Romany Galactica
~ Part 2 of 4
By
Len Morgan
“Who was that?” She asked via remote
comms link.
He
touched the ‘comms’ button behind his left ear, and thought Anju Drax,
'the one I drink to forget'.
“That
bad huh?”
Sympathy, he thought.
“Empathy,”
she said.
I’ve ordered a full refit; just tell them what is needed.
“Gee
Thanks. It’s not as if the money will come out of your own pocket, it’s
already been set aside for the purpose. To be honest, I didn’t think you
heard what I said about this maintenance. Anyway, they’ve already
started work, we’ll be ready to leave in about three days.”
Where
the welfare of the ship is concerned I won’t cut corners, he thought. And, it will
take up a huge chunk of the 50% they want us to spend on this rock.
“Now
that’s the Bonzo we know and love...”
"Boz... Bono!” he said.
“Huh!”
She laughed, and he felt the tickle behind his ear.
"One
to me, I think. Watch out for that dame Sonny, she's toxic.”
.-...-.
Sonny
dined with a consortium of Casino owners. He wore a self-satisfied
smile as he headed back towards the ship, having coaxed more credits from them
than he would have hoped for. His biggest problem, as he saw it,
was deciding how he would spend their money and what outward-bound cargo would
yield the highest return. That was when the feeling came over
him. He was being followed. He paused imperceptibly, to glance at
the reflections from convenient surfaces, checking and rechecking.
When he stopped to read a menu outside the celebrated Ramsay hotel, he was
certain.
There
was a mirrored sign:
We
create authentic dishes in the tradition of our celebrated twenty-first-century
founder, Chef Ramsay.
Today’s Special:
Cheese Burgers & French,
Chinese pot noodle,
Sticky tofu pudding,
Vintage diet coke.
Would patrons kindly refrain from expressing profanity on these premised, show
a little decorum, and respect for his genius.
He saw the figure watching him from across the street. Their eyes
met. The figure walked a further twenty yards then turned towards
him and beckoned. He turned and looked directly at her.
She was thirty-something, sporting blond shoulder-length hair and wide green
eyes with a ‘come-hither’ gleam. He was immediately on his guard.
As a drunk, he’d been rolled for change in more cities than he could name.
“If
you follow, her partner will sap you from behind,” Cher
warned.
He
pressed his comms button. What are you doing?
Get out of my head...
“Gotta protect my interests,” she
said, “it took me forever to break you in, don’t want to start over again
just yet.”
Is
that how you think of me, as a spare part on the ship?
“Well,
not a very efficient part but yes. On reflection, go get yourself killed!
I couldn’t do much worse.”
A hand appeared out of nowhere and yanked him into the alley. It was the
blond but she was alone.
“Hope
I didn’t startle you," she said, "You’ve been standing there looking into space for
three minutes, drawing attention to yourself. This ‘privy-bubble’
only has a life of ten minutes, any more and the security police will get a fix
on it. Don’t talk," she said, "just listen."
He
touched his comms button but there was nothing; he felt naked without Cher's presence. “Who are you and what do you want?”
“My
name is Elise, my father is President John Price. This planet
was Terraformed a hundred and ninety-eight years ago. Dad was
elected president for life, but his term ends in about two months when his
second synthetic body is expected to expire.” Sonny’s face held a
blank ‘so what’ expression.
“Our
synths live for fifty years, and we are only allowed two, incarnations.”
“Is
that my problem?” he asked.
“Shut
up and listen! It made sense initially, encouraging the return to natural
birth after centuries of synthesis. Most of the colonists became
irradiated during their journey, and many were sterile.”
“Now
times have changed but the old tradition lingers."
"Why
doesn’t Daddy just change the rules, that’s his job, isn’t it?
What’s the point in having power if you don’t use it?”
“It’s
not that simple, we need a referendum from the whole populace. We are
just shy of the two-thirds majority required to call it but, the
opposition is blocking.”
“I
appreciate the history lesson but I’m just a stranger passing through, what do
you expect me to do about it? It’s your planet, Elise.”
“You’ve
ordered fifty-six virgin synth bodies with blank Crystal Memory cubes.”
“Not
me,” he answered.
“On
the outer fringes of this system, in the asteroid belt, they will be worth
three times what they cost here. You can add a couple of zero’s to
that by returning with a cargo of refined deutridium, you won’t even need to
leave this system.”
“I
thought synthetic deutridium was cheaper?”
“It
is, but something in the sunlight of this system causes it to age prematurely,
we are forced to use the natural ore,” she said.
“There has to be a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”
“My
father has a following off-world. He plans to leave and set up a
government in absentia, to effect the necessary legislation.”
“You
want me to get him out? I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Think
on it! Events have a way of changing minds.”
“Are
you threatening me?” There was a fluid squish that squeezed his
body, his ears popped and she was gone.
“Sonny, you crazy sonovabitch, I told you not to follow her...”
“S’allright,
nothing happened. He
replayed the five minutes of conversation in his mind for her. I
don’t recall ordering a cargo of Synths...
“Don’t accuse me,” she said, “they arrived shortly
after I discovered the ‘Import Tax’ clause in your sales contract with the
Casino consortium.”
Tax?
“S.O.B.
You didn’t even read the contracts before you signed them?”
That’s
your department.
“Then
try not to negotiate in a privy-bubble next time. If we conserve
fuel on the return trip we may just break even,” she said.
Shit!
"Yea,
come on home Sonny."
.-...-.
“We’ll
have to cancel the refit to pay for those synth’s.”
“They’re
already paid for.”
“By
who?” He asked.
She
said nothing, and the silence lingered.
“You
know you get nothin fer nothin,” He said.
“The
agreement is we deliver the synths and pocket the profit, no questions asked.”
“Plain
sailing? There has to be an angle in it somewhere.”
“We’ll
have a passenger when we leave.”
“And,
where will he bunk? Don’t tell me--”
“In
your cabin Sonny.”
“So,
where am I supposed to sleep?”
“Come
on man, you can be a real 'seat of the pants navigator' for once and organize
two watches or you can sleep in the cockpit. It’s only a three-day
trip fer cry-sake man, you’re a big boy, you can tough it out.”
“You
know John Price is not just any passenger, he’s the president—”
“Wrong
Price. Our passenger will be Elise Price; she already has valid
travel documents for the trip.”
“But,
we agreed not to get involved in local politics—”
“We,
we?”
“When
does she plan on returning?”
“That’s
not our pr... Oh, Oh! You might want to check the vidscreen,
Sonny.”
“I’m
not gonna like this am I?”
Two
security vehicles just hauled up outside.”
“Sh...”
“Open
up Bono, we have reason to believe you are harbouring an illegal migrant,” the
metallic voice came from a tannoy mounted on an armoured hovercar. Anju Drax
stood in the passenger slot.
“Blight
of my life! Let them in,” he said.
Copyright Len Morgan
(to be continued/…)
