Читать книгу The Ride - Tom Ph.D. Anderson - Страница 6

◊The Falcus government deposited the money in my account on the planet Market. By any standards I was now a wealthy man. I almost certainly had more money than my Uncle and if I didn’t I was very close. On the transport back to Nimbus I couldn’t stop looking at the readout of my account on Market. I would never have to work again.

After arriving at the Nimbus mine I stopped in to see the Mine Manager. He congratulated me and asked when I would be ready to resume my job as an atmosphere technician. We both had a good laugh and he congratulated me again. I cleaned out my bunk and bought passage on a star transport that would eventually get me back to the planet Udell.

As I had several hours to kill before departure, I went to the lounge bar to get a bottle of wine, the better to sit and consider the possibilities. The place was empty. Everyone was working double shifts to make up the production lost to the croc infestation.

The bar was out of my favorite wine. I had finished the last bottles they had in stock and they weren’t going to be buying any more. The wine was pricey and I was the only person who bought the wine on a regular basis. The bar had decided not to buy the two cases it had ordered and if I hurried I might catch the Barrillean merchant who sold the wine to the bar. The bartender felt certain the Barrillean would sell the wine to me. The merchant’s name was Merritt and I should tell him to sell the wine to me at the bar’s price.

I had never actually met a Barrillean merchant before. I had seen my Uncle haggling with an occasional Barrillean when he would buy luxury items for his guests. My Uncle never said he felt cheated. He did say he never felt he had ever paid a Barrillean merchant one penny less than the Barrillean had intended to be paid. When the negotiations were over my Uncle was always exhausted and the Barrillean was always refreshed.

Barrilleans have heads, hands, and feet that are significantly larger than humans. They have arms, legs, and torsos that are somewhat smaller than humans. Barrilleans always seem to be having fun. They see the universe as a wonderful place to enjoy the pleasures of life. The very best of these pleasures is doing business. Sex is a close second.

Merritt was singing merrily in his own language and stopping occasionally to give instruction, in flawless standard, to workmen carrying boxes out of his ship. As each box was carried out Merritt entered a payment code in his journal. I said his name and Merritt turned to look at me with a huge smile on his face.

“You must be the young man the bartender called to tell me about. The wine is piled over there. Do you have a payment code or would you like to bargain first? You might get a better price. I am going back to the planet Cocuru for more of the same wine and I have no buyer for these two cases. I would have to haul the wine there and back.”

I handed Merritt the payment code. “I believe the price you ask is fair. This wine is not easy to come by.”

“It will soon be impossible,” said Merritt. “The winery is up for sale and I believe the new owners will plant a different variety of grapes.”

I really loved that wine and my newly fattened bank account was calling. “How much would it cost?” I asked him.

“I am sorry good sir. That last batch of wine is bought and paid for. You would have to negotiate with those who bought the wine, after it is delivered,” Merritt told me.

“No, I meant how much would cost to buy the winery, after your commission of course?”

<><>

Merritt liked this young human. He was able to kill gloride monsters with his bare hands. It was a talent that could be in great demand. More than that, Merritt felt this young human could be trusted and that he would be good for business. “Come with me to Cocuru as my guest. I will show you the estate and you can talk to Mr. Petterton.”

◊The trip was spent mostly sampling Merritt’s alcoholic wares and discussing the more pleasurable aspects of Barrillean females versus human ones. Merritt also schooled me on the joys of buying and selling. I was actually looking forward to negotiating a price with the wineries owner.

<><>

Michael was the Master Gardener for the Petterton Winery and today he had proved his worth. He had kept the last bottling unit running long enough to empty the last barrel. It was so sad. The Petterton grape had been grown in this valley for almost 500 years and the Petterton family had been making wine here just as long.

Samuel was the last of the Pettertons and he had as little interest in producing children as he had in producing wine. Money that should have been plowed back into the business was plowed into his personal pursuit of pleasure. Money that should have been spent repairing and replacing equipment was used to rebuild the ancestral home as a mansion. Money that should have been spent repairing irrigation systems was used to build a private lake. The list went on and on.

As the winery went downhill, the production and the profits did to. Not only was the business end of the estate falling apart, there was no money for upkeep on the mansion. Samuel Petterton was reduced to living in the last few rooms of the mansion that were still livable.

Now Mr. Petterton needed a better regeneration treatment than Cocuru could provide. He was going to sell everything for a few more years in a 20 year old hide. Regeneration didn’t add to your life, it shortened it. You looked younger, but Michael would rather have his God given 120 years in an old body, than be buried in a 20 year old body at 80. Samuel never asked Michael his opinion.

Michael loved this place. He loved the planet Cocuru. The moment he stepped off the star transport Michael knew Cocuru was meant to be his home. Samuel’s father had hired him. That man had wine in his blood. He would be spinning in his grave if he knew what his son had let happen to his beloved vineyard.

In spite of their lack of care this year’s crop of grapes was lush and full. This would have been a great year for the house wine. The new owners would plow this year’s grapes under to prepare the fields for the new grapes.

The new owners would almost certainly be the Torenbough vineyards. Their holdings bordered the Petterton holdings. Silus Torenbough took care of his business. His family had been making wine in this valley as long as the Pettertons and he wanted to give his children a more prosperous vineyard than the one his father had given him.

Silus had already offered Michael a chance to keep his job. He would be second master gardener after Barnabus.

Barnabus had been one of the first friends Michael had made on Cocuru and Barnabus had introduced Michael to his future wife Mildred. Michael liked Barnabus, but Michael would never work under Barnabus.

When the winery closed Michael and Mildred would move to the planet Thracsis and live near their children and grandchildren. Michael had been born on Thracsis and his children had moved there as soon as they finished mandatory. Mildred had been born on Cocuru and had never left the planet until she had weddings to attend and grandchildren to hold. They both loved Cocuru, but to see their children everyday would be a blessing.

Michael heard the sound of Merritt’s ship landing. Merritt was on time, as usual. The last bottle didn’t go into one of the boxes. Michael and Mildred would open it on their last evening before leaving Cocuru forever.

◊Cocuru is an agricultural planet with a gentle sun and an atmosphere better than most at filtering out its sun’s harmful rays. Getting sunburn on Cocuru is very difficult, even at the equator, and a dark tan on Cocuru comes only out of a bottle.

When I left the ship I felt as though I had come home. I don’t know if it was the green of the grass or the shade of blue in the sky or the bird that sat on a branch and just stared at me… I was home. I had never felt the sun feel so good on my skin. It took a conscious effort not to take off all my clothes and run naked.

The landing pad was on a bluff overlooking a small valley. There was green everywhere, mostly well ordered if slightly overgrown grapevines. There was also a patch of forest and a lake with a stream running in one end and out the other. Between the bluff and the lake was a large house flanked by rows of sheds. A man came out one of the sheds and came up the walkway towards us. He and Merritt embraced and Merritt introduced me and explained why I had come.

“Buy the estate. Are you in the business of making wine? Do you know what’s involved?” asked the man named Michael.

“The only thing I know about wine is how to drink it. I love the wine that’s made here. I want it to keep being produced. That’s why I want to buy the estate,” I told him.

Michael showed me around the grounds. Michael pointed out the equipment that needed to be repaired or replaced, the sheds that needed to be rebuilt, and the equipment that was so old that replacement parts were no longer being made. We walked the fields and talked about the irrigation system that needed to be completely rebuilt. Michael also showed me the grapes. He told me that because the weather had been ideal, this year was going to be a bumper crop.

“I take it that’s a good thing?” I asked him.

“It means that if I have the equipment to pick and process the grapes and age and bottle the wine, the estate could make a real profit this year,” Michael told me.

We went over the numbers. With improvements and repairs to the business, minor repairs to the big house, and keeping a reasonable reserve, I could match the Torenbough bid. If it came to a bidding war, I would be in trouble.

<><>

Silus Torenbough and Samuel Petterton had just finished lunch. Silus knew he had Samuel over a barrel. Silus lowered his bid by 10 percent. Samuel grumbled, but he knew he would have to take the lower bid. Silus told Samuel he had till morning to decide or the price would go down again.

Returning home Samuel found an annoying young man with an idiotic grin on his face waiting for him. The young man offered to match Silus’ higher bid. The child babbled on about how much the vineyards felt like home, and how much he loved Cocuru, and how much he loved the Petterton wine, and blah, blah, blah. Samuel signed over the deed, pocketed the payment code, grabbed a handful of clothes, and left Cocuru never to return.

Mildred loved the planet of Cocuru. She had always loved Cocuru. Still her children and grandchildren loved the planet of Thracsis and she would find a way to be happy there too. Michael stumbled through the door.

“A man from the planet Udell just bought the estate. His name is Bob Nesslun. He gave me money for repairs, he is giving me half the profits, and he is giving me a year’s salary as a bonus for staying. Bob doesn’t know anything about growing grapes or making wine, but I think his heart is in the right place. He is even willing to let me bring in grapes from other planets for a potential new house wine.” Producing a blended grape wine by bringing in grapes from other planets had been a dream of Michael’s since he had first set foot on Cocuru.

“How old is he? Is Bob married?” asked Mildred.

“Mid twenties I guess. I don’t think Bob’s married. He didn’t say anything about a wife. Samuel has already left. Bob’s staying in Samuel’s rooms in the big house.”

“You did invite him to dinner?” Mildred asked.

“I didn’t think to....”

Mildred was out the door and down the path to the big house before Michael finished his sentence. As she walked in the door the young man jumped up with a startled expression on his face. The startled expression gave way to bewilderment. Michael had overestimated his age. “If Bob is a day over twenty, I’m the green piper,” thought Mildred. “Hello, my name is Mildred. I’m Michael’s wife. He told me you just bought the estate.”

“I guess I did. This is happening way too fast. I have never owned anything more than the clothes on my back, and now I own all this,” the boy told her.

If ever a boy needed a hug, this one did. A woman knows when a boy has never had a mother. As Mildred hugged Bob, she adopted him. She never told Bob or signed any papers, but Mildred would always care for Bob as a mother cares for a son. Bob gratefully ushered Mildred into that place in his heart that a mother would take, and no woman had ever touched. Mildred disengaged herself from the hug and insisted that Bob come to dinner.

Mildred was a skilled cook and the meal was all about eating. After they finished, they had coffee in the living room. They sat around the fireplace, the small fire more for the comfort of the flames than for warmth.

Michael looked at the young man. Mildred was right; Bob probably was far closer to twenty than twenty five. “So how did you get the money to buy the estate?” Michael asked him.

“It’s kind of embracing. I killed three crocs in a gloride mine on Nimbus and a tic in a mine owned by the Falcus.”

“Why would that be embarrassing? Ghoul hunting is hard, dangerous, honorable work. Did the rest of your team retire too, or did they just replace you and keep hunting?”

“No ghoul hunter team, just me. I don’t know how I killed them. It just kind of happened,” I told him.

Michael said “I don’t understand?” What Michael meant was, I hope I don’t understand you, because if I do, you are lying to me and I hate to be lied to.

Mildred felt the same way, only with absolute certainty that the young man’s words had not come out the way he wanted them to.

◊I couldn’t believe I bought the estate so easily and Michael’s wife Mildred was just like what I imagined my mother would have been like had she lived. I was so happy that she invited me for dinner. Things were going very well until they started to ask me about how I got the money to buy the estate. I stupidly told them the truth. Of course they didn’t believe me. I wouldn’t have believed me. I looked at their faces. “I have recordings of me killing them in my luggage, let me get them.” I walked to the door and when it closed behind me I ran to the big house. I desperately wanted these people to like me. I tore through my luggage, pocketed the recordings, and ran back to Michael’s house. At the door I tried to control my breathing. I walked over to their viewer and inserted the recordings.

As I killed the first croc, I explained that while it was happening I had no control and was only an observer in my own body. While they watched me kill the two crocs in the bar, I explained that I was drunk and didn’t remember any of it. When they watched me with the tic, I showed them when I lost control of my body and when I got control back. Michael jumped up and grabbed my hand. “Forgive me for doubting you, you have a rare skill.”

“It’s not a skill, it just kind of happened. I don’t ever want to put myself in a position to find out if it will happen again.”

“So you’re not going to hunt any more gloride monsters?” To say that Mildred looked relieved was putting it mildly.

“If I never see another gloride monster again, it will still be much too soon,” I told her.

“Michael I think we should open the last bottle of wine from the old estate to welcome the owner of the new estate,” Mildred said. They wouldn’t be leaving Cocuru. Michael and Mildred opened the last bottle of wine from the old owner to celebrate the new owner. Three large wine glasses were produced and filled. With each new toast we each took a drink.

“To the new estate,” said Michael.

“To a new life,” I said.

“To Cocuru, may it warm us and keep us and stay gloride monster free,” said Mildred.

“So you have no idea how you killed those gloride monsters or if you would be able to do it again?” asked Michael.

“None at all,” I said.

“So you wouldn’t put yourself in a position to find out if you could do it again?” asked Mildred.

“Not in waking life,” I told them.

All three of us touched glasses, said “AMEN,” and drained them.

<><>

After the new owner said his goodbyes and closed the door behind him, Michael and Mildred just sat and looked at each other.

Michael broke the silence first. “What do you think about him?”

“You realize Bob’s just a little boy in an adult’s body. He’s just a sweet, little boy,” said Mildred.

“You did watch those recordings? You saw the way Bob killed those gloride monsters?” said Michael.

“And we both saw how close those Crocs came to cutting him in half. When I think about what that tic would have done to him it makes the back of my thighs start to ache. What kind of an owner do you think he’ll be?” Mildred asked.

“Bob said he wanted me to run the place as if I owned it. He trusts me to keep the books. Money is not going to be a problem. It’s going to be nice not to have to squeeze each penny three ways before I spend it. Bob came because he loved the wine. Now I think Bob loves Cocuru more than he loves the wine. I think Bob loves Cocuru as much as you do Mildred.”

“And you don’t love Cocuru Michael?”

“I love you. You are Cocuru to me Millie.” Michael turned on the music and pulled his wife from her chair. Michael held her tight. As they moved to the music Mildred let herself melt into him. Mildred felt the bulge in Michael’s pants rub against her leg and wasn’t surprised when his hand slipped under her clothes and caressed her bottom, Michael's flesh touching hers. Mildred knew her husband. Michael always made love to her before he threw himself into a big project and Mildred would hardly see him for days at a time.

Mildred had loved this man from the planet Thracsis since the first time she met Michael. She had put Michael first in her heart from the first time he looked in her eyes as they danced. Mildred would love Michael the rest of her life, Mildred’s last breath a whisper of her love for him. Michael wasn’t lying or twisting his words. Mildred was the planet Cocuru to him, all softness and gentleness and beauty beyond compare. Mildred had been first in Michael’s heart since the first time he held her. Mildred would still be first in Michael’s heart on the last day of his life. The days in between a walking dream.

◊ I gave Michael a year’s salary as a bonus and agreed to give him half of any profits the winery made. This seemed fair, as I knew almost nothing about wine accept how to drink large quantities of it. The winery had been allowed to run down. After paying for the winery, including a fat commission for the Barrillean merchant, which I did not begrudge him, paying for new equipment and the repair of old equipment; I still had enough money to run the winery for a year without any money coming in. I was now officially a gentleman wine producer and I would never need to deal with a gloride monster again.

My master gardener Michael had always wanted to develop wines by mixing grapes from other planets with the house grapes. I approved of this. The winery only used one variety of house grapes to make the house wine I loved, the idea of a new house wine, as I was a new owner and represented a new house, appealed to me. There will always be the old house grapes and the old house wine will always be produced.

I just met Michael and Mildred and I felt like I had known them forever. They introduced me to a man a bit older than Michael named Cedric. I hired Cedric to run my household the way he thinks is best, just as I had hired Michael to run the winery the way he thinks is best. Cedric reminds me of the nicest of the men who raised me at my Uncle’s estate on Udell. I think I am going to love it here.

I still had every intention of traveling to other planets, but that would have to wait. My gloride monster killing days were over. The possibility that the next time a gloride monster attacked me my ability might not take over and save me was a chance I never wanted to take again.

<><>

Michael should have been exhausted, but he had never felt so full of life. Buying new equipment, supervising the repair of old equipment, it was amazing how much you can get done when money isn’t a problem. The fun of taking bids on the repair of the irrigation system and repairing buildings when you know you can afford the best. Michael had the fun of telling the men working on the estate that the winery wasn’t shutting down so they could stop scrambling to find other work.

Even Barnabus was happy. “Michael, I’d hate to see you and Mildred leave. Who else can my wife Sarah and I have over to play cards who won’t mind losing?”

Silus was the one sour note, but he took his defeat with humor. “If I’d known there was another buyer I’d have paid half again as much and still thought I was making a good deal. It was just so much fun having old Sam between a rock and a hard place. The man you’re working for is swimming in a lake of luck. If I were you I would jump in there with Bob the first chance I got.”

Michael didn’t tell anyone about the ghoul hunter part. Cocuru doesn’t have any gloride deposits and is real short on gloride monsters. If Bob stayed on Cocuru the man’s ghoul hunter days are over.

The man’s, all of Michael’s children were far older than Bob and his grandchildren almost as old. The boy from Udell did seem to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Swimming in a lake of luck, it sounds nice, but you can drown in any kind of lake.

With his ship finally out of Cocuru’s gravitational grip, Merritt sat and watched Cocuru shrink in the rear monitor. That such a skill as Bob’s would not be used seemed a terrible waste. The boy just needed the proper incentive to go back to ghoul hunting. Merritt had heard the Kinzu were having a problem with a pod of setti in a gloride mine on the planet Kinzu Prime. Merritt would check into the matter.