Titanium Texicans (34 page)

He spun and hit the man on the right before lefty’s face hit the ground. The big man had been reaching for Tasso to wrap him into a bear hug. Tasso’s hit connected with a thump into the middle of the man’s throat. Tasso was ready to hit the man again, but the fight was over. The second man was on his hands and knees gasping for breath.

He turned to face the shuttle, ready to do battle with the reminder of the squad. A couple of men swung long clubs in wide swooshing arcs and walked the short distance to Tasso.

Lieutenant Rodriguez silently slipped the shuttle into a hover above Tasso. A low growl broke the silence as security opened fire on the goon squad’s truck. The shuttle moved backwards through the air as the recoil from the cannon pushed against its stabilizers. Tasso watched in wonder as the truck was shredded into a pile of unrecognizable scrap. The shuttle struggled back into position over Tasso. Security had speakers built into the outside of their shuttle, but no one said anything. The remains of the truck spoke volumes.

The two men approaching Tasso dropped their weapons and froze.

Tasso walked back to the google-eyed farmer. “Sir, I suggest we all sit down right now and talk, you, us, and even the Tobacco Growers Co-op agent and let’s see if we can work something out between all of us.”

Tasso would be pleased if they could work out something that made everyone happy. He doubted the co-op would be happy with anything cutting into their profits, but it would either accept the new terms or be cut out all together. Still, these negotiations would take time. It was time he didn’t have.

The Escorpión Rojo had other stops to make before Saronno. They wouldn’t get to his little farm before his eighteenth birthday. No matter how hard he wished for it, he was losing his home.

CHAPTER 36

TASSO STARED at the planet below. The observation deck was a lot more crowded than when he first choked on a taco. Anisa was standing next to him, as she had been when he first came aboard. She was holding hands with Ivan and not Tasso.

He glanced behind him, even Captain Rojo was on the observation deck. He nodded to her and smiled. He was no longer nervous around her. He didn’t know when it had happened, but somewhere along the line, she had transformed herself from a demi-god and into a real person, if not quite his friend. The captain listened when he talked and he’d begun to trust her at her word.

He still didn’t trust Ivan, Flacco, or Eber and he avoided contact with them whenever possible. Ivan, Flacco, and Eber had never forgiven him for getting Armando Cruz kicked off the ship. Ivan was generally more pleasant, especially since he had started dating Anisa. Eber was quiet around Tasso, still hostile, blaming Tasso for his lost position on the football team. Flacco avoided him all together.

He scanned the crowd and spotted Kendra. He grinned. She winked back at him. Their relationship was a poorly kept secret. He was supposed to limit his contact with the ‘younger’ trainee staff since he had graduated to full crewmember status before his eighteenth birthday at the captain’s insistence. Kendra was only a little more than a month younger than him, but her scheduled graduation to crew status was her eighteenth birthday in another five weeks.

Tasso was surprised when the captain’s executive order graduated him early. His involvement in the farmers’ rebellion on Kesselman had convinced her to promote him a few months ahead of his time. He was more surprised when they left Kesselman early, leaving one of the agricultural-processing plants with their planetary agent and leaving the woman to manage all negotiations and contracts. It really surprised him when the captain re-ordered their schedule to get to Saronno earlier than planned. He knew she didn’t do it for him, but it surprised him anyway.

Tasso wasn’t surprised when FO Graham’s examiners admitted his schooling was beyond his age group and that he was years beyond many who’d already graduated. They still wanted him to read
Great Expectations
, but they relented when he turned in a book report on the great Earth classic
Tunnel in the Sky
by Robert Heinlein, along with an attendant impact report on all human-settled planets regarding stobors.

Tasso continued scanning the crowd until he saw Ndubuka and his wife Mary. They were holding their son between them and staring at the planet below. Ndubuka walked without a limp. He no longer kept his eyes downcast and had the most infectious laugh on the ship. He refused to go back to Kaduna, sending a message to Okpara and his mother, stating he and Mary were going to look for a place of their own, somewhere without cattle. When Captain Rojo offered him a temporary job, working cattle on the lower decks, he declined. He was more than paying his way aboard ship, selling his carvings and working on the janitorial crew.

Tasso looked on the couple as his one true success. He’d helped change the couple’s lives beyond measure and not just his involvement in getting Ndubuka’s leg repaired, but helping to set them on a path to finding their own life. Now, all he had to do was to find his own path.

Tio Gabe wasn’t on the observation deck. Tasso checked his location on his dataport out of habit. It looked like the old man was in the neighborhood of Dolly’s Place on Deck R. Checking on Tio Gabe was a habit because the man wasn’t really his responsibility anymore, although he still felt the need to check.

Gordo elbowed Tasso. The large man was standing next to Tasso and had an arm wrapped around his new wife Cherry. The newlyweds grinned at Tasso when he looked over at them. Ain, of course, was not on the observation deck.

“Tasso, this is your show,” Gordo said.

Tasso nodded. He was amazed at the sight, no matter how many times he looked at a new planet from orbit. This planet was no different from the others. He tapped his comm-unit and said, “Play it.”

The observation window flicked dark for a brief moment, changing from a clear view of the planet below to a wall sized display screen showing a video replay of Tasso dressed in a standard crew uniform. The video replay was set on a continuous loop broadcast to the planet below. He didn’t look stern or jolly. Kendra had worked with him for hours getting the facial expressions right. Every distress-beacon receiver would gather, play, record, and replay the broadcast. The Saronno government could block any other frequency, but the emergency frequency was hardwired in for safety’s sake.

“Friends and neighbors,” Tasso’s image began, “Some of you may remember me. I am Tass O. Menzies. I grew up with my grandparents and my mother on our place north of the McWithy Range. We managed to grow about eighty acres of chiamra spice plants. As most of you know, raising chiamra isn’t easy and it isn’t profitable. The part about it not being easy is true. I know because it killed both of my grandparents. The part about it not being profitable is a lie. It’s a lie because the Saronno Produce Association Lobby is stealing your hard-earned profits. I don’t know if our government is complicit in keeping us in slave-like conditions.” He gave them the coordinates to his valley. “I and some others will be meeting at my home in three days’ time. We’re going to celebrate, and we’re prepared to negotiate for your crop of chiamra plants at ten times what you are getting now, plus give you your seeds back free of charge and pay you for the plant sludge. Come and negotiate with us. Come and enjoy a free festival!”

Here he smiled. It felt like a phony smile, but Kendra insisted that it looked real and pleasant. “Please ground your vehicles in the rocky area to the south of the canyon. That’s where the free food and free drinks will be. It’s near a bazaar for your shopping pleasure that we will have set up with off-world goods.” The broadcast snapped off with an audible pop.

He had deliberately set a low price. Who would believe him if he offered the truth of a thousand times more? Besides, the Saronno Scots loved to haggle and would love to come away with more than was originally offered. He didn’t elaborate on the festival. The ship’s crew and shop owners were more than happy to set up an on-planet party. They were especially happy when they realized that many of the planetary visitors would have fresh new credits to spend.

CHAPTER 37

“DO NOT SHOOT THE STOBOR,” TASSO ordered the security detail as the armed crew exited their shuttle. “They are necessary for the health of the neo-ironwood trees and the trees are necessary for the growth of the chiamra spice, but keep an eye on them if they start to cluster away from the trees.” This wasn’t the first time they’d heard the warning, along with the warning to watch for jack-o’-lanterns and to keep the ship’s crew away from the toxic trees. He said it because he didn’t know what else to say, this was his party and he had nothing to do but kill time by wandering around talking to people.

Cherry, with the help of Gordo, Roberto, and Roberto’s family, set up her shop under a big tent. Ain was still on the Escorpión Rojo, boxing and sending goods down by shuttle. They had racks, packs, and stacks of goods available for Saronno’s population at lower prices than shops in Landing City would or could sell.

Dozens of shops did the same thing offering everything from handguns to handbags to horseshoes, from first aid kits to kitchen aid products to bedroom marital aids. There was even a large tent set up by ship’s stores offering standard staples. Salt, flour, and coffee might not be as exciting as a new entertainment system, but in the Saronno backcountry, those items were more necessary. Shop owners worked to make their tents festive and welcoming.

The restaurants and ship galleys had combined to put up a huge tent for food and drink. They were as happy as could be to set out free food and drink for their customers. The captain and Tasso were still arguing over who was buying today. The captain saw it as an advertising expense. Tasso saw it as a way to pay back the crew and to spend part of the bonus money he had earned on Kesselman, not to mention what he would earn by selling his eighty acres of chiamra to the ship.

Bill Rojo set up a tent for handling payments made on purchased chiamra plants for spice. That was their disbursing office, where farmers could take their payment in coin. There was a second purser’s tent overlooking the valley where Tasso’s chiamra field lay, staffed by a team of skilled negotiators who promised to negotiate the best deal on behalf of the seller they could manage without appearing to give an inch. Ndubuka had volunteered to help negotiate with the farmers.

Even though Tasso had offered twelve credits per acre, three hundred per acre of harvestable chiamra was the target price. All the negotiators had to do was convince the farmers into taking more credits than they thought they were going to get.

Tasso had wanted more for the farmers, but Bill pointed out that the farmers no longer had to take their plants to town. The ship incurred additional expenses by providing shipping containers and processing labor. Although the agricultural-processing unit did most of the work, someone still had to box the product into containers and move it from the planet to the ship in orbit. Every available shuttle would be in continuous operation for the next few days.

The plan was for the shipping agent to manage the on-going harvests once the Escorpión Rojo left orbit. The Rojo Freightliner Company already had a warehouse and offices at the Landing City spaceport. Since the farmers didn’t plant at the same time, their harvests didn’t come in at the same time. Chiamra harvest was year round in most of Saronno’s temperate zone. Most chiamra farmers in this part of the McWithy Range tended to plant and harvest at the same time, but the Escorpión Rojo crew was hoping to meet farmers from all across the planet.

Doctor Valenzuela and her crew had a tent set up for medical emergencies, but they were stocked and ready to provide any medical service required. They specifically stocked supplies for stobor bites and ironwood tree rashes. They weren’t prepared for jack-o’-lantern bites, as that wasn’t a job for medical people, but a coroner.

No one was at the Menzies place except the Escorpión Rojo crew. Tasso worried no one would show up and the whole plan would be a bust. The captain had urged him not to worry. Dawn was still barely past. She was sure people would show up; it had something to do with free food. She claimed that even rich people showed up for free food, maybe not hot dogs and beer, but they might for steaks, asparagus, and champagne. They weren’t expecting too many rich people.

Tasso was expecting at least two visitors from Landing City. He was sure Bruce Menzies would be here. Moreover, he was sure a government official would be here to verify Tasso’s location. Today was his eighteenth birthday and he was standing on his own land. He’d notified Moffatt’s office of his intention to claim his property by an official message on ship’s letterhead. He assumed the government would figure out where he was going to be on his birthday from the planet-wide broadcast, but the captain said not to take any chances.

He spent yesterday and last night in his own home. He was shocked at how small and stuffy the little rock cabin seemed after his time on the ship. His new crewmember cabin on the Escorpión Rojo was bigger than the whole rock house he grew up in. He walked the land, pausing at his family’s graves, and checking the crops. He shouldered Grandpa’s old shotgun. It still had a comfortable feel even though it had spent the last year and a half in the ship’s armory.

He’d expected Bruce to have someone take care of the place, but there was no evidence anyone had been in the valley, except for the missing flower buds on the chiamra plants. Someone had been there to pinch off the buds, enabling the spice blossoms to grow.

He’d heard a jack-o’-lantern screech in the distance at sunset, but there was little sign of Ol’ Ben or any of his kind. That wasn’t a surprise since jack-o’-lanterns left little sign, no matter where they went. The best sign jack-o’-lanterns had been in the area was to count the stobor population. It didn’t seem there were more or less stobor than there ever had been.

Yesterday and last night had been quiet. It’d been good to be home and be alone again, yet somehow this morning was better. He saw friendly faces everywhere he looked, hearing laughter on the wind and smelling a beef side smoking over an open pit. He was about to walk over to them, making sure they understood that they shouldn’t use any local wood, due to the ironwood tree’s toxicity, when he was interrupted.

“Good morning, Señor Menzies.” Ship Purser William Rojo strode purposefully up to him. “Sorry to bring you bad news on such a beautiful day.”

Tasso’s heart sank. No one was coming. He hadn’t admitted it to anyone, but he was looking forward to today, not so much as a thumb in the eye of Bruce Menzies and the Saronno Product Association Lobby, but as his own personal eighteenth birthday party. He spent his seventeenth birthday locked in a jail cell after beating Armando Cruz to the deck. Before that, he’d spent his birthdays in this little valley, working hard as if the day held no more significance than any other workday.

“Señor Rojo, it’s a good day, but that’s no excuse not to face the truth.” Tasso replied. In typical Texican tradition he added, “Give it to me straight, jefe.” Tasso looked at Bill as his boss and his friend. As long as Tasso was involved in the cleanup of the attic, almost every discovery led to more credits in the ship’s coffers putting bonus credits into Tasso’s bank account. As the Chief Financial Officer on the ship, Bill spent a lot of time with Tasso in his duties as planetary contact crew. Tasso was amazed at how much more money was involved in his establishing new contracts on Kesselman than in digging out used spare parts in the attic.

“Tasso, I requisitioned a geo-deep scan unit and had a crew do sweeps over your land. Your grandfather was right. This planet has the perfect geological conditions and this land is ideal for finding hope’s crystals. I’m sorry, but we didn’t find any here.” Bill was smiling.

“But?” Tasso asked. The smile on Bill’s face was a dead giveaway that he had more to say.

“We did find them on a neighbor’s place, a place a little to the east of here. We didn’t want to contact the government to find out who owned the land and alert them to the discovery of crystals. I was thinking you could tell me whose place it was,” Bill shrugged. “I’d like it if you could introduce us.”

Tasso snorted in surprise. “Sure, I know them. It belongs to Old Man Kemyss and his wife. Jeff Kemyss was my grandfather’s best friend.” He was surprised that he was glad someone had struck it rich. He was glad that he was glad, but surprised at his reaction. The Kemyss land was even poorer than the Menzies place. The elderly couple barely had enough clear land to provide more than a vegetable garden. They did have a small patch of land fit for chiamra, but until today, it barely paid to plant.

Tasso asked, “Can the Escorpión Rojo get some discovery reward or some mineral claim?”

“No, we didn’t have a contract or even the permissions in place to do the survey. Nevertheless, I would like us to see if Mister Kemyss would be open to some sort of an agreement. We do have an influx of cash from a recent tobacco market change.” Bill smiled and poked Tasso in the chest. “And we know how that came about. In addition, we should be increasing our profit on the spice trade very soon. Maybe we can finance Mister Kemyss’ new mining operations and assist in off-world transport or sales. We do have a lot of options for profit on this find.”

“I will certainly …” Tasso let his voice fade as he spotted a beat up old flitter skim to the ground. He watched as a member of the trainee football team guided it to a spot in what they hoped would be an orderly parking lot. He watched an old man help an old woman out. The hike up the hill to the tents was short, but before they started, Kendra slid to a sideways stop next to them. He grinned as his girlfriend helped the elderly couple into seats bolted to the top of a sled. She shot up the hill like she was in a race. Tasso laughed. Kendra did everything that way. She was constantly in high gear. She headed to the food tent to drop the couple off. Tasso waved at her and gestured for her to come over.

“Jefe,” Tasso said, “never let it be said that I never did anything for you. I haven’t seen that gentleman in ten years, but he hasn’t aged a bit.” Tasso didn’t mention he’d seen numerous pictures and vids of the Jeff and Lillie Kemyss and his grandparents going back for decades. His grandfather’s dataport had pictures of the two couples standing together when they were not much older than Tasso was now.

Tasso smiled broadly at the couple when Kendra stopped the sled. He reached over and squeezed her hand. Then he leaned in to greet the couple warmly.

“Mister and Missus Kemyss, I’m sure you don’t remember me. I’m—”

“Nonsense, son,” Mrs. Kemyss interrupted, “you have your grandmother’s eyes and your mother’s smile. Tasso Menzies, we’re glad you’re home.”

Mr. Kemyss shook his head. “Mister Menzies, let me get off this death trap and I’ll shake your hand. No offence, young lady, but who put you behind the wheel of this flying carpet? Good god! I’m an old man and you liked to give me a heart attack.”

Kendra looked stricken. She grounded the sled, hopped down, and tried to help the Kemyss’ get off the sled. “I am sorry—”

“Don’t let this old goat fool you, dearie,” Missus Kemyss interrupted. “He hasn’t had that much fun since last night after the lights went out in our bedroom. Besides, he is far too ornery to die of a heart attack.”

Kemyss shook his head. “Woman, you’re going to ruin my reputation.” He leaned over and kissed Kendra on the cheek. “Thank you for the lift up the hill. I may be a back-country rube, but I do know I should at least tip you for the ride. I must confess I’m tapped out.”

Kendra laughed. “I’ll accept that kiss as my tip on the condition I get two more.”

Kemyss hooted, “You got a deal.” He puckered up, but Kendra gave him a gentle shove.

“I meant I want one from your lovely young wife.” She leaned over and gave Missus Kemyss a gentle, soft kiss on the cheek. “And I want one from our host.” She grabbed Tasso by the ears and kissed him on the lips. The kiss was neither gentle nor soft. It made Tasso slightly dizzy. Kendra laughed, vaulted into the driver’s seat, and raced back down the hill to greet a shuttle coming in for a landing. A steady stream of air vehicles was descending on the parking area.

Kemyss asked. “That your woman, Tasso?”

Tasso looked at Bill and shook his head. “No sir, she isn’t old enough to date me. She won’t be for another month yet.” His blush gave lie to his statement. Before the conversation degenerated any further, he said, “Mister and Missus Kemyss, this is Señor William Rojo, the purser for my ship, the Escorpión Rojo. Bill, you wanted to meet this couple. These are my closest neighbors to the east, Jeff and Lilly Kemyss.”

He would have explained how important the purser is on a spaceship, but the Kemyss didn’t give him time. Mrs. Kemyss offered her hand for a firm handshake. “Bill, huh? You’re the head money-dog on the Red Scorpion? You just call me Lilly and this old fool is my husband of what … too many danged years, anyway. He’s Jeff.”

Kemyss shook hands. “Pleased to meet you, Bill. Anyone who’s a friend of the Menzies clan is a friend of our’n.”

Bill smiled. “I was hoping you’d feel that way. I’d like to talk business with you before the day is out.”

Kemyss shook his head and frowned. “There isn’t much to talk about if you was planning on talking chiamra. The whole planet is talking about Tasso’s speech offering ten times the price on our plants. But, well …”

Tasso said, “Well, what? You can speak freely here.”

Lilly Kemyss said, “What Jeffy is trying to say is that we didn’t even get enough of a crop this year to make harvest worth the work. We practically spent everything your grandfather gave us last year in seeds. We’ve only got about two acres of good crop.”