April 2: Down to Earth

by Mackey Chandler

  "If you are sure. I don't want you getting yourself killed doing something crazy for me."

  "It will be an adventure," Papa-san assured her with a smile.

  * * *

  They anchored in Neiafu Harbor after sinking the ship's Browning and Gunny's weapons in a weighed chest they could recover later. Otherwise customs would hold them until their departure and sometimes they held them a little too tightly. April decided to loan her pistol to Papa-san for boat security and passed control to him. She also didn't want it to be an issue with customs.

  They saw two shuttles climb into the sky as they neared the main island. After they were anchored, they saw one on approach from the west.

  Papa-san ran up a Q-flag, a solid yellow square that informed them the ship had not checked in for health and customs and waited.

  The two officials who came aboard didn't search the ship. They were invited to sit at the table and offered refreshments. They inquired after fresh fruits and vegetables and shell eggs. They had used all of theirs, so that was no problem. They had no firearms aboard to surrender. If they knew what the public eye was, April had back on they ignored it.

  Papa-san paid a bewildering array of fees and taxes. He even had to pay for trash disposal up front. There was a fee to certify they were not bringing any disease in. A fee for mooring. visa fees and fees associated with entering this particular sub-set of islands. If the boat has been two meters longer they would have been higher yet. April could see keeping a nice boat was expensive. Since she had no passport, April was given a stamped sheet to keep with her spacer's papers. Tonga customs was very familiar with citizens of Home. Just not in the harbor usually.

  The next morning they had time for breakfast ashore, before April and Gunny headed to the spaceport. A stranger walked up and handed Papa-san an envelope while they were eating. He said a few words very quietly and made a low bow. Papa-san just thanked him and the fellow left without hesitation.

  "I was able to retrieve your bank accounts as I promised some time ago," Papa-san reminded Gunny. "I thank you for not asking constantly about it, because once I set it in motion, there were no updates as to what was happening. I think you will find everything was recovered smoothly." He handed him the envelope and Gunny paid him the compliment of just tucking it away with his thanks and not opening it.

  When the meal was done a taxi was called and there was hand shaking all around. April hugged everyone. Somehow she felt like she was abandoning them. Gunny looked pretty stunned when he climbed in the cab. He finally did open the envelope and found a deposit slip, a credit card and a couple thousand in mixed USNA notes and EuroMarks.

  Boarding wasn't complicated. Gunny presented ID at the gate and April had a voucher. Once they saw the voucher they didn't even ask for ID. Anybody could use a voucher. It was like cash.

  They had two of four seats, on a direct Mitsubishi shuttle that was mostly a freight hauler. They were the only two passengers and they were assigned the two center seats, likely to best balance the mass. April wasn't surprised to see there were a couple UPS bags and two big coolers with red HOT labels, strapped in the two empty seats. It could be medical, or it might be live lobsters. That meant they could not use the two small ports to look out during lift. The deck was offset below a round hatch, instead of a rectangular door. Below the flat deck had to be a freight hold. The overhead was flat too and low. Little cubic was wasted. The entry and airlock was in front of Gunny's side . The head was in front of April's side.

  When the flight crew came on it was two lovely ladies. They said hi briefly, passing through to the flight deck and took their seats immediately starting a long preflight. Most of it was nonsense, if you didn't know the terminology. "Terminal TVA set on manual VR with auto GBA override, check," was Greek to April even. She wasn't ground to orbit qualified. But they left the feed on, if you wanted to listen in and didn't dog the hatch closed to their section so you could hear them faintly, even without the radio channel.

  They reached a point where they gave an OK to their carrier aircraft and then the activity shifted to him. He had clearance to taxi and rolled in seconds, a slow waddling motion, as he taxied on electric wheel motors. They stopped again and after another clearance he started his flight engines. It was only ten seconds or so, until they were gently pushed in their seats and they rolled down the runway. It was a twenty minute climb and several transitions, until there was a thump and their own engines fired.

  "Be damned, it worked again," their pilot marveled. "See you Wednesday, Todd." She told the departing carrier. He reply was an unintelligible crackle.

  The push this time had more authority. It eased on and April looked over to make sure Gunny didn't have an arm hanging out or doing anything else to get in trouble. He was following all the instructions the flight crew had read them. When the acceleration eased off the crew reminded the passengers where the barf bags were. Gunny didn't seem distressed.

  "It does feel a little weird when you turn your head," he admitted.

  "Final maneuvers to match Mitsubishi 3, in about thirty minutes," their copilot informed them. "Please be in your seat if you are not using the head. I recommend you loosen your belts, but leave them latched."

  The pilot reappeared and hung by one hand from the side of April's couch. "Are you by any chance the Miss Lewis associated with Lewis Couriers?" she inquired.

  "I'm the owner," April admitted. A fact she still had to internalize completely.

  "Is there any possibility you folks will be running shuttles in the future?" she asked. "I'd much rather be space based, doing turn-arounds to Earth ports, than the other way around."

  "We are an operating company you know. But the fact is I've been telling the fellow that owns our hulls and the two who have been doing most of our design work, that we can't keep depending on Earthies for our lift and lander capabilities. How fast that is going to happen I can't promise, but my number is open listed on station com, if you want to send me a resume. Would you have any objection to doing lifts to the Moon or beyond?"

  "Object? You have to tie me up, to keep me from going," she laughed. "Thank you, my resume will be in your inbox late Wednesday," she promised. "I'm Kaihau Laulu." They touched hands and Kaihau went back in the flight deck slick as a fish in the zero G.

  "Moon or beyond?" Gunny asked, surprised and interested.

  "Did you think we just aspired to run the equivalent of an orbital taxi stand?" April asked amused. "There's a lot of stuff going on we never talked about."

  Chapter 44

  The Home Again had its shake down run to New Las Vegas a week ago. A couple of the circuits checked two out of three redundancies, but nothing vital. She flew OK. They would trace down the bad third circuits soon and get the coffee maker installed.

  Today was a quick run to ISSII, with UPS and some transfer freight. They ran no passengers and unpressurized, because Jeff had a half dozen stealth satellites to place in orbits. They did a lot of these placements for the militia, as the fab shops cranked out regular monthly orders, dumb rods and better weapons with a charge, that would loiter and wait for a signal. They did it cheap in self interest.

  These seemed to be a new model, about the size of a twenty liter plastic pickle bucket. They had a bigger heat shield than usual, but that was no concern of theirs. They just eased it out the lock, when they had the orbital parameters right.

  There was a lot of stealthed stuff at certain levels. Everybody tried to keep it out of the approaches with a lot of traffic. Eventually somebody would run into one of them, but you could hardly put a beacon on it, or they'd get cataloged if not actually swept up.

  Epilogue

  Colonel Feldman discarded his light weight uniform and was in black tactical underneath. It was not any uniform, it was civilian supply and had no rank markings or unit badges. It only had the plus sign of the Patriot Party embroidered in low contrast, where collar tabs would go.

  He had two lieutenants of his command with him, dr
essed identically. The guards at the tunnel from the executive building, had passed them through the tunnel to the White House without a word. When the elevator came down their inside man from the kitchen was identically dressed, his work clothes in a small pile in the corner. The big gym bag he had was already open and he'd laid out armor on the floor for them in each corner,, so they had room to put it on as the elevator rose.

  After they strapped on the vest they put on ballistic goggles. Helmets were just too bulky to smuggle in. Last on the bottom of the pile was a machine pistol and a web belt with a generous supply of extra magazines. They were even thoughtfully adjusted to their waist size, to avoid wasting time making them fit.

  Someone had the foresight to not allow the convenience of an elevator going from the lower level bunkers, up past the Executive Office tunnel and connecting the Capital tunnel all the way to the Private Residence. That was OK, they had another conspirator waiting in the first floor of the White House, to call the other elevator down, just as they arrived from below and they'd hustle the four meters down the hall and switch elevators.

  "You know this isn't a capture mission," Feldman reminded them. "I don't care if the bitch has her hands in the air, offering no resistance. We shoot Wiggen and scoot. The same for any witnesses. I want to be back in the executive tunnel in six minutes and in Maryland before midnight. We will all be at our duty stations and this crap," he said hefting his weapon, "will be on the bottom the Chesapeake when we wake up in the morning, to news of a coup. Remember to be surprised." He stopped lecturing and said a silent prayer.

  The elevator came to a stop and they bent their knees ready to rush out the door. The door didn't open. There was no button to open it. There were no controls inside the car at all. Thad in the back corner had a fireman's door opener and he passed it forward to Feldman without a word. When the stainless door was wrenched back, it was a blank concrete wall facing them.

  "Third floor, appliances, housewares, linens and domestic necessities," a voice from the ceiling couldn't resist mocking them. "Or were you gentleman looking for something else?"

  When they said nothing he continued. "Colonel Feldman, you will find the gap to the wall is sufficient to allow you to discard your weapons into the elevator shaft. Once we have seen you follow those instructions, we'll drop you back to the tunnel level and you will be taken into custody. I should explain you can expect no rescue. You are four, of about eight hundred Party members already arrested tonight. Or not, as some have insisted on resisting. You have been allowed to play out your conspiracy fully, so there is no question of intent or entrapment."

  Feldman jerked like he'd been slapped when he heard his name.

  "Shit," Lieutenant Moore said. He pressed his machine pistol against the concrete and took his hand away. It was over four seconds before they heard the clatter of it echo up the shaft.

  Feldman stared at him unbelieving for a moment, then fired a burst across his hips without a word. The action clattering, the impacts of the bullets and brass bouncing off the walls were louder than the muzzle. Moore was thrown back into the corner, a shocked look on his face.

  "OK Einstein, add one more murder, to the laundry list of charges waiting for you. Fact is you don't get to surrender until you do the same as he did." The speaker said.

  Feldman looked around the ceiling and there were two dark plastic hemispheres in opposite corners. He raised his weapon and destroyed both cameras.

  "Well you can't fix stupid can you? I can't see, to know if you've dropped your weapons now. Given your attitude it would endanger my people to try to take you alive. I can drop your weapons down the shaft, but unfortunately you are going with them."

  There was a metallic clack as the car came uncoupled from the cables. It wasn't really a zero G fall. The rails afforded some resistance, but the concrete shaft was a blur in the open door before they hit.

  END

  © 2012 M. Chandler

  The Last Part - Other Kindle Books and Links by Mackey Chandler

  April (first in series)

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0077EOE2C

  April is an exceptional young lady and something of a snoop. She finds herself involved with intrigues that stretch her abilities after a chance run in with a spy. There is a terrible danger she and her friends and family will lose the only home she has ever known in orbit and be forced to live on the slum ball below. It's more than a teen should have to deal with. Fortunately she has a lot of smart friends and allies. It's a good thing because things get very rough and dicey.

  The Middle of Nowhere (third in series)

  http://www.amazon.com/The-Middle-Nowhere-April-ebook/dp/B00B1JJ7RQ

  April returns home from her trip down to Earth, unhappy with what she accomplished. Papa-san Santos is finishing her rescue of the Lieutenants, Her traitorous brother is dead and so many things are uncertain. The Chinese and North Americans both continue to give her and Home a hard time. But April, Jeff and Heather are gathering allies and power. China, trying to steal Singh technology, gets its hand slapped badly by Jeff and the Patriot Party in America is damaged, but not gone. Their project on the moon is not so easy for North America to shut down, especially with the Russians helping. Heather proves able to defend it forcefully. They really didn't know she owns a cannon. The three have their own bank now, Home is growing and April is quickly growing up into a formidable young woman, worthy of her partners.

  Paper or Plastic?

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RCLW68

  Roger was medically discharged after his service in the Pan Arabic Protectorate, cutting off his chosen career path early. He is living in rural Sitra Falls, Oregon trying to deal with hyper-vigilance and ease back into civilian life.

  When an unusual looking young woman enters his favorite breakfast place he befriends her. Little does he know he'll kill for her before lunch and start an adventure that will take him around the world and off planet.

  When you have every sort of alphabet agency human and alien hunting for you survival is the hard part. But you might as well get rich too.

  Family Law

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006GQSZVS

  You know people who love their dogs. They put them in their will. They forgo vacations to stay home and take care of them.

  Can a dog love back or is it simple self interest? Affection or love? Unconditional or a meal-ticket? What if you dog could talk back? Would your dog be less lovable if he could tell you what he thinks like your spouse? If he complained his kibbles were dry and boring would your affection wear thin? I don't want to touch on what a cat might tell you...

  Is the dog part of your family or property? Who should decide that for you? How much more complicated will it be if we meet really intelligent species not human?

  Humans don't have a very good history of defending the interests of others. Even variations of their own species. How will they treat 'people' in feathers or fur? Perhaps a more difficult question is: How will they treat us? Usually the people who answer these sort of questions have no desire to be on the pointy end of things. They are just minding their own business and it is thrust upon them. This story explores those questions

  Common Ground and Other Stories

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050YYVHY

  A book size collection of seven short stories by Mackey Chandler.

  Link to full list of current releases on Amazon:

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004RZUOS2

  Mac's Writing Blog: http://www.mackeychandler.com

 

 

 
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