Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

In Earth’s orbit

Sara, Zackery, Gabriel and Ginny were in the cockpit of the starship. Ginny and Sara were sitting in the two seats. Zackery and Sara had taken off their med-bay clothing. She was wearing jeans and a pale blue T-shirt. He had on a black T-shirt and cargo-pants. He was standing looking out at the Earth below them.

Ginny rubbed her hands along her left leg; at the point where the new leg was joined to her stump. Gabriel stood looking at her concernedly.

“ACME INC will track us down ... I know they will,” Sara said. “They tried to kill us, and now they ...”

Zackery walked over to Sara and stood behind her seat. He began massaging the back of her neck.

“They don’t know where we are at the moment,” Vicky said. “The starship is cloaked. They can’t see us. We could have gone anywhere.”

“I just know they’ll find us,” Sara said despondently. “If we go back to Earth, we are going to need money to live on, and as soon as we draw any currency, then ...”

“I could get you some money to live on,” Vicky said.

“How do you ...?” Gabriel said.

“A STU can request currency for any tourist location that its client requires it for,” explained Vicky. “The cost of the currency is debited directly from the client’s account. So, if I requested currency, it would be debited from my initial client’s account.”

“What, the guy who died on the cliff-top at Walton?” asked Gabriel.

“Yes, that very man,” said Vicky.

“But won’t ACME have decided that he must be dead, and have stopped his account?” Ginny asked.

“I don’t think that ACME could be sure which of their clients died as a result of the coordinates corruption,” Vicky said. “In fact, given the investigations ongoing, I very much doubt that they have logged any of their clients as dead. So, it is very likely that my ex-client’s account is still open.”

“Well, I suppose the sure-fire way to find out would be to request some currency,” said Ginny. “How much do you two think you would need ... maybe to keep you going for a year?”

“And what currency would you need it to be in?” Gabriel said. “I mean, I guess you might be thinking of going to stay somewhere a bit off the beaten track ... somewhere off ACME’s radar I mean.”

“Anywhere will take standard Creds,” Zackery said. “Unless you were staying in some Mongolian village, in which case ...”

“And you are going to need to get yourselves accommodation,” said Ginny. “You know, rent somewhere. So that’s two lots of rental fees and ...”

Sara turned and looked at Zackery. He stopped massaging her neck.

“I was thinking,” said Sara to Zackery. “I haven’t got any close family, and I wondered ...”

“What?” said Zackery.

“Maybe we could ...”

“Find some place together for a bit, do you mean?” said Zackery.

“Just for a bit,” Sara said. “That’s if you don’t mind ...”

Zackery smiled down to Sara, then resumed massaging her neck.

“So, if that’s just one lot of accommodation rental fees,” Ginny chuckled. “How many creds do you think you might need to keep you going for a year?”

“Maybe 50k,” Zackery said.

“Ok,” Gabriel said. “So, Vicky, could you please try to request 200k Creds. Let’s see if old Mervin’s account is good for that.”

A package shimmered into being at their feet. It was a compression bag, filled with notes tied into neat bundles. Zackery leant down and opened the bag. He took out two of the bundles, handing one to Sara. They rifled the notes.

“So that’s what a lot of money looks like,” Zackery said. “Easily enough to last us for four years, I would guess.”

“But where are you going to go?” Ginny asked. “I wouldn’t suggest going back to America. How about Europe?”

“I’ve always fancied going to Seville,” Sara said.

Zackery looked surprised. “What about the language?” he asked.

“I’m pretty-near fluent,” Sara said, smiling broadly.

Zackery grinned. “Well, Seville sounds like a nice place. Why the hell not?”

Zackery leaned down and kissed Sara on the forehead. Sara smiled over at Gabriel and Ginny.

“So that’s agreed then, is it?” Ginny said.

Sara and Zackery both nodded back.

“Ok, Ship,” Ginny said. “Please take us to Seville. Find somewhere on the outskirts that we can set down.”

“On our way, Ginny,” Ship said.