Aces (2 page)

Rick got his
heavy load of luggage loaded into the van, and waited while Manny dragged his
sister
’
s biggest suitcase out the door, bumping it on
every step down the front walk. Manny was doing his best, the suitcase was
tough anyway, and a few scratches wouldn
’
t
hurt.

It was amazing
how much Manny looked like pictures of his father at the same age. Same dark
hair, brown eyes, an arc of freckles across his nose and under his eyes. Not so
amazing really, considering that, when Manny
’
s DNA had
been tweaked to eliminate both Rick
’
s family tendency for
diabetes and Joy
’
s family tendency for heart disease, Rick
and Joy had agreed to select dark hair and brown eyes also. That wasn
’
t anything unusual, or illegal, since both traits were in Rick
’
s baseline DNA. And, truthfully, Rick liked seeing a strong
family resemblance in his son. Kaylee looked like Joy, Scandinavian heritage,
Kaylee
’
s hair was just a shade darker blonde than her
mother
’
s, and slightly curly. He glanced at himself in the
van
’
s window, seeing the dwindling effects of the minor
sunburn he had acquired by working on an archeological dig in the Libyan
desert. The dig had been nothing important, and he had made no significant
discoveries, barely enough to get a paper published. The dig, had, however, let
him add one more line to the ‘field work experience
’
writeup
on the grant application form. True xenoarcheologists, those who specialized in
alien ruins, got their hands dirty, they didn
’
t work in
labs back on Earth. During Rick
’
s one offworld trip to the
planet Sahara, in graduate school, he had been an observer only. In truth, he
had been a gofer for the real archeologists, and he had spent much of his time
keeping the balky life support system of their encampment going.  The
alien ruins on Valhalla, while less extensive than those on Avalon, or Sahara,
appeared to be older, and to have been occupied longer. Rick could hardly wait
to get there, explore alien ruins that no human had ever seen. That no sentient
being had seen in uncounted years.

“Here, Dad.” Manny
dragged the suitcase behind the van. “Think it will fit? I don
’
t
know what Kaylee has in here, it weighs a ton.”

“Manny,” Rick
answered as he hefted the suitcase and made room for it in the back of the van,
“
I don’
t know what
’
s in here, and I
don
’
t want to know. It
’
s women
’
s things. Probably full of shoes. Do you have all your stuff
packed?”

“Yup, Mom helped
me. I
’
ll go get it.”

“We
’
ll
both get it.” Rick reached down and tousled his son
’
s
hair. “Thanks for helping me, that suitcase was really heavy.”

“Somebody has to
help,” Manny said smugly, “we can
’
t all hide in the
bathroom.”

Rick saw an
opening for a father-son talk. “Manny, Kaylee is upset because we
’
re
leaving Earth, leaving everything she
’
s ever known. I
think Valhalla will be a great adventure-“

”Me too, Dad!”
Manny exclaimed with boyish enthusiasm.

“-but it will
take some getting used to. Including the trips out and back, we will be away
from Earth almost six years. That can be tough. I don
’
t
know how I would feel at her age, at your age. I
’
m glad
that you want to go to Valhalla, and I need you to help me with something.”

“What?”

“I need you to
not pick on your sister. It
’
s going to take her a while to
get adjusted to this, and I
’
m depending on you to not make
it worse. Deal?”

Manny shrugged.
Kaylee was a pain, two years older, she acted like she was an adult and Manny
was still a baby crawling on the floor. “Okay, Dad. Unless she picks on me
first.”

Rick sighed. This
could be a long trip. As they walked up the steps, Joy came out, suitcase in each
hand. Manny rushed forward to take one from her, she swung the lighter one out
for him to grab. Rick raised an eyebrow, Joy answered him. “Kaylee
’
s fine, she
’
s packing the rest of her
things.”

“Good. And Manny
and I had a talk, right, Tiger?”

“I guess so.”
Manny said reluctantly, trying to commit to as little as he could get away
with.

Somehow, they got
everything into the van. The children were inside, seat belts buckled,
listening to music or playing video games, on their best behavior for the
moment. Rick looked at all the junk crammed inside the rear of the van, as he
reached for the hatch to close it. “That
’
s it. I hope we
don
’
t exceed our weight limit for the shuttle.” He closed
the hatch.

“Honey, relax.
All this doesn
’
t weigh much, I checked.” Joy responded.

“You ready?” Rick
caressed her upper arm.

“I suppose. Yes.
Yes, I
’
m ready.” Their house had already been sold, Joy
’
s parents were coming over in a few days to make sure the
moving and cleaning crews had done their jobs, and to hand over the keys to the
new owners. The last of their furniture, including the beds, was going into
storage. Joy had been tempted to sell everything, but knew that would signal to
both sets of grandparents that the Sanchez family did not intend to ever return
to Earth. The monthly cost for the storage place in the Nevada desert was well
worth the money, if it kept peace in the family a while longer.

Joy blinked a
sudden tear out of her eye. “I
’
m going to miss this
place.” It wasn
’
t much, a cramped, uninspiring three bedroom
house, attached on one side to another house. Still, it had been home, and they
owned it. Theirs. Rick had repainted it, and added a small porch on the front.
Joy had added flowerboxes under the windows, and landscaped the small front
yard. “Our first home, as a family.”

“Me too.” Rick
said softly. He pulled his wife close and kissed her. “Do you know how lucky I
am, to have found a woman who shares my dreams?”

“We are both
lucky that we share the same dreams. I want this as much as you do. Remember, I
’
m an
exo
biologist. As in, biology on places other than
Earth.” Joy, like Rick, had some minor offworld field experience in her
profession, she had made a trip to Avalon while in grad school. She realized
now, while standing in the driveway of their house in L.A., that trip to Avalon
had made her decide she was moving off Earth at some point. It had been in the
back of her mind all these years, now it was really happening. Rick shared her
desire to be a pioneer, and Manny thought of Valhalla as way cool, in part
because it was one place none of his friends or classmates had been to yet.
Kaylee? Kaylee would adjust. She had adjusted to the move from Chicago, where
Joy and Rick had met while finishing their graduate work.

Rick glanced at
his watch. “We need to get going, or we really will be late.”

“Honey, we have
plenty of time.”

“Not late for the
shuttle, late to meet your parents. And mine.” Both sets of grandparents were
going to be at the spaceport to have lunch and see them off.

They got into the
van, Rick programmed in their destination, and they were halfway down the
driveway, when he slammed on the brakes. “Damn! I almost forgot Professor Radke
’
s package.
” He flung the van
’
s
door open, and ran into the house, returning less than a minute later with a black
metal box the size of a toaster, which he sat on his wife
’
s
lap.

“Honey, what is
this? I
’
ve never seen it before.” She asked skeptically.

“It
’
s
been in the attic, over our bedroom closet. I really don
’
t
know what it is, probably some sort of alien artifact. When Radke heard last
month that I was going to Valhalla, he got all excited, and said he wanted me
to deliver this to some woman named Chaudry on Valhalla. He didn
’
t
say why, but I got the impression he wanted this Chaudry
’
s
opinion or something.”

“Isn
’
t that odd? Why didn
’
t he just transmit a
holo image? The message would get there in a couple weeks.”

Rick shrugged and
backed the van out into the street. “You know Radke, he
’
s
an odd duck. And he
’
s sure not going to confide in me.”
Professor Radke was one of the leaders in the small world of xenoarcheology,
with an ego to match.

Joy held the box
up, and ran her finger along the seal. “Honey, this is weird. I
’
m
not comfortable taking this box with us, if we don
’
t know
what
’
s in it. Why the mystery?”

“
I
don’
t think it
’
s a mystery. Radke didn
’
t tell me what it is, and I didn
’
t ask.”
Radke
’
s support had been critical to Rick getting a grant
to dig in the ruins on Valhalla; Rick wasn
’
t going to
irritate his sponsor by asking questions. Most young exoarcheologists would be
thrilled to have the famous professor Radke ask them for a favor! “I assume it
’
s an alien artifact of some kind; Radke
’
s
most recent work was on Ellios, so it
’
s probably something
from there.”

“Okaaaaay-“

            Which,
Rick knew, meant it was definitely not OK with Joy.
“Uh, then, uh,
how about when we get to Vandenberg, I can turn it over to the transport
company, they
’
ll be responsible for it. That shouldn
’
t cost much.
”

            Joy
considered for a moment, then set the box down next to her feet.
“All
right. I
’
m not happy about this, but it
’
s
too late now.”

Rick took the
opportunity to back the van out of the driveway, before his wife could change
her mind. “This is it, kids, wave goodbye to the old house!”

The
asteroid field was a dangerous place, cluttered with spinning rocks, rocks
which were all swirling around the star in slightly different orbits. The big
rocks affected the orbits of the other rocks, rocks collided and went flying
off in new, unpredictable directions, often to collide with another rock. It
was a bad neighborhood.

Into
the outskirts of the neighborhood, moving cautiously, came a new object, a
small ship. The ship had dropped out of hyperspace far away from the asteroid
field, and fallen silent,  waiting. Waiting, and listening for other
ships, specifically, listening for Navy patrol ships. When the ship
’
s crew was certain their little ship was alone, the ship moved
in toward the asteroids, looking for an area that was relatively stable. Twice,
it backed off rapidly when radar indicated rocks would come uncomfortably
close. On the third try, it moved in close, and remained. On its side, a cargo
bay door slid open, a square of light standing out in the darkness. A pair of
figures wearing environmental suits could be seen inside, working with a bulky
object, moving quickly, efficiently. They attached something to the bulky
object, carried it to the doorway, and launched it away with a gentle push.

The
door then closed, the ship backed away slowly, using only thrusters, leaving
the object hanging in space, spinning ever so slowly against the background of
stars and floating rocks. At a signal from the ship, a light activated aboard
the thing attached to the bulky object. The thing puffed twice, and stopped the
object
’
s spin. The thing was a remote-controlled thruster
unit, the bulky object it attached to was a hyperwave antenna with built-in
powerpack. The thruster unit then went into sleep mode, it would awake only if
its radar detected a rock approaching, if that happened, the thruster would
move the antenna assembly out of the way.

The
antenna was also sleeping, its timer ticking down to when it would come to
life, and send a single brief message. After completing its useful life, the
antenna would instruct the thruster to find a nearby rock, and smash the
antenna into it as hard as it could.

Satisfied,
the crew turned their small ship around and fired its main engines, leaving the
asteroid field behind as rapidly as possible. It would be several hours before
space around the ship was clear enough for a hyperspace Jump, and they were on
a tight schedule, a very tight schedule. The mission had been thrown together
on short notice. Putting all the pieces together, including acquiring the ship,
had been a mad scramble for the people aboard. There was still much work to do,
and lightyears to travel, before their plan could be put into action.

Transport
starship
Atlas Challenger

The parents' plan
worked, for a while.  What Rick and Joy most wanted out of the long voyage
was for Kaylee and Manny to avoid being bored, and driving themselves, and
their parents, crazy.  The spaceplane ride up from Earth, the massive
freighter starship boosting out of Earth orbit and jumping into hyperspace, and
the trip to their first stop at the planet Avalon, were all new and interesting
enough that the children were not bored at all. It helped that there were two
things aboard the ship which occupied much of the children's time and
attention. The first was other young people; the passenger cabins, on the way
to Avalon, were full.  Mostly families, with children, of which more than
a dozen were roughly the same age as the Sanchez children. Kaylee noted, to her
father's dismay, that there were several cute boys aboard the ship.

The
second thing which kept the children occupied, and also was a good place to
meet cute boys, was the Beach. The Beach was a large swimming pool, located
just aft of the passenger cabins, which contained part of the ship
’
s water supply, used for drinking, bathing, and reaction mass
for the normal-space engines. The ship
’
s designers had
enhanced the water tank into an inviting environment that passengers and crew
enjoyed. There was a beach area, with real sand and fake palm trees, a bright
blue holographic sky overhead, a gentle slope down into the water, and waves
pumped out at the far end of the water tank. After a while, you could almost
forget it was all fake.

Kaylee
and Manny quickly found companions for non-schooltime activities. Their
favorite activity was hanging out at the Beach, every chance they could. That
compartment was kept warmer than the rest of the ship, a fact which caused
considerable dispute between Kaylee and her parents. The boring one-piece
bathing suit Rick wanted his daughter to wear at the Beach was
totally
unacceptable, unless her parents wanted her to be a complete
social
outcast
. It was a little girl
’
s bathing suit,
didn
’
t they understand that she was a teenager now? The
bikini she wanted to wear was unacceptable to Rick, which only confirmed to his
daughter that he was
so
old, and
so
out of touch, that he couldn
’
t
possibly
have ever been her age. Rick was shocked to
see that his daughter even owned such a bikini, he remembered what seemed like
a very short time ago when she was so self-conscious, that she always wrapped
herself in a robe, or a towel, at the beaches in California. A compromise was
reached. Joy and Kaylee picked out an alternate two-piece bathing suit from the
ship
’
s limited stores, a swimsuit that was pretty enough
for daughter to wear, and contained enough material for father to grudgingly
agree to.

The
Beach provided Kaylee with an education, an experience she didn
’
t
enjoy. Kaylee had assumed, that, being from Earth, from California, from
Los Angeles
, she was automatically lightyears more cool
and sophisticated that the others, who were all offworld hicks on their way to
an offworld planet. She was wrong. Out in the colony worlds, Earth was viewed
as a source of boring government regulations and taxes, certainly not the
source of anything remotely cool. In fact, Earth was considered somewhat of a
cultural backwater. Kaylee was confronted with this fact when she realized that
the popular singing and video stars she knew of in L.A. were mostly unknown to
the others, whereas she
’
d heard of most of the stars the
offworlders were talking about. To her shock, Kaylee realized that, to the
others,
she
was the unsophisticated hick. One girl, whom Kaylee had
thought of as a potential friend, but who quickly turned out to be snooty, and
a rival for the attentions of the cuter boys, told Kaylee one day, in a
condescending tone “Oh, Kaylee, dear, everybody knows that Earth is
lame
.”

Kaylee,
miserable, started to avoid the Beach after that.

At Avalon, since
the ship was going to be in orbit there for eight days, the Sanchez parents
dipped into their savings, and splurged on a six day excursion to the surface.
It was a whirlwind tour which left Rick and Joy exhausted. Sister and brother
thoroughly enjoyed themselves. After Avalon, where most passengers had left the
ship, all the other children were gone. The only other passengers were an
elderly couple, headed for retirement on Oceania, the ship
’
s
second stop.

“But
why
?
Why can
’
t we go? We won
’
t
cause any trouble, I swear!” Manny protested, for the umpteenth time.

“Manny-“ His
father started to say, before Captain Schroeder interrupted.

Schroeder was
gruff, no-nonsense, had been in command of the
Atlas Challenger
for
nine years now, and the only thing he disliked more than
passengers, was children passengers. He liked order, and discipline, and for
things to be predictable and dependable. Universal Transport Corporation trusted
him with their giant, expensive space freighter because he embodied those
characteristics himself; and children were the opposite. With his short black
hair, steely light-blue eyes and goatee, he looked stern and uncompromising,
and his outer appearance was a true picture of the man inside, at least, the
part of himself he let the world see. “
No passengers
on
the shuttle. Our insurance doesn
’
t allow it.” He said, in
a tone which implied the matter was closed.

Rick quickly
added “Manny, the ship
’
s shuttle isn
’
t
even going to the surface. It
’
s just going across to the
space station over there. Local spaceplanes bring the cargo up and down from
there. We
’
re only stopping here for a day, at the most.
Right, Captain Schroeder?”

“Quite so. Now,
you will excuse me, I have much work to do.” The captain strode off down the
corridor.

“
I
don’
t like him.” Manny said with a frown. “He
’
s
mean.”

Rick shook his
head. “No, Captain Schroeder is simply very, very busy. He is responsible for
this whole ship, and all the cargo, and all the people. Starships are
expensive, Manny, the people who own this ship would be unhappy if anything
went wrong. They trust Captain Schroeder to make sure nothing bad happens. And
to keep us on schedule.”

Manny wasn
’
t entirely mollified. “We went down to the surface on Avalon.”

“Avalon was
different, that trip down was on a scheduled commercial spaceplane, and this
ship stopped at Avalon for over a week. Here, by the time we get over to the
station, transfer to a plane, and fly down, the ship will have left.”

“Still, I wish we
could go down to the surface.” Manny said with a sigh as he slumped against the
viewport. “It looks soooooo cool, Dad.”

“You
’
re right, it does.” Both of the male Sanchezes leaned forward,
pressing their foreheads into the large viewport, leaning forward to look down
at the world slowly rolling by beneath their feet. Oceania, true to its name,
was mostly ocean, no continents to speak of. It was almost entirely blue, the
kind of brilliant, Caribbean blue that looks like something faked up for a
picture, until you see it in person. Chains of large and small islands dotted
the globe, the planet was a beach lover
’
s paradise, which
is exactly what the planetary development company was counting on. The
scattered islands did not make the planet practical for supporting industry, or
a large population, so the company had been promoting the world as a vacation
and retirement destination. Look at all the beautiful beachfront property, the
ads extolled! Only 325 lightyears from Earth! Pre-construction pricing still
available! Truth to tell, both Rick and Joy were tempted to plop down a deposit
on a beachfront lot, supposedly as an investment. Too bad their limited funds
didn
’
t allow such indulgences.

Rick had seen the
pictures, and now he saw it with his own eyes. There was one island directly
below the ship, it had a lush green interior, and was surrounded by a strip of
white that had to be perfect, sandy beaches. Beyond the beach was a ring just
below the surface, Rick assumed it was a sort of coral reef. He sighed without
realizing it. Manny was entirely correct for whining about not going to down to
that paradise. Rick stared and stared at the island, imagining he could feel a
warm, tropical breeze on his skin, imagining his family was there, rather than
stuck aboard a transport, in the coldness of space.

While father and
son watched, feeling the icy cold of hard vacuum bleeding through the viewport
and cooling their foreheads, a sleek spaceplane detached from the space
station, flipped gracefully end over end, and fired its main engines in a
deorbit burn maneuver. When the freighter had left Earth, all twenty passenger
cabins had been full, now the Sanchezes were the only passengers. Most people
had left the ship at the first stop, the planet Avalon, and only one elderly
couple had gotten aboard there for the trip to Oceania, Rick supposed they were
aboard the spaceplane he was watching. The other one of Oceania
’
s
two passenger-carrying spaceplanes had come and gone that morning, all that kept
Atlas Challenger
from breaking orbit was one last load of cargo, which
would soon be aboard. Rick and his son watched the spaceplane, standing side by
side, in silence. Rick thought it was great. All too soon, he figured, his son
would be a sullen teenager, and silence would be the response to anything Rick
said or asked. He wanted to drink in the moment, so he could remember it later,
remember it always. Manny had often talked about being a space pilot. At least,
he had recently. Before that, there had been potential career paths as a pro
football player, a fireman, and, early on, an archeologist, just like his
father.

Eventually the
spaceplane disappeared out of view, falling around the horizon on its long
curving path down to the surface. “Going, going... gone!” Manny said as the
last, bright glint of light from the spaceplane went out of sight.

 “Hey, I
wonder what sort of cargo we
’
re taking aboard here. You
think Ms. Tanner will let us see?” Rick suggested as another distraction. The
children had been remarkably good to date, he was anxious to avoid a meltdown.
Once they departed Oceania, there were no stops until they reached Valhalla,
another month and a half cooped up in the freighter. Six weeks, inside a box in
the bleak coldness of hyperspace.