Blood and Profit: Chapter 21

Near midnight Toll returned to the room that he and Rusty had been assigned to. Rusty was still awake, looking something over on a tablet.

“Thanks for not warning me at all about Third's sense of humor.” He smiled as he shut the door.

“Thanks for dragging my ass over two million light years from home.” Rusty replied, putting his tablet down.

Toll sat on his bunk. “Punishment accepted.”

Rusty looked out the tiny porthole window by his bed. “That wasn't your punishment.”

Toll looked shocked. “Seriously? That robot isn't even remotely funny and that story took like five whole minutes to tell. If that wasn't my punishment please get it over with cause, damn.”

Rusty put his feet on the floor. “You know we're never going home, right?”

Toll looked skeptical. “Of course we're going home. And I'm going to take the blame for everything.”

Rusty shook his head. “Damn right you would, but we're not going home so you're off the hook.”

Toll stood up. “I'm not off the hook until I say I'm off the hook. And why do you have to be so defeatist? We're going home, trust me.”

“Well that seals it. Now we're definitely never making it back home.” Rusty laid on his bunk dejectedly.

“What makes you so sure?” Toll asked.

“When you say 'trust me' it pretty much means 'I have no clue what I’m doing right now but as long as I keep doing it then hopefully everyone will forget this was my idea in the first place.'” Rusty turned off the light above his bed.

Toll stared at the ceiling in the darkness. Unable to deny his friend. He rolled on his side. “We're getting on that ship and we're going home.”

Rusty sighed. “That’s a better plan than I've got so sure, why not.”

Neither of them fell asleep, they just laid silently in the darkness. “What do you think their doing back home right now?” Toll asked.

“Nothing. Things are as blissfully dull and slow as they have always been. They probably had a party to celebrate getting rid of the two biggest nuances in a generation but then happily went back to their quiet boring dull lives.” Rusty rolled over, his back to Toll.

“Sounds nice.” Toll remarked. There was silence for long enough that he wasn't sure if Rusty was still awake.

“Yeah, it does.” Rusty finally offered.

It wasn't much longer until they had both fallen asleep.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 20

Rusty had lost track of time. At first he let his mind wander from fish to fish as the swam by the window he was parked at, then a maintenance worker appeared to work on a piece of pipe. The bright light of his welding torch blinking on and off. Far from bored, Rusty felt himself relax both physically and mentally.

On the other side of the hallway, the conference room door opened and Ophelia appeared along with a member of the Baceten. “Rusty i'm sorry we took so long.” She said entering the hallway. Rusty refocused and turned to meet Ophelia He was not expecting the android. “Rusty this is The Third Guy. The Third Guy, this is Rusty.”

The pair shook hands. “I've never met an android before.” Rusty stammered. The Third Guy smiled.

“She told me to tell you that I have never met and extra terrestrial before. But that is not true.” The Third Guy let go of Rusty's hand.

Rusty glared at Ophelia. “She thinks she's funny.”

Ophelia stuck her tongue out at rusty. “I am funny.” She spat.

“I have yet to ascertain why she finds what she finds to be funny. It is, perplexing.” The Third Guy offered.

“Humor isn't something I would have expected an android to be even remotely interested in.” Rusty offered.

“On the contrary.” The Third Guy corrected. “The Baceten encourage pursuits in any and all areas of personal growth. Laughter is very rarely a pre meditated action. It is not controlled by the active mind. I have found that I enjoy eliciting genuine autonomic responses from an audience. For instance you may have asked yourself why I have such an unusual name.” He turned his head ever so slightly indicating that he was waiting for Rusty to ask the question out loud.

“Why do you have such an unusual name, The Third Guy?” he asked.

“I am glad you asked, it is a funny story. Nearly a thousand years ago, there were three scientists on earth, actually there were many more than three but this story pertains to three individuals so for the sake of brevity I will refrain from giving the actual number of men and women engaged in scientific pursuits at the time.” Rusty snorted a laugh and Ophelia hit his arm. The Third Guy continued undaunted. “Sir Arthur Eddington was incredibly skilled in the area of physics and specifically the scientific theory of relativity hypothesized by another scientist named Einstein. When approached by a third gentlemen named Silberstein at a meeting of the minds, he was complimented as one of the three minds who truly understood the theory. He remained silent as Silberstein was fishing for a compliment in return, Silberstein demanded that Eddington not be so modest to which he replied “who's the third guy?” Hence my name.” The Third Guy. Because I understand the theory and it is funny because Sir Arthur Eddington could not have been referring to me.”

Rusty nodded slowly. “Kind of a long name though, don't you think?” he asked. The Third Guy nodded.

“You are correct. In order to create a greater sense of ease among my human companions I respond to 'Third' which is also funny because it is one third of my full name.” He smiled, pleased with himself.

Ophelia's tablet beeped. She opened the note and then entered into the conversation. “The boys are back from their sub trip. I gather there was a bit of a commotion.”

Third nodded. “Yes I received notice that your friends were rescued from a combat situation almost fifteen minutes ago. I am quite glad to hear that no harm came to them or your property.”

“Third, is comedy something your entire race was programmed for?” Rusty asked.

Third shook his head. “None of us were programmed for comedy. It is a passion I pursue of my own volition. It is a rare and often unappreciated skill set among my people.”

Rusty nodded. “In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.”

Ophelia led the pair down the hallway toward the submersible launch bay. “Ophelia, Rusty think's I am funny.”

“Shut up Third.”

“He does not think you are funny.”

“I hate you both.”

“You're making her mad Third.”

The trio turned the corner at the end of the hall.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 19

Back in the meeting room Rusty and Ophelia were lost in conversation. “So how do you keep it all straight?” Rusty asked. “My planet hasn't even been around three hundred years, we've had one war and I can't even remember who led which side.”

Ophelia shook her head. “It's not about 'keeping it all straight.' History isn't like math or computer code where you do equations and it comes out the same every time. It took us hundreds of years to figure out how to learn from our history. Names and dates don't do anyone any good - knowing why certain pivotal points played out the way they did makes history worth knowing. It used to be the five W's. Who, What, Where, When, Why. But 'why' is the most important of those questions by far. Why did a non violent scientist, who discovered the laws of energy, help create a bomb that wiped out two cities and leave the planet with the stigma of nuclear power? Why did men get together and form an organization that belittled and marginalized women for over two thousand years? And why did that organization almost lead us to the end of civilization three times? Why did the oldest and most powerful nations hand themselves over to the corporation? Learning from history is learning to ask dangerous and difficult questions; and you begin to see the path of humanity, and just how easily we allow it to be manipulated.” She was pacing back and forth, stopped and looked at Rusty who was entranced.

“Well, I picked the wrong profession.” He leaned back in his chair and glanced at the changing slide image on the wall. The space statue popped up. “What questions should we be asking about them?”

Ophelia looked at the image. “Why don't they actively seek out any of the colonies they could easily reach? Why when they do run into a ship or a settlement do they not even slow down? They leave a wake of destruction and nothing anyone has done has even come close to stopping them.”

He looked at the map of colonies that had been wiped out once it popped up. “So every encounter with the statue is due solely to the fact that it has an unchanging course and these colonies basically got in the way?”

Ophelia nodded. “If we didn't have proof there is something alive inside of it, I would assume it was floating dead through space.” She sat on the table while Rusty got up to look at the map of the galaxy.

“Can you keep this image up for a minute?” he asked. She nodded and pressed a button on the remote. Rusty began mapping out the course of the statue on the larger map. “I was never a 'why' person. Growing up I was always focused on 'how'. How can I erase the history of Toll downloading vid's on my dad's computer. How can I build a mainframe out of junk, How can I hack into a transit ring. Why wasn't a question I ever had the luxury of answering.”

Ophelia looked at the map trying to figure out the point he was trying to make. “What 'how' are you trying to work out right now?” she asked.

He took control of the keyboard and quickly acclimatized himself to the map programs commands. The red line that showed the statue ship's path extended out into it's future course, never curving or diverting. The Galaxy map widened until Earth was visible and the red line ran right into the planet.

“I'm trying to figure out how we're going to avoid extinction.” Rusty answered Ophelia's original question, sitting down hard.

Far from being shocked Ophelia smiled warmly at him. “We already knew it's ultimate destination... look, it's been a long trip for you, a lot of stuff completely outside your control has happened to you and I imagine that everything has you pretty much totally overwhelmed. But it's  no longer just you and Toll vs the universe.” She held back the urge to hold his hand.

“I just want to live long enough to go home, you know?” His eyes had not left the map.

 Ophelia was distracted by her tablet alarm going off.

“oh!” she shut off the alarm and got up off the desk. “look there's no point in driving yourself mad worrying about this right now. Why don't you come with me? I think you'd enjoy my next meeting.”

Rusty let her grab his hand and lead him out of the room. 

Blood and Profit: Chapter 18

The submersible launch bay was a surprise to Toll. He had expected a large affair, with rows of subs ready to deploy like jet fighters, but instead they entered a room not much bigger than the launch bay at the recycling station he had worked at before he hijacked the gate.

“Only two subs?” He asked.

Carter nodded. “This isn't much more than an airlock for research runs. We have emergency escape pods located all over the base and mass transit bays are centrally located.” Toll laughed. Carter cocked his head to the side. “What are you laughing about?”

“You sounded like a tour guide just then.” Toll said while taking a pressure suit and helmet from the wall.

Carter shook head and smiled. “Well then, prepare to laugh your ass off because, in the event that your submersible looses pressure containment or becomes immobilized, your suit acts as a floatation device. Just press the red buttons on both wrists cuffs at the same time and your suit will auto inflate taking you to the surface. Your suit has a re-breather system that filters air out of the water insuring that, regardless of depth, you will never run out of oxygen.” Carter pointed to a stall door. “Change in there.” Toll nodded and entered the stall to change.

A few minutes later Toll exited the stall wearing the clingy pressure suit and carrying the helmet. He stopped at the closest submersible. “How do these things work?” He asked.

Carter knelt down next to the submersible and opened the cockpit hatch. “Exactly like every star fighter you've ever flown, with one huge difference. You don't move through water like you do through space.”

Toll laughed. “I'll figure it out. Let's go see this squidputer thing of yours.” He put his helmet on and it sealed the connection to the suit. He then dropped into the cockpit of the sub.

Carter spoke to Toll using the communication system built into their helmets. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but these subs cost about two million credits apiece so, please, show a little self control.” he could see the color drain out of Toll's face. “Relax you big baby! I'm not going to make you buy another one; just try not to crash into a coral reef or anything.” Carter dropped down into the seat of his own sub and put his helmet on.

“Oh sure. Take away all my fun.” Toll snapped.

The attendant in the control bay spoke into a microphone on his console. “Ready for launch Doctor?”

Carter nodded “Yes, and don't call me doctor.” The attendant flipped the switch to release both subs allowing them to sink into the water and out of the bay.

Blood and Profit. Chapter 17

Toll followed the pair of excited nerds at a respectable distance. Regardless of the fact that Rusty said he had made the choice to come along, so far the trip had contained very few pleasant surprises and Ophelia was quickly turning out to be one of them. At first Toll was pretending to be interested in the seemingly endless hallways, but now, nearly ten minutes into their walk to an unknown destination, Toll found himself genuinely shocked at the size of the underwater facility. Each window gave him something new to investigate. He almost missed it when Ophelia took a right and led Rusty into a meeting room. He finished watching a shark casually swim by and followed the pair in. Ophelia was setting up a presentation of some sort on her computer, which had its display projected onto the wall. Toll flopped down into the nearest chair.

“So what do we need to know that we don't know already?” He asked. Ophelia smiled as she worked on her machine.

“That depends on what you think you already know.” She fired back.

“Seems pretty straight forward. Earth and all its colonies are property of one, possibly more, corporations. The Pacific Free Zone is like nerdy freedom fighters that grow computer squid, because...um...computer squid don't really need an excuse. And we're from a super old colony and everyone wants us dead, because we're a reminder that you can successfully revolt, or rebel, or fight the power...Rusty you got anything to add?” Toll asked. Rusty shook his head.

“What could I possibly add to that?” He asked.

“My thoughts exactly.” Toll looked to Ophelia. “How'd I do teach?” Ophelia shook her head, a smile on her face.

“Not too far off actually.” Toll held up a hand and Rusty gave him a high five. Ophelia roll her eyes. “Lets start with filling in the holes and correcting some of your assumptions. First off, no one wants you dead. Everyone assumed Colony Six was gone forever. The rings sent with that colony ship were sent out before the PFZ started installing sub light communications systems into the rings.” Rusty raised his hand. Ophelia smiled. “You don't need to raise your hand you know.”

“I didn't want to interrupt you.” He offered as he lowered his hand. “So you're saying that our colony was presumed lost or destroyed but there are other colonies out there that you can communicate with even though they have their rings shut off?” Rusty worked through the thought out loud and Ophelia nodded.  He continued his thought train. “So our colony started a galactic war and we didn't even know it?” He asked. Ophelia shook her head.

“We're not at war yet.” She picked up a small remote from the table she was sitting on and pointed it at a projector which produced an image of the known galaxy and every planet colonized by humans. “It's a little more difficult than what you've put together, and by a little, I mean a lot.” She moved the presentation to the second slide. “Over the last three hundred years The Corporation has sent out forty eight colony ships to planets throughout the galaxy. These ships planted slip rings along their travel route and when they reached their final destination, the colonists on the ships were free to settle the planet and prepare it for inclusion to The Corporation.” The next slide showed that several planets had been shaded out. “Over the years, for a great number of reasons, several of the ships either never made it to their destination, shut off their rings when they did make it to their destination, or were wiped out by disease or other hostile threats. Today we're in constant contact with thirty seven colonies throughout the galaxy. The Corporation has identified eleven colonies as lost or destroyed. Of those eleven, six are still in contact with the Pacific Free Zone and consider themselves free and unaligned planets.” She moved the presentation to a slide showing a list of the other five planets, which included colony Six.

“What about the five you're not in contact with? I mean other than our planet.” Toll asked. Ophelia shrugged her shoulders.

“That is an excellent question. The corporation has sent scouting parties to take the slip rings as far out as they were placed. The last ring in your line let out in the middle of an asteroid field and there was ample evidence to suggest that the colony ship had been completely destroyed. Almost half the scouting party was demolished before they could travel back through the ring. One of the other planets sent a message that there was a disease that was incredibly fatal to organic life. They destroyed their ring and surrounded the planet with probes warning off anyone who might arrive at the planet. We lost ten thousand colonists in a matter of days. Two of the planets we're still not sure about. The rings stop in unoccupied space and there has been no successful communication to or from the ships or planets. New probes are still on their way to both planets. Lastly we have a bit of situation.” Ophelia paused for a second, and clicked the presentation to a slide that highlighted the fifth planet. “We were able to find the colony ship. There were no survivors but everything was still intact and functional. There were several video recordings and journal entries referring to an unidentified craft.”

“Unidentified craft?” Rusty repeated. Ophelia nodded.

“You mean alien in origin.” Toll clarified. Ophelia nodded again. “You've got evidence that aliens actually exist and everyone is excited about two random dudes from a human colony? That doesn't make any sense.” He sat back in his chair. Ophelia moved on to the next slide, where there were videos waiting to be played.

“It's a very difficult situation. One that will make a lot more sense once you see the videos. Ophelia clicked the remote and a video feed popped up. It was a feed from the ship's bridge camera; exactly what the captain and bridge crew had seen. And what they saw sent chills down Rusty and Toll's backs. It was impossible to discern how large the ship was or how far it was from the colony ship, but it moved with an unnatural silence. It appeared to be an impossibly large stone statue of a man with crossed arms, he was wearing a robe and his eyes and mouth were closed. The statue had no visible engines, but all the same, it passed by the colony ship under its own power. Toll found himself wishing the video would end and that he never had another reason to speak of the statue again, but the feed kept playing as the eyes and mouth opened. A swarm of ships poured forth like a never ending cloud of angry bees. They descended on the colony ship impossibly fast and the video feed cut out. Ophelia clicked to the next slide. There was silence in the room. Toll cleared his throat.

“What the hell was that?” He asked. Ophelia shrugged her shoulders.

“That's what we were hoping you might be able to tell us.” She said. Rusty and Toll looked at each other.

“We've never heard of or seen anything like that. And if we had, I doubt we'd be alive to tell about it.” Rusty offered. Ophelia nodded.

“Still, you are proof that colony Six still exists, and that puts your colony at the top of The Corporation's repatriation list.”

“Repatriation list?” Toll asked. Ophelia nodded.

“The Corporation has been preparing a battleship that is geared to make the trip out to the separated colonies and either convince them or force them to rejoin The Corporation.”

This revelation stunned both Rusty and Toll.

“Let me get the straight.” Toll demanded. “The Corporation knows for a fact that there are creepy nightmare aliens out there in the galaxy and their plan is to attack and subdue some colonies that decided to declare independence?” Toll looked to Ophelia and she nodded again.

“But only if they get their battleship, which they won't because we're going to steal it.” Rusty dropped his face into his hands.

“Toll, can we go home now?” He said from behind his hands.

Toll leaned forward in his chair while pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “That's why Carter is so concerned about the squid'puter? Because you're going to steal the ship it's supposed to be installed in?”

“I'm not stealing anything!” She stood up from her perch on the table. “The Pacific Free Zone has decided to take an incredibly dangerous action to benefit pretty much everyone but the Pacific Free Zone, including your colony, because if The Corporation gets their ship then you can bet colony Six is at the top of their list of places to visit.”  Rusty stepped in between her and Toll.

“Ok look, we get that things on this side of the ring are pretty intense. But you have to admit that stealing a battleship is a bit extreme. Once you get control of the ship, if you get control of the ship, there is no place you'll be able to take it that The Corporation won't be able to find.” He explained. From the doorway Carter responded.

“You're not the first one to point that out. But truthfully, it's do or die time. The second we saw what the ship was capable of we knew it could never become fully operational in the hands of The Corporation. It shouldn't even be operational at all, but at least we can use it to try and reach the colonies that we've lost contact with.” He stepped into the room and sat down on the table where Ophelia had been sitting.

“So, if you can successfully steal the ship, you're going to crew it for a very long term mission, and visit colonies that might be long dead.” Toll clarified.

“Exactly correct.” Carter smiled. “And don't think that was a plan that was easy to come up with. We've been working out the details for almost eighteen months now.”

“So what happens when everything about the highjacking goes wrong?” Toll asked.

“We have several contingency plans, and when those fail we have emergency backup plans.” Carter offered. “We're almost positive this won't start a three sided war.

“Three sided?” Rusty repeated.

“Between the Pacific Free Zone, The Corporation, and Laborite.” Ophelia offered.

“Who or what is Laborite?” Toll asked.

“The second largest company currently running. They make robotic laborers to do work that is too dangerous for humans.” she explained.

“They have quite a few scores to settle with The Corporation, but we're pretty sure they won't make a move, because if they do then the Baceten will be forced to get involved.” Carter continued.

“Who or what are the Baceten?” Toll asked, feeling a lot like a broken record.

“The robotic laborers created by Laborite started out partially intelligent in order to make decisions in the moment. Laborite used to own a small moon where they dumped the laborers that broke or failed to function correctly for whatever reason. Over the first five years of production they must have dumped a few hundred thousand of these things onto their trash moon, but not all of them were turned off or brain dead. So they started rebuilding themselves on the junk moon. When they had a large enough population and enough credit to get the attention of the arbitration guild they bought themselves an organization registration and made a claim to the forge moon where Laborite builds its robots. The guild denied their request so the robots claimed the junk moon as their home planet and called themselves the Baceten. They have been openly at war with Laborite over rights to the forge planet ever since.” Both Rusty and Toll sat quietly and took everything in.

“So, there are sentient robots, on top of the creepy aliens, which is in addition to The Corporation that wants to force the galaxy back under its control. What a wonderful world you guys live in.” He said as he sat back and massaged his temples.

“Already told them about the statue then?” Carter asked Ophelia. She nodded. Carter stood.

“Well then, sounds like you know everything about everything. Who wants to go swimming with a giant bio computer?” He asked forcing a smile on his face.

“I'll just watch thanks.” Rusty shook his head. “That thing honestly creeps me out a bit.”

“Does it help if by 'swimming',  I mean ride in a fully stocked submersible designed for high speeds?” Carter asked.

Rusty shook his head again. “Not really.”

Ophelia took a step forward. “I'm pretty sure I can keep him entertained. We could spend a few days just talking about the differences in our computer systems.”

“Cool, Toll you coming? I can't imagine you'd pass up the chance to pilot what amounts to an underwater fighter jet.” Cater offered.

Toll sat forward. “You had me at underwater fighter jet.” he said standing up.

Carter joined him. “That was at the end of the sentence.”

“It wasn't an easy sell.” Toll said as they headed for the door.

“Picky, picky!” Carter complained.

Blood And Profit. Chapter 16

Toll and Rusty watched in awe as the coastline got closer and closer. They started to make out details in the cities and towns. The ship, however, was headed straight for the water where a large landing platform stood.

“Is that where we're landing?” Rusty questioned. “And why is there a landing pad alone out in the middle of the ocean?” The ship set down on the landing pad with effortless ease. A containment field bubbled the ship and the pad slowly lowered into the ocean. Carter smiled as the containment field held the ocean at bay.

“It's not alone.” Carter commented as the platform became completely submerged, revealing the extent of the underwater facilities. The buildings and tunnels appeared to extend in every direction. Several underwater vehicles were moving about freely, completing unknown tasks along the ocean floor. One of the bio computers came over a ridge and Rusty sat down hard.

“Is that?” he stopped mid sentence in awe. Carter followed his gaze.

“Oh yeah, that's Aquarius.” He smiled. “She's being prepped for a deep space exploratory vessel.” Rusty was beyond intrigued.

“They have gender?” He stared at the bio computer trying to glean every possible detail.

“Not in a physical sense, but everyone on the project had a really hard time not assigning some sort of identifier to them based on basic behavior patterns. The sad fact of the matter is, it's like applying a gender to this ship. It will never do anything to identify with that gender, but we still give it a name and think of it as a trusted friend.” Carter finished his speech as the platform slowed to a stop and butted up against an airlock system that led to an entry tunnel. The airlock door on their side opened up and Carter stood. “Gentlemen, I appreciate everything you have done for me today.” They exited the ship. “But I have a lot of work to do. I hope you won't think it rude of me, but I will be leaving you for a while, I'll catch up with you later after you've been brought up to speed on what we're doing here and the state of the universe on this side of the gate. I'll check in with you then and you'll have some decisions to make.” The outer door closed behind them. The inner door opened to reveal Warren and two other technicians. Carter was all business instantly. “All right, let me see the most recent data.” The second technician handed him a data pad and followed behind as Carter and Warren argued over the data it presented, leaving Toll and Rusty alone with the woman who was all smiles.

“Welcome to planet Earth!” She almost shouted. Rusty smiled and Toll busted out laughing. The woman's smile wavered but she soldiered on. “This is my first time greeting people like you.” Her explanation caught them off guard.

“People like us?” Rusty questioned.

“You know.” she ventured cautiously, regardless of the giant smile on her face. “Extra Terrestrials.” she slowly made her way through the words hoping the pair would catch up. Again Toll lost himself in a fit of laughter and even Rusty couldn't keep a wayward snort under control.

“We're not aliens, we're human just like you.” Rusty offered.

“I didn't say aliens.” She clarified. “You're not born of earth, so by default you are extra terrestrial.”

“You must have met plenty of people from Mars or the moon.” Toll attempted to point out. She shook her head.

“Never left the Earth. Not many people from Mars or the Moon make it to Earth, and if they do, I'm pretty much the last person they would want to talk to.” Her explanation left Rusty with a ton of questions.

“So, who exactly are you then? And why would people not want to talk to you?” He asked. She smiled.

“Ophelia Harris McMasterson the Third. Fully skilled in the art of teaching history.” She held out her hand with pride. Toll Took her hand with a huge smile on his face.

“Toll Drasmuth the First, fully skilled in the art of not crashing expensive ships into cheap meteors. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Toll motioned to Rusty. “This is Rusty Wainwright, Esquire. His skill set sounds even cooler than mine.” Toll stepped back and Rusty seemed to be caught off guard.

“I write computer code.” He offered with no flare.

“That's it?” Toll exploded, gesturing wildly. “You tell Carter that your a “mainframe mastermind” and you tell this perfectly wonderful young woman “I write computer code.” what is wrong with you as a per -”

“I hear your colony has made some serious advances in crystalline data structures.” Ophelia interrupted. Toll's hands, which had stopped mid rant, quietly dropped to his sides.

“Honestly, it's what I grew up with and it's probably not all that much different than the computer systems you have here.” Rusty dissuaded, but Ophelia was hooked.

“Almost everything here is biologically coded. I know that many vehicles have older style electro- chemical based computer systems, but everything I've ever worked on is, at least on an academic level, alive.” Rusty and Ophelia headed down the hall away from Toll.

“Is anybody going to explain why they sent a history teacher to babysit us?” he shouted out, and was totally ignored. “No? It's cool, don't worry about it.” He looked out through the nearest window at the ocean. “I got important...fish to look at.” He tapped the window as a large trout swam by. “excellent job, carry on.”

Blood And Profit: Chapter 15

Sorry for the lack of content the last few days! Real life has been keeping me busier than I normally like. As a form of apology today's post is a bit longer than usual. Enjoy :D


The Ship lifted off the ground and wavered for a second in a way that could not be described as calming. The soldiers in the bay were far enough back that none of the cargo containers that got knocked over were able to reach them. Still, they backed up a little closer to the door.


“Sorry! Sorry! Later someone will have to tell me why any ship would have an gravitational stabilizer button! I always want stabilizers on, when would I not want that?” Toll yelled, mostly too himself.


Carter leaned over and whispered to Rusty. “What's a gravitational stabilizer?” Rusty shrugged his shoulders and gripped his seatbelt tighter.


The rest of the departure was smooth. The ship backed out through the containment field without further incident. Once they were clear of the positively enormous Decency, Rusty's jaw hit the floor as he took in just how huge their previous vessel really was. No matter how far away from Destiny Toll got the ship just seemed to keep going, until they were far enough away that they got their first glimpse of the Corporate Asset 3175. And if the Decency was huge, the Asset was colossal. Rusty sat down hard. “Damn!” he gasped. Cater glanced out the window at the ship.


“Yeah, it's almost like they're compensating for something.” He quipped. Rusty was still in awe.


“The Decency can't defend itself against a ship that large.” he said. Carter shook his head.


“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.”


“What?” both Rusty and Toll asked at the same time.


“You probably don't have dog fighting on your planet do you?” Carter smiled. “It's an old Earth saying, basically that size, while intimidating, is often out-shined by determination.” Toll turned the ship toward the Earth.


“So I'm pretty sure that the planet is Earth, but having never been there, is there a specific spot I should be headed for or what?” Carter scanned the passenger side control console, and pushed a button that bought up a 3D interface projection in mid air. He worked with the 3D interface and entered a series of numbers. A video feed of an unfamiliar young man popped up.


“Oh thank God your still alive!' The kid said. “We are in dee -”


“I know. I saw the papers.” Carter interrupted. “We can talk about that when I'm planet side, but right now you need to tell me how close we have to be for that assisted guidance thing.”


“Five hundred miles.” The kid didn't miss a beat. “why? where are you?” Carter looked to Toll for the answer.


“Don't look at me, I just fly this thing.” He shrugged his shoulders. The kid groaned and started messing with systems on his side.


“Ok look, just broadcast the numbers 3474 repeatedly on an open channel.” He commanded. “I'll find you.” Carter nodded and used the 3D interface to broadcast the number set as instructed. The kid looked away from the screen to get the computer to search for the signal. “Ok I found you. Please tell me you got permission from the captain to take one of her cruisers.” The kid looked exasperated.
Carter smiled “I never have before. I don't want her to think anything has changed.” He said.


“Because that would just be weird.” The kid said sarcastically. Carter glared at him. “Who's flying the ship?” The kid asked ignoring the glare.


“A runaway from colony six, his name is Toll. He and his friend Rusty arrived this side of the gate about a day ago.”


“Colony six turned their ring back on?” The kid asked. “That's going to cause some problems we weren’t counting on.” Carter shook his head.


“They came through without permission.” Carter transferred the information about Toll and Rusty to the computer The Kid was using. “Hijacked a ship and a ring console. As far as they know, the ring was shut off and is most likely being dismantled.” The kid scanned over the data.


“So by total fluke, two randoms from the colony that started this whole mess just happen to show up -” Carter muted the signal and checked to see if Toll or Rusty were following along. Both of them were. The kid saw that he was on mute and was miming knocking on the screen.


“What mess is he talking about?” Rusty asked. Carter sighed and turned the audio on the call back on.


“Warren would you be so kind as to prepare a small presentation about what the current situation is between the corporation and the settlers? I'd like to get them up to speed while I am dealing with BoBo.” Warren nodded and continued to mess with the computers on his side of the call.


“Oh, by the way, we've got you on assisted flight. We'll have you dirt bound in about fifteen.” He said and ended the call. Toll let go of the controls and turned his chair to face Carter.


“You didn't just need me to drive you here, did you.” He accused. Carter nodded.


“You two have a lot to learn. I didn't have the time to fill you in until now.” Carter explained. “Warren will make sure you learn everything you want to know when we land. Then we can talk about where we go from here.”


“Any chance going home might be an option?” Rusty asked. Carter shook his head.


'Not since your arrival here proved to the corporation that Colony Six still exists.” He said sadly. “You boys and the Pacific Free Zone are the only thing keeping your colony safe right now.” He stated as the California coast line became visible on the planet below.