On The Surface Tension Page 18

  “Unfortunate collateral damage,” LaGrue deadpanned. “They were casualties the minute you took and bred them. As was I.”

  “You’re bluffing,” Eiffelia stammered.

  A burst of static indicated that LaGrue had severed the communication.

  “He’s not bluffing,” Bob announced with a shake of his head. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Not without the townsfolk,” said Jeremy.

  “Fuck the savages! We need to take off right now!” Anton growled, reaching for the controls.

  “Not so hasty,” drawled Cornish Bob, drawing his revolver and pressing it against Anton’s head. “Jeremy, me bey, please go urge the Sheriff to convince the good residents of New Bodie to get on the ship immediately or be blown into their component atoms.”

  Jeremy’s eyes widened and he slipped from the control room.

  “We need to leave them. We don’t have time!” Anton protested.

  “We have a little,” argued Cornish Bob. “I know Professor LaGrue a wee bit, and even though he is a cold and calculating eel, even he will take a few minutes to proverbially screw his courage to the sticking point. As long as Eiffelia doesn’t press the matter by taking a pot shot at ’im.”

  “Are you willing to bet your life on that?” said Anton, in a near panic.

  “Are you?” countered Bob, cocking the hammer of his pistol.

  Jeremy chose that moment to stick his head back into the control room.

  “We got ’em. All that would come, anyway. We’re not going to convince Tanner and some of his boys. They were up at the saloon and wouldn’t budge.”

  “Their loss then,” said Bob, holstering his Colt. “Let’s go.”

  Anton raised the gangplank door and lifted the ship off.

  “Wait, I’ve thought of something else,” Cornish Bob announced.

  “The hell you say,” said Anton, continuing the flight.

  “Yes, the hell I say,” said Bob, unholstering his pistol again. “I need to get a piece of Eiffelia. A hunk of wall from the City of God will do. We have to have some leverage when that mad professor blows her up.”

  “Are you insane?” shouted Anton.

  “Maybe! We’ll see. I think you will have reason to thank me. Take us close to a wall and hover where I can reach it from the gangplank. Or I will put a round in your brainpan and pilot the ship there meself. Don’t argue and dawdle, time’s a’ wastin.”

  Anton calculated his odds of survival rapidly, then veered the ship towards Eiffelia’s city. He brought the ship to a level hover near a rounded tower and extended the gangplank.

  “Go ahead, get your chunk,” he spat.

  Cornish Bob chuckled. “You mean we will go get our chunk. I don’t think I’ll give you the chance of just blasting away while I’m at the end of the gangplank, me bey.”

  Cornish Bob marched Anton through the ship and down the gangplank to where it hovered next to a white, curved wall of the City of God. He shot the wall into some recoverable fragments.

  “Grab ’em and let’s fly,” he ordered.

  Anton complied, leaning out while Bob held on to his belt. They returned to the control room, Bob pocketing the fragments.

  Elanor pointed to the display screen. “One of the ships is breaking free and starting towards the sun.”

  “That’s it!” hollered Bob. “He’s starting his move. We need to jump somewhere. Anywhere. Now.”

  Anton made rapid adjustments on the screen, and all but Bob abruptly felt the effects of a rift jump. Bob shouldered Anton from the control chair while he still reeled with nausea, then manipulated the screen view.

  “Where are we?” he mumbled.

  “Ten light years out,” groaned Anton.

  “That’ll do for now,” said Bob cheerily. “Now we decide where to take everyone.”

  “Back to the U.S. of A.,” croaked the Sheriff, recovering. “Where our ancestors were shanghaied, Bodie California Territory. What year to you suggest?”

  “Let’s put you at the start of things, in 1875,” Bob said, rubbing his chin. “May I suggest prospecting up on the bluff?”

  “For Jeremy and me,” Chris said, “AUTEC, Andros Island in the Caribbean, year 2017.”

  “Very well,” said Bob. “And what of your merry band of former Eiffelia lackeys?” he asked Elanor.

  “I have no idea,” she said, shaking her head. “Why don’t you leave us with the ship when you get off and we can talk about it later.”

  Bob raised what was left of his eyebrows. “Why me pretty poppet, whatever makes you think I am getting off of this ship?”

  “This is our ship,” Anton growled. “We stole it.”

  “That you did,” Bob agreed. “But now I am stealing it.” He abruptly pulled his pistol and shot Anton in the forehead.

  The shot echoed in the control room, and they reacted with shock as Anton collapsed from the chair, blood geysering from his head.

  The Sheriff growled and grabbed at the butt of his pistol.

  “Ah ah ah, Sheriff, tut tut!” Cornish Bob laughed. “Please keep in mind that I am the only pilot on this ship floating in the middle of time and space, and unless you all want to remain that way until someone figures out how to fly this thing…and I assure you that if you manage to do that it will be a long, long time and the results of your attempts could be catastrophic.”

  Sheriff Dolan eased his hand off his pistol, muttering.

  “A wise choice, me beauty. Now for the rest of you, I will just have to take you somewhere and allow me to save the day against the evil sponge by keeping the ship. Do you have a preference, or should you just get off with one of the other groups?”

  Elanor looked between Rosa and Cain.

  “I’m up for cowboy land,” she said. “I’ll play my cards there.”

  “I’m game,” said Rosa. “Maybe knowing what I do about medicine I could help the sick.”

  “Sounds good,” nodded Cain. “Maybe I can make something of myself by having an advantage with that level of technology.”

  “Then it’s settled.” Bob smacked his lips with zealous satisfaction. He started manipulating the screen. “You kids just head down the hall to the hold and join the other cowpokes, and I’ll land you just outside of town.”

  The ship jumped again, and Bob piloted the ship from orbit down to the Pacific Ocean, then flew low across the California coast eastwards towards the Sierra Mountains. He flew across the high desert sage, past the tufa of Mono Lake, then up a slope on the south side of the lake. He hovered near the peak, hiding from the town on the north side.

  “Out you go!” he said cheerily, extending the gangplank. They watched on the screen as the cowboys and the Virii disembarked.

  “I’m sure they will all end up being the movers and shakers of Bodie,” Bob d knowingly. “It’s just us three,” he said to Chris and Jeremy, closing the hatch. “Now where did you say you wanted to go?”

  Jeremy and Chris took their turn exchanging glances. “We thought you could drop up back where we were taken from. It’s an island in the Caribbean called Andros and has some kind of secret government base on it.”

  Bob froze, his glassy eyes becoming even more filmy. He pivoted around in his chair and regarded Chris and Jeremy carefully.

  “Where have I heard that island’s name before?” he mused. He tilted his head. Seconds passed. He abruptly straightened.

  “Of course. It’s been a few years, but it all makes sense. What did you say your last names are?”

  “Springs,” they said in unison.

  “And your mother’s name wouldn’t happen to be Tracey Springs, would it?”

  “Uh—yes. How did you know that?” Chris answered.

  “Well me poppets, it just so happens that I am an ol’ pal of your mother. I believe that instead of taking you to your sunny island, I shall take you directly to her. After.”

  “After what?”

  “Why, after making myself presentable, of course. I am a stin
k’n corpse at the moment, as you no doubt have noticed.”

  “Yeah, we noticed all right,” complained Chris. “How exactly are you going to remedy that?”

  “Well, let me just fill you in a bit on ol’ Cornish Bob’s history. Without waxin’ too full, I came from Bodie here not too far off in the future from where we sit now. In fact, I anticipate your friends meeting me at some point in their future and my past there in town. Anyhoo, I ended up going through a rift and getting mixed up with the evil sponge. I was one of her goons for many years, and part of the deal I was turned into a living dead body. That allowed me to go on gooning for many more years than we usually get, as long as we get to soak to keep our cells in a state of arrested decay! After a while, circumstances involving your dear Ma and her chunder-tuss boyfriend who happens also to be my great-great-grand-boy, freed me from her bondage. At that time, I returned to Bodie at some time in our current near future and tried to hide out from Eiffelia and her new goons. As part of my hideout plans, I included a vat of the chemical solution that kept me from decaying. As you can see, my plan went awry, she found me, and returned me to the home planet you recently vacated. And as part of my punishment, the bitch removed my access to the rejuvenation vats. But now! Circumstances have again put a rift generator and ship into my soon-to-be formerly rotting hands!”

  “So you are going to jump into the future from here and get into your vat,” Jeremy deduced.

  “Exactly! And once I am presentable, with the vat installed in the hold of this ship, we will then return you to your lovely family.”

  “And you will try to hide from her again? What makes you think it will work this time?”

  “I don’t. This time I will attempt to recruit your mother and my long lost grand-boy to help me get my revenge on the evil one.”

  —11—

  The monkey man approached them. “Excuse me, Master Morrow and Mistress Springs, but there is a visitor at the door.”

  “Who is it?” asked Morrow.

  “Mr. Smithson,” answered the monkey man.

  “Ah. Please show him in.”

  The monkey man exited with a barely perceptible bow and returned a short time later with Smithson.

  “How are you, my friend?” greeted Morrow warmly.

  “I am well, Andrew, and good to see you too, Tracey.”

  “And you too, Smithson,” she said.

  “I would love to catch up on the progress of your training, but there is an imminent danger that we must address,” Smithson said. “The great war between Eiffelia and the LaGrues appears to be coming to a close.”

  “That sounds like a good thing!” answered Morrow.

  “Yes, but the way LaGrue is planning to bring this about involves him diving rift generator-powered ships into the suns of as many of Eiffeila’s systems as he can find. And he has found a great deal of them, over the millennia.”

  “Oh dear,” said Morrow. “That will cause the suns to supernovae, killing not just her but whoever else is in that system, and possibly other systems nearby. Let me think on this.”

  Morrow paced the room slowly, chin in hand. “On the one hand, the damage he could do to Eiffelia would be significant, if not total. On the other, it might be completely futile should he not destroy all of her worlds. She would simply go back in time and build them back up. And, of course, the loss of innocent lives would also be catastrophic. We simply have to stop him.”

  “Agreed,” said Smithson. “Do you have any ideas?”

  “We will have to get to one of the LaGrues and convince him to stop,” said Morrow.

  “Easier said than done,” observed Smithson. “Do you have a ship?”

  “No. But Tracey was just about to dream one up.”

  Smithson raised his eyebrows and regarded Tracey

  “Uh….what?” she said.

  They laughed. “Is she done then? Fully trained now?” asked Smithson.

  “Almost. Just have the fairy tale to tell.” Morrow smiled.

  “Ah yes. The story of life,” said Smithson. “I remember this one.”

  “Wait a minute, said Tracey. “Do we have time for this? Don’t we have a thousand supernovae fireballs to stop?”

  “We have time,” said Morrow. Time passes differently in Otherwhen locations like this. We can spend the next hundred years in here, and no time at all will have passed outside. Relax.”

  “Ok—so what is this story?”

  “It is the end of training. Some truths can only be told through parable, tales, analogy. They can only be pointed at, not described.”

  “So will I be able to dream up a miracle ship after hearing this?” she said.

  “Oh yes! Of course. And more!” chuckled Smithson.

  “All right. I don’t get this, as usual, and of course. But go ahead.”

  “The name of this tale is ‘Jane and the Big Ball.’”

  “This isn’t a dirty story, is it?” Tracey asked.

  Smithson scowled then chuckled.

  “Once upon a time,” began Morrow, “there was a poor young girl named Jane who lived in a cottage in the woods. Beyond the woods was the great castle in which lived the King and his Queen and their son the Prince, but Jane had never been to the castle and did not have many friends, for the forest was scantily populated. But she was friends with many of the forest animals and spirits. Every night of the year, the King would oversee his Grand Ball. All of his grand courtiers and nobles attended, but in addition, once every year, ten lucky commoners would be invited as well. The commoners would have a dreadful choice to make, however. The Ball would be wonderful and magical, full of experiences, romances, and delights! But at the end of the ball the next morning they would lose their lives!”

  “That sucks,” said Tracey.

  “Hush,” said Smithson. “No more balls jokes.”

  “One day, Jane was surprised by a knock at the door of her little cabin. She opened it and found a beautiful old woman with twinkling eyes and long, gray hair, dressed in the livery of a royal messenger. She was bearing an invitation to the grand ball! ‘Oh dear,’ said Jane, ‘what should I do?’

  “The royal messenger said, ‘Fear not, for if you choose to join the Ball, you can join it at any time, and the Ball is, as you know, televised. You can watch the Ball in progress in order to help make your decision.’

  “‘I will do just that, it is one of my favorite shows,’ she said.

  “The royal messenger handed Jane the golden invitation. ‘Be sure to watch the next episode! Of course, it is one thing to experience the Ball from afar, but actually being there is like nothing else!’

  “The royal messenger mounted her steed and thundered away. Jane decided then and there, after watching the Ball from afar since she was a little girl, that she had no need to watch another episode. She decided she would indeed experience it for herself that very night!

  “So Jane packed an apple, some cheese, and some bread in a kerchief and tied it to a stick, and locked her cottage behind her.

  “As she walked through the woods on the way to the palace, she ran across her friend Bear digging into a rotting log for some grubs.”

  “‘Where are you off to, Jane?’ Bear asked.

  “‘I have a golden invitation to the Ball and am off to experience it.’

  “‘You are so fortunate! If I had an invitation, I would go straight for the refreshment tables. When I watch the show, I see the guests sipping fine champagne and eating tender morsels.’

  “‘Surely there is more to the Ball than that,’ Jane said. ‘Besides, sometimes the food and drink are in short supply. On one episode they ran out, and the guests were famished and picking at the crumbs!’

  “‘Yes, but even their hunger and thirst was delicious.’

  “After walking a while further, Jane came across her friend Mouse.

  “‘Where are you bound, sister Jane?’

  “‘I am off to the Ball, for I have an invitation!’

  “‘You are so
lucky! If I had a golden ticket, I would find friends and dance the night away!’

  “‘You would have to be careful, sister Mouse. I saw one episode where a small creature was stepped on during the dancing!’

  “‘Yes, but even being broken and watching from the wallboards would be sublime.’

  “Jane grew hungry and stopped to untie her bundle. She nibbled on a corner of her cheese and was soon joined by her friend Crow.

  “‘Where are you off to, with your travel bag?’ Crow asked.

  “‘I am off to the Ball, for I have a golden invitation!’

  “‘Oh I would just die for one!’ cried the Crow. ‘The library at the castle is grand and has many tomes, and I would read and read as long as I could!’

  “‘Yes, the library is wonderful, but I am afraid that I won’t have time for much reading.’

  “‘Of course,’ nodded Crow. ‘But every minute spent in experiencing, sharing company, and learning would be bliss.’

  “Jane continued her journey and neared the edge of the forest. Beyond lay farmlands, and in the distance she could just make out the pinnacles, towers, and battlements of the King’s castle.

  “The path she was following was joined by another path, and walking upon it was Jane’s friend Jack. He too had a bundle tied to a stick on his shoulder and walked with purpose.

  “‘Good morning, Jack, where are you bound?’ asked Jane.

  “‘I am on my way to the Ball, for I have a golden invitation,’ he said.

  “‘That is wonderful, so am I!’ said Jane. ‘Perhaps we can go together?’

  “‘Sure,’ said Jack. ‘I was hoping someone I knew would be there. Maybe we can dance together, if I find the time.’

  “‘What do you mean?’ asked Jane.

  “‘My friends all have urgings on what I should do there. Fox wants me to try to pitch a business deal to one of the rich nobles. Pike wants me to petition to the king about justice because of a legal dispute she is having with Hawk. And Moose wants me to say prayers at the chapel.’

  “‘My friends also have ideas on how I should attend the Ball,’ Jane said. ‘And they will be watching, along with millions of others.’

  “They walked slowly through the stone-cobbled streets of the city towards the castle. They approached the bridge over the moat. They crossed the bridge and stood before the great oaken doors of the castle. The doors slowly and silently swung wide, revealing the doorman and the Ball in full swing within. The doorman reached out his hand.