Wormbender's Circus

Casey fed some co-ordinates into the ship’s navigational computer. The engines sparked into life, and the ship arced away on a new course.

“Okay,” said Casey with a sigh. “We’re back in business.”

“I’ll go and start cleaning up the mess,” said Zoe. “Those guys were pigs.”

“That can wait,” said Casey. “We need to talk. Sit down.”

Zoe tensed and hesitated. She was fearful of what Casey was about to say. He motioned again for her to sit down. She sat.

“I guess it’s time to clear the air,” Casey said. “I got a little tense about what was happening between you two, more so than was necessary. I was one jealous guy, I admit, and I’m real sorry I told you I didn’t want you around. I thought you would mess things up - well, as far as I was concerned, you were messing things up. I was stupid, and I’m sorry. I’d just like to say that if you’re willing to stay around, we’d really like to have you on the team.”

Zoe stared at him for a moment. “Wow,” she gasped. “That’s the most words I have ever heard from you in one hit, Casey.” She smiled. “If you guys really want me around...” Both men nodded. “...How can I refuse?”

“That’s great,” said Sebastian. He was trying to appear cool, but his voice had a tremble to it.

“But if I’m going to be on the team...” said Zoe.

“Yes?” said Casey, expecting from her some terms or conditions. “I’d better go practice my juggling. I’m really getting up to speed now! Ask Chen Hua!”

There was a gale of laughter.

Casey summoned the others to the control cabin. Sebastian came from his bed. Zoe had a bathrobe wrapped round her, and was drying her hair.

Casey looked from one to the other. “Sorry if I called you at an inconvenient time,” he said with a mischievous smile, “but I thought you’d like to take a look at our next port of call.”

Sebastian and Zoe looked at the screen in front of them.

“Doesn’t look like the sort of place you’d want to call home,” Sebastian observed wryly.

“Brownstone Three, ladies and gentlemen,” Casey announced. “A gas giant composed largely of swirling clouds of hydrogen, helium, nitrogen and some rare gases. Home, so we understand, to some cute little protonoids.”

A day later, the Semiramis was dipping her nose into Brownstone Three’s primitive gaseous soup. As she plunged deeper into it, a tube extended from her belly like a severed umbilical cord. Zoe was positioned in the hold, overseeing the operation of the tube.

“Check the readings on the sensors very carefully, Zoe,” said Casey. “The mix of gases has to be just right for the protonoids to keep their colour.”

“The mix is just about optimum now, Case.”

“Okay. Ready to start pumping.”

Zoe watched with fascination as the prepared tank beside her, set onto tracks to enable it to be wheeled out during shows, began to fill with the fog that surrounded the ship. In a short space of time it was filled.

“First stage of the operation complete, Case,” Zoe announced.

“Good,” said Casey. “Let’s go get some of our little friends.”

A camera located close to the end of the tube showed precisely what was happening below the ship, though the end of the tube itself was nevertheless often shrouded by the thick clouds. Casey put the vessel into a dive, plunging ever deeper into the atmosphere of the vast planet, while a scanner probed the murk, seeking out protonoids, which would be no more than a metre across.

A meteorological tracker began bleeping. Casey glanced across at it and cursed. He hit the intercom. “Watch it, Zoe. We’re going to hit some stormy weather. You well strapped in?”

“I am,” said Zoe. “But where’s Sebastian?”

“I thought he was with you,” said Zoe with alarm. “Seb. Wherever you are, watch out for turbulence.”

Sebastian had been making his way down to the hold to watch the protonoids coming aboard, and the warning came too late. Descending a ladder as the ship began to be buffeted, he lost his grip on the handrails and crashed to the deck, hearing the crisp snap of a breaking bone as he did so. As Casey sought to ride out the storm he was thrown helplessly across the cargo deck, watched by Zoe, who could not unstrap herself for fear of suffering the same fate.

“Casey, get us out of this as soon as you can,” she urged. “Seb’s hurt himself.”

“Crap, Wormbender, you’re a liability,” Casey growled. “Okay, I think we’re nearly through it.”

Almost as suddenly as it had arrived, the storm was past. Casey was caught unprepared, and the Semiramis dropped like a stone for hundreds of metres before he could fire the thrusters and get her back on a steady course. Again, Sebastian was thrown about violently.

Zoe was already undoing her seat harness when Casey called her excitedly. “We’re closing in on a group of protonoids. I’m dropping speed so we can ease up to them. Get the suction tube ready, Zoe.”

Zoe was obliged to strap herself back into her seat and attend to the job in hand, leaving Sebastian spreadeagled on the floor behind her, semi-conscious and moaning softly.

“How many do we want, Casey?”

“Oh, about half a dozen, didn’t we agree? Oh wow, there they are!”

The protonoids appeared on the screen, strange footballs of matter, brilliantly coloured and glowing softly from within. Deftly manipulating the joystick in front of her, Zoe directed the end of the tube towards the nearest of the protonoids, a beautiful globe of aquamarine, as it drifted through the clouds. The gentle suction pulled it into the tube, and moments later it was there in the tank beside her. One by one she pulled in others, ranging in colour from pale pastel blue to deep crimson.

When they had collected half a dozen protonoids, Zoe reeled in the suction tube. Casey and Igor came to join her, and together they pulled Sebastian up to the living quarters and on to his bed. “What can we give him?” said Zoe. Casey was putting a sleeping shot into Sebastian’s arm.

“Well,” He said. “I can give him a shot of calcimend and brace the leg as best I can. But he’ll still be laid up for a few days.”

“Is that all you’ve got?” said Zoe with dismay. “Calcimend? Haven’t you guys ever read the `Statutory Minimum Requirements For All Hyperspace-Capable Vessels’?”

“Not from cover to cover,” said Casey with a kind of shrug. “We kitted her out pretty well in most respects. We just didn’t figure on needing too much in the way of medical gear. That stuff all takes time to get hold of, and we were in a hurry to get going.”

“But what if one or other of you were seriously ill?” said Zoe, dumbfounded.

“Have to hot-foot it to the next nearest civilization, I guess,” said Casey. “And hope for the best.”

“How did you ever get your certification?” said Zoe. “You do have certification?”

“Oh yes,” said Casey, lowering his voice and turning his back on the now sleeping Sebastian. “We have certification.” He smiled. “A case of Scotch can still, ah, speed up the process remarkably.”

“You’re a rogue, Casey,” said Zoe with a smile, and on a sudden impulse gave him a peck on the cheek.

Casey reddened. “Let’s get away from this hole of a planet.”