Star Traders

The fuel truck backed up to the ship resting on the south lawn of the Whitehouse. Earlier a crew had repaired the hole Jake had blown in the topside of the ship, welding a plate over it. The ship was canted somewhat and had sunk into the lawn about a foot. The men attached a large hose to a fitting in the side of the ship. The President and some of his cabinet heard a high whine as they watched from the East wing. The whine lasted for about 10 minutes. The men packed up the hose and drove away.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” The President screamed. “You mean the damn thing was out of gas?”

“It sure looks that way,” Admiral Jenkins said dejectedly, secretly wanting to laugh out loud.

“It does to me, too, Mr. President,” General Atkins agreed. He tried to turn his grin into a grimace. “It does bother me that we were unable to locate the engine, however.”

A small shuttle ship gracefully came to a landing near the spaceship. Four men got out and the shuttle rose and flew off. The four men headed for the ramp of the spaceship, one of them turning and waved furiously.

“That’s the man who flew that ship in here in the first place!” The President pointed. “How did he get here?”

“On that shuttle, I guess,” General Atkins said.

The President looked at him sharply. “I don’t need your strange sense of humor, General. Watch out, you could find yourself back leading a squad.”

In a few moments the spaceship straightened up and slowly rose into the air. With a small wiggle from side to side, it quickly flashed to the side and disappeared.

“Well, she said she would get it off your lawn,” Admiral Jenkins said resignedly. “She kept her word, anyway.”

200 miles off in space, the recording of the entire operation was being watched by Captain Jayne Rice, Eric, Lars, Karl and the crew of the Earth Princess. Lars had tears in his eyes from laughter and Eric had to sit down or fall down.

“What a touch, Captain,” Karl said bubbling with laughter. “Bringing in that fuel truck with another Gravity Well in it was pure genius! And the men in coveralls looking like it was an everyday occurrence was classic.”

It had been two weeks since the hostilities were over with the Arcturians. The entire world watched as the Arcturians left earth under the watchful eyes of Jayne and her people. The crew of the Earth Princess were heroes the world over. The press tried to get them on the air, but Jayne had decided that interviews would be contrary to their final goal. The world had to be satisfied with pundits making comments about their personal lives, none of which was true.

The Arcturians were true to their word. Within a week they had produced uniforms for her crew made of the wonderful shimmering material she had seen the Arcturians dressed in. The uniforms were exactly like the ones they had been wearing, but the rippling color affect was unique. The crew wore them proudly. None so proudly as the Larn.

Another feature Jayne had observed was that her crew all sported pony tails. Some of them were obviously fake hair. Eric had explained that it was quicker than trying to grow one! His was as blond as hers.

Jayne released the recording of the President making his move to capture her spaceship on the south lawn of the Whitehouse. The outcry was devastating. Strong talk of impeachment was heard in both houses of congress and from both parties. Ahern was through.

“You did imply that you wouldn’t release the recording, Jayne. I thought you wouldn’t do it.” Eric said. “I’m glad you did.”

“I had every intention of releasing it all the time,” Jayne said. “With a man such as this, one cannot use truth as a weapon. I lied to the bastard. It has always seemed strange to me that a liar would get upset when someone lied to him.”

“It seems strange to not have anything pressing going on now,” Jake said. “Time for a vacation, I think. I’d like to spend a little time fishing for brook trout on E-6. No doubt the streams are full of them there!”

“I’m going to E-6 too, Jake,” Lars said. “I’ve always wanted to be a coach. The Larn I worked with on the Earth Princess have shown some interest in starting a baseball team. I’d like to bring the game to E-6 and the Larn. I think it would be fun and relaxing.”

“I have a nice little grass shack built on what corresponds to Waikiki beach. I think I’ll spend a couple of weeks there,” Eric said. “That is, if I can talk a certain Captain to join me.”

“You mean me?” Jayne grinned demurely.

“I sure don’t mean any of these guys. They’re not my type!”

“I’d like to check on the Arcturians to see how they are doing and explain the other part of my plan,” Jayne said.

The men looked at one another. “The other part?” Eric said.

“Well, I had more than just trade in mind when I made the offer to the Arcturians to occupy E-9,” Jayne admitted.

“I was wondering why you chose E-9 for them, Captain,” Jake said. “What was the other reason?”

“It has always bothered me that we use E-10 for our penal colony. Eventually there will be enough people on that world to form their own government. The children of the prisoners will eventually form enough of a population to be reckoned with. The gate to E-1 from there obviously opens up somewhere below ground. We need not worry about that. But those will eventually discover the gate from E-10 to E-9 on E-10. I thought it would be nice to have a friendly race on E-9 for a buffer for us.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Eric said. “That’s something we should have thought of, but it never crossed our minds. How do you come up with these plans anyway, Jayne?”

“Yeah!” Jake agreed. “Tell us about it, especially if you expect us to be a part of your plans in the future.”

“You’d be surprised at the plans I have for the future, Jake!” Jayne said. “But that’s for another time, or another adventure. My Dad always said in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. I took that to heart and always looked at the opportunity.”

“Einstein,” Jake said.

“What?” Jayne asked.

“Einstein. He’s the one who said that.”

“Really? How do you know?”

“I read it somewhere.”

“What does that prove? I never read that.”

“It’s still true. Einstein said it.”

“Are you sure? I never knew that, and I doubt it. He was a scientist, not a philosopher.”

“Nevertheless, he said it. Believe me. I’m the mathematician here. I would know this thing with Einstein.”

“I still don’t think so…”

Lars and Eric just looked at one another and rolled their eyes. It was going to be an interesting life…