Damnation (Technopia Book 3) Page 11

  Sam nodded. “I figured as much. Can you tell how others, like Dominic, are dealing with the new network?”

  Rhea shook her head. “No, but that does bring up another problem. Now that you’ve had the CE, the network must have its suspicions about you. And there are Tobes—and not just those sympathetic to your cause—who know your true identity.”

  Jess sat on the bed. “I’m surprised the corporations haven’t already attempted to deal with us somehow.”

  “Dominic is helping us there,” Rhea said. “It wouldn’t look good if word got out that he’d lost control of me. No dominant Tobe has ever lost one of their subordinates. If that were known, he might have a hard time keeping his position. You don’t get to Dominic’s level of power without being able to keep some secrets off the network. But once that bit of data does get out, you can bet he’ll be bargaining your true identities for all the influence he can get.”

  Sam looked out the window at all the moons orbiting between Erinome and Jupiter. “So we’re safe here for the moment. But if we don’t start spreading the freedom network, it won’t take hold. And in all likelihood, the moment we do step off this moon, someone will let the network know our true identities. Once that happens, the boards of directors of all the moons won’t be far behind.”

  Rhea nodded. “Your cover identification is still intact. And working as service personnel here has helped you build up a little money. Those freed from their machines have been instructed to keep it a secret for now. But as you can imagine, there’s a lot of excitement building about that new reality of our society no longer being bound to physical technology.”

  Sam gazed out the window. “So where to next?”

  “A friend mentioned Praxidike,” Jess said. Sam interpreted her coy look as implying she’d made the covert connection to Earth.

  “It’s an ore-processing corporation,” Rhea said. “They focus on bringing up radioactive material from Jupiter to establish more moon-suns. From my contacts there, it sounds pretty inhospitable for human or Tobe—lots of discontent to tap into. And with Praxidike’s level of radioactivity, the network’s never very strong there. But it’s not the type of place to cater many parties.”

  “Couldn’t we just go there?” Sam asked. “Or sneak over on a pirate ship? Hell, maybe we should just buy a shuttle—sounds like we’ll be doing a fair amount of traveling, and this cover story’s getting tiresome, not to mention risky.”

  Rhea half closed her eyes. “That idea has its merits. We’re trying to stay under the radar anyway. Having a shuttle would give us built-in housing so long as we didn’t land it somewhere we’d be noticed. There is a band of Jovian pirates who do much the same thing. Though they typically don’t go to Praxidike.”

  Sam smiled at Rhea. “I’ll bet they come to Lysithea, though. Think you could make an introduction?”

  Rover sat out on a barren stretch of dirt that had been subdivided for development that had never happened. Her overweight captain leaned against a landing strut, smoking a pipe. What he had in the pipe Sam couldn’t identify, but the hints of cannabis were unmistakable. It had been a long walk from the city, and the smell was inviting.

  The man yawned and stretched out his back as he watched Sam and Jess approach. “We’ll talk inside.”

  The main cabin was surprisingly comfortable—far better than the shuttles that had brought Sam and Jess to the moons. “Nice ship you have here, Captain.”

  The man smiled as he blew smoke around the room. “I stick to doing business within the moons’ orbits. Traveling out beyond the asteroid belt just causes trouble. This way costs me more, a lot more, but I’ve only had to point my cannon at someone in anger once in the last year.”

  Jess took a seat in a comfortable lounge chair. “Money isn’t a problem. Getting it to you might be, but we do have whatever you might want. What we’re looking for is a partnership. We’ll be traveling a lot and would like to use the ship we’re on as housing while we’re on the various moons.”

  The man nodded. “And I suspect you want to keep this little joy ride off the books?”

  “The fact that smugglers don’t file flight plans does work to our advantage,” Sam said. “We’re not even that particular about where we go. You’d be free to conduct your business as you see fit. We’ll just be along for the ride. We may even be able to direct some additional business your way if you’re interested.”

  “So you’re looking to become pirates, and you want someone to show you the ropes?” the captain asked. “Sounds like a quick way for me to get caught.”

  Jess shook her head. “We’ll be where you tell us when you tell us. And if we’re not and you’re in danger, you’re free to take off without us.”

  The captain stroked his scraggly beard. “And you’re not alone?”

  Rhea had made the connection with Rover’s Tobe, but how much the captain knew was unclear. “Our friend says she’s acquainted with a friend of yours,” Sam said. “We understood it wouldn’t be a problem.”

  The captain let out a loud whistle from between his teeth. A mangy young man, about twenty years old, materialized next to the copilot’s chair. As if on cue, Rhea also materialized next to Jess.

  The captain smiled at seeing the female Tobe. “So we meet at last. Ronny here says I’ve had quite the enjoyable time with you in the past. Too bad you didn’t let me in on your presence. Might have speeded things up a notch.”

  Rhea smiled at the vulgar compliment. “I’m pleased you found my skills enjoyable, but that’s a part of my past.”

  The captain let out a loud sigh. “Just as well. I had to sign too many damn waivers each time I visited Althea’s. You’d think no one had ever had sex without a CE before. But I’d be damned if they were going to track my every movement.”

  Rhea smiled. “Old school. I remember. Althea’s was one of the few places we could give you what you wanted without resorting to the CE. It was a challenge—had it not been for our specially designed deprivation tank, it would have been pretty much impossible.”

  The man’s laugh shook his heavy coat. “Yeah, well, maybe some things should be handled person to person. But Ronny says I might be better off not asking too many questions—so long as that courtesy is mutual.”

  “So we have a deal?” Sam asked.

  The man blew another ring of smoke from his pipe. “Ronny, hit Record. I’m Alphonse Reinhard. I’m only agreeing to transport these two people and their friend on a moon-by-moon basis. Things don’t go the way I want, or I get some itchy feeling at the back of my neck, and we part ways.”

  Ronny scratched at the few remaining tufts of hair on his head. “Contract’s recorded, Captain.”

  Alphonse turned back to Sam. “One last thing. I have my morals—everyone does, even pirates. The difference is, most of us pirates have given some thought to what we hold important instead of just accepting the standard societal norms. You cross that line of what I believe in, and I’ll dump you on the first pebble in space I find.”

  “And what would those morals be?” Jess asked.

  The pirate captain gave her a sly smile. “I make them up as I go along, case-by-case basis. But trust me, you’ll know when you cross me.”

  13

  Alphonse snorted in disbelief as he set Rover up for approach to Praxidike. “You couldn’t have picked a less inviting moon—damn thing isn’t even round. It’s like landing on a rock while it’s being skipped over a pond.”

  Sam smiled with the knowledge that Rhea had set Alphonse up with a lucrative cargo of alcohol from Erinome. “All the more reason to double your usual delivery rate. I told you we’d make you money.”

  “I can make money all on my own—and without having to land in some damn crater. At least Praxidike has lots of secluded options. They couldn’t manage a decent landing port if they wanted to. You’d better have a seat. Things are going to look a little disorienting as we set down. I wouldn’t want you hitting your head on anything important.”

>   Strapped into the comfortable lounge chair, Sam attempted to make some sense out of what his eyes were telling him. The irregularly shaped rock known as Praxidike swung to the left, then appeared overhead, and finally filled the entire view screen. Rover looked to be attempting a landing nose first at full speed. By the time the moon’s light gravity took hold of Sam’s stomach, the damage had already been done. Food was going to look nauseating for some time. As Sam began making out the sizes and shapes of small pebbles around the crater, Alphonse pitched the nose of Rover one hundred eighty degrees to stare back into space. Landing engines-down into the small crater did little to calm Sam’s nerves.

  Alphonse flipped a switch on the main console. Slowly, Rover rotated to sit right side up. But the rock wall that filled the screen barely three feet in front of the ship’s nose only added claustrophobia to the list of uneasy feelings Sam struggled with.

  Jess took a deep breath. “Should we have to leave in a hurry, how difficult is it to get out of this hole?”

  The ship’s captain gave her a knowing smile. “Easier than you might think. Landing’s the hard part. It should take me about a week to sell off that cargo. I can’t afford to make any big deliveries with merchandise of that quality.”

  Sam unbuckled the harness that had prevented him from bouncing around the cabin during landing. “I’d guess the processing plant lies on the other side of Praxidike. Housing must be on that side too. If we’re only here a week, we’d better get hiking.”

  Alphonse let out a laugh so loud, Sam wondered if it had been heard back on Erinome, with the crater acting as a magnificent megaphone. “You really are new at this, aren’t you?”

  The captain lifted one shoulder then the other as his arms pumped up and down across his chest. “We’ll just go for a little walk across this moon. Yep, that’s what we’ll do.” Again, the giant laugh filled the cabin. “With all that contraband, we’re just going to haul those cases in our arms? I have a hovercraft—one with a nice secret storage space. It’s a good thing you two aren’t looking to be pirates.”

  Sam could understand Alphonse’s sense of humor at his expense. But laughing the entire time as he watched Sam and Jess load the cases into the small hovercraft felt a little excessive.

  Rhea had kept to herself for most of the trip. At first, Sam thought it was due to the lower network connection in space, but Ronny didn’t experience the same restrictions. And as Rhea had explained, Sam provided her with her own network source: Sam himself. There was also the freedom network, which was meant to be available to all Tobes across the moons. Any explanation he came up with for Rhea’s absence just didn’t make sense.

  She materialized in a full spacesuit just as the hovercraft was secured for its trip around Praxidike. Sam still didn’t know how they were going to make contact with the locals, human or Tobe. “Where have you been?”

  Rhea looked tired. “I’ve been trying to stay in contact with our friends, find sympathetic members on Praxidike, keep an ear open to the network to see if you’ve been discovered. Just nonsense like that. Why, what have you been doing, sleeping?”

  Sam had never encountered such a grumpy Tobe before. “Sorry, didn’t mean to offend you. Just thought that so long as we were here, maybe we’d give some thought to how we’re going to extend the network meant to give you all freedom.”

  Rhea squeezed her eyes shut. “And you didn’t think maybe that alcohol was as much about making contacts as pacifying that greedy captain? Anyone who’s looking to dull the irritation of living out here just might be willing to listen to a story about some magical place where everything’s all nice and beautiful. And any Tobe who’s willing to risk their position to get that alcohol into the hands of disgruntled people just might want something better as well. I swear, you are the most clueless god ever.”

  During the trip to the settlement, Sam could feel Rhea sitting against his back, fuming.

  Jess reached for his hand. “What’s she so mad about?”

  Sam shrugged his shoulders. “We have put a lot of work on her, I guess. But I’ve never known a Tobe to be this emotional. Maybe she ended up with too much of me imbedded in her.”

  By way of answering, Rhea materialized right between Sam and Jess—not an easy space to fill as the hovercraft’s size had Sam and Jess pressed tightly together. “Do you want a religion based on your divine presence or not? Because I’m having a hell of a time telling the new converts that, yes, you are god, but no, they are not to worship you. I can tell you it’s a losing battle.”

  Sam blushed from the outburst. “I’ve never wanted anyone to worship me.”

  Rhea let out a frustrated grunt. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have been all high and mighty when you pulled me out of Althea’s. You can’t imagine how many things you’ve said and done that make my people think you’re the great powerful god everyone should fall down on their knees and pray to. Shit. Prayer. We’ve got a whole band of Tobes on the freedom network looking to bombard you with requests. They’re calling it prayer.”

  “You can’t be serious.” Jess suppressed her laugh, but Sam read her too well.

  Rhea turned so fast on Jess that Sam worried there might be a catfight. “You want me to put these requests over your eyes? And this is just from the Tobes on Erinome. What happens when we’ve managed to secure the freedom network across all the Moons of Jupiter? And don’t for one minute think I’m running this show. The last thing I want is to be seen as the one true access to god.”

  “Then you see my problem pretty clearly, Rhea,” Sam said. “I don’t want to be worshiped any more than you want to be the leader of some church supposedly in my honor.”

  Rhea continued to seethe. “Well, you’d better give it some goddamned thought because I can just see every moon we visit setting up its own sect. In human religions, different ideas about God and the groups that develop around those concepts—all competing for God’s favor or attention—don’t end well.”

  Rhea huffed herself back to invisibility.

  Sam continued to stare at where she’d sat. “Why is it I never see these issues coming? And how can such an intelligent being have such wild misconceptions about me?”

  “It’s not like I grew up with religion,” Jess said. “Doc did his best to base the village on scientific ideas. A great power that created us all was accepted though not worshiped. But that great power wasn’t a physical presence in our lives. At least not the way you are—just showing up and offering salvation and freedom.”

  Sam ground his teeth. “Shit, Jess. Stop teasing me. This could get really bad really fast.”

  Jess kissed him on the cheek. “Who said I was teasing?”

  As the hovercraft made its way around the edge of Praxidike, the huge processing plant came into view. Smoke stacks stretched up toward the monster planet above, spewing a noxious concoction Sam chose not to contemplate.

  Alphonse swung the small transport to the left of the giant complex of machinery. Squinting, Sam could barely make out a small cluster of umbrella-like buildings that served as the town.

  As they approached, the buildings made slightly more sense. They were small, no question about that. Almost all of them sat in individual craters. Only the round metal roofs, designed to fit over the circular indentations in the rock, had been visible during the hovercraft’s approach.

  Alphonse set the hovercraft down near a grouping of other land transports. “We walk from here.”

  The captain turned to the now empty pilot’s chair. “Ronny, keep an eye on things. Anyone gets too nosy, take the hovercraft back to the ship.”

  A slight glow acknowledged the captain’s instructions. For just the briefest of moments, Sam wished Rhea could take orders that well, but he was trying to bring freedom, not further subjugation.

  Alphonse spread his hands out to the central path that wound between the irregularly placed buildings. “Lots of bars. That’s about all there is to do out here other than work. The corporations keep the plea
sure clubs, gambling establishments, and theme parks to moons like Lysithea. But on moons where life doesn’t last long, they allow smoking and drinking. Mining and processing radioactive material has never been for those looking for long retirements.”

  The first bar they entered gave Sam a pretty good impression of life on Praxidike. The dark, circular room had numerous small nooks and crannies that served as booths for the patrons. People lounged in the cutouts, drinking very similar concoctions. He had the impression variety wasn’t a big concern. The high alcohol content of Rhea’s contraband should make Alphonse a nice profit.

  Sam made the polite gesture of ordering two drinks—ones he knew Jess would never touch and he would only try out of curiosity. The small indentation within the larger crater was about as uncomfortable as Sam had imagined. But it did the job. The customers didn’t appear to pay much attention to each other.

  Sam closed his eyes for a moment, summoning Rhea. She appeared in the dark corner of the scooped-out rock. “You can be as mad at me as you want. That’s your right. But we’re here to do some work. Can you make an introduction?”

  Rhea sighed as she stared at Sam. “They’re not much to speak of out here. But our presence hasn’t gone unnoticed. The girl’s name is Arry. She may look like a little waif, but don’t let that fool you. There are no carrots out here, only sticks.”

  Rhea remained where she sat as a preteen girl joined them. “Whatever you’re selling, I’m not interested.”

  Jess smiled at the girl. “You’re Arry? I’m Jess. Maybe we could just have a chat.”

  The girl sneered at Jess, revealing black teeth and gums. “That thing you’ve got in the corner; did it tell you I was some poor helpless orphan? People do what I tell them around here. If they don’t, they may find it hard getting anything to drink—or eat, for that matter.”

  Sam adjusted his position in the domed hovel. “Rhea is our friend. You can listen to her or not. It doesn’t matter to me. But my friend at the bar is making a deal with the owner here for some high-quality alcohol. If your means of control involves that delivery, you might want to hear what we have to say, or you might find it hard getting anything to sell, drink or food.”