Authors: Alan Black
TASSO THOUGHT he found Tio Gabe in record time. What he found was the old man’s locator attached to his dataport on the floor in the middle of the attic. The old man was nowhere in sight. Tasso climbed to the top of a pile of junk and slowly turned in a 360-degree circle, but he couldn’t see the old man anywhere. He didn’t know where Tio Gabe went when he wandered off. The attic was a huge storage bay. It would take him all day to look for the old man. Even a few hours were too long if Gabe was hurt. His original reason for looking for his supervisor was to ask about using the ribbon maker for Cherry, but now his worry for Tio Gabe overrode that reason.
He switched on his comm-unit. “Security? This is Tasso Menzies in Aunt Aggie’s attic.”
The voice replied, “Menzies, well, well, well. Did you beat up any more football teams?”
Tasso couldn’t tell if the person behind the voice was angry or amused. He decided to try for amusement. “Been a couple of hours, why? Do you have an epidemic of out of control teenage boys running wild that you need help with?”
“Funny man, I’ll have you know one of those boys you attacked was my nephew and—”
A second voice said, “
Cállate, pendajo
. Sorry, Menzies. This is Security Sergeant Timothy Rodriguez. How may we help you?”
Tasso said, “Señor. I was looking for my supervisor. I found Tio Gabe’s dataport and his locator, but not him. I’m concerned he’s lost and hurt somewhere. I didn’t know who else to call to get help finding him.”
Rodriguez said, “You called the right place. Hold still.” He came back after a minute. “Okay. I’m only getting one heat signature in the attic. That’s you, because it matches up exactly to where your locator says you are. Go to the main storage bay hatch and wait there for me. I’ll round up a few boys and we’ll start a sweep for Tio Gabe.”
Tasso climbed down the pile of junk and wound his way around pile after pile of equipment, machinery, boxes, and plain junk. He made mental notes on a dozen things he saw, but he didn’t slow down his dash to the hatch. He was still amazed at how big the storage bay was. The last hundred yards of the bay was completely empty. In the clear, Tasso ran to the hatch.
Security Sergeant Rodriguez was waiting for him by the closed hatch, staring at the wall of items stored there. “I haven’t been in here in years,” he said. “It still looks like a wall of multicolored rubble stacked bulkhead to bulkhead, deck-to-rafters, with only a few paths through it.”
Tasso said, “Yes sir, I was impressed with all of the stuff in here when I first saw it too, and the more I see, the more impressed I become. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in here. Did you know that about a third of the way back on the left side—”
“Port side,” Rodriguez interrupted.
Tasso nodded. “Yes, sir, sorry. On that side over there,” he pointed left. “There’s an old cannon?”
Rodriguez looked startled. “Cannon? What the...?”
Tasso grinned at the man’s expression. “I originally thought the crate was mismarked or something, but I got a few boards off and inside is exactly what the outside says. That’s my point about Tio Gabe. No one knows what’s in here or even how to get around and check all of the small hidey-holes. This place could hide a horde of stobors and no one would know it until they attacked.”
“You have stobors in here!” Rodriguez shouted. He pulled his sidearm before Tasso could explain.
“No, sir. I don’t think so. Do you have stobors on New Texas?”
“Hell’s bells, Menzies. Every planet except Earth has stobors. They’re different on every planet and every one is more dangerous than the next. Don’t scare me like that.”
“Sorry, sir. I thought they were only Saronno creatures.”
Rodriguez sighed and holstered his weapon. “I get your point about Tio Gabe. You’d never find him if he was hurt. Now this is blunt, but if Gabriel Rojo is in here, he’s beyond hurt. Otherwise he would have registered on our heat scans.”
“Where should we go look for him?”
Rodriguez said, “We stay put, right here. I have a half a dozen crew and more arriving all the time to look for him. Even the captain is on her way down here to help in the search.”
“The captain is coming down here?”
“Well, probably not here. This is the center point of our search. The rest of us call Gabe tio as a title of honor. He’s really the captain’s uncle. He raised her, so she’ll jump into this search with both feet. Don’t get me wrong. We’ll pull this kind of search for anyone who’s gone missing, but Tio Gabe and young children are a priority for everybody.” He held up one finger to Tasso. “Wait.”
Tasso’s dataport emitted three high-pitched squeals. A male voice blared from both his and Rodriguez’s comm-units. “Hold for the captain.”
“Captain Rojo here. This is a missing crewmember alert. Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Tio Gabe Rojo is to report on it to security at once. Volunteers for a search party are to stand by.”
The hatch popped open. The captain and her brother, the purser, strode purposefully into the room. Her eyes raked across Rodriguez. She was about to speak to him when she noticed Tasso.
“You?” she said. “What’re you doing here?”
Tasso shrugged, “This is where you assigned me to be, Captain. The first night I came aboard you said I should work in here with Tio Gabe.”
The captain said, “That was… what, Billy? Three ports ago? Why’re you still working here? Never mind. We’ll deal with you later. Believe me, young man, we will talk. This is the third time you have been brought to my attention today. I don’t like to hear about trainees even once on a Saturday. Three times is some kind of record.”
Bill Rojo poked his sister with a finger. “Um, Lilianna, it really should be four times. I needed to get on your schedule to talk about Señor Menzies.”
The captain shook her head. “Finding Tio Gabe is our first order of business. Sergeant Rodriguez?”
Rodriguez nodded to Tasso. “Menzies here found Gabe’s locator and dataport somewhere in this mess.” He gestured to the stacks of cast off in the attic. “He knew he couldn’t search this place by himself, so he called us. We did a complete scan of the attic. Gabe isn’t in here. We called Al, who has a cabin next to Gabe’s to check on his cabin, but Tio Gabe wasn’t in his bunk.”
Tasso interrupted, “Did Al check the shower room?”
Rodriguez shook his head. “Only trainees have communal shower rooms. Crew quarters have private facilities.”
That startled Tasso. He had no idea there were even private cabins, much less, private bathrooms on the ship. He decided to keep his mouth shut around the captain. It already sounded like he was in trouble. He supposed the three reports related to his fight with Cruz, Ivan, Eber, and Flacco. It did sound like only three of the four had been hurt enough to seek medical attention. He didn’t know what report the purser might have on him. Maybe he used too much water when he showered. Grandpa always said he spent too much time in the shower. Maybe there was a time limit and he was costing too much money.
Rodriguez held his hand to his ear. “We got a call. Ernie Montoya says Tio Gabe came in for a beer to The Horn and Saddle Bar down on Deck T. Ernie says Tio Gabe only had one beer, but Ernie didn’t see him leave. It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes ago.”
The captain said, “Ten minutes! He could have hit an elevator and still be anywhere on the ship. There is a bank of elevators outside The Horn and Saddle.”
Rodriguez nodded, “Yes, Captain. If he stayed on any deck from T to GG, we couldn’t run a scan to find him. The live cattle we’re hauling will muddle any signal we try—” He stopped, again putting his hand to his ear. A grin spread over his face. “Um, we found him, Captain. Sheri from Dolly’s Place on Deck R met him in The Horn and Saddle. She decided to … a-h-h-h … give him a freebie. She heard the search warning and called it in. She says she’ll walk him back up here and she’ll get his locator and dataport put on him as soon as he is … um … well, as soon as he’s finished.”
The captain tried to frown, but a grin broke out across her face. “She called in his location when he still had a leg over? That was mighty courteous of her.”
Rodriguez shrugged. “She said he didn’t mind her calling. I guess he was somewhat distracted. Sheri is an ample sort of woman.”
The captain nodded. “I know Sheri. You should try to squeeze past her in a tight corridor to appreciate what sort of ample she is.”
Bill Rojo laughed, “Sis, every single male on this ship lines up to squeeze past Sheri every time she uses a tight corridor. And I swear she has all the tight corridors charted on the ship.”
The captain squeezed Rodriguez’s arm. “Thanks, Timmy. Good job hunting down Tio Gabe.” She pointed a finger at Tasso. “And you, Menzies. Keep your dataport ready. We’re going to talk before the day is out.” She and her brother left the attic.
Rodriguez nodded at Menzies, “Nice calling this to our attention when you did. It all turned out good, but it could’ve gone the other way. Tio Gabe is getting a bit muddled in the brainpan, and we wouldn’t want him getting hurt somewhere. You let me know when your schedule gives you a training rotation in security. Not only this, but you handled your ‘fall’ in the shower with the right force and with tact.”
“Should I wait here for Tio Gabe?”
Rodriguez nodded and smiled. “You were looking for him in the first place, right? So, you wait. Sit a while and relax. I checked your posted schedule and you aren’t scheduled to work today, anyway. Don’t worry about him. Sheri is taking care of him and she’ll get him up here safe and sound.” He followed the captain out of the storage bay.
Tasso sat and waited. He wasn’t sure who Sheri was. He figured out what they meant by ample, but he searched his memory for the phrase ‘throwing a leg over’ but he didn’t recall ever hearing it before. He was searching for the phase and others like it on the shipnet when a woman and Tio Gabe entered the bay.
The woman kissed Tio Gabe lightly on the forehead and left. Tio Gabe allowed Tasso to pin his dataport to his coverall. Tasso fixed the old man’s locator to his wrist with a thin packing strip. It would take snipping shears to get it off, so he was sure the old man wouldn’t get lost again today. Tio Gabe seemed distracted, but strangely, more lucid than normal.
Tasso’s written job description and instructions didn’t say anything about letting crewmembers use reconditioned equipment from the attic. He asked for permission, expecting to have to unravel one of Tio Gabe’s verbal mysteries and wasn’t disappointed.
Tio Gabe said, “There isn’t any reason crew can’t use anything we find in here. It takes a senior officer’s approval to take anything off the ship. As Obi-wan says, ‘Let the force be with you.’ I desire an exposition with the brother of death.”
Tasso frowned and followed Tio Gabe all the way back to the man’s cabin. The old man slipped off his shoes and slid into his bunk. He was snoring loudly before Tasso closed the hatch behind him. He leaned against Tio Gabe’s cabin hatch and double-checked the shipnet on ‘death’s brother’. He had a vague idea of what Tio Gabe was saying, but until he read about it being a reference to sleep, he wasn’t absolutely sure.
“Gabe napping?” a man said.
Tasso nodded and looked up into the face of Tio Gabe’s neighbor. “Yes, sir, whatever he was doing seemed to make him sleepy.”
Al asked, “Where’d they find him?”
Tasso shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m not sure it’s my place to say.”
Al said, “Good lad. A closed mouth is the way it should be. As long as they found him and brought him home.”
Tasso nodded. “A young woman named Sheri found him and brought him back.”
Al laughed and said, “Sheri always makes me sleepy too. Good for Gabe.”
Tasso whistled to himself all the way back to the attic. It didn’t take long to re-find the extruder as he’d previously logged its location into the database. Now he changed its location to the lingerie shop on the promenade. He loaded the machine onto a small sled and was back on the promenade before he had whistled through the same song more than three times.
He paused at the door of the shop and knocked on the doorframe.
Cherry was talking to a customer. She looked up and smiled. Her wave invited him into the shop. The extruder trailed along behind him. The machine was small but still took up a lot of available aisle space. Cherry was trying to explain to the customer that the shipment of ribbons hadn’t arrived. The customer was trying to explain how it didn’t matter if the shipment hadn’t arrived; she needed the ribbons she ordered.
Tasso was hesitant to interrupt, so he waved and finally got Cherry’s attention. “Cherry, I can get your ribbons now. Tell me the specifications you need.” He popped open the control panel to the Thurmand Corporation plasti-cellulose extruder, called up the manual, and thumbed through the index until he found the chapter on ribbons. He thumbed through the subheadings until he found a section actually labeled women’s hair ribbons. It startled him when he noticed the preceding section covered horsetail ribbons. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would put ribbons on a horse’s tail.
“Ahem.”
Tasso quit reading the manual on horsetail ribbons. “Sorry. I got distracted.”
Cherry laughed, “And I thought it was my beauty that distracted all the young men around here. I’m devastated to know a young man can be distracted by a technical manual.” She turned to the woman next to her. “Dee, please let our technician know specifically what you need.”