Authors: Alan Black
KENDRA WAS THE CAPTAIN’S shuttle cart driver. The young woman delighted in the squeals of the Okpara women as she slid the cart around corners, screeching the tires and wailing for people to get out of the way. Everyone, including Tasso, hung onto the seat rails with white knuckled grips. He imagined riding with her was like trying to ride a jack-o’-lantern, and an angry jack at that. Everyone hung on, except Kendra, who laughed and reveled in the wind blowing through her hair.
“Cherry’s Lingerie Shop. Everybody out. You best hurry, since she’s already been open for an hour or so.” Kendra sang. She grabbed Tasso by the front of his coveralls and kissed him on the cheek. She held up her wrist with the wooden bracelet Tasso had bought from Ndubuka. “I love this and I’m glad I got it in town. It would have been too late if I’d waited until now to get it.”
Tasso started to ask what she meant, but she waved and raced off toward a freight elevator, speeding back to her designated spot to sit and wait for the captain to need her again. He shook his head. Kendra was a beautiful girl, but she acted odd in a strange sort of way most of the time.
Cherry rushed out to meet them and ushered them back into her shop. People, most wearing Araña Rojo colors, packed the little store. “I’m sorry I don’t have much time right now. We’re really busy and I only have a few moments to spare.”
Mrs. Okpara stared open-mouthed with unabashed curiosity. “I imagined a rich shop, but I did not imagine big enough. This is all yours?”
Cherry nodded and said, “This is mine and my business partner.” She pointed at Ain waiting on a customer at the counter.
“Ayeee! Two such women with pale hair. How can this be? You must make your man very wealthy and very happy indeed.”
Cherry laughed. “I haven’t found a man yet who could throw his lasso around me. Ain and I don’t have husbands.”
“Who takes your profits and advises you on how to run your store? Is Tasso Menzies the man in charge?”
Tasso replied, “Mrs. Okpara, Cherry is the boss. She tells me what to do and I do it.”
“This is so?” Mrs. Okpara didn’t look convinced.
Tasso realized that even if she wasn’t convinced, her daughter and daughter-in-law got the picture. “Can we show Mrs. Okpara and Ndubuka where their inventory will be displayed?”
Cherry shook her head, “Nope. They are—”
A woman wearing Araña colors interrupted. “These are the women who sewed those Kaduna dresses? Dang it! I got here just past too late. The Araña Rojo is my ship. We’ll be back here in about eight months. Your shop is in town, right? Well, you can count on me to stop by.” The woman breezed out of the store without waiting for Mrs. Okpara to answer any of her questions.
Cherry said, “Nothing I bought from your inventory lasted longer than an hour. I could’ve sold ten times what I bought from you. I’ve even had to fight off people trying to buy those carvings you bought, Tasso. I’ll take them off your hands if you want. If you have other plans, you best get them sold or you’re going to start a riot. And don’t take too long, we need you back here as quick as you can.”
Before Tasso could answer, a warm soft hand sliding into his startled him. “Hi, handsome.” He turned to see Anisa. “Hi. Do you remember the Okparas?”
“Of course, silly, that’s why I’m here. Part of my duties is to act as a guide to visitors. The captain asked me to look after the Okparas and show them around.”
“Great.” Tasso squeezed her hand and was pleased when she squeezed back. “Ndubuka and I need to take his carvings down to The Big Barn Saddle and Tackle Shop. Do you think they’ll want to buy them for resale?”
Anisa laughed. “If they don’t, you report them to the medical center for brain scans. And where would you ladies like to go?”
Tasso left Anisa to take charge of the Okpara women. He and Ndubuka stepped back into the promenade’s wide corridor. They almost bumped into the doctor.
“What are you up to, Menzies?” she asked.
“Doctor Valenzuela, I’m showing a guest, Mr. Ndubuka Okpara, around our ship. Ndubuka, this is our doctor. It’s nice to see you, Doctor. Perhaps we can talk later.”
She looked puzzled when they walked away, but understanding dawned on her while watching Ndubuka’s hobbling gait while he and Tasso grabbed a pallet jack stacked with boxes of carvings and ambled through the crowd of people. Tasso looked behind him. Sure enough, the doctor was following closely behind them with a scanner pointed in Ndubuka’s direction. He also noticed a small crowd of men following behind them. He shook his head. One fight was enough for the day. He didn’t recognize any of these men, but they were obviously intent on following him.
The Big Barn Saddle and Tackle Shop was jammed with cowboys, but Tasso bulled his way through to the counter. The owner grinned at him and wrapped him up in a bear hug. It startled him, because other than providing the man with a few specialty items from the extruder, they weren’t really friendly. Well, not hugging friendly.
“Menzies, I hope you can get me more goods before the day is half over. I’m barely keeping up.”
Tasso set a box on the counter. He pulled out carvings of a Kaduna bull and a Texas longhorn. He pulled out the tai carving to get at a couple of horses. The bird glittered in the lights, but Tasso put it back in the box. The spectacular carving was his and he didn’t plan to sell it.
“Sir, do you think your customer’s might be willing to buy these?”
A man shouted from the group of men who followed him from Cherry’s. “Son, I didn’t follow you down here from that foo-foo shop just cuz you’re pretty. You name your price. I want one of each of those carvings.”
The storeowner guided Tasso and Ndubuka over to the side, out of earshot of the customers. “How much you need for them? Mind you, I can’t pay too much, but if we got a deal, I’ll buy them all.” The man leaned over and pushed a stack of saddle blankets to the floor. “I’ll set them on display right here.”
With no haggling at all, he paid Tasso twice what Tasso owed Okpara’s son. He promised, with reasonably good grace, not to charge more than double what he paid Tasso. Ndubuka cried when Tasso handed him the credits to match the agreed price. The owner of the saddle shop cried when Tasso wouldn’t sell him the carved tai. The last man in the line cried when the carvings sold out before Tasso and Ndubuka got out of the store and before he got to the front of the line.
Tasso and Ndubuka found Anisa taking the Okpara women on a shopping spree around the promenade. They were working hard to put a dent in their newfound wealth. They bought thread, needles, buttons, zippers, buckles, and dozens of bolts of cloth for dressmaking. They bought all of the ribbon from Cherry they could carry. They bought new chairs and small tables for work. Every promenade shop made a sale to the Okpara clan, each place promising delivery by the end of the day. The Kadunian family tried something at every restaurant and nibbled on everything they could get their hands on. A set of woodworking tools in the hobby shop fascinated Ndubuka. He refused to use the family money to buy the whole set or even to accept it as a gift from Tasso. He paid his own credits to buy a few knives and a specialty chisel. He cradled them as if they were precious, showing them to his wife with pride. His wife smiled and caressed the tools as if they were as precious to her as to her husband.
Kendra hit the brakes and the shuttle cart screeched to a halt next to the Okparas. The goods purchased by the Okparas filled her cart. She grinned at Tasso and punched Anisa in the arm in good-natured friendship.
Anisa squealed in fake pain. “Hey! I thought the captain took you off driver duty as too dangerous to pedestrians?”
Kendra laughed, “Yeah, but she couldn’t find a better driver for our special guests, so I got drafted back. This sure beats working in equine waste management, again.”
Doctor Valenzuela and Otto pulled up in a second cart. Otto jumped out, grabbed Ndubuka, and set him on the back of the cart. The man struggled to get up, but Otto just laughed and held him down with one big bear-like paw. The doctor laid a heavy, circuit-filled blanket over Ndubuka’s leg and plugged it into a medical scanner. She muttered something about backcountry witch doctors and yanked the blanket off her unwilling patient.
Tasso put a hand on Ndubuka’s shoulder. “She only sounds mean. She really is a good doctor.”
Valenzuela said, “Shut up, Menzies. You’re going to ruin my reputation.” She grabbed the Okpara’s daughter by her arm and said, “Ndubuka, is this your wife? No? I didn’t think so.” She jabbed an injector into the girl’s arm. “Your stomach cramps should go away soon. That shot will cure those parasites you picked up from god-knows-where.” She pointed at Ndubuka’s wife. “Are you with him?”
The woman nodded.
“I thought so,” she grabbed Ndubuka by the chin and yanked his head around to look him in the eyes. “I can fix your leg. It won’t hurt more than a little bit, but it’ll take a week or so to get you fixed up right. Do you want to go for a ride in a spaceship? Besides, we need to get your wife on a regular course of prenatal vitamins so you can have a healthy baby. Oh? Didn’t know that news, did ya? Okay? Good. Otto get them into the cabin we have set up by medical.”
Otto was gone with Ndubuka and his wife before anyone could protest.
Mrs. Okpara was stunned. Tasso knew it’d happened almost too fast to follow, but Valenzuela and her team worked that way. He’d been trapped in their clutches more than once. The ship’s medical staff was uncomfortable to be around when you were in their clutches, but he had to admit, he never felt better in his life.
Mrs. Okpara said, “What do I tell Ndubuka’s father?”
Valenzuela laughed. “You tell him we’ll be back here in about a year plus a few months. We’ll give him back his son and throw in a new grandson to boot.”
Tasso turned Mrs. Okpara and her daughter over to Anisa and Kendra. He spent the rest of the day making custom orders for the clusters of Red Spider’s crew shopping on the Red Scorpion’s promenade. Anisa dropped by in the afternoon to check on him. He took a break and bought her a cold Sola Cola while she showed him what she had bought on the Red Spider’s promenade. He blushed bright red when she gave him a brightly colored shirt made in the Texican style. He tried to protest because he hadn’t gotten her a gift, but she wiggled the wooden bracelet from Kaduna at him. Grabbing his chin, steadying his face between both hands, she kissed him on the lips, long and slow. It’d been in front of everyone. He didn’t know what to do, so he sat and blushed until his break was over and he went back to work.
He kissed her again a dozen times on Sunday during the rodeo. The rodeo still confused him. He’d been concerned about how they treated the animals, but after awhile it seemed the animals won more times than they lost. The only creatures getting hurt were the cowboys. He decided if that is what cowboys did for a living, he didn’t want to have anything to do with it.
He kissed Anisa a dozen more times during the football game. Watching Gordo crash into the opposition was fascinating. He cheered and yelled until he was hoarse. Every time he looked at Anisa, her lips were there.
TASSO KNEW it didn’t matter how happy Anisa made him with her kisses, he was still boiling about Captain Delgado Rojo calling him an Ortiz. He didn’t care if the spaceships were swapping cargo and switching lanes. He knew he should be happy because the plan had a slim chance of getting him back to Saronno by his eighteenth birthday. The captain said there were no guarantees, but they were going to try. They hadn’t switched for him. They’d changed so they could meet with the Ortiz Freightliner Spaceship Miranda. They’d changed because Marisol Ortiz was a powerful woman with business contacts they wanted and needed. But she wasn’t his grandmother. Grandma’s grave was next to Grandpa on a rocky ledge guarded by Ol’ Ben.
His sleep was fitful on Sunday night, so he got up early and went to the attic. Work helped. Tasso slammed his fist against the side of the agricultural-processing plant. He wanted to keep his mind on reading the manual, but he couldn’t focus.
Three days after his meeting with the two spaceship captains, and he was still angry with Captain Delgado Rojo. The man wasn’t at fault, but Tasso wasn’t an Ortiz. He was a Menzies, born and raised. He was from Saronno, not a Texican. He was a chiamra farmer, not a space-bound trader. So what if he’d spotted a potential cargo in the Kaduna adobe bricks that had everyone going google-eyed! Anyone would’ve seen the same thing if they’d looked. Noticing the adobe bricks was no big deal.
He bolted the platform of used crating material to the sled so it could be used to move the military equipment closer to the hatch for uncrating, and he was ready by the time the security detail arrived. The sled was a little twitchy, but he showed them how to make it work. They floated load after load of red striped crates to the open spot. The detail was happy even though it was Monday morning and they were back at work. It’d been a good weekend for most of the crew. The security detail was so happy that Tasso left them to their work. He was angry and wanted to stay that way for a while. Keeping his anger up was easier when he was alone. No matter how he tried to remain alone and keep his anger at a decent level, it didn’t seem to work.
Tio Gabe came by to check on him. “Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any,” Tio Gabe said. He wandered off, not saying anything else.
Tasso sighed and looked the quote up. In a rare moment, Tio Gabe had quoted a real person named Mark Twain. Except the author was not really Mark Twain. He was Samuel Clemens. In that regard, the quote was from someone who was both fictional and real at the same time. That was unusual, but Tasso still didn’t know what the old man meant. He went back to working on keeping his anger level up, when Gordo came clattering over a mountain of crates.
“I’m looking for a three-bar nexus input terminal key,” Gordo said without preamble.
Tasso shrugged.
Gordo showed him a picture on his dataport. Tasso took him over near quadrant ZZ-001 to a scrapped pile of old refrigeration units. The part Gordo needed was still in place because Tasso had stopped working in the back corner to dig into the agricultural-processing plants. A quick test proved the part was still viable.
“I’d kiss you if it wouldn’t make Cherry jealous,” Gordo said.
“I’d let you kiss me, but it’d make Anisa jealous,” he replied.
Gordo laughed. “And from what I hear, that makes Kendra as jealous as a green-eyed ogre.”
Tasso didn’t get the reference, but he was surprised Kendra was jealous of Anisa and him. “I like Kendra. I really do, it’s that she isn’t … well, she isn’t Anisa.”
Gordo nodded. “That would be a hard choice, Tasso. It’d be a matter of deciding if you liked dating a pretty girl with raven hair or dating a pretty girl with raven hair. Such a dilemma! Anyway, thanks for the three-bar nexus input terminal key. You’ve saved me once again.”
Tasso nodded. “That’s what I’m here for, amigo.” As he used the Spanish word for friend, it set his teeth on edge. He wasn’t of Spanish decent. He was raised Scottish and he didn’t know the Scottish word for friend. He made a mental note to look it up after Gordo left. However, once the man went back to the maintenance bay, Tasso climbed his way back to the ag-unit, completely forgetting to look up anything.
Before Tasso even returned to the manual, another deep male voice interrupted him, “Help! I’m so lost in here.”
Sighing in frustration and climbing a stack of boxes, he looked down. He didn’t know what to expect, but he was surprised to see the captain and the purser. He slid down the pile to them rather than climb down. A small avalanche of packing material followed him collecting at his feet.
“Captain,” he said. “Purser Rojo. It’s good to see you both. How may I help you?”
“Stop lying to me,” the captain said. Her smile took the sting out of her words.
“Captain Rojo, I don’t understand. I’ve tried to be as truthful with you as I know how to be.”
“Except now,” she smiled. “You’re no happier to see Billy and me in your private playroom than if we were a couple of cold turkey turds in the tater salad.”
Tasso shook his head. “I’m sorry. The attic isn’t mine. It’s yours and you have every right to be here any time you want.”
She smiled. “I know, but good people always make their work their own. They take ownership and pride in what they do. And the really good ones resent anyone coming in to tell them to do what they’re already doing.”
Tasso was confused. “I’m sorry you’re unhappy with my work. I’ve always tried to do what you tell me—”
Bill said, “You’ve been obedient and more, Señor Menzies. We’re not here to cause you problems or to criticize anything you’ve done. We’re here to thank you for what you’ve already done for us, for this ship, and her crew. The only way we’d be happier is if you really did play wide receiver on the trainee team. Gordo says you’d be a natural.”
The captain said, “Enough football, Billy. We had two games over the last weekend. That should be enough, even for you. Now, Trainee Menzies, I gather something is bothering you.”
Tasso shook his head.
“Nonsense. You can talk to me or I’ll order you to go talk to a therapist.”
Tasso frowned. “A what?”
Bill laughed. “A therapist. She threatens to send me to one all the time. We have a couple of head shrinks—” He saw the confused look on Tasso’s face. “No, not that kind of head shrinking, a psychologist or a psychiatrist? That doesn’t mean anything to you? They’re people who want you to talk to them about all of your problems and feelings. How you never had any privacy from your sisters until you were twelve and how your older sister was mean to you and how you were the middle child and treated terribly!”
Tasso said, “Why would I talk to anyone about my problems?”
Bill laughed and pointed at his sister. “That’s exactly my point.”
The captain said, “You talk to them because they help you. Keeping things bottled up causes things to explode. When you talk to professionals they help you understand why you feel the way you feel. So, you can tell me or you can talk to them.”
Tasso blurted out. “I’m not a Texican. I’m a Scot. I was born and raised that way. I’m not a spaceman. I was born on a farm and raised that way. This Ortiz woman isn’t my grandmother. My grandmother is dead and buried next to my mother.”
The captain nodded in understanding, “Life is change, Tasso. Change isn’t easy. We don’t want you to change from what you were. We hope you’ll change and grow into what you can become.”
Tasso almost shouted, but he could hear his grandfather telling him to respect his elders. He tried to keep his voice calm, though it cracked with anger. “You aren’t doing what you do for me. You’re doing it for you. You had no interest in getting me home until this Ortiz woman wanted you to bring me to see her. Now you can’t get there fast enough.”
“Are you unhappy with us?” the captain asked.
“I’m … no … I mean, I like it here. I really do. I can’t say everyone has been nice. You know not everyone here likes me. That’s okay, not everyone on Saronno likes me either and that was home. This isn’t home.”
The captain said, “Fair enough. You’re right. We didn’t have any interest in getting you home when you first came aboard. Think about how you came to us. What remained of your family sold you off! You were half-starved, wearing rags, your home had been taken from you, and the only people who cared about you were dead: buried at your own hand. Think about it, Tasso. Would you send a child back into that?”
Tasso said, “I’m not a child.”
“Yes, you are!” she said emphatically. “That isn’t an insult, although most young men your age think it is. I don’t have any greater responsibility than to take care of the young people placed on my ship. Yes, it benefits this ship and our whole shipping line to go to Saronno at this time, but it benefits you also.”
“You just said you didn’t want to send me back into that life.”
“It’s not the same life you left. Things have changed. You’ve changed. Tasso, you’ve changed us. We’re not taking you back to your old life. We’re going together, our futures are tied. You did that. You’ve reignited a fire in us. You reminded us of why we chose this life. On Kaduna you told your friends ‘humans don’t always pick the easy way or the easy place. Independence doesn’t come about in a paradise’. Yes. I heard. I reviewed your whole trip into town on Kaduna. You reminded me why I should’ve gone. This,” she waved her arms around trying to point at everything at once, “this whole thing, this spacecraft full of my friends and family isn’t just a business. It’s an adventure we’re all in together.”
“I didn’t know you listened in on my every conversation. I knew La Dueña Dunstan does to protect me from Armando Cruz and his friends, or is it to protect them from me?”
Bill said, “Cruz is gone. We had him transferred to the Araña Rojo before we lifted from Kaduna. The captain just wanted to view your trip into town. And we don’t listen to everything La Dueña Dunstan has to say.”
The captain laughed, “I should hope not, or Rosa Graham would’ve found out that young Menzies here kissed her daughter.”
Bill shouted in surprise, “You did what?”
The captain laughed. “Relax. This is Tasso. Remember he has a thing about scoundrels who mistreat young ladies. I’m sure he was and will continue to be a real gentleman. Rosa has nothing to worry about.”
Bill chuckled, “Not from Tasso, but Anisa is another story all together.”
Tasso didn’t want to mention some of the ungentlemanly thoughts he’d been having. He simply nodded.
The captain said, “I want you to feel free to come to my office any time to talk. No therapists at this time, but you have to talk to someone, and I can’t leave it up to Tio Gabe.”
Tasso shrugged. “Tio Gabe already gave me good advice today. He said, ‘be respectful to your superiors, if you have any’. I guess that’s as good advice as any I’ve ever gotten. It’s sure better than Grandpa, who just said to respect your elders. Grandpa’s advice doesn’t give you any leeway if your elders are idiots. Not that you’re idiots! I was thinking of Bruce Menzies.”
The captain said, “Is that one of Tio Gabe quotes from somebody?”
Tasso nodded, “Mark Twain.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know much, Captain. Some writer from Earth who is only partly real, I have to look up more on him later. However, it’s good advice even if the guy isn’t real. I think Tio Gabe knew I was feeling angry, and well … feeling a little bit used for my elder’s purposes that didn’t have anything to do with me. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
“There’re enough apologies to go around, okay? Let’s move on! I do have a business question. Do you really think the agricultural-processing plants might be functional? I got a response back from the manufacturer. They deny these units even exist, so they’re ours to use or sell.”
Tasso gestured for them to follow him. Rather than go over the mound, he took them the long way around to the ag-unit. He plopped himself onto the chair by the manual and dialed up the wiring schematic in chapter nineteen, pointing to a series of wires on the diagram.
Bill said, “Okay, Tasso. Try to explain what we’re seeing and tell it to me in simple terms as if I were a lowly purchaser and not some hot-shot mechanic or the captain of a spaceship.”
Tasso said, “Yes, sir. I’m sure you recognize this series of electrical connections as the power control for the command input module.”
Bill looked at the captain and shrugged, “Yeah. I can see that. So?” He obviously didn’t recognize what he was looking at.
Tasso said. “The idiot at the factory couldn’t read his own schematics. He left out this piece of ground wire and then put in the whole array backwards. It’s an easy fix as soon as I get a piece of ground wire that fits.”
The captain said, “How long will it take you to get the ground wire and fix this?”
Tasso shrugged, “Um … maybe fifteen minutes.” He pointed off to one side. “There’s a stripped out flitter back there I’ve been using for spare parts. It has a ground wire that’s a perfect fit.”
Bill laughed. “Perfect. Perfect.
Perfecto
.” He was so excited he fell back into Spanish.
“Sir?” Tasso asked.
Captain Rojo said, “You’ve stirred up some kind of radical attitude in my baby brother. All of a sudden he’s ready to start a rebellion on a dozen planets.”