Posted by AlOmega on May 16, 2002 at 18:41:55:
This one I don’t tell much but it’s a tad funny. That’s cause ya don’t know Travis or the Limon or the Lovers either. I don’t mind telling Spacers cause they understand most of this. Even Wannabes get most of it so’s I don’t have to do the background on everything. I just tells the story n that’s enough.
Ya see Grounders don’t know nuttin about what its like to be a Spacer. There’s a lotta noise for one thing which surprises those who’ve never been away from the crushing gravity well that’s a planet. Spacers are a free bunch, too. Wherever you goes, you’re always recognized. Easy enough to tell the Grounders. Maybe it’s the way they walk all upright like they own their ground. Even the heavy Downside worlds - those greater than 1.5 Earth standard gravity - Grounders stand tall. But Gounders’ll never understand what Spacers go through every day so they aint got no idea of how we lives and dies.
There are the Wannabes, o’course. These have been in space some but for one reason or t’other don’t like Spacer style. Takes some getting use to, I suppose - Spacer style that is. Free fall, gravity when ya wants it - or leaves it. Food which tastes like crap fulla oil and grease like its coming outta some tedwaller nozzle. Ya don’t have that in the Liners. They’re a place where Grounders, Wannabes, and Spacers mix - well, other than Downside. Liners is what people takes when they wanna leave one Downside for t’other - not that I seen a difference. One pile o dirt is like another. Oh, not that Spacers don’t take a Liner when they’s between jobs. Its something they’d rather not do. Easier to hitch a tanker or cargo and go as baggage. Less expensive and you’re surrounded by other Spacers so’s ya don’t feel so damn lonely. Wannabes want the luxury of the Liners. They want food that tastes like Grounder food - like it was growed in dirt - not reconstituted Spacer food.
Yep, it can get lonely when you’re in a crowd of non-Spacers.
Now even though you’re pretty much all Spacers, I still gots ta give ya some background. I was heading the Black Gang on the Cargo Cruiser, Limon, outta Grand Falls III. That’s a planet in the Spica system. Can’t see the home star from most Earther planets; but, its where Limon was registered. Even Spacers have to register their ships, ya know. The Limon had a good rep but not the best. It stunk and rattled all the time - not the nicest ship in the cosmos - but she’d get you there in one piece. It could use some sprucing up but Hell who wants a ship that looks almost like a Liner - especially since we generally hauled spare parts for Grounder agricultural equipment.
Now Travis, the Captain, weren’t no prize but he was good Spacer. He’d do the odd turn now and then. A bit of smuggling too if he felt the price was right. And he had this hang-up on ‘faggots’ as he called em. Other’n that, you mess up, he’d tell ya about it but wouldn’t hold it against ya - if you didn’t screw up doing the same thing later, that is.
The Black Gang include me o’ course, Langus, Dave, and a newby calling himself Geoffrey. Langus was a pretty one. About five ten, she haled from the Banister Clan. Some mighty fine Black Gangers came from there. I don’t know nowadays but then they had about four hundred or more ships and at least fifteen satellites orbiting mining worlds. She’d come to us straight from the Concord. That was a Liner but as I said, she was Spacer and no Wannabe. Needed the extra credits for some trouble she got into. What it was, I never asked. Spacers don’t ask unless someone volunteers - or it pertains to ship ‘n’ crew.
Dave was an odd name for a Darcian. Standing under five foot, he looked outta place anywhere but on a Spacer ship. That’s cause he were a Darcian and not some human. But Spacers don’t have the prejudices of most Grounders or Wannabes. Well maybe not Wannabes cause that tends to reduce the passenger load if they’re Xenophiles. Anyway Dave was something else. Not many can operate on a Flelfian engine from the inside. Tactile tentacle fingers are a real god sent at times. As any one on a Black Gang would tell ya, to get at most of those engine parts, ya gotta stop the ship and split the engine in its three main component parts just to get at the crystals. Then you gotta realign the engines when you’re back online. Dave only had to reach in, replace the crystals, and we’re back online in no time. No realignment or anything.
Now Geoffrey was new but he came from a Spacer family. Not long in Space but long enough that he was second generation. Born in space. Gave him the dark tan all us Spacers sport. Comes from working all the time unshielded. Wannabes tan some and Grounders never. And the tan never comes off. Does mean we can’t sport those tattoos some Grounders do. Tattoos don’t show much cause they’re the same color as us and addin’ color don’t help much either.
Damn!! Happens when I’m in a crowd. Happens more than it did in the old days anyhow. So I has to ask myself “Where was I?”……
Oh yeh. We were in route from the Sirius System heading the Long Loop toward Old Sol when the Captain gets a message. I gets called in along with Communications Chief, Cracker; Nardia, the Science Officer; Lance; the Exec; and Cable, who was subbing as Security. Ya see, we was running a bit shorthanded - why we took on Geoffrey. Only thirty-two on a ship that normally held around fifty-six.
“I called you here because we’ve got a new assignment. Top priority, too. We’ve been privileged - asked by no less that the Earth High Council - to bring two Antarians to Earth.”
“Uh, Captain,” said Nardia stroking his mustaches (a habit he indulged in whenever he got nervous - which he almost always was). “Why Antarians? Thought they was Off Limits or Banned or whatever.”
“True enough. They’ve never contacted us after Earth’s initial visit some seventy standard years ago. Seems something is going on that the Earth High Council wants to know about. Or maybe its got something to do with opening trade or reopening contact.
“As far as I know, they’re still Banned…”
“Pardon me, Captain,” interrupted Lance. “I think the Antarians banned US. Not the other way around.”
“Suppose you’re right. Never did give a reason for that either as I recall,” the Captain said resting his backside on the edge of his heavy brown plas desk.
“Perhaps”, added Nardia, “the High Council figures that if they do this, the Antarians might become more open to trade. If so, we would have a head start over anyone else.”
And Nardia could get some data on a new species, I though. Science Officers are an easy read sometimes.
“Oh, I didn’t tell you the fun part,” added the Captain. “They’re those Antarians who’ve got the nick of The Lovers.”
There was a lot of shuffling around at that. We all knew that even though the Antarians had banned us, we Humans had managed to get permission to have a mining colony in the nearby asteroid belt. Tons of Zenic Crystals had been found there and humans were a tad worried that those crystals might get mislaid or be unappreciated - i.e., not going into any Human-affiliated spacecrafts - so they asked permission to mine the Belt. The Antarians had had enough of meteorites crashing into the atmosphere I suppose so they granted mining rights to the Crystals, but with a codicil that no humans could come further in-system than the Belt region.
So the story went, about seven years after mining operations were going full to the metal, an Antarian ship showed up and asked if they could offload a couple of their own kind. It was a complete surprise. None of the miners had ever seen an Antarian. For that matter only a few diplomats had seen them since initial contact. It was obvious that the two Antarians were in love so logically they soon got tagged with the nick of The Lovers.
What made it most interesting was that for all practical purposes, these two were the first and only representatives of the Antarians that Mankind had ever been around for any length of time longer than two hours.
Anyway we dropped out of Sync near the Belt about two hours later. Took another three hours to get next to the main port airlock. The local Belters had put about twenty ships together as a home base. Then they’d used smaller shuttles to mine the asteroids. Fairly effective in my opinion the first time I saw it. Not difficult maneuvering airlocks together either. After all that’s how the Belter ships were linked. But if you come out of Sync too near any sizable mass - and an asteroid belt is fairly sizable - it causes fulgurations in the. Aw, hell, it could become a pain in the arse. You don’t need all the tech crap to know that mass distorts Sync Drives.
My first sight of the Antarians was after we’d upped ship. Back on the Loop heading for Sol, I seen em in the mess. A bit of surprise they were but they looked enough like us that I didn’t see any difference. They had hair for one thing which most non-Humans don’t. Six fingers aint that much different than five either. The male was about five eleven and the female about five eight. It was obvious from the first they were in love. Don’t catch Spacers holding hands or locking eyeballs. Unless they’re serious, that is. And on the Limon you better be a guy n a gal what with the Captain’s attitude.
Anyway after we broke linkage, we erged out and returned to our Loop toward Old Sol once again. And pretty much everything turned back to normal. Oh we to stop in at Alpha Station which is maybe seven Light from Sol but that was only to offload some parts. Only five standard days more and we’d be at L2 Outpost. It was the best Upside place to get Earth cargo.
Not many true Spacer ships can land Downside no how anymore. Not many Liners for that matter. That’s Local Territory anyway and not many can deal with that stuff. Special people transfer materials and Grounders and other people between Downside and Upside. Worse work than dealing with Wannabes if you ask me. Territory people is a special breed but nicer than Wannabes or Liner folk or Grounders even. But their work is mostly crap and lots of it. Theys the ones who glean the space garbage that crowds most planets - stuff like broken satellites, nuts n bolts from dumped from Liners, and asteroids getting a bit too close to the commercial lanes. They also move the materials and people ‘tween planets and various Stations that orbit any planet. Each planet we visit has got Locals. And each planet’s Locals are different from one another. But they treat Spacers better’n most - even better than Wannabes. And sometimes a Local will marry into a Spacer family and become Spacers themselves. Fact is that’s about the only way ya can become a Spacer is through marriage or living in one of the Extended Families.
Geeezzeee. There I goes again. Mind wonders too much when ya gets old.
So I was gonna get me some grub late one night. Only ones in the galley was the Lovers. Now I hadn’t met up with them before - well other than when they’d boarded - so I was a bit curious about em. They was sittin’ there holdin hands like I’d seen em then. Anyway I got some grub and asked em if I could sit a spell. Get a bit of information n gossip was all I was about. Spacers don’t like secrets unless it’s ‘tween us n Grounders. Some things aint for nosey people anyways.
The taller one could speak Spacer after a fashion so I asked him about what it was like where they came from, land and sea, commerce - stuff like that. Kinda thought it would pass the time and perhaps develop into knowing what to bring to a trade. Also wanted to know if they had places Spacers might like. The smaller one started giggling, which was a bit different from what I’d expected. But, it was their world I was asking about.
“How to say. Uh, we different from you.” The smaller one giggled again.
“I was just wondering if you had any places for Spacers to hang out?”
“You? Never would Antaria permit you to ‘hang out’. Never would Antaria permit you to visit. No human would be permitted. You are too - how to say it - different.”
“Different? How? We’ve got fewer digits and hair in different places but overall we’re pretty much alike.”
“Alike and not-alike. There is no word except bexetl that describes it and I do not know the word in your language. Ah, perhaps if you have writing material?”
Didn’t see the harm in that. Wasn’t too sure how a pencil n paper would help him tell me why we couldn’t land. He took the paper and drew a rough sketch of a human male and female. Beside it he drew a sketch of himself and a small squat of a humanoid. If I could use him as scale, the humanoid was probably a little over a meter and as round as a beach ball.
“What’s the connection?’
“That is we. Or rather that is as we are. You are not.”
“Whatdaya mean?”
“You are male,” he said pointing to the Human figure. “I am male,” he added pointing to the drawing of himself. “This is your krasnt while that is our krasnt.”
I was a bit confused until it dawned on me. Then I couldn’t stop laugh - couldn’t that is until Nardia shows up. He was ever so polite when he asked what I was laughing about. I took him aside. No sense saying anything in from of those two anyways. They wouldn’t have understood. So I took the sketch and got Nardia back to his room.
“It’s the funniest thing - those two are. Took me a moment to understand. Might be helpful if we went back later and advised them to be careful of talking around the Captain. Anyway its our guests.” So I showed him the sketches and repeated what they told me.
“…and what I figure is that the short squatting humanoid is the female of the species. Can you imagine what they thought of us? First meetings include females as well as males so they got an eyeful and couldn’t stand it. And that’s why they permitted the Lovers to leave and join up with us.”
“I don’t get it.”
“If you think a moment, you will. They understand the difference between us - male and female, that is. But they’re homophobic - so much so that they can’t look at us without thinking we’re a race of homosexuals.”
“And that means…?”
“Aint no trading treaty or anything is ever gonna be set up between humans and Antarians any time soon. They’re so homophobic that they’ll never permit it. And the Captain is so sure that he has the answers. Can’t tell him if ever what we know. He’d go ballistic. Strange thing is that he hates homosexuals, has a couple of alien homosexuals on board, and don’t know it. Wonder what he’d think if he knew that HE and ALL humans were considered Homosexual.”
We didn’t stop laughing ‘til we arrived at L2.
AlOmega