Two
Four hours earlier
It was an astronomical oddity, a rogue planet, a cold, dead world with no sun, wandering through the vastness of interstellar space. The inert chunk of rock and ice was known to tramp freighter captains, prospectors, scouts, explorers and pirates as Ante Mortem. Although the sunless world harbored no life, it did have large deposits of water ice, methane and a few other hydrocarbons, making it a popular spot to take on volatiles for ship captains anxious to keep a low profile.
It also made an excellent rendezvous point, again, for ship captains anxious to keep a low profile. Jean Barrett of the privateer Shade Tree was one of those captains, which is why she and her ship were at Ante Mortem to meet another, similarly inclined ship and captain.
“That’s the last crate,” Jean Barrett told Captain Helen Kaneda of the tramp freighter Sana Maru.
The two captains stood side by side in the Sana Maru’s cargo bay, watching crates of seeds come through the docking umbilical connecting the two ships.
“This should make the ice miners in the Harvey system happy,” Captain Kaneda said. “Gene-engineered wheat that will grow in a low-grav pressure dome with minimal light. Amazing what they can do nowadays.”
“Too bad about that export moratorium,” Jean Barrett commented. There was a faintly haughty tone in her voice, pleased as she was with the conclusion of a successful bit of smuggling.
“Corinthia can’t have everything their way forever.” Helen Kaneda watched her crew manhandle the last crate onto a sticky pad and fasten it down. “New technology finds its way out sooner or later.”
“In this case sooner, eh?” Jean Barrett looked at the other ship Captain and winked. “At least we got away without getting shot at this time. That’s a plus in our line of work.”
“How did you get those seeds off the surface, anyway? The Corinthians have awfully tight controls on orbital traffic. We’ve been trying to get some of this G-VI variant hybrid wheat seed out of there for two years now.”
“If I told, then anyone could do it,” Jean said, repeating what had almost become her motto. “Let’s just say I’ve got a crewmember that had a little score to settle with the bast… er, people in charge down there.”
“Little squabble with the Royal Family?” Kaneda asked.
“Something like that. She knew a way in and a way out.”
Kaneda chuckled. “A legal way in and out?”
“Well,” Jean admitted, “Maybe not one hundred percent legal. But, as they say, possession is nine-tenths of the law, and we sure took possession of this seed wheat, just as I said we would.” Jean had scores of her own to settle with the Corinthian royal family, and rarely turned down a chance to stick a figurative thumb in their collective eye.
“Well, as agreed, here’s your payment,” Kaneda said, producing a transfer chip.
Jean took the chip, stuck it in her datapad, read the screen that popped open. “Verified,” she said. She pocketed the datapad and stuck her hand out to the freighter Captain. “Helen, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
“As always, Jean,” Helen Kaneda answered as she shook Jean’s hand. “Look me up next time you’re on Hecate – assuming I’m in port.”
“I’ll do that.”
Captain Barrett walked briskly through the docking umbilical to her ship. “Cast us off,” she said to her Security troop Tim McNeal. She stepped to the docking compartment’s comm panel and punched the Bridge. “Indira, we’re clear. Bring us to new course fifteen by ninety, ahead one-third, move us away from the Sana Maru and rig for subspace. Time we were on our way.”
“I’ve got something up here you might want to see first,” the cultured voice of Executive Officer Indira Krishnavarna came back from the panel.
“Before we jump?”
“Yes,” the Exec replied.
“I’m on my way.”
Ninety seconds later, Barrett was on the Bridge, looking at the main scanning station. She was more than a bit surprised at what the Exec had to show her.
“Are you sure, Indira?”
“Positive,” Indira Krishnavarna answered Captain Barrett for the third time. “That,” she pointed at the scanning readout, “is the track of a Grugell drive field. I’ve seen enough of them, as you know. They’ve been through here in the last four hours.”
“Probably a cloaked frigate,” Barrett mused. She had a strange feeling of déjà vu, as though the war were on again. “And a good twenty light years on the wrong side of the frontier.”
“Fifty bucks says they’re running an illegal reconnaissance mission, or meeting an agent,” Security Chief Hector Gomp chimed in. The tall, bulky form of the former Marine reclined in his chair at his Bridge station; he had his booted feet propped up on his status panel. “Treaty of Honshu says only diplomatic ships can cross the frontier, but hell, everyone knows the Grugell are sneaking in. What’s the point in having cloaking devices if you don’t use ‘em?”
Barrett frowned. “I don’t like it. Kaelee, get me the Sana Maru.” Jean Barrett knew that the freighter carried no arms and only navigational shielding. She went to her Bridge chair and picked up her personal headset.
“Coming through now,” Kaelee Adams answered from the Signals panel.
A moment later, the familiar voice of the freighter’s Captain came through the headset. ”Sana Maru here.”
“Sana Maru, Shade Tree, you want to get the hell out of here and I mean right now. There’s a Grugell warship in the area.”
“Indeed? Thanks for the heads-up, Shade Tree. We are punching it now. See you around.”
“Safe journey,” Jean said. She put her headset down and went back to the Scanning station. She examined the track of the Grugell ship closely. “Helm,” she barked, “New course and speed, sixty-five by nineteen, all ahead two-thirds. Let’s find out what these characters are up to.”
***
Corinthia, 2254 C.E.
Hector Gomp and Tim McNeal looked carefully over the tops of the stacked crates. The alley hid them in the deep shadows of the Corinthian evening, but about a kilometer away to their front laid a well-lighted landing field and in the center of that field, the Shade Tree’s landing shuttle.
“They’re still there, aren’t they?” Jean Barrett asked from the shadows.
“Yeah,” Gomp said. “Two Corinthian Royal Guardsmen in full armor and carrying carbines, too. Those boys came to play. They aren’t going to let us anywhere near the shuttle.”
“No way to take them out?”
Gomp shook his head. “Not with just Tim and me with sidearms and no armor. They’d cut us down in a second.” Gomp patted his holstered revolver. “Our ten-millimeters won’t even scratch them – that’s Mk IV smart-fiber armor they’re wearing.”
Captain Barrett sat down on a crate. “Damn it all. I knew that the King was pissed off, but I didn’t think he was that pissed off.”
“Bet he’s got someone climbing out of the gravity well to look for the ship, too.”
“I doubt that,” Jean said. An evil grin spread across her face. “Harold the First does know our reputation – I think he reckons that anyone climbing up after my ship is likely to get a Shrike missile in his teeth for his trouble.”
“True enough.” Gomp stole another look over the crates. “The advantage of having the high ground is always nice. That doesn’t do us much good down here, though, if we can’t get off the planet ourselves.”
“Think, people,” the Captain ordered. “Think. I’ll bet the whole proceeds from this job that King Harold has other troops out looking for us. Won’t take them long to figure out where we’re going.”
“We’re in a tight spot,” Gomp agreed.
“Perhaps,” someone else said.
Gomp spun around, pointed his revolver into the shadows at the source of the soft, feminine voice speaking with a distinct Corinthian accent. “Whoever you are,” he hissed, “come on out of there.”
Tim McNeal darted forward and escorted a young woman out of the shadows. The young Security officer held the woman’s arm firmly in one hand and in the other he held what looked like the body of a standard datapad, but with several unrecognizable attachments. McNeal handed the datapad to his boss. “She had this,” he said, “and a kit bag of some sort. The bag is back there.”
“What the hell is this?” Gomp asked, examining the modified device.
“It’s an Ipswich Goliath datapad, with some of my own gadgetry added on,” the young woman said. She looked at the privateer Captain. “You are Captain Barrett, yes?”
“Yes,” Barrett said. “That’s me. Who are you?”
“I’m Kaelee Adams. I’m the one who blew open the story on young Prince Harold.”
“Bloody hell,” Barrett snapped. “You’re the one who got the King all spun up. It’s partly your fault we’re in this mess.”
“Young Harold got himself in this mess, Captain. All I did was hack the Royal Family’s personal data and release the information. Not my fault that King Harold I is an intolerant bastard and can’t handle his son, namesake and heir to the throne having an intimate relationship with a male schoolmate.”
“Well, the King is on a tight edge, and he didn’t take kindly to us landing and picking up a cargo of refined palladium, just because we got it from a poacher.” Jean indicated her shuttle, and the guards. “And as you can see, he isn’t willing to let us leave.”
“I may be able to help you there,” Adams said. “But I’ll want something in return.”
Jean looked at the girl, one eyebrow cocked in a questioning arc.
“Get me off this bloody planet,” Adams pleaded. “Old Harold has people looking for me everywhere. If they find me here, they will toss me in a cell and damned well leave me there. Free speech on this bit of rock is precisely what the King says it is, and that’s all.”
“If you can get us into that shuttle and back to our ship, you’ve got a deal.”
“If I might have my datapad back?”
“Gomp,” Barrett ordered, “give it to her.”
Kaelee Adams took the pad, laid it on a crate and pressed the contact that extended the laser keypad. She began tapping away, talking as she worked: “How much do you lot know about the smart-fiber armor those chaps are wearing?”
“I know how it works,” Hector Gomp said. “It’s a polymer fiber; soft and comfortable, woven through with environmental controls and bio-monitors. Any impact and it hardens into a cross-polarized plate, impervious to almost any personal weaponry.”
“Exactly. But what you don’t know, and what you couldn’t know unless you’d taken a little dive into the King’s personal files, is that old Harold is scared bloody stiff of a revolt by his own palace guard. He may be a bloody fool in any number of ways, but he is not ignorant of history. Therefore, he had the armory build in a fail-safe. He has an override code for the armor sets issued to the Royal Guard; transmit that override, and the armor sets cross-polarize instantly.”
Gomp chuckled. “So, he can instantly turn his entire armed force into a bunch of statues. That’s nice.”
“And you have that code,” Tim McNeal guessed.
“Not bloody half,” Adams said. “Watch this.” She pressed a contact on a cylindrical device grafted onto the top of her datapad.
On the landing field, one of the guards was walking around the ship. The signal caught him in mid-stride, toppling him to the pavement as his armor locked solid. The other was standing still. He tottered back and forth once, twice, before finally falling over backwards. He hit the pavement with a stiff clunk.
“We can go now, I think,” Adams said with a slight grin. “Let me get my kit.”
Five minutes later, the Shade Tree shuttle was boosting towards orbit, the ship, and a clean getaway with a valuable cargo. Captain Barrett let Gomp handle the controls. She sat in her seat watching the young Corinthian tapping calmly away on her datapad.
“You know,” Barrett said, “You haven’t said where you want to go. Nor have you asked where we’re going next.”
“I’ve got bugger-all for options,” Kaelee said without looking up from the ‘pad. “It was either ship out with you, or off to the jailhouse. I’d much rather go along with you.”
“Well, we don’t take charity cases,” Barrett said. “You’ll have to earn your keep. As luck would have it, I could use someone to handle Signals on second watch. Moreover, I admit, a good hacker can always come in handy, and if you can hack the royal databases, you can probably hack about anything. Anyway. Job’s yours if you want it.”
At that, Adams did look up. Her eyes widened, and a slow smile spread across her face. “Well now,” she said. “That does sound exciting. I think I’ll accept, Captain.”
***
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Links, in case you need them:
Another great chapter, Animal.
+1
+2
√-3
Oh, wait, these aren’t math jokes?
This is a math joke.
Loving it so far, Animal.
From the ded thread:
“The recent NHANES study also found that male participants who engaged in daily sexual activity were six times more likely to experience premature death than females who did the same.”
Curious about the divergence here, is that just AIDS showing up or something else with taking too many risks?
Getting murdered by husbands of their paramours?
that doesn’t make any sense
If you don’t have a partner with the same compulsions, then this could result in having to look to hook up at clubs and bars every night or have a “harem” of women willing to be your partner. This lifestyle is not sustainable and would require one to take more and more risks each year as they age.
You know this from personal experience?
I know from personal and observational experiences that that lifestyle can be bad for your body and soul if it is all that you have in your life.
Morphine Thursday.
https://youtu.be/3xz4umNws0s
This is my take. If getting more sex, from partners or hook-ups+, the more likely to be involved in risky situations. This goes on to their personality –> More likely to take dangerous jobs; to be a more dangerous driver; to have no ability to make ‘good’ decisions (or just be a fucking idiot).
People who don’t engage in as many risky behaviors avoid more of all of the above. *shrug* Pretty simple. Nothing to do with momentary chemical release.
It sounds kinda like “there is a 100% correlation between death and people who wear clothing”
or “we found exactly what we were looking for”
This is real?
Scroll down for the Time Cover of America’s wine Aunt.
https://time.com/7009317/reintroduction-of-kamala-harris/
I assume they didn’t have a “his moment” cover for Vance, or for Trump in 2016.
I was in line at the grocery store this weekend. There was an issue of Time for $19.99.
AYFKM?
Why would anyone pay them real money?
Author’s name is Charlotte Alter – I think is pretty alt alright. alt-reality
Her campaign denied a request for an interview for this story So…technically an in-kind campaign donation?
This made me laugh when I scanned the article a little.
Even for a fawning article she won’t do an article.
*interview* not article.
She can remain a question mark that her supporters can impute anything they like. The Schrödingian Candidate.
Mighty revealing. It should be pointed out and ridiculed as often as possible. Press her on it. Force her hand to *make* appearances, despite Puppet Masters knowing the puppet is empty. Display it, sans Master-Hand, and watch her cackle her own collapse. If anyone cares, which few do. I’d say 95% of Team Harris will vote for Not Trump no matter what. No thought, just push the
rightcorrect button.I enjoy living in my Fantasy World where people give a shit (read: have ‘thought’ about policy ideas) rather than folk root-root-rah-rahing for whomever. There ain’t nuttin’ to do about it, cuz people are people. Social primates gonna
associatesocialize. Kinda an important rule. Should be written down somewhere.I believe someone here already said it, we have to elect her to know what she is campaigning for. I believe I remember that stench that is Pelosi/Obama. “Good” news out of all this is Clinton was shown the door in having any effective control over the DNP.
She is running as a “generic Democrat” as long as possible. But that should be easily countered, because the “generic Democrat” position on every issue is shit. These aren’t Biden’s policies, they’re his party’s policies.
It’s the economy, stupid . . . . . .
The democratic candidate cannot win this election without fraud. It’s doesn’t fucking matter who the candidate is.
There’s no truth in Pravda, no news in Izvestia, and no time for Time.
*does squat kick celebration dance*
Headline reads “Narrative reboot: Forget who she is, this who we are now pretending she is. “
Thanks, Animal. Very enjoyable.
In honor of Al ‘dumb cunt’ Gore and his wife, Now I’m gonna tell ya a story
A tale of wrong and Right
and freedom is the reason
You can’t take it without a fight
So now I’m startin’ up a posse
(Suck my dick, suck my dick)
To come and look for you
We’re gonna put a stop
To what you want to do
You fucking whores (You fuckin’ whores)
That’s all you are
I posted my favorite anti PRMC song this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRGladYsWS0
but that one’s a close second.
Don’t know if this was posted but new (3 days ago) Remy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo8VYZE8C6U&list=PL02D02B9A144182DB&index=1
I am so glad I built 19 years ago.
Well that’s depressing.
Thanks, Doc.
today’s [head desk] moment
***
The president of an American Federations of Teachers’ affiliate in Chicago was berated by a Black mom for claiming on a radio station that standardized tests are “junk science rooted in White supremacy” as well as “eugenics.”
…
“The way in which, you know, we think about learning and think about achievement is really and truly based on testing, which at best is junk science rooted in White supremacy,” she said. “Now, if you have another hour, I can get into why standardized tests are born out of the eugenics movement. And the eugenics movement is always thought to see Black people as inferior to those that are non-Black.”
…
“You can’t test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority,” she said. “Some of this is about, releasing our people from a standard that is created for the failure.”
***
If standardized tests are about upholding white supremacy, why do Asians outperform whites on them?
What other standardized tests should black people be exempt from? ASVAB? MCAT? GRE?
Also, standardized tests are used throughout Africa.
link
Because Asians are the yellow face of white supremacy!
Take a small example and steal some bases with it. There was an issue with some questions being determined to be cultural questions.
Like chose a place where people are expected to be quiet?: a) Rock Concert b) Church c) Ball game.
For a black Baptist the question doesn’t make sense.
That said those are things that are pretty easily surmounted. It doesn’t negate standardized tests as a whole.
“Well, I’d take the A-train…”
Can’t find the clip, but it was an SNL skit from the 1970s with Julian Bond and Garrett Morris talking about racial bias on standardized tests.
The joke question was something like: You are hosting the Labor Day regatta gala at the yacht club. Should you A) wear tuxedo B) wear a blazer with slacks C) take the A-train
There was controversy about the word “regatta” on an old SAT, as students from poorer backgrounds are unlikely to have ever heard it.
As long as kids still know the difference between a schooner and a sailboat.
There’s also that bit in PCU where the door guard asked about the proper shoes to wear at a function.
We need to convince some of these people that breathing perpetuates white supremacy.
I went out and sprayed some weeds. This means it will rain.
When I came back in there was another one one of those “We hate Shady Sheehy” ads on Pandora. Him is a evul richster! He’ll tuk ur hospitulz! He’s buying up Our Land!
Crab Bucket Commies. Punish success. Reward failure. Private ownership is bad. Everything should be owned and operated by the State. It is better to be equally impoverished than to allow a single individualist crab to climb free.
Trump, or rather The Hat, is back on X. Do with that what you will. *Elbows SugarFree*
Not in Europe.
Pussies.
Apparently, TPTB in the EU have discovered the secrets of Nostradamus. They can now predict, with amazing accuracy, just what Trump will say in his speech.
Of course, there might be another interpretation…
Why would Musk do that? This is exactly why he bought Tweeter.
Hmmm. Maybe tomorrow’s evening post should be liveglibbing the interview?
Oh it’s tonight?
I don’t notice anyone in our government or the press complaining about a clear example of foreign election interference.
Climate Change protesters play dress-up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP17p1LImbs
I was hoping to see them whip themselves or bonk themselves on the head Monty Python style.
***
Flagellantism was a 14th-century movement, consisting of penitents in the Catholic Church. It began as a Christian pilgrimage and was later condemned by the Catholic Church as heretical. The followers were noted for including public flagellation in their rituals. This was a common practice during the Black Death, or the Great Plague.
***
What we got ain’t nuttin’ new. Social primates find odd groups when given the time and leisure to pursue such. Gotta ‘fit in’ somewhere. The drive to Fit In is far more powerful than ‘reason.’ I think it’s an underestimated/ forgotten primal urge, certainly more powerful than sex. (That’s Phase II of fittin’ in.)
A White Feminist “Professor of Culture” Competed in the Olympics Breakdancing Competition to Destroy the Patriarchy and the Patriarchy Hasn’t Stopped Laughing Since
The Olympics pretty much sucked, but at least we get this.
Whoa, isn’t that cultural appropriation? Check your white feminist privilege, toots.
Napoleon Vegemite.
Haha! Excellent.
Speaking of the economy, there is a new poll out showing Harris is even with Trump in the “ability to handle the economy” category. No, I don’t have the link. I’m sure the google nooz will promote the shit out of it.
That’s true. No one person can do shit.
A great story continues. I read about reactive body armor for a few years (30+). I was in college reading a SF story with this technology in it. I thought that if you could use a piezoelectric sensor / actuator combination to make it a realty. At critical spots in the woven Kevlar or Carbon fiber fabric, you could essentially have hundred of thousands of nodes that sense a fast expansion as the bullet impacts the fabric, then a voltage is applied to certain sections to shorten fibers to interlock dragon like plates embedded in the weave.
Like most of my ideas it never went beyond an outline and the “it would be cool if I could make this” stage.
I cant find it now but some 10-20 years ago Youtube had a video of working reactive body armor that consisted of any fabric saturated with some non-newtonian fluid that instantly became impenetrable ceramic upon pressure. The examples in the video were of attempted stabbings with ice picks, knives etc. Slow pressure would go through but a violent stab failed, achieving zero penetration.
I dont remember if it would stop bullets or not.
Every info on it seems to have disappeared. Bill Gates probably bought them off and buried it.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/08/11/kamala-harris-voted-pass-legislation-allowing-irs-track-workers-tips-taxed/
Pretty funny that Harris voted for the IRS to crackdown on taxes on gratuities, before she was against it.
We need total information awareness.
I always chuckle on “best state” lists. You can make just about any state “the best” depending on your criteria and the weights.
I can say that any list with MA as #1 and NJ as #3 considers criteria that don’t concern me in the slightest.
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-to-live-in/62617
I find it hard to believe that Jersey leads in safety.
Safety – Total Points: 20
Violent-Crime Rate: Full Weight (~3.64 Points)
Property-Crime Rate: Double Weight (~7.27 Points)
Traffic-related Fatalities per Capita: Half Weight (~1.82 Points)
Total Law-Enforcement Employees per Capita: Double Weight (~7.27 Points)
More cops more better?
#metoo
Is ‘liberty’ on the list anywhere?
The difference between the top spot and bottom is only 20 points? That just doesn’t seem right.
“Traffic-related Fatalities per Capita: Half Weight”
This helps explain Florida making the cut. Driving safety isn’t one of the high points here.
Elon is interviewing Trump on X tonight. The EU is ‘demanding’ that he censor Trump. Elon trying to restrain his response…
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1823076043017630114
There are only so many ways to tell someone to GFY.
The EU is ‘demanding’ that he censor Trump.
Dear EU-
Cover your ears.
xoxo
We Minnesodans knew how bad this guy was.
But I’m still shocked the ‘tards picked him. At least the debates with Vance will be spicy.
It’s 30mins but runs it down…
https://youtu.be/sVMkvv8PQhk?si=9oslaEnTJKkjgo2_
I posted the Angry Cops video this weekend. He does a very thorough explanation of what happened and when.
I just find it really hard to believe that they didn’t vet Tampon Timmy at all. It sure suggests that Kunstler is onto something: