Winds of Change Snippet 5

Like many of the stories in Winds of Change this story will have an impact on the future...

  Trailer Trash

Sibiu

 

Giaro had an air of innocence about him that he thought was good; however, it apparently wasn’t good enough. He and Jonas had been scouting the general store under the guise of playing when the shopkeeper saw them and chased them off.

The Django kids slunk away annoyed at being turfed out. They rounded the corner and ran right into the arms of the Gardia. Giaro found his left arm grabbed roughly, hard enough to bruise. He cried out, but more in theater than in anything else.

“What did you steal this time?” the Gardia demanded as his partner grabbed Jonas by the scruff and shook him.

“Nothing! We were just playing!” the boys insisted as they were forced to turn out their pockets. The pockets had some paper trash, some minor credits, some washers, and a set of jacks and dice but little else.

The lead Gardia glowered at them. The duo took on an air of sullen and quiet denial. They knew that they were in the right … this time.

“We don’t want your thieving kind around here anymore,” the Gardia stated with a growl. “If we see any of you tinkers in town, we’ll take the cane to you. Mark my words!” he snarled as he roughly pushed the kid to the road. “Now git!”

The kid shot back a dirty look but brushed himself off as Jonas was pushed to him. He caught his little brother and then moved on. The girls joined them further up the dirt road as they made their way back to camp. They were quiet and annoyed.

It was a long walk back to the camp, over six kilometers up and down some hills and across a covered bridge. The kids tried to find something to bring back but only found water crest, a turtle, and a frog to bring back. They knew their mother would be annoyed.

--*--

Mario Lupu made the rounds to the Hammerstein farmstead, hat in hand in hopes of finding more work. He was denied. Instead, he found himself meeting with the town fathers. The leader of the Gardia came up behind him, blocking a quick escape.

He knew the score but stood his ground. “It is time for you traveling folk to move on,” Mister Hammerstein stated coldly.

“I thought we still had business. You have another harvest coming up,” the Neocoyote whined.

Another town father shook his head. “We don’t want your kind here. You have been stealing. Thefts are up across the county. Leave. If you do not leave in two days, we will have the Gardia turn you out.”

“We will leave. See who you call when you need your fruits picked in the late fall,” the Neocoyote said as he put his cap back on his head. He turned and walked off without a backwards glance.

--*--

The camp was broken into three parts. The first part was the one facing the dirt road; it was the carnival of delights and oddities. Gepetto's puppet stage was there along with the acrobat ring, petting zoo, oddity show, maker’s row, and so on.

Behind them the kids passed through the vehicle park. Off to one side was an improvised pasture; it held the beasts of the traveler folk. The pasture had to be moved every few days because the beasts tended to eat up all of the grass.

Giaro checked the water with a keen eye and then waved for his little brother to get a pale and refresh it. Jonas grimaced but didn’t argue. Each wagon had three water cans to provide water if the plumbing wasn't set up. Many had brass plaques with the family name or crest engraved on it. It was the chores of the kids to fill and carry it from the water source to the wagon.

The most advanced wagons had a pump, filtration system, and hoses that could feed their neighbors.

Charity was there weaving on the family wagon, she nodded to them. “Didn’t get anywhere did you?” she asked mildly as he presented her with the cat tails and the little that they’d found along the road back. The path was well picked over from their frequent trips.

“No,” he said in disgust. “We got turfed out by the Gardia,” he grumbled.

“Figures,” she sighed.

“Think we’ll have to move?” he asked.

“Probably,” she said as her nimble fingers finished weaving the basket. She turned a critical eye on it, examining it carefully before she took out a pair of side cutters and nipped the final errant pieces of cane away. Those were gathered up to be tossed in the fire later.

“Best I check the wagon and the truck then,” Giaro said, trying to sound gruff and an adult.

“Best you do,” his older sister said. He stepped past her but couldn’t resist tweaking a braid along the way. She swung at him and caught him on the back of the thigh with a well placed swat. He snorted and kept going.

--*--

Mahler Ward finished his rounds with the local healer. There had been little work recently, a clear sign that it was time to move on. It was unfortunate; he rather liked the community.

The traveler folk made rounds all over the continent, frequently changing their route each year to keep things from getting stale. As long as the hands didn’t get too sticky fingered, they would be able to return to an area to do work in a year or so once the annoyance and anger over their antics faded into memory.

Sibiu was a terraformed agrarian world named for a Romanian city on long-lost old Earth. The colony had initially been settled by East Europeans and Irish who had paid for the terraforming project. It had been opened up to all species once they’d been established with the best lands and mineral rights.

The world was cold even during the height of summer, not many species liked the world. Only a handful of refugee ships had come to the star system during the Xeno war. Most of those had found themselves unwelcome and had moved on.

“Do you need anything from the pharmacists?” Mahler asked mildly. The healer shook his head firmly.

“I’m all stocked up. If I get anything else, it will just spoil before I need it.”

Mahler nodded. Efren had a point.

“Tell Z’ch’ll thanks for fixing the scope and the surgical tools. I think I can handle it from here,” the healer said dismissively.

Mahler nodded quietly as he saw the signs of dismissal. There was little work in the area for one healer now that they’d gotten past the rash of accidents that generally cropped up during spring and fall. If he stuck around longer, there wouldn’t be enough pay to support both families.

So, Efren was politely telling him it was time to move on.

“Well,” he said as he slapped his cap on. “Be seeing you around,” he said gruffly.

“Be seeing you, Doctor,” Efren replied with a nod.

That was another sign of dismissal. They were supposed to be equals; however, Efren had called him by the title. Mahler nodded and kept an impassive face as he took his bag and headed out to the street. He looked around and then headed to his bike. He strapped his kit bag on the back and then took off on the bicycle up the road, doing his best to avoid the ruts as he headed back to camp.

--*--

Winds of Change Snippet 4

 Contract: World Builders 2

Sierra Keys

 

Captain Madeline Croft was on the bridge as her terraforming ship, the Aurora XXIV, arrived in the Sierra Keys star system at the Sparkling Seas jump point. “Stand down from hyperspace. Rig for sublight running,” she ordered crisply.

The bridge crew echoed her order as they implemented them.

“Transmit our IFF to the picket and the planet. Wake them up. Not that they don’t know we are here,” she said.

“Given the massive energy we just unleashed, a blind man wouldn’t miss it,” Deacon Croft stated in amusement. The teenager had recently graduated to helm duty. His twin sister Harley was at the engineering console.

“Well, we are rather big,” Harley said.

“Are you calling my ship fat?” the captain and their older sister asked humorously.

The twins glanced at each other and then looked at her with mischievous expressions. She snorted and then shook a fist at them. They grinned back at her.

The captain sat back and ran her hands over the armrests. The ship was ancient; she had been left in Bek B as a space station for six centuries after her hyperdrive had been taken offline. The Croft family had remained on board to run her.

When Admiral Irons had restored contact with Bek, the family had done some good business for a time. But then that had dried up as new space stations were constructed and the use of hyperdrives meant their station and its location were made redundant.

Instead of giving up, she had convinced the family to turn their misfortunes around and restore the old beauty to her glory days. They’d lined up investors and set out to do just that.

It helped that a lot of the family, herself included, were former or reserve Spacebee Engineers. They had been born with a wrench in their hand.

She snorted softly to herself as her practiced eyes scanned the plot and the ship status screens. All were good.

“The picket has confirmed our presence and sent their regards. We are cleared to set course into the inner star system,” the communication tech stated.

The captain nodded and tugged on her vest. She’d worn it in case she needed to be on camera. “Very well. Set course for the planet and someone raise the government. Let them know we are here to get to work and time is of the essence.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.”

~~~#~~~

Fred Heo watched his boss Cole Croft secure the hyperdrive. The ship was running smoothly. Now that they had plenty of jumps under their belt, Cole wanted to try to squeeze additional speed out of the old girl.

They knew it was possible; the old ship had gone a full octave higher in her heyday. The skipper didn’t want to push the frame and systems, however. But, with more and more contracts lining up every few weeks, they needed to either clone themselves or speed the ship up.

~~~#~~~

Doctor Marcus Chau immediately contracted the government email he had been given. The time delay as they transited through the inner star system was a bit irritating, but there was no way around it.

They could still get the ball rolling though. Time was of the essence in more ways than one.

They had originally been contracted by their first major client, the sector capital no less, New Tau Metropolis, to build a planet.

Their work there had barely started. The Browns and a team of engineers had been left behind to manage that while the ship went out to work on side contracts that they had agreed to.

Several star systems in the chain had been infected by a beetle. The pest was devastating timber and agriculture. Petra was said to be the root cause but there was some doubt there.

The bugs had spread to Sierra Keys, which had some artisan woods and agricultural exports. The blockade of that material was harming their economy, hence the contract.

He had a small but mighty team of geneticists and environmentalists working on the problem remotely. They had done what they could through that route; now that they were on scene, they intended to put their theories into practice.

To pay for it all the planetary governments had received matching grants from the Federation. Each grant was broken down into phases. Completion of each phase unlocked the funding for the next.

They had a very tight timeline though to get through the next phase. Two months from the time they made orbit. It was going to be … tricky.

Hopefully, nothing like weather would throw them off, he thought with a pang.

~~~#~~~

Governor Simon Kane stared out from his new digs and smiled. As a realtor, he really liked his new “purchase” even though he’d gotten it with a lot of strings from his “investors.”

He had managed to capitalize on inflation and economic turmoil caused by the timber crisis by promising sweeping changes. His conservative party had swept into power as the newly elected government.

He had to admit, the governorship was harder than he’d expected. He’d had to cut back on his social outings and his time on the golf course a bit, limiting it to just the weekends. That was annoying.

He had expected an easy win since the people had wanted change and many had been suspicious of Governor Raye. Raye, a male Tauren, had been tied to the Confederation because of his species.

Kane had capitalized on the governor’s race and its connection to the Confederation. The veiled racist attacks had cut both ways but had helped him to undercut the governor and eventually beat him in the last election.

The people had wanted change, and he was going to deliver them that wish. They just might not get what they were expecting. His followers were digging into the government with a will.

It was … tricky though. He had promised them that they would keep AI at bay since AI stole jobs. The reality was that an AI could do the work of hundreds of people for a much smaller pay. He’d tried to have dumb AI created to do the work for free only to run into the limitations of the AI at the lowest level. Upper level AI, even dumb AI, had to have some sort of pay.

Then there were all of the job positions. He had promised to cut the fat, to whittle down the government by eliminating waste and corruption. His friend Marcus Enron had sent a team in to do just that.

Sure, there had been some minor issues with a few of his people making racial comments that had been deleted. And oh, one had been outed as a hacker. But they were finding waste. They had cut out a hundred million credits. It wasn’t a lot compared to the interest on the planet’s growing debt, but it was a start and something that they could point to with their supporters.

He had begun pushing tariffs on imports since their timber and agricultural goods were being blockaded by the Federal government. The protectionism was supposed to help the economy but was causing rampant inflation to flourish.

And now this. The damn ship had appeared just as predicted. Damn them, he thought sourly. He didn’t want or need outsiders. They can fix their own problems with native work. They just needed to find the right way to do it.

Enron had come up with a scheme to keep the grant money local. If they did that and downplayed the threat, they could eventually wear the Federal government down into allowing some timber to flow again.

To do that though, he needed to get rid of the ship after they turned over whatever they’d come up with.

According to the reports, they had identified several approaches to the problem. His administration had diverted funds allocated to prep for the arrival of the ship to appease Enron and some of his other financial backers. They were supposed to build a university too in order to keep the scientists happy… however, were delaying it.

Doctor Hans Lorn, the head of the Timber project and chair of the Department of Timber and Agriculture at the Capital University, had insisted that they lacked the skills and equipment to put any of the ship’s proposed methods of treatment into practice in any realistic timeline.

He didn’t believe that. It was just a matter of pressure and keeping as much money for themselves and away from the greedy outsiders. Once they had turned over their work, his people would get rid of them and the doctor or his successor could use the work as a blueprint. Sure, it would take a few extra years or so but that was fine with him.

Daniel Locke, his administration’s chief lawyer, had gone over the contract with the ship and identified a couple of approaches to break the contract. The key was to make it look like it was the ship’s fault.

Delay was the simplest and best option.

“So, option one is out. They arrived in the expected window and have completed the initial work on their ship,”  Mike Tate, the governor’s chief of staff, stated.

“So, we owe them something,” Daniel stated. “They completed the first phase.”

The governor grimaced.

“You say that we can minimize the outlay by delaying them until their window to do something expires?” the chief of staff asked. “Let’s introduce them to government red tape.”

The attorney nodded. “With any luck it will tie them up in knots and they’ll make a wrong move or give up and move on. After that we can have the grant reworked to support our scientists.”

The governor nodded. And naturally his supporters would be right along for the ride, skimming what they could off the fat Federal teat.

~~~#~~~

Winds of Change Snippet 3

 Here is snippet 3:

ORCA

Agnosta

 

The fishing boat's bell clang gently with the rocking of the boat. The small crew on the trawler was too busy with a catch to try to muffle it.

Gobby Novak struggled with the line before getting it around a cleat. He gasped, flexing his gloved hands as he tried to get feeling back into them.

On the other end of the high tech polymer line was a Great White Shark. They were trying to catch it for an aquarium since the fish were not running at the moment. It was early spring, and the icebergs were flowing down from the north.

There were crabbers out there but the ship was too small to make a profit in crabbing anymore. Celtic Bimbo had once been new but was now showing signs of her age. It didn’t help that the captain spent most of his credits in port in the off-season.

The first officer checked the weather with an eye and then went back to watching the line. It was taught as it should be. The shark was firmly hooked in the corner of the mouth with a sturdy steel hook. He wished the skipper had gone for a better hook material, but this one was working for the moment.

The shark needed to wear itself out a little before they could get it alongside and get it into a sling. They didn’t want to stress it out though. Too much stress and the beast would go belly up.

~~~{^}~~~

Captain Brown steered away from a group of icebergs on the horizon. It was early spring and it showed. You could still see icebergs of various shapes and sizes everywhere floating south in the current. There was a storm front coming in a few days; he wanted to be back in the harbor by then.

His weathered hands held the pegs on the old fashioned wheel with practiced ease. He kept an eye on the line, keeping it just taut and clear of the stern. He didn’t want the beast to foul the screws. That was the last thing he needed.

Easy does it, he thought as he guided the ship with slight movements of the wheel and minor tweaks of the throttle.

He glanced in the mirror and then adjusted his cap. He was an Irish charming rogue according to the women he met. He had more salt in his hair than pepper these days. He couldn’t change, the sea and fishing was the only thing he’d ever known. He made a mistake and swung the ship into a rogue wave. The wave hit the boat and kicked a boom loose from its line. The line was old and worn and snapped with a cracking sound. The boom swung across the deck and knocked Ken into the water.

The splash alerted the crew that something was wrong. Ann leaned out the open porthole to see Ken flaying. “Man overboard!” she called out and then hit the alarm.

The alarm went off throughout the ship, setting off a klaxon and flashing strobe. The crew cursed as they tried to find Ken.

“Anyone got eyes on him?” the captain called out over his shoulder. “Sing out to me! Who has him?” he demanded.

~~~{^}~~~

Katina saw the human splash and went to investigate. The rest of the pod was intent on the shark that the humans had caught on the line.

Namu and the others in the pod told her to ignore the thrashing 2-leg but she took pity on the human and rose up under him. From her melon, her echolocation clicks determined that it was a male as her sixth sense penetrated his clothing.

“You shouldn’t be jealous, Namu. Is manhood is tiny,” she teased her mate. He gave her some side-eye and then clacked an echolocation burst at the 2-leg.

He sent a withering comment in primal dolphin and then swam off.

His mate sighed softly to herself and lifted the human up on her back. Her mate would never understand her fascination with the 2-legs. He didn’t care that her ancestors had actually liked working with them. They were endlessly inventive and had saved two of her ancestors from the tiny predators that attacked through their blood.

She could at least help the 2-leg out and temporarily sate her curiosity over the thing while also adding to the mystery of her species with them. It never hurt to have the 2-legs indebted to her kind and remind them of who the real rulers of the sea were.

~~~{^}~~~

Ken realized he was in trouble when he hit the frigid water. No one lasted more than a few moments in the cold seas without a proper suit and he didn’t have one on. He cursed his stupidity. The captain was cheap. He should have bought one in his last port of call but he’d stupidly gambled and drank most of his money away.

Now he was going to pay for his shortsighted stupidity with his life.

He spat the salt water out of his mouth as he bobbed and waved frantically to the ship. Something touched his leg and he frantically looked around. They’d been hunting a shark, and he’d heard that they would first tap their victim before they took a test bite. He flayed around as he tried to swim back to the boat.

~~~{^}~~~

“Secure that line!” the captain snarled as he held onto the old fashioned wooden wheel.

“Port side!” Ann called out.

“Yeah, yeah,” Captain Brown snarled under his breath as he yanked the wheel hard over to come back around to his hapless sailor. “Bet he didn’t think he’d be bait this morn,” he growled gruffly. “Next time tie the line properly!” he bellowed.

~~~{^}~~~

Gobby Novak the XO scrambled to secure the line as Paul tossed a preserver and line in Ken’s direction. The toss was bad, partly because of the swaying of the boat and partly due to the sudden turn. Paul dodged the swinging boom and tripped on the line.

Gobby snagged the line and wrapped it around his wrist to contain the boom. He was nearly yanked off his feet. Ann came up behind him and grabbed his waist to pull him back down. He breathed a sigh of relief as the cook assisted him in wrestling the wayward boom under control.

As they secured the boom line with a fresh replacement, Paul managed to struggle to his feet and pull the preserver back in to try another throw.

Just as Paul got the preserver to the side of the boat a geyser blast of air and water went skyward near the hapless sailor.

“Whale ahoy!” Gobby said. He stared gob smacked as the black shape emerged under the sailor and lifted him out of the water.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Ken felt the rubbery shape push him up and out of the water. Instinctively, he hung onto it as he shivered. Hypothermia was beginning to sink in. He knew he didn’t have much time left. If he lost consciousness, he was a gonner.

 ~~~{^}~~~

The captain stared at the sight of the black shape carrying Ken back to the boat. Initially he thought it was the shark that they’d been hunting, but he quickly realized from the blunt black fin that it was an Orca. It was curved and short, a female he judged. Where had she come from?

She must have been drawn in by the thrashing from the shark. He checked the line. It was still tied off to the cleat.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Namu saw the shark thrash as it tried to snap the line that connected the massive hook in its mouth to the 2-leg boat. In its maddened state, it lined up on Katina and the human. The alpha male went into overdrive and swam up to slam the massive great white from below.

~~~{^}~~~

One moment they were staring at the incredible sight of Ken being rescued by an orca, the next the shark fin had lined up on them and then an explosion of water and shark was thrust in a geyser upwards. The two-ton shark was thrown into the air with a massive male Orca’s jaws clamped around its torso.

Captain Brown stared thunderstruck for a long moment.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Ken felt the spray of water but he was beginning to lose consciousness. His grip began to slip. He coughed up water and moaned. Hands reached for his back. He heard muffled voices saying they got him, and he felt himself being lifted out of the sea.

 ~~~{^}~~~

“Show off,” Katina teased her mate in a series of clicks. “This one is about done in. They are so fragile. Not really meant to be in the sea,” she observed as she pushed the human to the side of the boat.

Namu ignored her as he shook the shark and tore at its abdomen savagely. The shark’s mouth opened and closed, exposing triangular serrated teeth that bit the water in impotent rage and terror before the glass black eyes faded.

The water was red with blood. The orca backed off and allowed the shark to drift before it went back in and used his flippered hands to rip the wound open further to get at the liver. He extracted it, took a bite for himself, then bit off a chunk and spat it out to the other orca as he took a piece off to his mate.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Gobby and Paul pulled Ken back on board. He shivered uncontrollably, half awake. Paul slapped the guy on the face to try to get him to remain awake as they tried to get him below decks.

Ann met them at the hatch and threw a blanket over Ken. “I’ll get some broth going. Get him in the shower. Don’t warm him up too fast or he’ll have a heart attack,” she warned.

“We know,” Gobby said testily as he pulled the sailor to the head and waiting shower. He could hear that Ann had already turned it on.

 ~~~{^}~~~

“Well, that was fun,” Namu said as he came up to his mate as she swam away from the ship.

“Did you at least save me a piece?” she asked.

“Of course,” he teased. He played with her for a bit, keeping it away from her before she began to get exasperated. When he sensed her mood shift, he kicked it to her with his flutes.

She gobbled the liver in a couple of bites and then nodded.

“Just what our growing child needed,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he said as he swam back to the pod. They were chasing a run of seals that were fishing nearby.

 ~~~{^}~~~