I swallowed a motion sickness pill as instructed by the monitor.
A minute later, a high-pitched voice came in my ear. “We are about to jump to the Gordon system. If you feel like throwing up after the jump, remember to put your lips around the large tube in front of your face. Otherwise, your barf will fill up your vision and you’ll smell it for hours. It stings the eyes too.”
We coasted through the large black opening. I gritted my teeth and swore to myself I would not upchuck.
We approached a large black hole and soon passed into it. Dizziness hit me for a few seconds afterward but I avoided vomiting.
#
We arrived at the Gordon Jump Gate at the L-4 Lagrange Point ahead of the planet Fumar. At least, that’s what my monitor told me.
Then our small ship accelerated once again to the midpoint in the Gordon System as we raced to Rossa. This time the pressure on my backside seemed less. Maybe I was getting used to it.
At the midpoint, the engines cut off, we flipped, and then the engines engaged to slow us down to approach the Meda Space Elevator.
I got bored waiting for the trip to end. But spies do a lot of waiting. I’d have to get used to this.
On my monitor, I could see an animation of the other space elevator on the island of Molina, on the other side of the planet. The one at Meda extended like an umbilical cord out from the planet.
My fast ship came to a full stop at the top of the Meda Space Elevator.
A robot floated by me and then went out of my range of vision. I felt a coolness behind my left knee. From the cartoon on the monitor, I realized I had just received an injection of sedative.
In seconds, I felt my muscles relax.
Then my seat angled and I found myself standing. It didn’t feel any different because I was weightless. My cage moved to the end of one arm of a centrifuge with my head pointed outward. I could see the three others traveling with me in similar cages around the centrifuge, each ninety degrees separated from the next one, like the four spokes of a wheel.
A black shield came over my head. In seconds, I moved around the track. The fluid drained from my feet, then my waist, and finally my face. I had no choice but to cough as fluid drained from my lungs. My head and shoulders pressed against restraints.
A female voice said in my ear, “Don’t fret. You can't drown. We've done this hundreds of times and every person came out just fine. You’re going to be all right. We have to get that fluid out of your lungs. Cough as many times as you can.”
So I coughed. Real hard too. Between coughs, air rushed into my lungs. The whole “undrowning” experience took close to sixty seconds while I coughed. I also experienced a headache. That minute was a long time. Surely it was more than sixty seconds.
Then my cage slowed in its journey and when it came to a stop, my arms floated in front of me. I was in weightlessness again.
Two robot hands helped me get out of my cage.
“You gonna make it?” asked one bot. He had oriented himself in my direction so I could see his face.
I had no choice so I nodded.
The bot loosened the flaps around my head cap and pulled it upward over my face.
That’s when I saw the bot was male, sporting a black moustache. That’s also when I noticed he had no lower body. Robots don’t always need full bodies.
He remained opposite my face and pointed to a door.
“You can get dressed in there. We brought along your clothes. It may help if you put your feet in the loops on the floor.”
He pointed to an adjacent room. “Some folks prefer to take a shower before getting dressed.”
Sounded like a good idea.
“I’m sweaty.”
My voice sounded normal.
I thought of asking the bot if it had ever traveled this way but decided against it. After all, robots didn’t need to breathe.
One male bot helped me get out of my rubber suit while I focused on more coughing.
After stripping off the rubber suit, I used the handrails to float naked to the shower. Beige walls were all I could see except the black rails that glowed on the wall side.
Must make it easier for travelers to find, even if they had vision problems.
Chapter 12
Once I got inside the shower, I straightened up and closed the sliding door. I slipped my feet into the loops on the floor and gripped the bars. Fortunately, the walls of the shower were all I could see.
Thank god for the handrails.
Warm water sprayed from the walls and flowed to the top and bottom of the shower where it drained. That’s when I figured my body rotated around my midsection.
After enjoying the warm water long enough, I pressed the large red button marked “Water Off” and the water ceased flowing from the walls. In seconds the water drained away at my feet and above my head. I held onto rungs as the shower room slowed in its rotation.
The shower stopped spinning and dry but warm air blew from two dozen nozzles in the walls. I moved my body to take advantage of the blowing air to dry off. When I felt dry enough, I pressed the same button, now showing “Air Off.” The air blast stopped.
The door clicked and opened.
I used the available bars on the wall to pull myself forward to follow the arrow on the wall to a “Change Room” by using the black handrails.
I slid open the door by bracing one hand on the wall.
Once inside the small room, I slipped my feet into the loops on the floor and opened the locker to my clothes. Getting dressed in weightlessness was a challenge. It taught me how much I was used to gravity. The tightness of the booth helped as I pressed on its walls to put on the same underwear, suit, and shoes I had removed back on Earth.
I floated out the door and followed the yellow arrows marked “Waiting room this way.”
There I joined two male fast-travel companions. Later, a female joined us. I wondered if the human female was attended by so-called female bots. Probably was. Then again I thought maybe the bots changed gender. It wouldn’t take much to change from male to female. A different pitch to the voice. Removal of any facial hair. Lengthening of the hair on top of the head. And of course, changing contours of the robot body.
We joined dozens of others in the hallway and floated to seats in a small cab. We buckled in for another trip of an hour to the surface of Rossa. Wasn’t easy getting positioned in the seat as I was weightless.
It took another two hours to get down to the surface of the planet.
As we descended, we gained weight. Once we got down, two doors opened and we got out of our seats. I weighed more than I did on Earth and was glad of my extra Binger muscles. Adjusting to the fifteen percent higher gravity of Rossa would be easier for me. I watched several of my travel companions as they grimaced while getting out of their seats.
Warm air hit my body as I walked in the terminal at Meda.
The overhead monitor on the way out of the terminal reported an outside temperature of one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. From my experience, I knew that was cool on Meda. I removed my jacket and went through the revolving glass door to step into a blast of scorching air.
I’d have to remember it was summer here and summers can be scorching on Meda. Nonetheless, it felt good to be back home. I enjoyed walking after sitting for so many hours.
I followed the overhead signs to the food areas. There I grabbed a deluxe chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and a thin slice of cheese. I drank water from a plastic bottle.
Then I boarded a five-level passenger plane. My seat was behind the wings on the window side. One again, I was glad I traveled in Business Class where I had more room for my taller body.
We took five hours to make the sub-orbital flight to the Zor-Franken Airport. I watched the spy movie Come Back. During the movie, dinner came of roasted chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and mixed fruit. I chose water instead of the white wine. When I finished with my meal, I ended the first movie and chose another one, Thermite
Brief.
This was my third trip to the planet. My first occurred when I was a child. My second was when I emigrated from the badlands of Los Angeles in my twenties.
And now I was home again.
#
York had a population of two million now. Most of the people lived in cities and small towns, surrounded by fences to keep the wildlife out, including screechies, greepers, and gofers. They couldn’t prevent the four-wingers from flying over the fences and it was “open season” on the damned birds, who were known to carry off a small child.
I watched the overhead signs and made my way to the trains. Not having any luggage to pull behind me, I was able to get to the track for the next train. As the train slowed to a stop in front of me and its doors slid open, I stepped inside one car. As I walked the aisle to find a seat, I noticed the air conditioning so I put my jacket back on before sitting.
The walls of the train showed lots of advertisements but what caught my eyes the most was an ad for a rifle. In the background was a gofer, a wild cat-like critter with six legs. Gofers got their name from the fact they would “go for” almost any prey. Including humans. I recalled my time in the wilds of Rossa as a runaway slave. I’d rather face a pack of greepers than one gofer. Gofers were smarter and faster.
Greepers were large too and had six legs. The animal they most closely resembled on old Earth was the bear. But greepers usually outweighed bears by half again as much.
The ad claimed their rifle would stop a gofer dead in its tracks.
Right.
Another ad touted a fence that would keep screechies off your property.
Screechies walked on two legs and used their upper four arms for eating. They looked like velociraptors, but their bodies were covered with fur rather than feathers. Most of the time their fur was light brown to match the wild grasses that grew in the northern hemisphere of Rossa. But if they lived on terrain of rocks and sand, they had mottled colors of medium and light brown.
Screechies could be on almost every continent but were usually found in the more temperate regions. The damned critters got their name from the screams they let out to paralyze their prey with fear.
They didn’t do so well in the tropics, maybe because of their fur, but they thrived in the artic where their fur helped keep them warm. Where screechies roamed free, human children and pets were kept inside. Farm animals needed to be kept inside electrified fences. Most fences had two rows with a gap between them where vehicles could drive. The outer fences were topped with razor wire. The inner fences were electrified upon contact and were more expensive to operate. So the electricity was turned on only when satellites revealed the nearby presence of large native wildlife. Or the freaking screechies.
Occasionally a fence inspector would find the blood and fur of a screechie. The damned critters were carnivorous and would eat their own kind if hungry enough.
Come to think about it, so do human animals.
Several movies showed humans in the wildlands as they ran from packs of screechies.
Another ad showed a bopum steak. Looked darn good too. But I knew from experience that bopum meat was hard to chew.
The six-legged bopums were big and from a distance were easily confused with cattle from Earth. There the similarity ended. Native to Braco, an island in the southern hemisphere, they were imported into York. A few got wild but then nothing was heard of them. Maybe the gofers got ‘em.
Years ago, packs of almost a thousand bopums could be found on Braco. The biggest fear was spooking a pack into stampeding. They crushed cars and trucks as hundreds of the huge beasts stomped their way forward, with the adult males weighing close to two tons.
I scanned the other passengers but most napped or had their heads down. Getting used to the fifteen percent higher gravity of Rossa might take a couple months for some newcomers.
Chapter 13
The trip from the airport to Grand Central Station was over soon.
The station was air conditioned, but as soon as I walked out onto the street, the hot air hit me again, along with the glare of Gordon, so I removed my jacket. I turned right and headed on foot north to South Central Avenue, away from the ops center. Thank heavens the walls of the buildings provided shade. That made only a ten degree difference but it helped.
When I got to First Street, I turned around and walked back to Main. Several times I stopped in front of a store to look behind me to check for any tails. Twice I reversed my direction and walked in the center of the crowd, checking to see any familiar faces who might be tailing me. I made sure to see the face of anyone who avoided my gaze.
I walked around the block and then headed south on Main Street. Satisfied I had no tails, I strode to Bagel Joe’s Deli. There I ordered my favorite, a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. And an iced tea.
I chose a crowded section of the deli. At least I enjoyed the air conditioning and wondered if many of the patrons stayed here instead of going outside. At the table, I sat sandwiched between a family on one side talking about the local high school baseball team and two women chatting of their experiences shopping at the Franken Mall. I chose a spot where anyone following me would have to sit far away.
I hoped Vincent had read Acorn’s message. With my hand covering my mouth, I tagged Vincent using one of the secure lines from Zetto.
“Mike Shapeck here. I’m at Bagel Joe’s. Are you at the center?”
“Yep. Looking forward to meeting you.”
“I’ll come to the center. Should be there in ten minutes.”
I disconnected so the conversation would be hard to trace.
So he had received Acorn’s message. Good.
Vincent was my computer hacker extraordinaire. He was also an entrepreneur and owned a thriving business in artificial body parts. He married my ex-wife Leanna after she caught me making out with another woman. It was an undercover job but Lee wouldn’t believe it. So she filed for a divorce. Three years later she married Vincent.
He was an inch taller than me and a full-Binger. After my rebuilding, I was now a full one too.
Gotta remember that.
I looked around at the other patrons of Bagel Joe’s. Two tables held families with drooped shoulders and long faces. Must be new arrivals. It takes a month or two to develop muscles for walking in our heavier gravity.
Both overhead tellies in Bagel Joe’s showed the same scene of fires on Braco. Braco was an island in the southern hemisphere a few thousand miles south and west of York. Its residents were citizens of York and had representatives in the York Parliament.
As I chewed on my bagel and drank my cool tea, I watched the news. The scene changed to an aerial view of the fires. Lots of smoke filled the air. On the ground, firefighters in their yellow coveralls sprayed water from tanks on trucks, while overhead a plane dumped its cargo of blue fire retardant.
Then the scene switched to the view from a bopum ranch as five ranch hands peered in the same direction.
The voice-over said, “One of the greatest fears on bopum ranches is a fire. Because a fire usually was accompanied by thousands of chiluns. These six-legged mice were kinda cute, when viewed one at a time. Trouble was, they ran in packs, called squalls, sometimes numbering in the thousands. Whenever there was a chilun squall rampage, all bets were off.
“Chiluns currently lived only on Braco. So those living elsewhere on Rossa were spared such a stampede.”
The view shifted to an aerial view of Braco, then zoomed in on the town of Campbell and then to the smoke and fires fifteen miles south of there.
I gulped. I had been in Campbell five years ago.
“We take you to a bopum ranch that has been ravaged by a squall.”
Next came a barren ranch. Gone were the wooden structures of the house and the barn. Everything that could be eaten by the hungry chiluns was gone. As the camera panned what was left of the insides of the barn, bones lay in piles. Viewers could easily imagine a live bopum from their chest bones. Most of the
rib bones lay on the ground, but a few stood upright. Must have been eaten while standing.
The view switched back to the ranch hands, each holding a fiery torch and staring in the same direction. The camera panned to view wagons spewing flames from their tops, just outside the wire fence surrounding the house, barn, and garden. Gas flame from a white storage tank on each wagon flared in the daylight.
The reporter added, “Local ranchers used fire to direct a stampeding chilun squall away from the house and barn.”
A message flashed across the bottom of the screen telling viewers where to donate funds to help those poor ranchers.
The reporter added, “We can expect food prices to go up in the coming year. Not only the price of meats but vegetables as well.”
As I chewed the last of my bagel, I shook my head.
I’m glad I don’t live on Braco.
After I finished my bagel and tea, I walked out to Main, crossed the street, and entered the Marino Office Suites. There I chose the stairway and walked down to the basement, my heart pounding in my chest as I approached the operations center.
This is it. Except for Acorn, this was my first encounter in my new body with someone I knew before.
Chapter 14
I entered the password on the keypad, knowing full well the camera would not recognize my new body. Entering the password was my way of announcing myself. The door did not click, so I knocked.
A minute later, I heard Zetto’s voice from the speaker, “Who is it?”
I mustered the courage to spout the old name. ‘Twasn’t hard. I was still getting used to my new name. “Jake Dani.”
“Sorry. He’s dead and you don’t look like him.”
“I can explain. But it will seem fantastic so I’d like to do it in front of the whole team. That means Andy, Vincent, Gancha, and you.”
Zetto replied, “Ron’s not here. Had to work this shift.”
“We both know Ron is not coming. Ever. He died when I did.”
Zetto added, “Are you telling me you’re a ghost? I don’t believe it.”
Rebuilt: A Jake Dani/Mike Shapeck Novel (Jake Dani / Mike Shapeck) Page 5
