Star Trader Update .046

046.01


The Prime stood before Tal’on dressed in his official military garb. His chest was covered with metals. His three cornered hat sat jauntily on an angle. Though his guard protectively surrounded him, he wore his ornamental saber on one hip and his blaster on the other. He was further equipped with one of the pain sticks Tal’on had become so familiar with in the past when confronted with the Prime’s guard.

“Delevy tells me you can understand and speak our language now,” the Prime said as he tapped the end of the pain stick against his tall black boot tops in an intimidating way.

“I can,” Tal’on answered.

Star Trader Update .042

042.01

Tal’on watched the green come and go as he finished up his meal. She dragged in numerous things that looked like their skins, but were in large squares. She spread one out on the stone beneath her feet and piled the others at her side. After making several trips she appeared to tire and sweat formed on her brow to dampened the fur that fell across it. Tal’on watched with horror, his mouth full of the last morsel off his platter, as she shed her outer skin and threw it to the ground. She proceeded to pull off another layer of her skin and wiped her face with it before she tossed it to the pile on the large skin. She now stood with only a layer of green around her chest and covering her legs. The rest of her, neck, shoulders, arms, appeared as her hands and face, pale and soft. Tal’on didn’t realize it, but his mouth was hanging open in surprise.

Star Trader Update .039

039.01

“Say that again,” Jake said. He looked at me like he thought I had lost my mind.

“It was a dragon,” I repeated.

Jake got up from his place in my co-pilot’s seat on the bridge and took a few paces away from me. He removed his cap and ran his fingers through his dark, wavy hair. This was a habit Jake had when thinking, stressed or otherwise irritated. He could have been all three after my statement.

“What did you see?” Jake asked Arr.

“It was a dragon,” Arr confirmed.

Star Trader Update .038

038.01

At first, I didn’t know what woke me. I was just jolted awake by some unfamiliar noise. But then the sound rattled the hull of Ma-rye-a again. There was no mistaking it. It was Kay-o bellowing at the top of his lungs. His booming howl vibrated my chest as if I had the bass tuned up way too high on Ma-rye-a’s sound system.

“What the…” I started to swear.

I tumbled out of bed and headed out of my room and down the hall toward the guest room where Jake, Arr and Kay-o chose to spend the night rather than pod back over to their ship. We had a few too many drinks. They considered that room theirs anyway, so had tucked in for the night.

The fact that I had one too many before retiring, was not helping my navigation down the hall. Jake came crashing out of the guest room. We collided head on.

“What the…” Jake said.

Star Trader Update .037

037.01

“I’ll be fine,” I assured Marstead. “I think I need space. I need my mind to work on something other than who might be waiting to grab me next time I go into the city. For that matter, who might break into my ship and wreak more havoc.”

“I can’t keep you safe out there,” Marstead waved his hand in the general direction of everything. I was glad he was on the comlink rather than here beside me or he might have managed to convince me to stay. I really didn’t know why I was going. I just had a gut feeling I needed to go to my parent’s dig. Or, maybe that gut feeling was the breakfast Moby made for me that wasn’t settling very well.

“You don’t need to keep me safe, Marstead.” I tried to give him a reassuring smile. “I am a big girl and I can take care of myself.” Yeah, right. Some of my friends could tell stories about that. “I’ll keep in contact. I’ll send messages daily if that will make you feel better. It’s not that far away. I can be there in no time.”

Star Trader Update .036

036.01

“Calm down,” Daniel soothed. “I can fix this.”

I thumbed tears from my eyes. I know I looked pitiful. I am not one of those pretty criers. My face gets all blotchy and my eyes turn red.

“How?” I asked in disbelief.

Even though I had total confidence in Daniel I thought it was hopeless. I actually called him because I knew I could not function in my profession without an AI to handle the loading and unloading of cargo. I figured I would have Daniel program me another as soon as possible.

Star Trader Update .035

035.01

“Tilt your head a little further toward me,” the dentist instructed.

I obliged and felt the jaw mike snap into place over my back molar.

“That should do it,” she announced. “Give it a try.”

I ordered the mike over a year ago, but hadn’t been anywhere with the facilities to install it. This layman’s variety of a jaw mike, unlike the Galactic Forces model, was not actually installed in the jaw surgically. Theirs was far more sophisticated. For this model, the wearer had one of their back molar’s ground down like you were prepping for a crown, but instead the mike was fit over the tooth.

I leaned up and took my “Ear” out of my pocket and stuck it in.

Star Trader Update .034

034.01

I sat in the lounge aboard my ship flipping through the pictures on mom and dad’s flat.

“How old were you there,” Horus asked.

Horus is one of five disembodied AIs I have on board my ship. All of them programmed by my dear friend, Daniel Dresden, one of – if not the most, talented programmer in the verse. Why he chose me as a friend I will never know, because I don’t know squat about programming and couldn’t carry on a conversation about software if I tried. That said, I really do appreciate Daniel’s handiwork especially when I am on long deliveries by myself, because heck, I am never really by myself. Space is a lonely place, but I always have company.

Star Trader Update .033

033.01

It was yet another day and my third without a decent night’s sleep. This time Marstead sat across from me behind the desk in his office on the sixty-fourth floor of the Marstead building. I told you he was a famous trial attorney. He dabbles in other things as well.

“I know you are familiar with all this, but we have to go through it to satisfy the legality of the estate’s distribution and closing,” Marstead explained.

Collin, Marstead’s assistant, came in carrying a tray with all the accouterments for tea. He set the tray down on the table between the two Chippendale sofas behind us. Once he set the service off, poured, and placed the small two tiered plate of savories and sweets in place, he nodded Marstead’s direction.

“Will you give us about fifteen minutes and then bring it in?” Marstead asked.

Star Trader Update .032

032.01

I stood before the columbarium pillar containing my parent’s cremated ashes. I arrived almost six months too late to attend their funeral. Leaning forward, I placed my hand on the carved surface of the pillar. The pillar was not new to me. Mom and Dad always thought ahead. They had it carved years ago after seeing the Goe’ze pillars on Muldavia. They were both archaeologists and appreciated beautiful, ancient ruins. The Goe’ze pillars are one of the wonders of the universe. Their surfaces reflect and refract the breathtaking sunsets of Muldavia. This pillar, my parent’s memorial tomb, was artificially enhanced to radiate the colors from within along with a holographic image of my parents, smiling lovely, out from just above their niche. The pillar was carved years ago and set in storage to await their needed time. That time came much too soon.

Marstead Grievus shifted his weight as he stood at my side. He was Mom and Dad’s solicitor. When I informed him I had arrived he offered to meet me here, at the cemetery on the site of the UOA. I accepted the offer with my heartfelt thanks. This was not easy. My parents were still young, just in their seventies. They hadn’t even talked about retirement. They were so happy doing what they did, being members of the Universal Order of Antiquities. My parents were experts in their field. If they did not discover it themselves, then they were called in to consult with whoever did make the discovery.

“I recorded the funeral,” Marstead offered. “You might want to watch it someday. There were an inordinate amount of testimonials given. Your parents were truly loved.”

Star Trader Update .030

030.01

“Sam are you set?” I asked.

I had Ma-rye-a turn around and place us just outside of the window and off to the left, out of the way. I had Sam train our weapons on the mouth of the window. His reaction, and recognition time was far superior to mine and if the Tiltode came though that gate either alone or chasing the Calpernia, I wanted to be prepared.

“Ready and waiting, Captain,” Sam replied.

He had no sooner spoken than the Calpernia came sailing through unhindered. Jake pulled his ship up beside Ma-rye-a as soon as he caught sight of her and Ma-rye-a threw his and Arr’s imagine up on the viewport.

“You okay?” he asked with a concerned look.

Star Trader Update .029

029.1

Claiming to know someone who could talk to the Hummers was taking a wee bit of convincing until Coal managed to pull up some info on his computer about by friend, Arr, Jake Harcourt’s partner. Seemed a doctor named Margaret O’Connor was doing a bit of a study on him and she had recorders that attested to his ability to learn languages faster than a Roughnut snake can swallow a gerbit. You see, Arr’s people all have genetically inherited memories - abilities that are passed from generation to generation in the basic makeup of their brains. Arr can learn languages just by listening to them. Within a few hours he can master any language. Last count he gave me was one hundred and one, and that’s fluent, not just counting to ten and asking where the restroom is located.

A while back Arr and I were stuck in adjoining hospital beds for an extended period of time. We had a lot of time to exchange stories as we healed. That story is in my log books as “Body Bags and Other Dark Places” if you wish to look it up. Anyway… Arr told me about Jake explaining to him how the NBs worked - that they each held a Hummer inside. Arr was trapped alone on a planet for several years until Jake found him. Arr was shocked to think the Hummers were isolated in the NBs. He wanted to talk to them to make sure they were okay with what he saw as captivity. So Jake parked their ship, the Calpernia, by one and Arr took a few hours to learn their language and reassure himself that they were quite content as they were.

Arr told me this story, along with a string of others, and I remembered it.

Star Trader Update .028

028.01

Zack sat silently listening to the med tech as he jabbered on and on about the numerous incidents surrounding the breach in the NB operational system.

“I can’t believe someone would mess with those beacons,” the tech said, as he threaded the new tube through the holder on Zack’s servo-chair. “I mean, what kind of asshole would hack something that important to every living being in the verse?”

Zack had experienced a true epiphany the day Daniel triggered the cascade in the beacons. On that day one of the ships that locked onto an infected NB was a tour ship with a load of teenagers coming home from an interstellar field trip. The ship had no weapons to activate. Instead it just took over the controls from the adult crew and flew the ship into the nearest star. It was a long enough trip to the star for all the kids to call home and say goodbye to their family, not long enough for anyone to launch and save them. All twenty-one died on impact.

Star Trader Update .027

027.01

I don’t have a sick-bay aboard Ma-rye-a, so Damion was in the guest room with a dying patient in each bed with nothing more than my first-aid kit. I don’t usually need intensive medical treatment. My medical supplies are geared toward a headache or the flu.

The way Damion explained it was that by the Valarians injecting Daniel with anhydrates, his body was full of what must have felt like small medieval maces floating around inside him.

Targus, on the other hand, almost had his arm torn off.

Damion needed a ship load of painkillers, a well-equipped surgery for Targus and an ultrasound-stimulator to break up the rocks in Daniel’s system. Headache and nausea patches were not going to do the trick.

Star Trader Update .026

026.01

Zack sat watching the drama unfold across his monitors. The virus he initiated in the beacons around Valaria had done their job. It was better than any game display could possibly be. The mercenary ship opening fire on the settlement on Gamma 3 was his favorite part. He had it on loop and it was playing over and over and over again. The recording, made by a civilian survivor, of the ship descending upon the colony with laser cannons firing, the destruction of the ancient runes the archeological colony was built around blown into rubble, and the citizens running, screaming. The visuals made Zack’s blood race. He had lost the line between ‘game’ and ‘reality.’

Zack actually chuckled as he watched the self-destruction of the second vessel in the Titan region. He had not expected the N.B. to have that far reaching connection. They were really an amazing bit of technology.

He leaned over and sipped at the straw from the drink bottle attached to his servo-chair. The Valarians would be contacting Daniel soon. Wait until he found the surprise Zack secretly downloaded on his flat last time they played. It was not easy getting around Daniel’s security system. In fact, it was harder than initially accessing the N.B.s. But Zack had done it. He had managed to install the trigger. Daniel was going to have a lot of explaining to do the minute he hooked into the Valarian server.

Star Trader Update .025

025.01

“Mayday…Mayday…This is MT 2424,” Coal said in a hoarse voice. Over six hours of calling out to what appeared to be an empty verse had left him hardly able to speak. Next chance he got he was going to rework the gear for longer range coverage and auto-voice repeat presentation.

Up until a little while ago Targus had kept them in the vicinity of the debris field so if someone latched onto the beacon Coal triggered, there would be something bigger to home onto than three small bodies floating in space. But Targus had passed out a few minutes ago. His tanks were nearly empty. It took more air to keep the big guy going. Coal’s heart beat was slower than his Walhmite captain’s or the human medical officer. Damion was out cold too.

“Mayday…Mayday…This is…”

Star Trader Update .024

024.01

Zackary Taylor a.k.a. Matt Milestone sat at his computer diligently working. He used a VACP or voice activated command program to put the finishing touches on the computer virus he was creating. Like his character, Matt Milestone, he liked the physical. However, his real body was stuck in a servo-chair and had been for the past ten years since the accident that put him there. He couldn’t even scratch his nose let alone do the physical activity Matt ran through in the game.

The accident was a devastating chemical explosion which killed fifty-three and left Zack and hundreds of others maimed. The loss to the corporation was horrific and sent it into bankruptcy and eventually foreclosure. None of the survivors received any kind of settlement. Zack’s medical bills were so astronomical he gave up on the rehab and the possibility of prosthetics long ago. He ate and defecated through tubes. He was basically a brain in a chair and nothing more.

Star Trader Update .023

023.01

It was snowing and I really didn’t want to deal with this. Snow is fine if you are inside, wrapped in a lovely throw, sitting in front of a fire (artificial or not) with a cup of hot chocolate, but it is not fun when you are standing in it, spacer boot deep, being denied entry into your best friend’s house by what is the equivalent of a Love Bot.

“I am sorry, but he is indisposed at the moment.” The Bot had the most irritating voice. High pitched and sing-song. Her candy ass stood blocking the door – all dressed in black with pink polka dots, ruffles at the shoulders and on the hem of her very, very short skirt. Her stockings were pink to match the polka dots and her hair, with pigtails that I was sure were supposed to be cute. I found her all and all, repulsive.

A love bot was certainly not going to stop me. I shouldered her aside. “He is expecting me,” I exclaimed as if I needed to make an excuse to this latest of Daniel’s indulgences.

Star Trader Update .021 and .022

021.01

I kept telling myself there was no reason to be reckless about this. I made it over the wall without incident. I was well hidden in a shadowed corner of the garden trying to time the guards making their rounds without the luxury of a watch. I tried to gauge how late it was and how much more darkness I had left.

 I am not patient by nature. I watched the pair of guards pass one more time, took a deep breath and made a crouching sprint for the trellis that climbed up the palace wall to the balcony where Muloot fell. I hoped to find Rand there, or at least be able to backtrack from there to his personal quarters where he hopefully slept like the dead, unguarded, and I could snatch my blaster and run like hell. I know, big stretch, but I was desperate.

I was a bit noisier then I hoped to be climbing the trellis, but luckily did not draw any attention from the guards. I made it to the balcony without incident. The room I was now familiar with was dimly lit and unoccupied. Now that I was here, I wondered if it was even conceivable I would be able to find Rand without running into a guard and getting myself recaptured. And, what would the future ruler of Alta III do with me when he found I didn’t return with his prospective bride in tow? You would think I would have thought this out before scaling the trellis, but as I said, I am a little impatient at times.

Star Trader Update .020

020.01

Arr sat cross legged on the pod’s ramp in the shade of the doorway. Kay-o lay by his side, his tongue lolling out from the heat of the desert surrounding them.

            Arr hated the pod. The first English medical term he learned was ‘claustrophobic.’ The pod was stiflingly cramped. The initial trip in it from his home planet to Jake’s ship, the Calpernia, was almost unbearable. Jake insisted on strapping him in the first time. The second time Arr did a very juvenile thing, he growled at Jake. Arr was eighteen and once his species, the henu, reached adulthood it was considered extremely rude to growl, but he couldn’t help himself. Jake backed off and he made the flight white knuckled and grinding teeth all the way to the Calpernia.

He was thrilled to find that the claustrophobia subsided once he was out in the larger ship. It was a great relief since staying on his home planet would have meant living the rest of his life alone after the devastating attack of ‘The Others’ wiped out his people.