Boots on The Ground
For a brief moment, Rodney considered running down the hall to see if he could catch the freed pilot, then decided against it. If he could get out of detention without being detected, he would be long gone.
No, he needed to be in two places at once. Turning toward the center of the station platform, he made his way to his permanent dock. He contacted Tony again. He picked up immediately. Thank God Tony liked to talk on the phone. Well, he didn’t like it, but he would do it. Of course, for Rodney that was essential. Sam had accused him of having “pickle fingers.” True, his hands were large, but he didn’t think they were unusually so. Nevertheless, typing on anything smaller than a full size keyboard was anoyingly difficult.
Rodney called or left video messages. More often than not, he preferred not to leave anything. “How’s it looking?” He asked Tony.
“Depends, how long are we going for?”
Rodney didn’t know. “She’s usually stocked, what’s the problem.”
“Well, usually is the key word. Actually most of the long haul stuff is set, it’s the fuel.” Rodney understood. The port authority did not like to have ships full of self burning fuel just sitting around. “Right now you’ve got the bare minimum. Looks like she hasn’t moved in months.”
“She hasn’t,” Rodney admitted.
“Well, right now we’re just barely good enough to make a surface decent for an Earth 1 level planet. If you want to come back however, we’re shit out of luck.”
Rodney knew immediately. “We’re going to need that. Can you fill her up?”
“That’s going to take some time. Last second fuel request, there’s always a queue, and it’s going to cost.”
“I’m not worried about the money,” Rodney said. But the time? “Reach out to Hastings, see if he can help. I just threw a plumb his way, maybe he can be generous and sell us some fuel.”
“Hastings?” Tony sounded surprised.
“You got a better idea?”
“I’d check with Ike. He owes you from like way back.”
“Fine, call who you have to call, but we need to be full of fuel and out of here in twenty minutes.”
“I’ll make it happen,” Tony replied. “Anything else?”
“You tell me?”
There was a short pause, then, “We could use some fresh food. We got lots of raw materials and long haul stuff but nothing… you know, alive.”
Rodney forgot that Tony was a bit of a health nut. “We can grab that at our first top. Fuel will be harder to get where we’re going.” Which was true. It was also true that he didn’t trust the fuel where they were going.
“Okay, sounds good,” Tony replied then hung up.
Rodney reached the central complex of conveyors that moved pedestrians toward the lift shafts. They were well above the loading zone for the elevator. This half of the orbital platform was like a giant indoor shopping mall, with open levels, windows, and conveyors running in nearly every direction.
Gravity was extremely low here as the station did not like to use artificial grave plates close to the elevator cable return mechanism. Tow lines like brightly colored twinkly lights glistened from mooring points around the massive walk way. It always struck Rodney like a Christmas tree turned inside out.
He thought about free falling to the central lift, then decided against it. His instincts told him that he’d already attracted too much attention. He reached, out grabbed a fist full of plastic-wire then connected it to the carabiner on his belt. Immediately he was pulled up and away from the floor toward the central shaft.
He effortlessly maintained his orientation, but smiled when he saw a family of five - like ducks on a line, spinning every which way but up. The kids were having a ball, but the mother looked like she was going to have a heart attack. The father on the other hand was doubled over and green from sudden gyrations.
You don’t want to throw up man, Rodney thought looking at the poor guy. The containment and clean up protocols in zero gee were not user friendly.
The man seemed to hold it together until they reached the second floor near the food court, and the kids came tumbling after him. His wife, landed gracefully, which impressed Rodney, then he turned his attention back to his destination. A few minutes later he was on the platform. This time he took the chance to free pilot and pushed himself toward the central lift.
He caught the handle outside the elevator gracefully and swiped his hand over the scanner and said, “West Docks.” A clear plastic bubble large enough to hold two our three people appeared and Rodney floated inside. Moments later, it accelerated toward the spinward side of the station, and some semblence of gravity returned.
Rodney made another call.
Tracy Richards was working in her garden when she heard her phone ring. She touched the bud in hear ear and answered.
“Trace?”
She knew the voice instantly, and smiled. “Rodney. What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time?” She asked good naturedly.
“Nothing yet,” he replied.
Tracy sat back on her haunches, set down her trawl and started to pull off her gardening gloves. Instinctively she turned and looked toward the Space Elevator. It was visible from practically everywhere on the continent, but up here in Seattle, it looked like a thread on the horizon connected to a small cluster of stars.
“What do you need?” She stood up, picked up her tools, and gardening matt and started back toward the house.
“I need some boots on the ground,” Rodney explained. “I’ve got to run a little errand, but in the mean time, I need someone to make sure all my i’s are dotted, and all my t’s are crossed.”
“Paperwork?” Tracy didn’t sound too excited.
“Not exactly. I want you to meet with these people in person. Keep as much off the net as possible, keep a low profile, and for god’s sake, make sure it’s well documented and official. We don’t want anything to go sideways.”
“Are you telling me you don’t have a signed contract?” Tracy paused on the back patio of her ranch home.
“I’ve got a verbal commitment. I need you to secure the formal agreement before I start wracking up expenses.”
“Can you at least tell me what it’s about?”
“I’ll tell you what I know,” Rodney said a little too smoothly for her tastes. “Nina Penrose believes her brother is missing. He’s a few days overdue to return from a family vacation. I want this well documented in case the insurance company complains about my fee.”
Tracy knew immediately something else was up. Rodney never talked about fees. That also told her he believed this conversation was being recorded. In fact, he was probably banking on it being recorded.
She had known Rodney long enough, and well enough to recognize he was tossing her a hot potato.
“And what if I’m too busy to take it?” She looked around at her back yard. The sun was starting to set and the empty house sat foreboding and dark. She hugged herself and stayed on the patio, enjoying the sunlight a little longer as it filtered through the tall cypress and Douglas fir trees just beyond her lot.
“Are you too busy?”
“No,” she could never turn Rodney down, but yes was never her first instinct either. She set her gardening tools down in the workbox and gently closed the lid. “What do you need?”
“I need you to pay a visit to our client and make sure she executes the contract.”
“Do you have something special in mind?”
“Use the same one we used last time.”
Tracy nodded, “Sure” She activated a virtual console from her phone and created a new file. The folder appeared at the bottom of a long list of similar ones under Rodney’s name, although the most recent entry had been over a year prior. “It has been a while,” she commented.
“Yeah,” Rodney agreed, or admitted. She wasn’t sure which.
“What, you feeling guilty?”
He didn’t say anything. He never could apologize. “I also need you to pay a visit to his office. I understand he missed a very important meeting. But that’s all I know.”
“You think there might be some more money on the table?”
“It’s possible,” he agreed.
“But you’re looking for something else,” Tracy guessed.
“I don’t know what I’m looking for to be honest,” he admitted. “But this I know, if anyone can find out what’s missing, it’s you.”
Tracy smiled. “So now you have faith in me?”
“I always had faith in you,” He said earnestly, which made her blush, then immediately felt embarrassed about it. She didn’t serve with him any more. She hadn’t for a long time. She didn’t have to act like a cadet when her Sargent gave her damned compliment. She was secretly glad this call was voice only.
“Okay, I got it.”
“Okay read it back to me,” He ordered, and the moment was gone. God he could be such a demanding prick.
“Get Nina Penrose to sign the contract looking for her brother. Then stop by his work and see what’s what, and see if perhaps we can sell them some services too - and keep an eye open for any kind of weirdness.”
“Yep, that’s the deal.”
“What’s our guys name?”
“Ask his sister.”
“And the company?”
“Same answer.”
Tracy had almost forgotten that Rodney believed their line was not secure. But what the hell was secure anymore? Even if she walked into a meeting face to face with someone surveillance was everywhere. Privacy was an illusion.
“When you need this by?”
“How fast can you get it?”
“You’re launching soon aren’t you?”
“I don’t want the trail to go cold.”
“I’ll get on it now then.”
“Now!?” Rodney sounded surprised.
“I don’t want you to think I’m just sitting around weighting for you to call Mr. Morris,” Tracy said pertly.
“No, not at all. I expect you were gardening when I called.”
“Go to hell.”
“You’ll get me that contract in the morning?”
“You’ll have it tonight,” Tracy disconnected the call. God that man could infuriate her. And wow she really needed to be infuriated. To feel something was a blessing.
She popped up from her chair, and stepped confidently toward her dark house. The timid gardener had vanished, melting away like a vapor cloud. In her place was a confident, irritated licensed insurance investigator. And the best part? It would take here away from here. Her house… her fathers house… had begun to take on the aura of a mausoleum. This was exactly what she needed. To get out and do something.
That’s when she smiled. God bless Morris. Maybe someone else could have busted her out of her slump, but at that moment she couldn’t imagine anyone else who could have. She almost whistled as she changed into her travel gear. Her virtual assistant retrieved Nina’s address in Florida. Tracy glanced at her watch and did the math. She could get to the transit center in about twenty minutes and then the portal jump should take no more than five, plus another twenty on the other side to reach Boca. With the three hour time change and travel, she’d arrive by 9PM.
Tracy nodded. She’d have the contract signed before 10. If Rodney could leave the system in less than two hours she’d be impressed.
She summoned the travel drone, and set the security system as she left the house. The whisper quiet magnito drives settled the passenger carrier on driveway, and she stepped inside the clearsteel sphere and it took off, whisking her into the sky to join the particle flood of drone traffic headed toward the transit hub. Like dark blood cells in an aerial artery, her self guided transport merged with traffic and sped toward the massive terminuous that hovered over the bay outside Gig Harbor.
She leaned back and reflected on how quickly she had dropped everything to help Rodney then frowned when she remembered that everything was actually nothing. It really was like she was waiting for that call. She didn’t want to think about how badly she had needed someone to reach out to her.
Damn it. Why couldn’t she just move on?
She had no answer to that question, so she stared silently out the window and tried not to think about it.