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CHAPTER 11

By attaching a rock to some flexmet and having it extend out with a cutting edge, he’d made a better brush cutter than a boma or machete. It was lighter than either and cut better.

He hacked to a known game trail then made his way back to the camp.

When he got back all his personal containers were already loaded and all the conexes and coffins were stacked for loading. He intended to reverse his arrival and hold on to his basic field gear, and rifle, until he was in the bird.

He ascended to the top of one of the conexes, made a camp chair out of flexmet from the container then set all his gear down, unloaded the Garand and took a seat to wait for the bird.

“Jewel,” Jason said. “Is there anybody near . . . do I have any neighbors on the station that are doing sewing and alteration of big clothes for smaller? I probably won’t need to get clothes as big as I was wearing for a few years at least. Not if I keep up this lifestyle.”

“You do,” Jewel said. “Mrs. Gatus is doing alterations. But your niece, Sheila, has an advertisement for sewing and alteration.”

“Does she have any experience at that?”

“Her ad indicates she’s got some training and experience at sewing,” Jewel said dubiously. “I’m not sure that I’d get a suit retailored by her, but she can probably do basic stuff well enough.”

“And it would bring in some credit,” Jason said. “How much?”

“The ad says ‘whatever you can spare,’” Jewel replied.

“Pretty much says it all,” Jason said. “Pick out some of my stuff that’s not on the high end and I’ll stop by her place to get it refitted.”

* * *

“Hey, you need a ride?”

The bird was about twenty minutes late, not that Jason had anything better to do.

“Yeah,” Jason said, standing up and retracting everything.

“Where you want me to pick you up?” the pilot asked. “There’s not much room to land this . . . ”

“Can you do a dust-off from the top?” Jason asked. He’d figured to be picked up the same way he landed: off the top of the conexes.

“A what?” the pilot asked.

Okay, so not military this time.

“Just open up your airlock,” Jason said. “Jewel, get Alfred up here. I need a ride.”

He’d kept the bots around for anything that needed doing on the pickup. Being picked up himself wasn’t on the list but needs must . . . 

“Just hover out over the river,” Jason said, picking up his rifle and tossing his pack on his back. “Hundred meters up or so. I’ll come to you. Jewel, you got this?”

“I’ve got this,” Jewel said. “I’m also talking to his AI about how to do the load with the coffins. The pilot is . . . a little unsure.”

“Which is odd for a pilot,” Jason said as Alfred picked him up and headed to the hovering ship. It was moving around a bit more than Jason liked but he was pretty sure Alfred could compensate.

Which he did, neatly depositing Jason in the airlock.

“Hey, uh, Mr. Graham,” the pilot called. “You wanna come up here for a sec?”

“On my way,” Jason said. “See ya later, Alfred.”

The layout was the same as the previous twelve pack, but the pictures and videos were mostly of people skating and snowboarding. Some of the pictures looked like video stills. A repeated face in the pictures was repeated again by the face of the pilot.

“Jason Graham,” Jason said, sticking out his hand.

“Martin Andersson,” the pilot said, holding out a fist to bump then carefully shaking hands. He clearly wasn’t into handshakes. “So . . . about picking up these other containers . . . ?”

“They’re all stuck together,” Jason said, flexing his rifle and pack to the passenger seat. “They lift exactly the same as a conex.”

“Conex?” Andersson asked, confused.

“The big shipping containers,” Jason said calmly. “Have you asked your AI?”

“Melody says it’s no problem, but . . . ”

“I was a warehouse guy back on Earth,” Jason said, nodding. “I get that drivers and pilots are cautious about something new. If it makes you feel better, I can do the loading. Just need permission. Back on Earth, truckers didn’t load their trucks, the warehouse guys did that.”

“Uh . . . that should work,” Martin said.

“I need a clear yes,” Jason said. “It’s your bird.”

“Actually it’s like twenty people’s bird,” Martin said. “That’s what’s got me worried. But . . . yes.”

“Melody, is it?” Jason asked.

“Yes, it is, Jason,” the AI replied.

“Load and unload as designated,” Jason said. “Any questions?”

“None,” Melody said. She had a slightly different voice than Jewel.

“Done,” Jason said, sitting down. “Now we let the computers handle it.”

“Yeah,” Martin said, letting out a relieved sigh and sitting down. “This has all got me nervous.”

“You’re not former military, are you?” Jason asked.

“No,” Martin said. “I was a fully qualified pilot on Earth though. I flew for Southwest.”

“That’s cool,” Jason said. “You were obviously into skiing and snowboarding.”

“Totally,” Martin said. “But down here . . . Man, have you seen the videos of the bears!”

“Think the bears are big?” Jason asked. “Can I throw something up on your main screen?”

“Sure,” Martin said.

“Jewel?”

“First kill?” Jewel asked.

“The same,” Jason said.

Jason had never seen the video of the megacroc kill on a large screen. Jewel had had several drones up observing and had edited the video pretty well. Now that he did, he had to admit . . . 

“Okay,” Jason said as he approached the croc, suspended under Alfred. “Now that I look at it from this angle, that was maybe a little nuts.”

“You think?” Martin said, gasping and holding his hand over his mouth as the bot swooped down over the croc’s back. “That’s insane, dude! Aaah!” The pilot screamed as Jason took the shot in the video and the massive reptile reared up and started thrashing. “JESUS! That’s not maybe nuts, that’s TOTALLY nuts! You needed a bigger gun! Like a tank gun!”

Martin looked over at the rifle flexed to the chair.

“Did you use that little thing?” Martin asked, shaking his head. “Totally radical and totally insane, man!”

“It’s the biggest gun I had, man!” Jason said.

“How big was that . . . ” Martin started to say then Jewel switched the video to a wide shot of Jason standing on the dead croc. “That is freaking insane!” The pilot blanched then looked around. “Are there more of those around here? Cause we’re not all that high!”

“Mostly been cleaned out,” Jason said, shrugging. “Did you look at the manifest?”

“Yeah,” Martin said thoughtfully. “There was like a bunch of crocodile meat. That all come from that one?”

“Oh, hell, no,” Jason said, waving his hand dismissively. “Killed like a dozen of them.”

He let it be assumed that he’d shot them all while dangling from a bot. Not that they’d been decapitated by high-tech silly string.

“That is officially insane, dude,” Martin said.

“It is not, in my humble opinion, the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” Jason said. “Although it is in the top five. So far.”

“Martin, we are loaded,” Melody said. “The loads are stable and ready to go.”

“Cool,” Martin said, taking the controls. “So, what is, in your opinion, the craziest thing you’ve ever done?”

“Ever been a rodeo clown . . . ?” Jason said, taking off his hat.

* * *

“ . . . and that is why what happened in Slovakia is not my fault,” Jason concluded, nodding and waggling a finger.

“That sort of sounds like it was your fault,” Martin replied.

They were approaching the station and Jason was more interested in the approaching shell than he was in what had allegedly happened on a planet millions of years ago and on the other side of the galaxy—and that was definitely not his fault.

“That thing is fracking huge,” Jason said, shaking his head at the size of the shell. “How the hell do you make something like that?”

“You didn’t hear?” Martin said. “It’s printed.”

“Printed?” Jason said, shaking his head. “Like 3D printed.”

“Yeah,” Martin said. “Not, like, the whole thing. It’s got segments that are two hundred kilometers long, about a hundred and fifty wide, that were printed. Then it’s welded together.”

“Where do you buy a printer that big?” Jason asked. “eBay?”

“I dunno,” Martin admitted. “But these robots built on a big scale. They also think it might be about a million years old. They don’t know but that’s what they’re saying.”

“Who are ‘they’ by the way?” Jason asked. “Some internet rumor?”

“Nah,” Martin said. “There’s science teams working for the government that are studying it.”

“I wasn’t really keeping up with the news,” Jason said. “Little busy staying alive.”

“Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive, uh, uh, uh, uh,” Martin sang. Badly.

“Seriously?” Jason said. “Disco? You don’t look that old.”

“Class of ’80, man.”

“Snowboarding and skating?”

“There was snowboarding and skating in the eighties, man,” Martin said. “’Course back then, you didn’t grind, man. Not when it took a week to make the boards yourself by hand. I was semipro till I messed up my knee. That’s when I got into flying. You can fly a plane with a messed-up knee.”

“I had two printed, courtesy of the VA,” Jason said. “Got real ones back, now.”

“You were a vet?” Martin said. “Thank you for your service.”

“You’re welcome,” Jason said as they approached the portal.

“Need to call my partner,” Jason said, holding up his phone.

“Cool,” Martin replied.

“Tim’s on another call,” Jewel said.

“When he gets free,” Jason replied.

“Jason, my man,” Tim said a moment later. “Inbound.”

“I was gonna call feet wet but I got to talking,” Jason said.

“Not that you ever do that,” Tim said. “And where you were, feet wet was not necessarily a good thing.”

“Roger,” Jason said, chuckling. “We set up?”

“Storage is arranged as is distribution,” Tim said. “Which I would point out is the log guy’s job.”

“I’ve been busy,” Jason said. “Though, honestly, half the time I could have done it from the ground. I’m going to grab a shower and try to find some clothes that half fit at least. Where should we meet and when?”

“We’ve got a packaging area,” Tim said. “Commercial space is also units and in this case one of our investors held some of the units. Which helped because much of that stuff is rucked up right now. But it’s got office space attached to it. Meet there?”

“Have your AI talk to my AI,” Jason said. “We’ll do lunch.”

“Fresh would be nice,” Tim said.

“In fact . . . ” Jason said, smiling. “One of the things I thought of was exactly that. So, I cooked some extra and put it in stasis. So, yes, we’ll do lunch.”

“There’s no furniture,” Tim said then shrugged. “We can eat on the floor.”

“You should have played more with flexmet,” Jason said. “We’re approaching the station. Not sure where the office is at or how long it will take to get the stuff transferred.”

“The office and warehouse are in Carolina and you’re going into one of the Carolina ports,” Tim said. “Or you should be. That’s what we’re paying for.”

“Carolina Five according to the sign,” Jason said, looking up as they entered.

“Maddie says it will take about twenty minutes from where you’re going in for you and the cargo,” Tim said.

“Can I grab a shower first?” Jason asked. “I know you’re jonesing for some fresh but . . . ”

“Figure two hours, then?” Tim said. “I can wait that long.”

“Two hours it is,” Jason said. “Out here.”

“Can I make that, Jewel?” Jason asked.

“With a long shower,” Jewel said.


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