by M J Gauntlet
Idly stirring his Xhe tea, M’Lak abruptly bolted straight up from his seat, as he looked down on the street below him. There was his target, leaving the little restaurant where he had earlier had lunch with the young attractive bank employee. It was only by the purest of luck (or the will of the Goddess), that M’Lak happened to be looking down on the street and spied his target exiting the bistro, carrying a bottle of wine. Rushing back into the room, he rousted his two companions from their card game and told them to follow him to the street. Once on the boulevard, M’Lak quietly instructed them to follow the man at a discreet distance. It appears that the Goddess was indeed smiling upon him.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Zax began to stir, feeling a gentle breeze like that of the beach besides the ocean. Ocean? He had never been to an ocean. As Zax slowly opened his eyes, the images that greeted him created a state of momentary confusion.
The deep turquoise of Medozian ocean waves, (Zax had seen pictures on a vacation advertisement vid) lapped gently against the purple sand. The “breeze” Zax felt, pushed against what he now realized appeared to be a Torlorian Swingbed, rocking it in a rhythm designed to induce feelings of calm and safety, like that of a baby being rocked by its mother. Lauria was a design genius.
Zax, now fully awake, was feeling sinfully content, as a warm pair of lips nuzzled his neck. Turning, he kissed Lauria on her left cheek (not the cheek he wanted to be kissing), felt her stir and begin to gently nibble on his left ear. Slowly sitting up in the large bed, Zax yawned and stretched his arms out wide, grabbing Lauria up in a hug. He wasn’t sure if he was more tired than sore or vice versa.
Zax, while somewhat of a neophyte to love making, had prided himself on his endurance with Jinn. But he finally had to admit that he just had met his match! With Jinn he had made up for his inexperience with an abundance of enthusiasm, but with Lauria it was like a slow burning fuse, that exploded into a crescendo of mutual satisfaction. Lauria was just as enthralled, and in the end, they both just collapsed into each other’s arms, completely exhausted, but satisfied and drifted off to sleep.
A strange sound had him looking around the room in confusion, before he realized that it came from the odd-looking mechanism which appeared to be nestled in the foliage around the bed. A tiny wooden bird would intermittently, emerge from a little door in time to a rhythmic chime, then proceed to emit an odd sounding ‘choo choo’ and finally disappear back behind the door. When Zax had first noticed it, Lauria laughed and told him that it was a holographic projection of something called a ‘choo-choo clock’. The ‘choo-choo clock’ had only two hands, rather than the four found on traditional Bright timepieces. Lauria said that if it were the real thing, it would be worth a king’s ransom.
Letting go of Lauria and checking the time on his wristcom, he gave a sudden start, kicked his feet over the edge of the bed and headed straight for the fresher. Almost immediately, he heard two bare feet hit the wooden floor and come running right behind him, but she was too late! Zax gained entrance to the fresher just a few scant seconds before Lauria, as he locked the door behind him.
“Come out of there, you, you…brute!” she wailed, at the sealed door.
“Oh, come on,” he answered, grinning on the other side of the doorway, “Isn’t that kinda harsh?”
“Harsh? No, I don’t think so. Just look at the nicks and bruises you have put all over my once smooth, unmarked body.”
“HA! Your body? You should take a gander at mine. I have bruises and nips in places that I didn’t even know I had. YOU seemed to love each and every sexy rough and tumble last night!” Zax laughed in return.
“Ok, ok,” she said, relenting, “let’s call it a draw. But hurry it up will ya? I have a big meeting at the bank this morning and I don’t want to be late. I have been setting up my presentation for a week and I think that it could mean a promotion for me and a big fat raise.”
She heard the fresher cycle, then the door slid open. “There, I’m done. Just had a few bodily functions to take care of,” he said with a grin.
“Eww…to much information there,” she replied, wrinkling her face up. But as she slid past him, she gave him a squeeze on his butt. “Come on handsome, take a shower with me. Just so you can scrub my back, mind you!” Zax ended up scrubbing a little more than her back, as they both reluctantly exited the shower. As they were finishing, Lauria touched the necklace that still hung around Zax’s neck and smiled. “This is lovely,” she said with a sigh, stroking the smooth metal. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s no wonder you never take it off. Even when lovemaking,” she whispered. Zax gave her a sheepish smile, then looked a little embarrassed. “Well… to tell you the truth…I can’t seem to take the darn thing off!”
“Wha…” Lauria began, eyes wide in amazement. “Are you telling me, that you have had that on ever since the day I saw you with it at the bank? Here I was thinking that you were being so sentimental about your mother’s heirloom and the truth is that you have broken the clasp!” she said, laughing out loud.
“It’s not broken, just jammed,” Zax said defensively. “Listen, while you are at your big meeting, I too have some important things that I must do. I think that I have finally made up my mind about my future. I’ll tell you about it when I come back here later today.”
Walking over to Lauria, he looked down into those unique deep violet eyes and couldn’t stop himself from kissing her.
“Er…that is, if I am still welcome,” he added playfully.
“You better come back lover, or I will send Omar out
to find you! I don’t think he would take kindly to someone mistreating his semi-adopted daughter!” With that, she disappeared into the bedroom closet and shut the door. Zax began to look around the living room, attempting to track down his clothes from where they had been carelessly flung the night before. After locating each wayward article of his clothing, he finally got dressed.
Twenty standard minutes later, Zax was dressed and back in the living room sitting on the faux log as Lauria waltzed in wearing a conservative dark grey business suit, accented with deep purple piping along the collar. She began attaching her Obasian pearl earrings, which shimmered with swirling colors of deep blue, violet and purples around the lobes of her ears as she came into the room. Bending down she kissed him long and hard with soft moist lips, painted the color of bay berries, leaving Zax with the taste of Cersoian honey on his lips. After they parted reluctantly, Zax held her hands firmly in his, not letting her go for the moment.
“Lauria, I should wait for you, but I’m in a hurry to get an early start,” he explained, with a tone of excitement in his words. “I want to be at the LAG office before it opens. If it is anything like the office in Centennial City, then the line will begin to form early.”
“The LAG office here in Plex is worse than those anywhere else on the planet. I’m willing to bet, there is a line forming outside the doors right now. Why don’t you go ahead Zax? I must finish downloading a few papers before I leave anyway. I will meet you at the bank for lunch, ok?” Lauria finished saying, as she slowly let go of his hands and began looking for her other shoe.
“Sure thing. I will meet you outside the bank at around 13:00 second noon and we can have lunch at Omar’s, but please, no Grabfish,” he said with a grin. “If I need something to arose me, all I have to do is remember last night!”
“Deal! Don’t worry about me ordering Grabfish. After last night, I don’t think I will be able to even look at one without feeling moist in all of my private places. Most of which you managed to find last night!” Lauria purred, giving Zax such a look of desire, it took every ounce of control for him to leave.
Zax stood up and gave her one last, long, deep kiss and keyed the door panel open. He hesitated a moment, looking at his floater draped over his rucksack. His first inclination was to put both items on his shoulders, but he came to a quick decision.
“Lauria, would you mind if I left my rucksack and floater her
e while I am out? I don’t feel like lugging them around with me all day.”
“Sure hon,” she replied absently, while still looking for her lost shoe. “It’s not as though you won’t be coming back. Besides if you do disappear on me, I will need something for the sniffers to smell so I can track you down and throttle you within an inch of your life for breaking my heart. I should warn you now, I have a black-belt in the ancient art of Tae Kwon Do,” she finished, sporting a wide grin.
Zax chortled and wondered what the hell that was, as he opened the hall closet (that looked like a tree trunk) to place the rucksack and floater inside. Hesitating, on a whim he reached into the sack, removed the oddly sectioned cube, and jammed it into one of his suit pockets. He decided to leave the other items where they were until he came back for them. Closing the tree closet, he felt as though he was symbolically closing the book on a past chapter of his life.
I don’t need to carry all this stuff around like a homeless stiff. Besides, they won’t be with me long anyway, if I’m gonna do what I plan to do today. Zax thought to himself.
Leaving the apartment, Zax began humming to himself as he took the gravlift to the first floor. Exiting the complex, he debated whether to reactivate the image scrambler and finally decided against it. He was through sneaking around and trying to avoid being tracked or seen. He figured that if the police or Imperial agents wanted to keep track of his movements, then fine. He had nothing to hide!
For the first time in his life, Zax felt as though he finally had a handle on his future. The previous night he spent with Lauria solidified his resolve to be rid of the ghosts of the past, that were haunting his present. The man in the holo projection back in the vault, was not the father he had grown up with. That was an earlier version of his father and bore little resemblance to the wreck of a human being, who on all too many occassions, Zax had to reclaim from various Last Town bars, dives, and drug dens over the past twelve or so years. That earlier addition of his father was a clearheaded, clear eyed man that commanded respect. The man that he had later became, only inspired pity. Zax still loved him and his death hurt deeply, but it was time to simply let go.
Before making what he hoped would be a momentous decision, that could be a major turning point in his life, Zax was determined to garner all the facts he could about his chances to make a new life for himself… and Lauria. His first step was to visit the Land Allocation Grant office to find out, if what he planned to do was even possible.
It was half past first sun when Zax arrived at the LAG offices and just as Lauria had predicted, there was already a respectable line of about twenty people waiting at the entrance, even though it was an hour before they were to open. Previously, Zax had paid little attention as to how the Land Allocation Grants functioned. Since his maturity was a couple of years away, he figured that he had plenty of time to learn how it would affect him. Until he had spoken to Lauria, he had no idea such things as land cooperatives even existed. After hearing how they were able to help land grantees like Omar, Zax decided to investigate the possibility that such an association might be able to help him to leverage his recent eunit windfall and his future land grant, into something he could take advantage of in the present.
Zax ended his musings, as the entrance to the offices opened and those in line began to file in. Finding that he was one of the first twenty or so people through the doors, he thought: This isn’t as bad as I imagined. Then, idly glancing behind him, he was startled to see that the queue had grown to stretch out of sight, all the way around the corner. Zax let out a breath of relief, as he felt glad that he decided to arrive early.
Once Zax passed through the doors, he saw that there were twelve to fifteen consoles spaced out around the vast hall. As he passed the information desk, an armed guard guided him to an empty station and told him to enter his name and planetary ID number. The screen flashed and quickly identified him by his name and current address. There was an addendum to his name, cross- referencing the data, linking to with his father’s death. As he continued to read the footnote, it was revealed that he had undergone a status change in the LAG. Something that he didn’t know was possible. Because he was the only offspring of a deceased land titled citizen and he had just entered his twentieth year, he was permitted to enter the LAG before his twenty-fourth maturity date. But because his parent had died under unforeseen circumstances, it would be two years before Zax was eligible. This meant that he would be allowed to submit his name now, for the LAG in two years. Rather than waiting the normal four years.
A colored holographic grid floated above the screen, which showed the current planetary availability of the parcels yet to be allocated. Red squares represented the land that was currently titled, yellow indicated the land that was due to be inserted into the pool within the next two years, green squares showed land that was currently available, and black sections of the map indicated land that was forbidden for citizens to own but were stipend properties.
The top half of the display flashed Zax’s name and the question; “Do you wish your name to be added to the Land Allocation Grant of 5018 u.g.d.?” Looking back down at the grid, he realized that there were several choice properties that were due to be available that year. But before committing himself, he decided to wait and talk it over with Lauria. Her knowledge would give him a much better idea of what options might be available to him now and in two years hence.
Wiping the screen, Zax vacated the booth. He then went over to the co-op boards, to see if any of the myriad of co-ops had any land that was due for release in the next two years. He was surprised to find out, that there were several that had land that was to be placed into the LAG at the same time as his eligibility. The size and types of co-ops were staggering, so he decided to postpone any further investigations until after he had spoken to Lauria at lunch. Looking at the planetary time display on the office wall, Zax was startled to see that he had been here over three hours! But he still had time to travel to Omar’s bistro, have a cup of kaffee and maybe talk to the owner and get his advice, while he waited for Lauria to join him for lunch.
Leaving the LAG offices, Zax decided that there was just one more thing he had to do before making any final decisions. Finding an empty bench along the promenade, Zax took a seat and lowered the shielding sleeve on his wristcom. Looking up the number for the Imperial military base headquarters on Bright, he found the main number and dialed it. A ‘popup’ directory of base contact numbers appeared. Finding the listing for ‘military records’,Zax rang the number. After a few seconds, a calm recorded voice replied.
“We are sorry, but this number does not receive encrypted communications. All calls must be open transmission.” The message was repeated a second time, then the line disconnected. Readjusting the setting on his wristcom, Zax tried again. There was the slight pause, but this time a human voice answered.
“Botany Imperial Base, military records, Sergeant Swoppe speaking. How can I help you?”
“Hello, I was wondering how I could obtain the military records of my father,” Zax asked.
“You would need a written request from the soldier sent to Central Military Headquarters on the Imperial capital city of Trillian. If the individual is deceased, then the request must come from his closest living relative. The average wait time for a reply is six to ten T-months, assuming the request is granted,” the sergeant replied, in a bored monotone voice.
“I see, thank you very much.”
Well, that was that. I don’t know why I suddenly felt the need to know more about my father, but after all that has happed over the past three days, I somehow feel that I owe it to the man on the video cube to know a little more about him. Especially if I’m about to give up on his ‘legacy’. Zax thought as once again he felt a pang of grief. It was not as intense as before, but the hollowness and sense of loss was still fresh.
On an impulse, Zax queried the planetary web for a ‘Rubik Cube’. Under the category of antique toys, a referenced image a
ppeared, identical to the object he had in his pocket. He whistled out loud, when he saw what the current selling price was for the thing. If the toy he held was indeed an ‘original’ and not a copy, it was worth more than double the eunits that was currently in his trust fund. Reactivating the encryption function on his wristcom, he slid the sleeve shield back in place.
Zax reached Omar’s, and after looking around for the boisterous chef and not seeing him, accepted a booth in the back, at the direction of another aproned young man and sat deep in thought as he drank a cup of spiced kaffee. Why am I running around like a blind rock lizard? What am I trying to prove anyway? Would finding out why my father was killed bring him back? Whatever it was that the Special Branch agent was after, Zax was sure that it was of no use to him. What he should do is to go straight to the precinct, hand over everything he had found in the storage box, except for his mother’s necklace and let them sort it out. For the first time in his life he had a decent unit balance, that would allow him to live quite well until his land grant allotment. Hell, there might even be enough to enable Lauria to make a start as an interior decorator. Or, he thought suddenly, if the land that she had already been deeded had usable timber, we might be able to encourage a co-op to invest so we could manage and cut the timber for export or domestic use. It may be on the other side of the world, but that didn’t mean it was inaccessible, especially in this age of contragrav and laser cutters. Zax’s mind spun with possibilities.
If none of those ideas panned out, there was always the notion of starting a mechanic shop, where he could learn to work on real engines for a change. Zax always wanted to be able to work with actual ion and skip drives, instead of cleaning exhaust port nozzles. All it took was a few extra Imperial University drive classes (which he could now easily pay for) and he was sure he would be able to master their construction and repair. So, why am I looking over my shoulder and slinking around with image scramblers trying to avoid surveillance? Why am I beating my head against a wall? Zax asked himself.
