Titanium Texicans (24 page)

Tasso made sure it closed solidly behind him and he engaged the lock-outs. “I like the open space to work in. I’ve worked outside most of my life. I don’t go crazy in small spaces, but I do like to work without banging my elbow on something. So, can you please try not to get the open space by the main hatch too cluttered?”

“No messes?”

“Well, some messes can’t be helped, but if we keep things in order, we won’t turn the whole attic into a mess where we can’t find anything. I mean, worse than it is now.”

“Neat and in order. I got it, Señor Menzies. We’ll clean up after ourselves.”

It didn’t take them long to get to Cherry’s. Tasso was embarrassed to be in the lingerie section of the store. Rodriguez looked through a few racks, spotting something frilly and see-through, he grabbed a color and size. They managed to transfer the credits from the Sergeant’s account and into the store’s.

Tasso still had more time than he needed to get ready for his date with Anisa, but in his excitement, he couldn’t wait. He rushed through his shower, however he shaved more carefully than ever before. He even combed his hair neatly and slid into a clean coverall. He wiped his ship boots off with a damp towel. They didn’t shine, but they were clean. He glanced at the time on his dataport. He was still a half an hour early. He suddenly realized he didn’t know where he was supposed to meet Anisa. Was she coming by his room to get him or was he supposed to go to her room to collect her? He assumed they’d both meet on this deck because they both lived in cabins along this corridor. Were they supposed to link up in the galley after supper?

Supper! He couldn’t eat now. Even if he had time, he was too nervous to keep anything down. What if he got bad breath from something he ate? What if he already had bad breath? He grabbed a mint from his locker and popped it into his mouth. He knew the mint would melt away anything that caused bad breath along with any plaque buildup and food residue on his teeth, but he still wondered if he had bad breath. He tried to calm himself by admitting she probably wouldn’t get close enough to notice whether he had bad breath or not. He hoped she would at least let him hold her hand. The captain had ordered her to take him to the Friday night trainee football game, he hoped she wasn’t unhappy about the order.

He made a decision. He left his cabin and walked down the hall towards Anisa’s cabin. He watched her often enough to know which room was hers. He was almost at her door when he panicked and turned away. There were a few others in the hallway, so rather than look like an idiot, he turned into the common room across from Anisa’s room. He could watch her door if he stood in the right place. He could approach her if she came out of her room. He could go knock on her door at exactly the right time if she was expecting him to go to her.

He glanced around the common room. He’d lived along this corridor for a little over two months, but he’d never stepped into the room. One of the orientation meetings said the room was for all common activities and a gathering place for trainees to meet, talk, and socialize. There were trainees scattered all over the big room. Most were laughing with groups of their friends. Almost everyone in the room was dressed in gold and white shirts with a red scorpion on it. Anyone dressed without a scorpion on his or her clothing had on colorful Texican spangled shirts with gold and red ribbons pinned to the breast. Everyone wore jeans and pointy-toed, high-top boots. The rare exception was a trio of girls dressed in some sort of red and gold uniform, with soft shoes and extremely short skirts. Their uniforms stopped well above their belly buttons and didn’t start again until it reached down to their—

Tasso didn’t want to start naming body parts. He did notice that each of the girls was wearing one of his belts. This must be the cheerleaders in their uniforms. One of the girls waved at him and giggled. He waved back.

“Really? Are you going to make a play for all of the cheerleaders, now?”

Tasso turned slowly and came face to face with Armando Cruz.

CHAPTER 21

TASSO GLANCED around. This was the first time he’d ever seen Cruz without at least one of his friends at his side. The bruising was still evident on his face. The discoloration was fading, but both eyes were still dark and puffy. Anger twisted his face and his eyes flashed hate.

Tasso wasn’t worried about Cruz, whether he was alone or if he had his clique at his back. He was sure the four boys weren’t going to push for any kind of physical altercation. They lost the last two times they tried to attack him. He doubted Cruz would try anything on his own. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t give him a hard time, but if he kept his temper in check, there shouldn’t be any real problem. He knew he could be wrong; no one knew what kind of stupid move Cruz would make if his anger was hot enough.

There had been a security notification to all of them, Tasso included. They were under a special watch by order of the captain. There would be security oversight whenever Tasso’s locator recorded him near Cruz, Flacco, Eber or Ivan’s locators, either singly or in a group. The oversight might include the security officer being present or just video monitoring.

Something about having someone watching his every move made Tasso a little uncomfortable. He felt personally violated to be under a constant watch. He remembered Grandpa always trying to keep him in sight and he always tried to watch Grandpa’s back. Vigilance was a basic precaution when living with stobor and jacks in the neighborhood. Cruz may be an irritant and possibly even dangerous, but he wasn’t a deadly stobor.

Tasso sighed and pointed to the ceiling toward La Dueña Dunstan. His privacy may have been lost to security oversight, but now he was glad of it. He wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation with Cruz. Instead of taking the reminder of video surveillance as a hint, Cruz stepped closer to Tasso. Growing up in the open farmland, Tasso had a wide personal space. He normally didn’t like it when people got too close. Cruz was a different breed; he barely had personal space, having spent most of his childhood on a ship.

“I said are you planning on hitting on all of the cheerleaders?” Cruz repeated. He was close enough to lower his voice so only Tasso could hear.

Tasso wanted to laugh. Cruz’s voice was quiet enough that only he could hear, or rather him, the Security Office, any ship’s officer who wanted to replay the video broadcast, and anyone else if the scene made it to the shipnet for entertainment purposes. Tasso wanted to laugh, but didn’t. “I’m sorry, Mr. Cruz. I don’t recall ever hitting any cheerleader. I can only remember hitting you. Oh, I guess I hit Flacco and Ivan.” He shook his head. “Or was it Eber? I really don’t remember. I really don’t remember striking anyone other than you. Oh, I can only clearly remember punching Dougall, Hamish, and Walter Lamont, but I was only ten when I hit them. I’m not calling you a liar, but I’ve never, to my recollection, ever hit a cheerleader.”

“That’s not what I meant, greenhorn,” Cruz spat.

“I didn’t even know what a cheerleader was until last week.” He smiled. He’d learned greenhorn was not an insult. The description was for the lack of general Texican and western experience. However, the way Cruz said it, the other boy meant it as an insult.

Tasso kept smiling.

“Well?” Cruz said.

“Well, what?”

“Don’t play stupid with me, Menzies. You know what I mean. Are you making a pass at all the cheerleaders or just my girlfriend?”

Tasso shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mr. Cruz. I’m not playing stupid. I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I thought a pass was something that happened in football. I mean, I’ve read up on football before the game tonight, but I don’t really see how …” His voice faded as Cruz’s face clouded darker. Cruz stepped between him and his view of the hatch to Anisa’s cabin.

“Are you laughing at me, Menzies?” Cruz barely whispered. He was standing with his fists clenched and his face thrust forward just a whisker width away from Tasso.

“No sir,” Tasso said. “I’m not stupid, but yes, I’m seriously ignorant of football. If I appear stupid, it’s purely a side affect of my ignorance. I’m particularly confused about a horse-collar foul. Perhaps you could explain to me what it is?”

A giant hand grabbed the back of Cruz’s collar. It yanked the boy backwards and off his feet. Cruz crashed to the deck and slid a few yards, ending up in a tangle of arms and legs at the feet of the cheerleaders. Gordo said, with evident satisfaction, “That is a horse-collar. It’s when a player yanks another player to the ground by grabbing onto the pads around their neck. It’s a foul because the protective pads don’t have any give. A human’s neck does have give. It’s a perfect example of Newton’s first law of motion.”

Tasso grinned at Gordo and Cherry. The two had come unseen into the common room. They were standing hand-in-hand wearing matching Escorpión Rojo football jerseys. “Thanks,” Tasso said. He hadn’t meant the explanation of the football foul.

Gordo glanced at Cruz, winked at Tasso and said, “We all do what we can.”

Tasso said, “I still don’t really understand the horse-collar part? I mean, I can see how painful and dangerous it is, but … who is Newton, anyway?”

“Great googa-booga, boy!” Gordo exclaimed. “What do they teach trainees these days? Newton invented what people used to call gravity—”

“No, he didn’t,” Anisa interrupted.

Tasso hadn’t seen her come into the room. He grinned at her and blushed. Her cheerleader uniform fit her like a hand in a glove, a very small, very tight glove.

“Yes, he did,” Gordo insisted.

Anisa shook her head. “He accurately described it. However, gravity was already there. He didn’t invent it. That would be like saying Tesla invented electricity.”

Gordo snorted. “Tesla didn’t. Edison did.”

Anisa shook her head. “I don’t know why they let some footballers graduate to crew. Neither of them invented electricity, both of them harnessed it. Just like Newton, you can’t invent something that’s already there. You can describe it, harness it, use it, capture it, and sell it, but you can’t invent it.”

Cherry laughed and squeezed Gordo’s hand. “She’s got you there, lover.”

Gordo laughed, “I stand defeated before a superior being. Okay, Miss Smarty-Pants Cheerleader, what is Newton’s first law of motion?”

Everyone in the room crowded around them; everyone except Cruz. He was standing by the hatch to the corridor, glaring at anyone who glanced in his direction. He was alternately clenching his fists and rubbing the bridge of his nose. Tasso felt sorry for the boy, but he didn’t know what to do for him.

Cherry laughed at Gordo’s question and asked. “You’re really putting her on the spot?”

Anisa shrugged, “It’s within the rules of training that a trainee can be questioned on a school subject by any crewmember. However, I must admit I remember there are three laws, but …”

Another cheerleader spoke up. “Anisa can remember sixteen dozen cheers, but she can’t memorize the preamble to the constitution.” Suddenly, Tasso remembered her name as Kendra. She’d helped him with the first aid kit earlier in the week.

Anisa laughed, “Or the observation deck speech for take-off.” She poked Tasso in the chest.

A smallish boy of about ten tentatively raised a hand and said, “Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.”

“Touchdown!” Gordo shouted. “Good lad!”

Tasso applauded the boy along with everyone else. Once it quieted down, he asked, “Okay, I’ll have to ask for an explanation on that later, but why is it called a horse-collar? I mean, I’ve seen pictures of horses and none of them wears shirts. So, I don’t …” He let the question hang in the air. Everyone was laughing at him. He decided to laugh along. Maybe it would make sense when he watched the football game.

“You!” Cruz shouted from the hatchway. He pointed at Tasso. “I don’t know where or when, but you’re going to get it.” He ran from the room.

The common room was deathly quiet and everyone was looking at Tasso.

Tasso shrugged. “There’re a lot of things I don’t get. I do hope I start getting it soon. I don’t understand him, either. So, are we going to go to this football thing or not?”

Anisa giggled and grabbed his hand. Kendra pulled a red and gold ribbon off her uniform and pinned it to Tasso’s coveralls. She grabbed his other hand and smirked at Anisa.

“Look at you, greenhorn,” Anisa laughed, “making a pass at two cheerleaders at the same time.”

This time greenhorn was definitely not an insult. Or rather, he wasn’t the least bit insulted. He didn’t think he could be insulted as long as Anisa was holding his hand. He was definitely not unhappy with Kendra holding his other hand. The two girls tugged at him as they led the crowd to the elevators.

CHAPTER 22

TASSO SAT on the bleachers. Gordo’s bulk squeezed Tasso against Roberto, Gordo’s friend from work. He was the other E-17 maintenance technician Tasso had met outside of Cherry’s. The two men took turns trying to explain football to him. However, Cherry easily distracted Gordo, and Roberto’s wife and two young daughters distracted him.

Tasso understood the distractions.

Cherry’s long blond hair stood out in this crowd of Texicans. There were a few blond-haired men and women scattered throughout the crowd, but they were in the extreme minority, most were obviously not blond by nature. Cherry would have stood out in any crowd full of blond-haired people. Tasso was also in the minority as there were only a few people on this side of the field not dressed in gold and white with red accents. Scattered around were enough ship coveralls that he wasn’t too self-conscious about it, though.

Roberto’s wife was a large woman. Roberto wrapped his arms around her and hugged her at every opportunity. His two daughters were dressed in miniature cheerleader uniforms. They danced and gyrated in concert with the cheerleaders on the sidelines during the game. The two young girls knew every cheer, every hand motion, and every dance by heart.

Tasso was often distracted himself. The football game was fun to watch, even though some of the contact between players was brutal enough in a few respects to make him uncomfortable. He liked a good scrap as well as the next guy, but watching without being involved felt wrong somehow. However, there was a lot of time when nothing was happening, nothing except the cheerleaders taking every opportunity and delay in the game to prance and dance in front of the crowd.

The cheerleaders often shouted at a group of cheerleaders on the other side of the field. The other cheerleaders were dressed in blue and red with white accents. Everyone on that side of the field was dressed in blue and red jerseys. They all shouted back when Anisa and her friends shouted at them. Everyone in gold and red shouted at everyone in blue and red. Finally, both sides shouted at the football players.

It took Tasso about halfway through the game to realize they were playing against another spaceship. The game was between the Escorpión Rojo trainees and the Araña Rojo trainees with the Red Scorpions in gold, white and red versus the Red Spiders in blue, red and white. The Rojo Freight Lines Company owned and operated both spaceships.

Tasso was surprised to see the captain in a special booth at one end of the field. He noticed she shouted, cheering along with everyone else, while maintaining a conversation with a man wearing a blue and red spider jersey.

Gordo saw him looking at the couple. “That gentleman with our captain is Captain Delgado Rojo of the
Araña
Rojo. He’s our captain’s first cousin.”

Tasso nodded. “Do you have to be part of the Rojo family to be a captain?”

Gordo laughed, “Oh no, but it doesn’t hurt. It’s their company and they own the ships, after all. Nevertheless, when you’re a Rojo, you’re raised from day one to run a spaceship and lead a crew. That kind of training is invaluable. Me? I was raised on a ranch by my father to wrangle cattle. I’ve got to tell you there is nothing more boring than looking at the ass end of a cow, day after day, all day, every day.”

“So you’re happy you went to space?” Tasso asked.

“Happy!” Gordo laughed. “Happy he says!
Mi amigo
, if I’d not gone to space, I wouldn’t have met Cherry. I wouldn’t have met my good friend Roberto and his most wonderful family. I wouldn’t have met you. What’s not to be happy about?”

The Scorpion’s quarterback threw a pass directly into the hands of a Spider defender, interrupting their conversation. There were groans and moans in the crowd to match the cheers from the blue side of the stadium as the defender ran the interception back for a touchdown. The gold side of the stadium applauded their quarterback when he walked off the field, his head hung low.

There were a few jeers and boos, but they seemed to be directed at Eber. As the usual first-string quarterback, Eber patted the backup quarterback on the shoulder trying to console him. He turned to the crowd and acknowledged the booing by waving his injured hand in the air.

One of the cheerleaders threw a cold drink at Eber. It slapped him across the head. Everyone laughed. Tasso joined in the laughter when Roberto explained that the particular cheerleader, Kendra, was Eber’s sister, and she didn’t like to lose a game, even more than the players did. Tasso thought Kendra was more attractive than Anisa. She wasn’t really prettier, but … well, he couldn’t put the thought into words because the thought made him feel disloyal to Anisa.

Roberto said, “We have a trainee football game every Friday night when we meet another Texican spaceship, whether it is a Rojo, a Fox, an Ortiz, or a Guerro spaceship. It’s more fun when it’s a sister Rojo ship.”

Tasso tensed when he heard the name Ortiz, but no one around them even glanced in his direction.

Gordo laughed. “Yep, we dine on barbeque tonight on the Spider. Sunday afternoon we rodeo and we get real football that night.”

Tasso was confused. “Real football? I thought this is real. It looks real.”

Roberto and Gordo laughed. Tasso was beginning to realize these people laughed a lot, but they weren’t laughing at him. They expected him to laugh with them. Roberto said, “What our giant friend means is that Sunday night the grownups play football. He’s a defensive back for the Red Scorpions. It’s as close to semi-pro football as you can get in space.”

Tasso said, “I’d like to see you play, Gordo, but I’ve promised Cherry I’d work in her shop on Sunday nights.”

Cherry laughed, “We’re closed on game nights, sweetie. Tomorrow we’ll be busy as a cow’s tail during horsefly season with the Spider’s crew crowding our promenade and our crew crowding theirs. Don’t come in to work on Sunday. You hear?”

Tasso nodded. “Yes, Cherry.” He wondered if he could get a ship’s crest from the Araña Rojo to load into the extruder. He began calculating how much hair ribbon they could sell—

Cherry reached around Gordo and poked Tasso in the chest. “I mean it, young man. That means you don’t go to work in the attic and you don’t sneak into the shop after hours to make a sale to Security Sergeant Rodriguez, no matter how much he begs.”

Tasso looked stricken. “I didn’t sneak, honest. And we put the money in …” His voice faded away, Cherry and Gordo were laughing. “Besides, he said it was his anniversary.”

Gordo said, “Good. Hey! Since I’m going to be busy Sunday, maybe you can take Cherry to the rodeo. No! Sorry, I think you’d better ask Anisa or Kendra to take you to the rodeo and the game. Heck, maybe you should ask Kendra to take you to the rodeo and then you can ask Anisa to come with you and watch the big boys play football.”

Roberto said, “Whoever you go with, it really is a better football game, since there are adults playing. Well, more like larger children with more skill and more experience than this young bunch. That doesn’t necessarily mean more brains, though.”

Gordo laughed. “That’s why we wear helmets, to protect what little brains and what little good looks we have left. It can be a tough game, but not as hard as when we play against a planetary team. That is, if the population plays the game and if we can schedule one. Speaking of planets, where the heck are we anyway?”

Everyone within earshot leaned in to see if anyone knew the answer. Most of them looked to Roberto’s wife.

Roberto’s wife leaned in, “Kaduna.”

Everyone groaned.

Gordo shook his head. “What a pit!”

“What’s wrong with Kaduna?” Tasso asked.

Gordo shook his head. “The planet shouldn’t have been settled. It’s barely scrub range without enough water to spit. An African group from North Central Nigeria settled it. They’re hard working and tough people, but as planets go, it should just go. Why are we here anyway?”

Roberto’s wife said, “We have a contract to ship in ten thousand head of Texas longhorns. What? You didn’t think we packed Decks EE and DD with longhorns just for nostalgia’s sake, did you? They want to cross breed our hearty Texas longhorns with their Ankole-Watusi longhorns.”

A woman leaned in from another row and said, “Big cattle drive off those decks tomorrow at sunrise. It should take most of the day to move that many cattle. Kaduna is taking ownership at the hatchway, so we have to drive them off the ship. Still, I’d like to drop back by in a few years to see the results of the cross breeding.” She projected an image from her dataport and passed it around, the mid-air 3D hologram passed from hand to hand while she continued to hold the dataport. “Here’s a picture of a Kaduna Ankole-Watusi bull.”

Gordo whistled. “I thought a Texas longhorn had a huge set of horns. I’d hate to try to chase one of those out of the brush if he didn’t want to go.”

Tasso stared at the picture. He’d never seen such massive horns, even in the pictures of cattle he’d studied around the ship. He wondered how the bull held its head up under such weight.

The gold crowd roared as the Scorpion’s defensive unit pushed the Spider’s offensive team back into their own end zone, gaining a touchback. Tasso wasn’t sure how the spectators did it, but it seemed everyone was carrying on a couple of conversations in multiple groups and still watching the football game.

Roberto asked his wife, “
Mira mi amante
, the cattle explains why we’re here, but having two Rojo ships on this shi … sorry … backward dust ball doesn’t make sense.”

His wife shrugged. “I just work in the shipping office. I don’t make the rules. I know our schedule was to meet with the
Serpiente Rojo
for a normal cargo swap once we’d delivered the cattle to Kaduna. We have some product from Rio Tono and Murphy’s Rest for shipment to Peach’s Place. That’s on their shipping lane. The Serpiente Rojo had some cargo from Omega and Golden Ray of Sunlight needing to go to a new colony on our route. As I say, routine cargo exchanges, something switched at the last moment. We shouldn’t have seen the Araña Rojo and her crew until we docked at home the next time. Home port is still more than a year away.” She shrugged again. “Like I say, I don’t make the rules.”

Tasso asked Gordo. “Do you think I could go outside? I’d like to step onto another planet.”

Gordo nodded, “So, you do have a streak of adventure in that Scottish soul of yours, don’t you? Well, we’re all going to the Araña Rojo for a barbeque after the game. We’d normally use one of the freight tunnels and take a shuttle. However, for this special occasion, we can go up and cut across the surface.”

Cherry laughed, “It should be a good barbeque. The winning spaceship always treats the losers of the game properly. And from the score, it looks like we’re going to be treated like visiting royalty.”

The game ended quickly. Tasso wondered how, or even if, he was going to be able to find Anisa. He didn’t need to worry. Anisa and Kendra found him. They each grabbed an arm and they followed Gordo and Cherry up to a ground level hatch.

Tasso took a deep breath and stepped out of the hatch onto a new planet. He was expecting a spaceport like Saronno stretching into the distance with spaceships resting in concrete and plasticrete cradles. The Kaduna spaceport was bare dirt. The two Rojo ships were nestled into deep holes dug in the ground, braced up by wooden beams and thick bricks. There was a third ship cradle in sight, but it looked about half-caved in, as if never finished or never used.

The air felt thin and dry. Taking deep breaths didn’t seem to draw in enough oxygen. He wondered why humans would settle here. He almost laughed at himself. He knew there were people on Saronno who wondered why anyone would settle north of the McWithy Range. He realized humans would settle wherever they could make a life for themselves and their families. Moreover, they would struggle and fight to make a life as good as they could make it. He suddenly felt like a sort of kindred spirit with the people of Kaduna. They didn’t choose an easy life. They came to fight and they came to survive. It felt like the Scottish thing to do.

He said to himself, “No. It sounds like a human thing to do.”

Anisa said, “What’s a human thing to do?”

Tasso shook his head. “Sorry, I was thinking out loud. I think I might like these Kaduna people.”

Gordo looked surprised. “Really? This place is such a waste of oxygen. Humans shouldn’t have tried to settle it.”

“Why not? That’s what I meant by a human thing to do. People on my home planet Saronno thought my grandparents were crazy to settle where they did. My land is rough and it’s not good for much except a hardscrabble life. Grandpa said it’s tough, but it is freedom. It’s a struggle, but it is life. It was a day-to-day challenge to survive, but that’s liberty. Don’t we all go where we can survive, then we fight to survive and make a place for our families?”

Everyone was silent.

Tasso thought that maybe he wasn’t making sense. “Um … I guess I mean humans don’t always pick the easy way or the easy place. Independence doesn’t come about in a paradise.”

Everyone was still silent.

Tasso started to blush, thinking they must imagine him to be some sort of babbling idiot. He blushed harder when Kendra leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Anisa, not to be outdone, leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

Gordo grabbed his hand and pumped it in a massive handshake. “Dang, boy! You let me know when you run for political office. You got my vote.”