April 2: Down to Earth (20 page)

He just nodded, like he still couldn't believe it.

"Is it time to go yet?" Easy called from the hatch.

"There's nobody in the slot after you, play over if you want, since I held you up."

"Thanks Jim." She shot for the door like she had jets.

"What color walls you want?" he asked surly.

"Black."

His eyes got big. "It's a black ball. How you going to see it? Can you even set it black?"

"Court set walls black," she commanded.

In about a half second they faded into deep black. Easy actually let out a soft moan. He held the ball up and for the first time ever they realized the ball was really dark gray. They'd never seen it, except against a bright surface.

"Uh, that's too Gothic," he admitted. "It gives me the willies. It's hard to see the corners even. It just kinda goes out forever after the serve line, like being in an open lock with no suit on." That was
not
an mental picture that appealed to a vacuum rat.

"So maybe you are rattled enough to tell me why you're mad at me?"

"Oh
that!
That's no trouble at all. I'm steamed, ‘cause you risked your sweet little buns being a hero and playing fair, with those slime ball Security Goons. Do you have any idea at all how it would tear our hearts out to sit in our living room and see you get shot because you were even stupider than an Earthie who can't figure out which end of his pistol to grab? Flipping over like a trapeze artist, so he has a chance to shoot you in the back while you're turned away?"

"Oh, you saw that?"

"Did
I
see it?" he asked incredulous. "It was on BBC and licensed to just about everyone by National Geographic, for the whole next day. It wasn't viral, it was an information pandemic. There may be a Mongol shepherd somewhere in the Gobi desert, who had a busted pocket com, so he didn't see it, but I wouldn't bet on it."

"So, Easy do you think then, my face might be fairly well known on Earth?" she asked innocently.

"Why?" he asked, with deep suspicion.

"Well, I was thinking of taking a little Earthie vacation," she said softly.

He started to say something and words failed him. "Court walls pink," he commanded.

"Anger management color?" she asked.

He nodded yes, mute. Drinking in the calming color.

"Court, top wall yellow," she said

He managed a begrudging smile at that.

"Court, bottom wall bright purple," he added. He seemed pleased with it.

"Court, right wall tartan plaid," she raised him. Surprisingly, the computer knew it.

Going for the win he said, "Court, left wall green with orange Polka Dots."

"How big?" the computer finally broke down at the lunacy.

"Fifty millimeters with double spacing," he demanded. It was made so. Only the two small end walls were still pink.

"Court, enter hatch wall black," he said to finish it off.

"Your serve," he invited, "five wall, corner pops played."

They played into the next period as Jim had invited and came out friends still. When they came out the players for the following time were there early, so Jim let them go in. They were about to leave, when the couple stuck their heads back out the hatch to stare at them. Public rudeness was rare in Home, but the man looked hard at them and said, "You are some
sick
people," before ducking back in.

Jim was embarrassed and surprised. "What was that all about?"

"After they go, tell the Court to restore to the previous color scheme and check it out," Easy instructed him. He was sorry he wouldn't be there to see his face.

Supper went smoother. Finally over dessert, with everyone sated she eased back to the problem. "You know I appreciate what you were saying about my tactics over on NLV, but I don't have any formal training. I've really just been kind of winging it. I was talking to Jon about that and he has nowhere to train his people either. I have projectile guns I have never shot. We need some training programs. If you can figure out how to do them, with the cubic we have, everybody will be grateful to you." She explained how they would probably have lunar property to train on eventually also.

"Jon needs police training and the militia needs military training. What kind, depends on what kind of doctrine they intend to pursue. For example, if we are never going to put a force on the Earth's surface, no point in training for it. Even the civilians need access to some sort of training, if everybody is gonna run around carrying. I can train for special forces and small unit insertion. You need somebody more like Margaret, for more conventional forces. Our space weapons and tactics are unlike anything made before so we'll have to make those up from scratch. There's no substitute for live weapons training, but if you want, I think we can set up a live fire exercise monthly, if we use wax bullets and goggles."

"I feel that's better than laser simulation. You
feel
something hitting you, not just hear a buzzer and you don't believe they really got you. We just have to get cooperation from the cubic owners and do it the best shift and time for them. I'd like you to run through basically a combat handgun course, before you go Earthside. And I seriously recommend you get used to wearing a fancy armor vest as part of your outfit, anytime you go out on the street down there. We can have cooling beads on it so it's comfortable. You will go armed won't you?"

"Oh yes. That's why I'm going, among other things. We want to utilize the terms of their surrender down there a little, under their noses, because they seem to be forgetting they lost."

When she got up to leave, she handed Easy two small black rectangles. "What's this? Memory?" he asked turning it looking for marks or contacts.

"A present. Jeff is making these and they will be on the market in about three months. You wear one inside your suit and one outside. The one inside absorbs all the stink. Next shift you switch them and the fresh one cleans your suit, while the used one bleeds all the stink off to vacuum. I begged him for one of the prototypes for you," April admitted. "Just hold it against a surface and it grips. Jeff says it holds on like a bug unless you grab both sides to lift it off."

"How does he come up with all this stuff?" Easy marveled.

"What's really irritating, is if you ask him he'll say," – "It was obvious."

Chapter 15

As far as the eye could see were pine trees. They covered the rolling hills packed tight. One of them had a mast added, not very noticeable, just the stripped shaft of a small sapling, that was lashed to the trunk of the bigger tree as far up as a man could safely climb. About where a lumberjack would top a tree off before bringing it down. On the end was taped a small module, which could watch almost half the sky. It was made to see the special coherent light from a laser, even against the background of the bright sky. But when the message came it was on a dark moonless night, when one of the many man-made stars racing across the sky flickered for a moment in intensity.

A mile away you would have seen nothing, but the pine and its brethren on that one hill were bathed in its faint illumination. Much later after the moon had risen and the noise of the early night had faded, a figure moved silently through the pines, stopping often to check in the deep shadows with some instrument he raised to his eyes. Of all the seemingly identical trees he went unerringly to the one with the sensor and dug in the pine needles at its base.

The common com pad he pulled out was in a plastic bag, not because it would be damaged by the soil or some rain filtering down. But just because he was fussy and neat. When he saw there was a message, he traded the memory for a blank and replaced it under the forest floor carefully leaving no sign.

"Well we told ‘em." April said needlessly, after watching her grandpa transmit their acknowledgment. "Now we'll see if they make one of the rendezvous."

Chapter 16

April wasn't miserable. She was stiff and a bit sniffly and tired which was unusual for her, early in the morning. But it really wasn't so bad. She had been inoculated Monday and spent Tuesday doing normal things but yesterday, Wednesday, she had holed up in her room, because she might be contagious before the symptoms showed. Before she went to sleep last night, she thought she might have felt something. Just a funny feeling in the back of her nose. But when she woke up this morning there was no doubt, even before she opened her eyes.

What was really miserable was feeling trapped. She had a cooler with drinks and some sandwiches and had lugged the microwave in from the kitchenette. She didn't want to roam around out in the house, even if nobody else was home, for fear of leaving a hot spot on a knob or handle, waiting to infect someone. She still had a little appetite even though she was sick and thought about heating up a couple breakfast sandwiches. It seemed like a big effort and then one of the few things she had to look forward to today would be gone. Her pad dinged lightly and she answered it, to find it was Heather, with Jeff hanging behind her as usual.

"How are you feeling?" she wanted to know.

"I don't feel real good. Just want to lay still. Nothing I can't deal with and no worse than I've caught by accident before."

"Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Nah. I have some sandwiches here, but haven't bothered yet. I will," she promised.

"Good. We just came from the cafeteria and have breakfast for all three of us. We'd like to visit and share it with you."

"But what about Jerry's rights to this, you were so concerned about?"

"We saw him going in the cafeteria and he asked us how many we had for who you wanted the mod and he was real happy with six. Jeff spoke up and said he wanted me counted as his family though and he wouldn't have to inoculate me separately. He just wanted a free ticket if I caught it from him. So he agreed on the spot to the deal and said we could tell you, if we were coming to see you. After he agreed, I said I would sweeten the pot for including me and give him a parcel of Lunar land as soon as we start surveying them out. I don't think he was sure I wasn't kidding him, but I told him I'd give him a plot next to the land for the University. I think that made it real for him. So we're legal. We won't be cheating anybody, if you're up to seeing us."

"Come on." she invited, surprised. She thought that a bigger deal with Jerry was dead, since it didn't happen right away. "I'll let you in from here. I'm staying out of the house, so just come on through."

They must have been half way from the cafeteria, because they were calling at the door in no time. In the last year she had entertained more guests than ever before, but none had ever seen her room. When they came in April got a sheet and folded it in half to put on the floor as a picnic spread. Jeff laid it out from the thermo-pak, as he had done at their first council of war, over a year ago at his family's apartment.

It filled almost all the open floor, but Jeff still commented on how big the room was. She couldn't work up any guilt about it today. They had raspberry pancakes, with a separate container of whipped cream and scrambled eggs with potatoes and bacon pieces scrambled right in. Jeff brought a separate carafe of coffee, that wasn't the sort you got from the cafeteria. As soon as she smelled it she knew it was the good stuff instead. She was full and sitting sipping her coffee and the next thing she knew her eyes were closed. The only thing interrupting her slide into sleep was Heather, taking the cup out of her hand before she dropped it.

"You need to lie back down," Heather said and they took an arm from each side and took her back to bed. When they eased her down instead of leaving, they laid on each side, crowded close to fit on the narrow bed. She didn't know what to say. They each had a leg thrown over hers and an arm crossed from each side at her waist hemming her in tightly. It felt so good squeezed between them she didn't want to object. Heather buried her nose in her ear and Jeff leaned over and said, "Let's have some of that virus." He kissed her gently on the lips and played at the corner of her mouth with his tongue. Not gross, but enough to be sure he was infected.

He rubbed gently nose to nose and touched his finger to her lips and rubbed around his eyes. She was embarrassed to feel his arousal against her leg. She was about to object she couldn't get intimate with them, when Heather leaned over and kissed her on the lips too. She was relieved to find it wasn't as exciting as Jeff, but it was strangely sweet. Very sweet. "I really love both of you but I don't think I fly that way," she explained to Heather. "And I can't be intimate with you two. I haven't done that before, I haven't any protection, I'm not ready and I feel too crappy to even want to put forth the effort just now."

"I'm not hard wired for girls either," Heather assured her. "That was just simple honest affection, not lust. Well, with Jeff I'm sure it's some lust too. You know guys, they have enough lust to share extra all around, but he'll limit expressing it today or I'll kill him. I'm sure there's some thoughtful affection mixed in there too," she gave him a stern look, not to contradict her. "We've known for awhile we love each other and we love you too. Seems there's a serious stage beyond infatuation, no anti-bonding drug inhibits. But then our bonding is by no means superficial. It was slow coming. Just go ahead and sleep. You can hardly keep your eyes open. We'll stay right here and we won't do anything to hurt you. Never will, I promise," she said.

"You guys will have to isolate in a couple days you know," she suddenly worried.

"Yes, we realize that. Relax."

"I haven't even had a shower. I must be all stinko."

"You smell just fine," Jeff said in her ear. "Sleep a little bit and when you are awake again, we'll take you in and scrub you down squeaky clean, until you squeal for mercy," he promised.

"I don't think we'll all fit," she objected before she drifted off, remembering her tiny shower. She was surprised to find she was wrong.

Chapter 17

Jeff  proudly showed his step mom the new use he had found for the quantum superconductor fluid she discovered. She was impressed and said they'd have to come to a balance how the effect would be utilized by their separate companies.