue side of the stadium as the defender ran the interception back for a touchdown. The gold side of the stadium applauded their quarterback when he walked off the field, his head hung low.
There were a few jeers and boos, but they seemed to be directed at Eber. As the usual first-string quarterback, Eber patted the backup quarterback on the shoulder trying to console him. He turned to the crowd and acknowledged the booing by waving his injured hand in the air.
One of the cheerleaders threw a cold drink at Eber. It slapped him across the head. Everyone laughed. Tasso joined in the laughter when Roberto explained that the particular cheerleader, Kendra, was Eber’s sister, and she didn’t like to lose a game, even more than the players did. Tasso thought Kendra was more attractive than Anisa. She wasn’t really prettier, but … well, he couldn’t put the thought into words because the thought made him feel disloyal to Anisa.
Roberto said, “We have a trainee football game every Friday night when we meet another Texican spaceship, whether it is a Rojo, a Fox, an Ortiz, or a Guerro spaceship. It’s more fun when it’s a sister Rojo ship.”
Tasso tensed when he heard the name Ortiz, but no one around them even glanced in his direction.
Gordo laughed. “Yep, we dine on barbeque tonight on the Spider. Sunday afternoon we rodeo and we get real football that night.”
Tasso was confused. “Real football? I thought this is real. It looks real.”
Roberto and Gordo laughed. Tasso was beginning to realize these people laughed a lot, but they weren’t laughing at him. They expected him to laugh with them. Roberto said, “What our giant friend means is that Sunday night the grownups play football. He’s a defensive back for the Red Scorpions. It’s as close to semi-pro football as you can get in space.”
Tasso said, “I’d like to see you play, Gordo, but I’ve promised Cherry I’d work in her shop on Sunday nights.”
Cherry laughed, “We’re closed on game nights, sweetie. Tomorrow we’ll be busy as a cow’s tail during horsefly season with the Spider’s crew crowding our promenade and our crew crowding theirs. Don’t come in to work on Sunday. You hear?”
Tasso nodded. “Yes, Cherry.” He wondered if he could get a ship’s crest from the Araña Rojo to load into the extruder. He began calculating how much hair ribbon they could sell—
Cherry reached around Gordo and poked Tasso in the chest. “I mean it, young man. That means you don’t go to work in the attic and you don’t sneak into the shop after hours to make a sale to Security Sergeant Rodriguez, no matter how much he begs.”
Tasso looked stricken. “I didn’t sneak, honest. And we put the money in …” His voice faded away, Cherry and Gordo were laughing. “Besides, he said it was his anniversary.”
Gordo said, “Good. Hey! Since I’m going to be busy Sunday, maybe you can take Cherry to the rodeo. No! Sorry, I think you’d better ask Anisa or Kendra to take you to the rodeo and the game. Heck, maybe you should ask Kendra to take you to the rodeo and then you can ask Anisa to come with you and watch the big boys play football.”
Roberto said, “Whoever you go with, it really is a better football game, since there are adults playing. Well, more like larger children with more skill and more experience than this young bunch. That doesn’t necessarily mean more brains, though.”
Gordo laughed. “That’s why we wear helmets, to protect what little brains and what little good looks we have left. It can be a tough game, but not as hard as when we play against a planetary team. That is, if the population plays the game and if we can schedule one. Speaking of planets, where the heck are we anyway?”
Everyone within earshot leaned in to see if anyone knew the answer. Most of them looked to Roberto’s wife.
Roberto’s wife leaned in, “Kaduna.”
Everyone groaned.
Gordo shook his head. “What a pit!”
“What’s wrong with Kaduna?” Tasso asked.
Gordo shook his head. “The planet shouldn’t have been settled. It’s barely scrub range without enough water to spit. An African group from North Central Nigeria settled it. They’re hard working and tough people, but as planets go, it should just go. Why are we here anyway?”
Roberto’s wife said, “We have a contract to ship in ten thousand head of Texas longhorns. What? You didn’t think we packed Decks EE and DD with longhorns just for nostalgia’s sake, did you? They want to cross breed our hearty Texas longhorns with their Ankole-Watusi longhorns.”
A woman leaned in from another row and said, “Big cattle drive off those decks tomorrow at sunrise. It should take most of the day to move that many cattle. Kaduna is taking ownership at the hatchway, so we have to drive them off the ship. Still, I’d like to drop back by in a few years to see the results of the cross breeding.” She projected an image from her dataport and passed it around, the mid-air 3D hologram passed from hand to hand while she continued to hold the dataport. “Here’s a picture of a Kaduna Ankole-Watusi bull.”
Gordo whistled. “I thought a Texas longhorn had a huge set of horns. I’d hate to try to chase one of those out of the brush if he didn’t want to go.”
Tasso stared at the picture. He’d never seen such massive horns, even in the pictures of cattle he’d studied around the ship. He wondered how the bull held its head up under such weight.
The gold crowd roared as the Scorpion’s defensive unit pushed the Spider’s offensive team back into their own end zone, gaining a touchback. Tasso wasn’t sure how the spectators did it, but it seemed everyone was carrying on a couple of conversations in multiple groups and still watching the football game.
Roberto asked his wife, “Mira mi amante, the cattle explains why we’re here, but having two Rojo ships on this shi … sorry … backward dust ball doesn’t make sense.”
His wife shrugged. “I just work in the shipping office. I don’t make the rules. I know our schedule was to meet with the Serpiente Rojo for a normal cargo swap once we’d delivered the cattle to Kaduna. We have some product from Rio Tono and Murphy’s Rest for shipment to Peach’s Place. That’s on their shipping lane. The Serpiente Rojo had some cargo from Omega and Golden Ray of Sunlight needing to go to a new colony on our route. As I say, routine cargo exchanges, something switched at the last moment. We shouldn’t have seen the Araña Rojo and her crew until we docked at home the next time. Home port is still more than a year away.” She shrugged again. “Like I say, I don’t make the rules.”
Tasso asked Gordo. “Do you think I could go outside? I’d like to step onto another planet.”
Gordo nodded, “So, you do have a streak of adventure in that Scottish soul of yours, don’t you? Well, we’re a
ll going to the Araña Rojo for a barbeque after the game. We’d normally use one of the freight tunnels and take a shuttle. However, for this special occasion, we can go up and cut across the surface.”
Cherry laughed, “It should be a good barbeque. The winning spaceship always treats the losers of the game properly. And from the score, it looks like we’re going to be treated like visiting royalty.”
The game ended quickly. Tasso wondered how, or even if, he was going to be able to find Anisa. He didn’t need to worry. Anisa and Kendra found him. They each grabbed an arm and they followed Gordo and Cherry up to a ground level hatch.
Tasso took a deep breath and stepped out of the hatch onto a new planet. He was expecting a spaceport like Saronno stretching into the distance with spaceships resting in concrete and plasticrete cradles. The Kaduna spaceport was bare dirt. The two Rojo ships were nestled into deep holes dug in the ground, braced up by wooden beams and thick bricks. There was a third ship cradle in sight, but it looked about half-caved in, as if never finished or never used.
The air felt thin and dry. Taking deep breaths didn’t seem to draw in enough oxygen. He wondered why humans would settle here. He almost laughed at himself. He knew there were people on Saronno who wondered why anyone would settle north of the McWithy Range. He realized humans would settle wherever they could make a life for themselves and their families. Moreover, they would struggle and fight to make a life as good as they could make it. He suddenly felt like a sort of kindred spirit with the people of Kaduna. They didn’t choose an easy life. They came to fight and they came to survive. It felt like the Scottish thing to do.
He said to himself, “No. It sounds like a human thing to do.”
Anisa said, “What’s a human thing to do?”
Tasso shook his head. “Sorry, I was thinking out loud. I think I might like these Kaduna people.”
Gordo looked surprised. “Really? This place is such a waste of oxygen. Humans shouldn’t have tried to settle it.”
“Why not? That’s what I meant by a human thing to do. People on my home planet Saronno thought my grandparents were crazy to settle where they did. My land is rough and it’s not good for much except a hardscrabble life. Grandpa said it’s tough, but it is freedom. It’s a struggle, but it is life. It was a day-to-day challenge to survive, but that’s liberty. Don’t we all go where we can survive, then we fight to survive and make a place for our families?”
Everyone was silent.
Tasso thought that maybe he wasn’t making sense. “Um … I guess I mean humans don’t always pick the easy way or the easy place. Independence doesn’t come about in a paradise.”
Everyone was still silent.
Tasso started to blush, thinking they must imagine him to be some sort of babbling idiot. He blushed harder when Kendra leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Anisa, not to be outdone, leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
Gordo grabbed his hand and pumped it in a massive handshake. “Dang, boy! You let me know when you run for political office. You got my vote.”
He didn’t know what to say, but he stammered, “Well, um, I may just speak off the top of my head a little more often if it gets me kissed by two pretty girls.”
That got him another round of quick kisses.
CHAPTER 23
TASSO DIDN’T KNOW whether to pass out from excitement or try for more kisses. He decided to leave well enough alone. Grabbing both girls’ hands, he grinned like an idiot. The external lights from both ships lit the area for hundreds of yards in all directions. Tasso was blushing. He hoped everyone would think his blush was due to the lighting.
There was a row of small ground vehicles available for use. Gordo signed one out and they set about a quick drive across the hard packed ground to the other ship.
Tasso looked around him with curiosity. His only other experience at a spaceport was on Saronno. A huge wall had separated the town from the spaceport, the ships, various warehouses, and buildings. There was no wall on Kaduna.
There wasn’t much of a town with only a few buildings clustered along a dusty street, but it was more town than Tasso had grown up in. None of the structures was over two stories high. The center street was awash with its own electric lights and the ship lights. It left the rest of the town in the dark. Stretching out into the darkness behind the town were wooden corrals and fenced pastures. He couldn’t see whether Texican cattle filled the corrals or if they were empty. He noted a few buildings along the main street that appeared to be open and busy with Kaduna people coming and going. They looked to be celebrating the arrival of off-world visitors, although it didn’t seem as if any of the two crews had gone into town.
Gordo looked that way. “I’ve been here before. It looks like everyone from hereabouts came to see the space ships. I don’t imagine they get many visitors.”
Tasso asked, “Can we? Do we have time?”
Cherry asked, “Can we what, sweetie?”
Tasso replied, “Visit? Can we at least drive down the main street?”
Gordo swung the vehicle toward town. “There isn’t any reason why not. I think you’ll be disappointed though. There sure isn’t much to see. I can tell you most of these backwater planets won’t have anything you haven’t seen somewhere else.”
Tasso laughed, “That’s the point, isn’t it, Gordo? I haven’t seen anywhere else.”
The vehicle wasn’t kicking up any dust on the hard packed ground. Nevertheless, Gordo slowed down when he reached the buildings. He was moving at idle speed, slower than most people could walk.
Tasso was amazed. He’d seen quite a few dark people on the spaceship, but they were more the color of light chocolate. The Kaduna were almost black with black curly hair. They were as tall as Gordo, but thin. They were all smiling.
Tasso smiled back. There was a small boy playing with an animal of some kind. The boy waved. Tasso waved back. Without thinking, Tasso tapped Gordo on the shoulder and jumped out of the vehicle. They were barely moving, but the gravity was a bit heavier than on the ship. He didn’t stumble, but the weight surprised him. Anisa told him to get back in the vehicle, but he waved back at her. This was a new planet to see. Here were new people to meet. There was a new animal to investigate. He didn’t think the animal was dangerous since none of the adults were concerned about the child playing with it. Grandpa had always said the most dangerous animal was a human. Tasso hadn’t believed him. After all, he’d grown up in a land full of stobor and jack-o’-lanterns. That was before he met Bruce Menzies and Armando Cruz. His ex-uncle and the other boy hadn’t killed him yet, but neither had the stobor or Ol’ Ben. He doubted this small child would kill him either.
He crouched down next to the boy. “What kind of animal is this?” he asked.
The boy grinned. “This is my dog, Mbwa. He is a good dog.”
Tasso struggled with the name. “Mbwa. What does that mean?”
The boy laughed. “It means dog. What else would you name your dog? Do you want to pet him?”
Tasso tentatively stretched a hand out and touched the dog on the head. He followed the boy’s example, patting and rubbing the dog. The dog’s tongue lolled out of his head and his tail wagged. Tasso laughed. “Yes. This is a good dog. Thank you for letting me pet your dog.” He stood and glanced about him. A small group of adults had gathered to watch. They didn’t appear hostile. They smiled at him, so he smiled back. “I’m Tasso Menzies. I come from a planet called Saronno. Thank you for letting me visit your planet.”
A man taller than the others said, “You are most welcome, sir. I am Okpara. Please consider our home to be yours. Should you need or want anything, please ask.”
Tasso nodded. “Thank you, Mister Okpara. You’re most hospitable. May I walk along the street and see your shops?”
The man stepped forward. “You may indeed. We are a poor people, with little to interest a rich spaceman like yourself, but we are proud of what we have achieved on Kaduna.” He took Tasso’s arm an
d began pointing out highlights of the town.
Tasso was curious about the dried mud bricks used in every building’s construction. He reached out and touched one of the bricks. They were hard as concrete. Although night had truly set in, the air was still warm from the heat of the day, yet the mud bricks were cool to the touch.
Tasso was startled when Anisa spoke from behind him as she joined him on the sidewalk. “Adobe bricks, that’s almost a lost art back home. The mud doesn’t seem to set quite right. Not the way they say it used to on Earth, or so I’ve been told.”
Okpara nodded. “Your wife is correct, Tasso Menzies. Kaduna bricks are not like other bricks.” He stepped out of the light between buildings.
Anisa grabbed his hand, squeezing it. She gave a slight tug on his arm, trying to pull him back to the vehicle. She was about to speak when Okpara returned with a loose brick. He handed it to Tasso. “See, it is light and strong, but such mud bricks would hold no interest to such a rich man as you.”
Tasso shook his head, “Sir, I’m not a rich man. I’ve spent most of my life living in poverty. Food was barely from hand to mouth. I would’ve considered myself rich to have grown up in a town such as this.”
“How can this be?” the man laughed. “You have two beautiful young wives. It is true they are too short for true Kaduna beauty, but they are beautiful. And you have a private car with a driver to take you where you want to go, and yet another companion with remarkable pale hair.”
Tasso wanted to laugh, but he didn’t want to appear to be laughing at the man. “Mister Okpara, I wish all of that was true. These young ladies are beautiful.” He felt Anisa squeeze his hand tighter. “But, they’re not my wives and the large one isn’t my driver, he’s a friend. All of us are friends here to enjoy your hospitality.”
Okpara smiled. “Ah, but you are young. You may yet gain all I have envisioned for you.”
Tasso did laugh, “I’ll dream of such a thing.” He still held the brick. He hefted it. It weighed much less than it looked. The dried mud block was so light he wondered if it would float. He tapped the brick on the edge of a rock, but it didn’t break, chip, or dent.
