My Life (part 37)

The ship set gently down in a clearly marked space in the largest space dock in existence just outside of Los Angeles, Californian, Earth.  Before our engines had completely shut down a shuttle attached itself to our exit port and established a lock.  All two hundred and forty three passengers moved from their gravity seats to the bus type seats on the shuttle.  The shuttle made the short hop to the terminal’s clear plastic dome buildings and we all filed out into the filtered air of LAX.

Just inside the door stands a very pretty girl with short black hair, old style plastic rimmed glasses wearing a short dark blue pleated skirt and a plaid vest over a red knit top.  She holds a hand painted sign with Jasper’s World Welcome! written on it. Sally was fine with my reading the sign but when my eyes drop lower in order to form an opinion of the lady’s dark knit leggings Sally punches me in the ribs.  Sally has become much more possessive lately.

“We welcome you to Earth.  I hope your fight from Jasper’s World was comfortable.” We smiled and say things like, “very nice thank you,” stuff like that.

“Please follow me.  Your shuttle awaits you,”  I must have been following her a little to much ‘cause Sally hit me in the ribs again.  It’s not much of a deterrent because I enjoy it when Sally hits me in the ribs and this Earth girl was just a little bit beyond cute.  The place was crowded but the little girl had a way of carving a path and after just a short walk we were entering another shuttle not much different than the one we had just walked out of.  Our guide says good bye and I watched her walking away long enough to get another jab in the ribs.  The shuttle was just like the one I used to take from the mall in Bakersfield, California, Earth; just a little smaller, so I showed all the guys how to use the safety straps and we settled in for the twenty minute ride to our hotel near the test site for the full sized GR Earth’s factories had produced.

“Feels weird going back to Bakersfield, I said to Jasper who sat beside me in the aisle seat Sally and I saved for him.

“There ended up being four sites that met our needs for the test.  Bakersfield was centered among the factories that produced most of the components and they had an assembly plant large enough so being your home town factored in but did not need to carry much weight.”

“A strip of land ten miles wide and twenty miles long, an island of green on a brown world,” Matthew, a fellow student, said from behind our seat on the shuttle.

“It’s going to be glorious,” Jasper said, turning in his seat and giving Matthew a grin.

My Life (part 12)

A bell rings twice and then the engines start to roar.  The sound coming from the engines increases until all I can do is clamp my hands on each side of my head.  I try screaming but the only result is a sore throat, the only sound I hear comes from the engines as we drop toward Jasper’s World.  And then there is complete silence.  I relax in my container, happy to be alive.  Doors open, hatchways slam, people in clunky work boots walk within inches of me.  I hear the wide loading bay doors hit the concrete of the loading dock and lock into place.  Equipment starts up.  As on Earth the containers holding the fuel cells and the one holding me are unloaded first.  The next part of my plan depends on the routine at this loading dock being the same as the routine on Earth.  I feel myself being moved swiftly from the ship to the dock and then my container skids to a spot that is bound to be a temporary, just a spot for the containers to wait in before they are recharged.  This temporary storage is important to my plans for two reasons; one, it means the containers remain in one level and not too close together and second, it means I will not be plugged into a recharge unit for a little while.  One thing needs to happen before my container is plugged into a recharge unit – a work break.  I hear men and women in a constant rush to remove the contents of the space barge and to start the process of preparing the vessel for its next shipment.  The sound that worries me most comes after about an hour of sitting here on the dock.  It is the sound of containers around me being moved into place in the recharge unit.

“That one needs relabeled,” a female voice shouts.

I feel my container sliding across the concrete, “They can’t have got a scan off of this thing on Earth.”

“You’re right Ned.  It shows one override on my pad.  Too lazy to do their jobs.  Get it labeled after break.”  As she says break the buzzer for break time sounds and every bit of equipment goes silent in seconds, just like on Earth.  I count sixty seconds off in my head and then reach for the latches inside my fuel cell container.  The lid opens about two inches and hits something beside me.  I kick the side and push the lid up.  As soon as I am out I peek around the containers around me.  The sunlight is very bright and I need to blink a few times before I can see anything.  The dock is completely empty.  I gather up my mess and lock the container from the outside.  I toss my old bags and bottles into a trash chute, stuff the still full bottles of water and packs of food into my pants and head for the far end of the dock, away from the buildings.  I take a deep breath of the air I have read so much about, it stinks a little of rot, mold and a smell I cannot identify.  In stories I have read others have made the same observation.  Later they come to the conclusion that this is a normal smell for an agricultural planet.  I take another breath and it seems to be acceptable to my lungs.  I trot to the edge of the concrete and as I jump the four feet to the dark brown ground I hear talking.  I quickly back into the four foot of concrete wall that forms the edge of the dock.  I make my way slowly and quietly to the corner nearest the talking and look around the corner.  About twenty workers sit around a couple of tables talking, eating and drinking.  I pull my head back.  That’s new.  Nothing like that on Earth.

I make my way to the far corner and peek around, all clear in that direction so I make my run to the boundary fence only when I get to where the fence should be there is no fence.  I step into a field of leafy plants almost as tall as I am.  I carefully make my way into the field until when I look back I can no longer see the loading dock.  I can still see the top of the space barge and the tops of the dock buildings but I am well hidden from the dock workers.  I sit in the moist dirt next to the bases of plants breathing hard.  Six days of doing nothing doesn’t do much to keep a person in shape.  I’m here.  Plans I’ve worked on forever are complete.  What should I do next?  I realize I never really thought I would get this far.  

The ground around me smells a bit rotten but the plants smell good.  The plants are leafy.  Hidden in the leaves are flowers.  They look like green roses.  Cotton.  As soon as my breath returns to normal I follow the path between rows of tall cotton plants avoiding muddy puddles here and there.

Randy (4) part two

Ice caps, two oceans, snow capped mountains, lakes and rivers lined with green growth, if this planet is not already owned I’ve just made my fortune.

“And the air is good?”

“Very close to Earth Normal Randy.”  The exact numbers relating to the gas mix and whatever else is in the air scroll across the screen but it means little to me.  I just take Mac’s word that I’ll be able to breathe here.

I see tall trees clinging to the sides of snow capped mountains, grasses growing in fertile valleys and birds hunting for food along the ocean’s coast as my little ship slows for its landing.

“How’s the water?”

“Good, clean,” numbers assigned to the waters content scroll across.  “I’m setting us down near a fresh water stream.  The ocean is salty, Randy.”

I watch as the ship makes its last curve out over the ocean and comes in low for a landing.

“Hang on to something Randy.  I may not be able to provide a perfect landing with the limited information I’m getting.”

It’s an unusual request coming from Mac his piloting skills make inertial dampeners almost unnecessary.  I hold tightly to the arms of my chair and close my eyes.

“We’re down Randy.”

“I didn’t feel a thing Mac.”

“Thank you Randy.  There was a bump.  You’re too kind.  Hey Randy.”

“Yes Mac.”

“You go on outside and explore for a while. Come back in about twenty minutes. I’ll need some help then.”

“I’ll stay and help.”

“I need to think about this and do some research Randy.  Go ahead and look around.”

“You trying to get rid of me Mac?”

“Yes Randy, I am.”

I stand and walk toward the exit portal.

“Blaaaa!”

I look at the screen above the console.

“Take off the space suit Randy, you’ll scare someone.”

I start to peel the suit off, “there are people?”

“Still can’t tell Randy.  Get, I need some time to myself”

The portal opens and the landing ramp extends.  I find myself walking on a soft loam under the shade of pine trees.  The sun is just coming up over the hills to my east.  To my west a blue ocean extends forever the rising sun highlighting small waves that wash across white sands.  I look at my watch to see what time I am allowed back in the ship and then turn toward the west.  While still under the trees I hear small animals running from my path.  I see what could be the tail of a squirrel but it disappears unto brush before I can identify more.

With Mac hard at work on my little ship I have nothing to do other than walk toward the beach.  I come to the fresh water stream and drink until my thirst is completely quenched.   Just as I come out of the cover of the trees a patch of berries looking very much like black berries present themselves ripe and ready to eat. I reach for one of the largest and blackest but pull my hand back before I touch the food I have found.  It would be best to wait until Mac can check things before I put them into my mouth.   The sand is soft and cool; a salty mist is still in the air near the water.  I walk all the way to the edge of the ocean until a freezing cold wash of water reaches my toes and I choose to walk in dry sand.   I look at my watch.  Mac will allow me back into my ship in ten minutes.  I think about how silly it is to allow a computer interface to tell me what to do but Mac is far from an ordinary computer interface. He is plugged into every computer I have every owned.  He makes a prefect Americano.  He drives my car, cooks my dinners, and he is the perfect assistant to me in my private investigator business.  Over the years he has become my best and most trusted friend.   My sister Sally thinks I’m crazy but at home on earth I sit on the sofa with Mac and watch football games with him. The holo emitters in my earth home cost me more than the house but Mac is important to me.  So call the people in white shirts and carry me away but I’m still going to do what Mac tells me to do.  Mac told me to explore and so far I have learned that this is just about the nicest planet I have every been on.