Titanium Texicans (29 page)

“
Justo es justo
, mi hermana,” Purser Rojo grunted. “Fair is fair. What my sister is saying is that we’ve seen injustice on more than one planet! Saronno isn’t an isolated incident. I’m tired of being a part of it.”

“I don’t understand.”

Captain Rojo said, “You know the chiamra farmers on Saronno are being cheated on the price of their crop and we, the freighters, are paying over inflated prices. The co-operatives and large conglomerates like Saronno Produce Lobby Associates keep the farmers, like you and your family, in what amounts to nothing less than economic slavery. The profit all goes to some rich intermediary. That situation isn’t unique to Saronno. What Billy wants to do is get one of these agricultural-processing plants working. We can give our planetary agent the ag-unit and set them up as a buyer and the shipping agent. We’ll get a lower price if we buy direct, and the farmers will get a fair wage.”

Bill said, “This whole thing is your idea, Tasso. You said we should do this. Now it rides on getting one of these agricultural-processing units working.”

Tasso said, “Just one?” He patted the machine. “This is number four. I have the other three already running. All we need to do is test them.”

The captain said, “What kind of test?”

“We put something in one side and run it through to make sure that what comes out the other end is what we ordered. This is a commercial unit that will process anything from raw ore to garden weeds.”

“Then you would certify it for use?” the captain asked.

“I guess,” Tasso said. “But if you want to take it to the farmers, it might be a good idea if we mounted all four on sleds, flitter frames, or maybe even commercial grade shuttle carriages, if we could get something strong and wide enough. That’d make the units mobile. You could go from farm to farm during harvest time instead of having the farmers travel to a central location. Most farmers on Saronno have to make multiple trips to the processing plant. Going to them should be more efficient. You’d just have to shuffle containers of product back and forth—.”

Suddenly Tasso’s dataport blasted “This is Security Sergeant Rodriguez. Señor Menzies, we need your expertise up by the attic’s main hatch.

“Hold on, Sergeant,” he replied. He looked at the captain. “I don’t know, maybe you could set up the processing right at the spaceport … no, the Saronno government controls the spaceport and I don’t think they or Bruce Menzies will be too happy when you cut them out of the middle.”

“Tasso!” Rodriguez’s voice blared. “Come on, amigo. I have a bunch of people sitting on their thumbs, waiting for you to check out if this cannon works. Quit screwing around and come on up here.”

The captain reached up to answer the sergeant’s call, but Tasso interrupted her by responding to the security officer. “Sergeant, please go ahead and test the cannon without me if you’re in a big hurry. Just let me know so I can get to an escape pod in case you blow a hole in the side of the ship. I’m meeting with someone, and I’ll be there a soon as I’m done. In the meantime, you can get your thumb-sitters to unbox the rest of those red striped crates to see what you have.”

“Trainee Menzies,” Rodriguez’s voice changed to an official tone. “As a crewman, I’m ordering you to come here. I’ve a piece of dangerous equipment that needs review. You’re a trainee; you don’t have important meetings, so you and your girlfriend can both shag your lazy butts up here, on the double.”

Tasso tried not to laugh at the expression on the captain’s face. “Sergeant, that cannon isn’t dangerous unless you pull the trigger. Do not pull the trigger. However, I’ll come to the hatch as quickly as I can.”

The captain shrugged. “Billy and I have the answers we came in for, except two. Question one: can you get these units mobile in the next month?”

Tasso shook his head, “No, Captain. I have one old flitter platform and one pallet sled. I don’t know if the flitter platform is even viable. There may be more stuff buried in here, but at the rate I’m going, it’ll be years before I get the attic cataloged, cleaned up, and repaired or scrapped. To get the agricultural-processing units mobile, I need more lifter equipment, plus I really don’t have enough knowledge to balance a load this size on lifters.”

She nodded, “Well, fortunately I have a whole crew and the resources of this whole ship. Let me see what I can put together for you.”

“And your second question?” he asked.

“How the heck do we get out of here?” she laughed. “Besides, I’d like to see this cannon you found.”

Tasso led them to the front hatch in a direct line. He noticed the captain was in good physical condition, bounding up and down the mounds of goods with incredible speed. They slid down the last pile and walked across the open space toward Sergeant Rodriguez. The sergeant stood waiting for Tasso with his hands on his hips, tapping his foot in frustration, as if urging Tasso to hurry. The tapping stopped, his hands dropped, and the expression on his face froze when he realized who was accompanying Tasso.

“Captain,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t realize it was you talking with Trainee Menzies.”

Captain Rojo said, “I assumed that much from the tone you took with him. However, water under the bridge, show us what you’ve uncrated.”

CHAPTER 30

TASSO KNOCKED on the captain’s hatch. He shifted the box in his hand from one hip to the other. The big box wasn’t heavy, but bulky enough to be uncomfortable. He was more uncomfortable about coming to see the captain without a summons. Yesterday, she said he could come and talk with her anytime he wanted to, but an offer had a different feel than actually doing it. Had she made her invitation out of politeness? Did she mean he should make an appointment? Maybe she was too busy to talk to him now. Maybe she wasn’t even in her office. What if she meant he should come to see her if he only wanted to talk? He did have another errand at hand.

The hatch clicked and popped open. Tasso pushed the hatch open and carried the box inside.

“Trainee Menzies,” Captain Rojo said, “please come in. I need a distraction from all this paperwork.”

Tasso couldn’t see any paper on her desk, just a few dataports and displays. He set the box down on the chair.

The captain looked at the box with open curiosity. “Did you need to talk to me about something or have you got something in the box to show me?”

Tasso opened the box lid and lifted out a wooden chest. “I was checking out the flitter lift capabilities by taking a direct route from the agricultural-processing unit and I came over a stack of goods, starting a small avalanche. When I went back to clean up, I noticed a few crates of what looked like crew-owned goods were under the pile. A couple of boxes had names on them.”

Captain Rojo’s eyebrows shot up in interest. “And you brought this one to me because …?” She slapped her forehead. “Dang it. I hate it when people don’t actually finish a question. Why are you bringing this to my attention?”

“Well, I looked up a couple of names on the shipnet. This chest contains personal items from your great—” He looked up and counted on his fingers. “Great, great, great, great grandmother. I thought you might want it.” He set the chest on the desk, directly in front of her.

She reached out to touch the chest, but drew her hand back as if the little wooden box was too hot to touch. “Oh, my!” She stared at the box with frank amazement and curiosity.

Tasso cleared his throat, “I thought since family plays such a big part in what goes on around here that you might want this. I mean, I know you probably know everything about your family for more generations that I can count without using my fingers. I know so little about my own family that I got curious.”

She looked up in surprise. “I can imagine how family must feel to you, since you’ve had so little of it. I’ve had more family in my life than I know what to do with, but beyond a few older generations, it’s all data and old holos, vids, and images. This is so tangible.”

“Well, I didn’t open it. It might be private, but I wondered if you’d let me see what was inside. If not, I understand. I mean, I get touchy about my family.”

The captain commanded, “Sit.” She touched the chest with a reverent fingertip. She smiled as if not having burned her finger was an immense pleasure and a good sign everything was all right to continue. There wasn’t a lock on the chest, so she flicked open the small latch and flipped open the lid.

Tasso sighed with relief. His worry was that the box held nothing more than used female undergarments or nothing at all. Instead of nothing, the chest was jammed with miscellaneous personal items. They looked like things Grandpa called knick-knacks and dust collectors. He and Grandma covered one wall with images and various certificates, awards, and commendations. His grandfather considered most other items to be clutter. Unless something had a specific useful purpose, Grandpa discarded it quickly.

Information buried on his dataport and in his memory was all Tasso knew of his family beyond his grandparents. What he knew of his mother was in the same database and what faded memories he clung to. Looking at items from such a distant ancestor who actually owned, touched, and revered these things enough to save them, was intriguing. He wanted something of his mother other than a child’s distant and unreliable memories, a few bits of data, and a rock-covered grave on a faraway planet. Tasso looked up at the captain. She was staring back at him. He could see she felt the same way about the items and her family. They were at opposite ends of the family spectrum. She had more family than she could count. He had none. But, they both felt that connection to the past oozing forth from the chest.

Pulling a 3D player from the top of the chest, setting it on the desk, she tapped the on button. A holo of a young woman in a cheerleader’s uniform popped into life. The image shouted and danced in all of her seven-inch glory across the desk. The captain reached into the image and shut off the sound, letting the girl’s holo continue her dance.

Tasso was almost too embarrassed to look. The girl’s uniform covered even less than Anisa and Kendra’s cheerleading outfits did. He couldn’t help but look, and the captain didn’t seem to mind as she stared with unabashed curiosity as the girl stripped off what there was of her tiny top, completely exposing her breasts. The girl whipped her hair around and ground her hips with unabashed enthusiasm.

The captain smiled and said, “Great Grandma was
un poco de una tarta
. Well, styles change I guess.”

Tasso glanced at his dataport for a quick translation of the captain’s Spanish phrase. He wasn’t going to admit that Great Grandma was acting like a little tart. Instead, he said, “She looks like Anisa.” He stared at the little dancer, squinting to get a good look.

The captain looked at Tasso. “Really? You’ve seen my niece without her top on?”

Tasso blushed and looked away. “No, ma’am … I mean, no, Captain. I meant her face.” He held up a hand to block the girl’s gyrating body so he could peer at her face over his palm. “I don’t mean it like she is an exact duplicate, but I can sure see the resemblance.”

The captain nodded, studying the girl’s face, “Well, we don’t talk with my baby sister about it, but Anisa is a bit of a tart, too.” She glanced at Tasso’s shocked look. “Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist. She’s my family and I love her. I know you’re sweet on her as well, but the girl isn’t exactly studying for the priesthood.” She pushed the player over to the side just as the girl’s dance morphed into the same girl strutting around in a long, white sparkling dress.

Tasso tore his eyes away and watched Rojo pull another 3D player out and turn it on. This one played a picture of some family outing with young children running through the grass at the edge of a pool covered in mist from a high waterfall. The young dancer had grown up and was chasing children, who in turn chased her and a man.

The captain slid this over to the other player, letting it run with the images overlapping. The young dancer was in a red ship’s uniform, giving a speech, while an older her chased her children around at her feet. The captain said, “I’ve actually seen this family in the ship’s archives. The oldest boy in the image is my direct ancestor.”

Soon there were a dozen images moving around on the desktop, silently moving in patterns recorded seven generations before. Most weren’t images of the dancer or any later version of her, but of her family and close friends. The young dancer amazed Tasso, and he knew he would think of her often. Not just her naked breasts, but also trying to wrap his brain around how the images of the dancing cheerleader’s family were in her future, yet they were in his distance past.

The captain reached into the box and pulled out a clear crystal globe. Inside was a black scorpion, frozen on display. “Oh my! This is a real Texas scorpion.” She stared at the evil-looking little creature. “I guess we’ve stylized this scorpion some, but I’ve only seen one other of these creatures before. The scorpion on display at Rojo Freight headquarters on New Texas. I’m sure going to have to find somewhere prominent to display this.”

She pulled an oversized dataport from the box. Nothing happened when she tapped the on switch. She turned it over and looked on the back. She held it close to try and catch the light. “It says ‘made in’ … I can’t make out the word … ‘C H blank N blank’. That doesn’t match any planet I’m familiar with.”

Tasso pointed at the side of the small device. “Try pushing that.” There was what looked like a small switch or toggle. He shrugged when the captain looked at him. “I don’t know. Unless there’s a manual to read, I don’t know how it works. It looks like a dataport, but it’s bigger than any I’ve ever seen.”

The captain nodded and pushed the toggle. A small door popped open revealing a tiny empty gap. “This looks like a battery slot.”

“A what?” Tasso asked.

“Battery slot.” At Tasso’s confused look, she said, “Batteries were old power storage devices we used before power node chargers were made small enough for hand-held devices.” She leaned back and pulled a small toolkit from a bottom drawer in the credenza. She pulled out a powerwand and twisted the end until the contacts were barely wide enough to slide into the battery slot.

There was a pop and a sizzle with a little static and a picture of a young man leaped into life. Tasso was amazed. The picture was a real 2D image, small and square, hovering over the dataport. The man’s voice said, “That was our last view of Austin. Next stop is Houston and the spaceport. I’m so excited and my bride,” he reached off screen and pulled a young woman into view, “my bride, the ever so beautiful, Sandy Ortiz Rojo is so nervous about our impending space trip that she can’t keep her breakfast down. Or is that just morning sickness, love?”

The young woman poked the man in the side, “Shut up, Johnny.” She grinned and patted the small bump on her belly.

Tasso could see the resemblance between the woman and Captain Rojo. Even down through the multitude of generations, they were obviously family. He glanced up at the captain and was surprised to see the woman staring aghast at the picture. Her mouth was open and a quick laugh escaped.

The man waved his arms around him as the scenery flew by. Whatever transport they were using was now moving at a quick pace across wide plains. “We are saying goodbye to Earth and Texas. New Texas here we come.”

The captain hit the dataport off switch and gently pulled the powerwand from the battery slot. “Well …” She obviously didn’t know what to say. “That needs to go to information support services for data retrieval and download.” She put it carefully over to the side. “Images of Earth! Imagine that!” She looked at Tasso and shrugged. “And a Rojo married to an Ortiz. It is a common name, but I wonder …” Her voice faded away as she tried to mentally peer into the past and draw a connecting line to the future.

Tasso shrugged. Earth may have been man’s birthplace and his jumping off point into space, but Saronno was his birthplace. That was his home. He didn’t need to see the images stored on his dataport to remember his home. He clearly remembered the sun glinting its morning light off the canyon walls of his valley.

The captain sighed and pulled a small cloth pouch from the box. She dumped a handful of jewelry onto the desk. There was a shiny stylized scorpion label broach, a few necklaces, a bracelet full of colorful stones, and a small gold ring. She picked up the ring and held it to the light to read the inscription. “All my love, John to Sandra.”

Tasso left the office quietly as Captain Rojo stared at the ring with tears trailing slowly down her cheeks, obviously overcome by how personal and tangible her family’s history had become.