{"id":447,"date":"2015-03-17T11:31:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T15:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/?page_id=447"},"modified":"2015-04-24T12:44:14","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T16:44:14","slug":"gathering-clouds","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/?page_id=447","title":{"rendered":"Gathering Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starc is getting the old group together. It\u2019s been a while\u2014on Proxima, no less. He’s not terribly popular there, especially after that Pigel affair. I wondered how he got out of the “contract” he was forced into with Interstellar Mines.<\/span><\/p>\n

He shouldn\u2019t have blown up their errant cargo\u00a0ship, though to Starc it seemed the only way to stop it from\u00a0fireballing into New Paloma, the Proxima capitol. Interstellar Mines didn’t see it that way and demanded recompense.\u00a0IM<\/span> had his butt lock, stock and barrel for at least 20 years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once the mining corporations get their hooks into you, it’s real hard to get them\u00a0out. They charge you for everything you consume, food, lodging, water\u2014even the air you breathe, and you’re not released from service until all accounts are paid in full. Didn\u2019t think I’d ever see Starc again but there was the hardcopy\u00a0fractional space communication in my hand, plain as day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starc never ceases to amaze me. I punched up my comm account and found I still had a few credits. I keyed in Dexter\u2019s number. \u201cDex?\u201d I asked. The screen flashed a little then coalesced into the pug faced, sleepy image of my current employer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you want?” he snapped, “don\u2019t you know what time it is here?” <\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m dropping your case, something’s come up,” I said evenly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Inside I was smiling, glad to be disturbing the pompous SOB. Dexter, so like many of my clients,\u00a0is\u00a0rich, lazy, selfish and paranoid, living off the sweat of the masses he capriciously manipulates.\u00a0He has the credits, however, and a guy’s gotta make ends meet somehow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHawk,\u201d he said, his face starting to redden, “we got a contract\u2014you’re mine.” <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, well I’m breaking it as of now. Any half-witted PI can find out who that floozy’s been shackin’ up with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dexter’s eyes opened wide, I couldn\u2019t resist an inner chuckle as my barb hit home. “What!?” he nearly screamed. “You know that for a fact?” <\/span><\/p>\n

“Don’t have any physical evidence, Dex,\u201d I said, \u201cbut why do you think she keeps going to Mars on those \u201cshopping\u201d trips, eh? And why does she take those painfully slow cruise liners? She could use the gates and be there and back in a heartbeat. You don\u2019t really think she\u2019s afraid to use them, do you?” <\/span><\/p>\n

Dexter was quiet, you could see the wheels turning. “I want proof!\u201d he suddenly shouted.<\/span><\/p>\n

“You’ll have to get some other flatfoot to get the vids, I’m sorry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut what about our contract?” he spluttered.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I shouldn\u2019t have to read the articles to you, boss,” I said. “You know an investigative contract isn\u2019t valid until ten days after the first payment.” I had him cold there. He hadn\u2019t paid me anything yet. “You’re into me for 300 credits already.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“If we don\u2019t have a valid contract,” he said, a twisted, leering sneer squirming onto his face, “you don\u2019t have a valid paycheck, chump. Try to apply\u00a0it to that killer loan you’ve got on that overpriced Mercedes Tac-Fighter you’re so proud of,” he said with a grating, guttural chuckle.<\/span><\/p>\n

That hurt. But I could live with it. I knew Starc, if he was up to his old tricks I’d be able to buy a couple brand new Mercedes with plenty left over. “You owe me, Dex, and you know it,” I said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Yeah,\u201d he said, “hold your breath and I’ll send it right over.” The screen flickered and the Frac-Net charges screen came up\u2014transmission terminated.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Choke on this you slinky hoopa!” I muttered as I bashed the screen with my fist. The transparent plexi-steel was unperturbed but it made me feel better anyway. I was hoping to get the C300 as my finances were less than robust. Another payment on Talon was coming up. I’d have to settle up with Dex later. “Talon, break surveillance on the Mars liner,” I said as I sat at my workstation in the cabin behind the cockpit, “set a new course for the Proxima gate.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Talon’s sultry voice filled the cockpit, “shall I maintain surreptitious transit?”<\/span><\/p>\n

“Won\u2019t be necessary, sweetheart.” A brief tingling feeling washed over me as the sleek silver long range tactical fighter became visible on all energy spectrums. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Full visibility,” Talon reported. “Course set for Proxima gate at Mars hub, ETA in fifteen Terran minutes.” Talon\u2019s high velocity fractional plasma drives kicked in and for an instant the G force pushed me back into my seat before the inertial cancelers compensated. The drives pushed Talon through the quantum fractional turn that put it into a grey sub-reality that would allow a jump to Proxima almost instantly. Most of the travel time was spent jockeying in traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once under weigh I thought about the old group. Man, we’d had some times. I wondered what they’d been up to these last couple of years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Did Yorgie get sober? He was always the toughest in a scrap, not many slinky hoopas could say they fought him and won. ‘Cause I don\u2019t think any who did fight him actually\u00a0lived to tell about it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Is Moon still as enigmatic? There wasn\u2019t any piece of tech he couldn\u2019t figure out. And did Dobie ever get that ship he was always talking about? He always dreamed of a ship that could traverse the galactic\u00a0circumference in two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where’s the Ghost now? He’s the only one who really scared me. And don\u2019t forget the babe\u2014oh yeah, the babe! Thinking about her made my leather pants a little tighter. They always underestimated her, such a sweet, cute little doll. She was extremely fast, saved the team more than once because, in spite of her tiny form, she could be more vicious than the rest of us put together\u00a0when she put her mind to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

They called us mercenaries but we had a real sense of justice and never took jobs that didn\u2019t seem “right.” There were bounties on all of our heads in more than one backwoods pirate hole. Proxima was such a place but if Starc was there it must be worth the risk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Proxima, a mudhole spaceport if there ever was one, was near Zngin space. Zngin. We wrecked ’em a couple years ago. Seems like eons. <\/span><\/p>\n

A particularly cruel race, the “Zingers,\u201d as we affectionately called them, had conquered several of their neighboring systems. The despotic tyrants then bled their hapless subjects dry. Mass executions, slavery and starvation were but a few of the unspeakable crimes perpetrated by this rapacious and barbaric race.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is until delegates from the Delphi system hired us to protect them. There’s a new ring around the Zngin homeworld now\u2014used to be their moon, their main military industrial base. That, and a number of large blackened spots on the planet’s surface,\u00a0testify to the violence of the\u00a0evil empire’s collapse. We knocked ’em halfway back to the stone age.<\/span><\/p>\n

The victory didn\u2019t come cheap however. We paid for it with blood. Renate and Sim both bought it on that mission. It was tough on us all but the Babe hurt the worst, she was in love with Sim. I kinda’ liked Renate but she was always a little too distant for anyone to get too close. Of course, the liberated systems were extremely grateful. We all had enough credits to never have to work again and, as such things go, we drifted apart. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hey, I lived pretty good for a while, high on the hog, as they say.\u00a0Unfortunately I’ve never\u00a0been too good with money and\u00a0I managed to blow the whole wad in a few short years. I hope the others were smarter than me. Heh, to tell the truth, I doubt it. We lived hard, fought hard and played hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it goes . . . I can\u2019t wait to see them again. Talon was approaching the gate. \u201cGimme a cheeseburger,” I said as I put my feet up on the dash. Might as well get comfortable while I can, I thought, probably going to be a bumpy ride . . . <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starc is getting the old group together. It\u2019s been a while\u2014on Proxima, no less. He’s not terribly popular there, especially after that Pigel affair. I wondered how he got out of the “contract” he was forced into with Interstellar Mines. He shouldn\u2019t have blown up their errant cargo\u00a0ship, though to Starc it seemed the only … Continue reading Gathering Clouds<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":445,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-447","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447\/revisions\/478"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chitlinchildren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}