Romany Galactica ~ Part 2 of 4

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/…)