Solar Star

Su-min sighed and crossed off another box on her checklist. She was bored left alone on the bridge, making sure the communication improvements had been properly installed and working efficiently. Even though she had supervised all the installations, she didn’t trust the manufacturer’s men to fit it without some hiccups. This was her domain and she, like everyone else aboard, felt that their part of the ship’s operations was the most important. At twenty four years old she was young to be the Chief Communications Officer, but this was a young ship. If she’d stayed in Space Corp. she would probably be someone’s junior for another five years at least. The chance to be in charge was one of the main reasons she’d left the Corp. and joined Ty when he asked her. Being a petite American/Chinese and female had been a big disadvantage at the Corp. whereas here it was a positive asset, as the Captain liked women. She smiled at the memory of how she managed to outwit Ty in his pursuit of not just her communications talents but he hadn’t taken offence; if anything he seemed to like her more for it. She had no regrets about joining this crew and in the last two years she’d seen more of known space that she’d have seen otherwise in years with the Corp, and now it seemed she could get to go a lot further if what she’d overheard was true. She sat musing on that when a red light on her board caught her attention. She turned on the trans link to see the slightly portly figure of Ray Silvereen at the cargo bay ramp.

‘Good afternoon Captain Silvereen,’ she said sweetly.

He smoothed down his slick backed black hair and grinned; it was a comical sight, as he really thought women found him attractive, when most would say he definitely wasn’t. Su-min was the picture of oriental inscrutability and waited for him to speak.

‘Ty left me a message,’ he said in his heavy southern drawl, which she was sure was as phoney as his sex appeal.

‘Yes. He has a business proposition for you,’ she said. ‘Come aboard and take the elevator to deck two and then turn right to the briefing room, he’ll meet you there.’

She watched him swagger aboard before turning to her left to use the ship board intercom system.

‘Captain, Ray Silvereen is on his way up,’ she said.

‘O.K thanks,’ came the reply.

Su-min returned to surveying her lonely state until she was interrupted by the arrival of the ship’s navigator.

‘Hi there Su-min. You’re back early.’ Said Ben Black Elk, as he stopped by her station at the back of the bridge.

‘So are you,’ she countered.

He smiled; his regular white teeth and oval face with reddish coloured skin made him quite striking, even without his long black hair tied in a ponytail.

‘I guess I’d like to check out the improvements before I start flying this thing.’

‘I know what you mean. When I came on board I didn’t recognise Deck four at all.’

He laughed and it was a good sound, which rolled around the empty bridge.

‘Neither did I but I got to say Mac’s done us proud. This is now some smart ship.’

‘And you’ll be pleased to hear she’ll go a lot faster too.’

Su-min told him what she’d overheard Samuel Dayton tell the Captain and Black Elk rubbed his hands in anticipation.

‘I can’t wait to try her out,’ he said and then added. ‘We’ll be able to leave everyone else around here eating our dust.’

‘Well you might have to hold up on that for a while as the Captain is talking to Silvereen now about combining our ships to take some community to a new place....I don’t know the details.’ She added hastily, as he was about to ask her questions and he frowned.

‘Old Retro Ray will have to move his ass if he’s coming with us.’ He said grumpily.

Su-min giggled.

‘I’d love to see that,’ she said, visualising the somewhat overweight figure who always looked like he’d been poured into his trousers and then the belt tied to keep him in, moving anywhere fast.

‘And here we have our new library,’ Maclyn said, as he proudly started his tour on the newly refurbished Deck four.

Kassina looked around at the small consoles on the arms of some very comfortable looking chairs and then at the racks of colour coded boxes set around the walls. He said it was a library, but she couldn’t see any books.

‘But where are the books?’ she asked.

He smiled and took out one of the small rectangular boxes which were about four x four” square and looked solid. Slipping it into the side of one of the units on a chair, he adjusted the viewer and suddenly she saw the title page of the classic ‘Treasure Island’, appear on the screen. He turned a dial and a voice started to read the text.

’You can either read it yourself or have it read to you. Also you can download it but these are our copies for everyone to use.

He then handed her a ear wig so she could hear the story unfolding privately. She smiled and gave it back to him.

‘Ingenious,’ she said. ‘But what do you do if you want to read in your cabin or somewhere?’

‘Then you use this.’

He handed her a slim screen in a box of similar proportion to an old style paperback book. He slotted the same cartridge into it, whereupon the story of Jack Hawkins Adventures continued.

‘Or you just download it into any system you have. We use this system instead of carrying books as paper is heavy so this way we can carry a much larger selection. Here we can choose from Shakespeare to Mi-ber, and as many different non-fiction books as I’ve been able to fit in.’

Maclyn had taken a long time selecting what to carry from the suggestions of the crew and he hoped he’d got everyone’s favourites, plus a few hundred others.

‘I’m impressed,’ she said and he was delighted.

Apart from Ty, she was the first person he had shown this area to. Ty had looked in and said ‘Ahh’ and left. It wasn’t the reaction he had wanted but typical of Ty. He expected people to do the jobs he’d employed them for and do it well, without the need for pats on the back, but even so Maclyn would have liked to been told he’d done a good job, just occasionally. Kassina’s praise was therefore welcome and appreciated.

‘Well I’ll show you the mess hall now,’ he said and as they turned to leave Su-min’s voice informed Ty of Silvereen’s arrival and Maclyn sighed.

‘I suppose we should go back to the briefing room and see if Retro Ray will play ball,’ he said.

Kassina frowned.

‘Retro Ray?’ she queried.

He laughed.

‘Sorry, it’s his nickname, but never uses it in front of him; he gets a bit touchy about it.’

‘But why Retro Ray?’

‘Believe me when you see him you’ll know.’

‘So what do you think Ray?’ Ty asked once he’d laid out the mission to him.

Ray rubbed his chin and made the pretence of thinking hard. Ty watched him and inwardly sighed, he was such a performer and it made him mad sometimes, but he knew that if you rushed him, the older man would stick his heels in the ground and become as stubborn as any mule. Patience was the only strategy with him. As the minutes ticked by and even Sarrin was becoming concerned. The tension was rising until thankfully it was broken by the arrival of Kassina and Maclyn. Ty smiled at them as they took their seats and he indicated they should stay quiet for the moment. This gave Kassina time to look over Retro Ray and immediately she understood how he got his nickname. He could have stepped out of a 1950’s poster, a bad imitation of Elvis Presley, who even 200 years later was much loved and remembered by some. This man was in his forties, overweight and with unnaturally black hair set in the quiff fifty’s style. He wore a white silk shirt and trousers which were too tight with a huge silver belt buckle tucked under an overhanging belly and black high-heeled boots. He lounged back in the chair with his feet on the table, frowning hard and chewing gum. She watched him and immediately realised he wasn’t really thinking. Even with her limited telepathic skills, she realised he was playing with them. He had already made up his mind. She glanced at Sarrin who nodded, he too had felt this, but as he was keeping quiet so she did the same.

Sarrin found Silvereen a fascinating specimen. In his time on Earth he had met several hundred people, but no one quite like him; although he’d normally tried to respect human’s privacy, he couldn’t resist tapping into the mind of Silvereen, just to see what made him tick. The first impression he got was a low cunning man, there was no great intelligence, but he did have a well-developed ability for survival and profit. Money, status and respect meant a lot to him and he felt he had succeeded in getting these. Sarrin noted his feeling of superiority over Ty Kelsey, yet Sarrin knew Kelsey was three times as intelligent and resourceful than Slivereen but Silvereens opinion of himself was high, maybe too high, although because of it he could be manipulated into helping them as a favour to, in his eyes, the lesser Captain Kelsey. In fact that was exactly what he was thinking. He believed that without him there to guide the group, they’d never get to Ieesha but there was another side to him that Sarrin hadn’t found in Ty Kelsey. This was a deep need for possessions, to show how well he was doing in life. The pursuit of money meant a lot to him and that could be a problem, as the Sakkara community didn’t have much to give him. Putting that problem to one side for the moment Sarrin delved deeper as he wanted to know if this man was dependable and trustworthy, or would he buckle and cave in at the first sign of trouble. Sarrin concentrated as he probed deeper past all the incidental rubbish stored in his mind, until he found the core of the man. Here was the essence, the higher self, the bit most humans never begin to discover or explore; the problem for most humans is assessing it. O’realian had likened the higher self to a computer; a computer that had all the answers you’d ever need, yet you had forgotten the password. It was the best way of describing most humans’ dilemma that Sarrin had ever heard but unfortunately, unlike the Sakkarians, very few people knew how easy it is to access it by meditating and how useful doing so could be.

Silvereen, in contrast, was not a spiritual man but he was in his own way, an honourable one. If he said he’d do something he would follow through, even be courageous, if pushed hard enough. Cunning he may be, but he lacked malice or vindictiveness and therefore he’d never be a traitor. Sarrin believed they could trust him even if he wasn’t a particularly likeable character.

Ty on the other hand was a very different man and although Sarrin had done nothing more than scan him quickly, he felt that he was whom they had been searching for. The man was a born leader, intelligent, strong, physically and morally, brave, maybe to the point of recklessness and totally trustworthy. He immediately liked him and felt Ty would do everything in his power to get the Sakkara community to Ieesha. As they sat waiting he felt the rising tide of impatience manifest in Ty Kelsey, although from his face, you’d never had known it. Sarrin smiled, it was yet another facet of Kelsey’s character, the ‘poker face’ of the diplomat, which may come in useful on the trip ahead. Finally Ray Silvereen decided to put them out of their misery. He shifted the chair back and took his feet off the table with a mighty thud, to emphasise his central position at the meeting. Kelsey stayed completely still, just raising one eyebrow.

‘Yes or no Ray?’ he said softly.

‘Well I haven’t heard what the money is yet,’ he said, stalling for time again.

Kelsey sniffed.

‘It’s a fair price for the job,’ he said, looking as disinterested as possible. ‘Look, if you’re not interested that’s fine. I’m sure I’ll find another Captain who’d like to be away from Earth now.’

He left it there allowing Silvereen time to think.

Silvereen frowned as he tried to think what that last comment meant and Ty decided he’d need to help him so he turned to Maclyn.

‘When is that directive for chipping coming into effect?’ he asked, hoping Maclyn would catch on and reply like he should.

Maclyn wasn’t slow and although the officials kept changing their minds on the date, he knew that given a push Silvereen would jump the way they wanted him to.

‘Last I heard it was in three days,’ he said as convincingly as he could muster, as he was a notoriously bad liar.

‘Well then, we will leave day after tomorrow,’ Ty replied ignoring Silvereen and turning to Kassina and Sarrin.

‘Your people will be ready by then won’t they?’

Kassina glanced at Sarrin for a lead and he slightly inclined his head so she nodded.

‘Yes Captain, we’ll be ready no problem.’

‘Good,’ Kelsey said and then deliberately turned back to Silvereen.

‘Well?’

Silvereen’s frown deepened. He felt he was being pushed; yet he couldn’t see exactly how, but he knew he and his crew didn’t want to be chipped anymore than Kelsey’s did.

‘See here Kelsey. I have to re-supply you know.’

‘You’re saying Armin can’t get you set by then?’ Kelsey countered, knowing Silvereen thought he had the best crew and ship around and no one did it better so to suggest that his First Officer was inefficient would spur him to defend his ship, just as Ty hoped he would.

‘Hell Ty, I didn’t say we couldn’t did I?’

Ty didn’t reply, but he gave him a sceptical look and waited as Silvereen rubbed his chin, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. He didn’t quite know where to go next and then finally he made a decision.

‘Alright Kelsey, I’m in...And the Red Rocket will be ready by 9.00am Tuesday morning.’

With that he got up and left the briefing room without looking back. Ty waited for the door to close behind him before he took a deep breath and grinned.

‘I think you have a deal,’ he said and Kassina burst into tears.