Harvest Festival Pt I
26 May 2020Maggie Oz
Aztlan is a system that doesn't produce much, other than sh.... Biowaste and Hydrogen fuel.It is, however, a nice spot to live, especially for simple folk. There are vast habs on Nexus7 that offer cheap and pleasant accommodation in a reasonably near earth environment of a 28 hour day and a shade over 1g with an Earth like temperature range.
Because of this large numbers of lower income families call it home, many of those families being Slaves.
May is the end of the harvest time on the surrounding Agricultural planets and so there is a vast movement of people back from those planets, coming home for the holidays between the harvest and planting time.
It's a public holiday as well.
This year, as the local "Lord", I got on board with the effort to not only get everyone home but also help stock up with supplies fo the almost continuous and planet wide celebration that goes on.
I walked down to the spaceport in the early morning, the scene was chaos. men, women, children, cats, dogs, goats, a veritable multitude.
"Anything I can do to help?" I asked Paisley Luna, an organiser for one of the station trade organisations
"Not unless you've got a Type 9" she replied in a snappy, rushed off your feet tone
"Oh ... ah well I have actually"
"You've got a Type 9? "
"Yes I do, it's not here just now but I can get it sent over"
"Great, here," she said handing me a load manifest then turned and shouted "Not in that line, go the other way ! " to a crowd of new arrivals
"OK .... " I said to her back as she left.
I looked at the manifest, it was a series of stops to the planets within about 10 to 15 ly of Aztlan collecting a total of 1585 returning Slaves. The best thing was they were offering Cr49mill for the job!
"Wow that is some good money"
I went to the shipyard office and filed a transport order for Fat Bottom Girl, my Type 9, to be brought in from CD464.
I then decided to do a run to get the first load of workers back ASAP while the big ship was in transit.
I quickly had the ground crew fit out the cargo bays for short haul passenger work.
Where paying passengers on transport runs have specially designed cabins, bringing bulk people over short hops really didn't need too much more than military style drop seating, they were only on board for half an hour to an hour at most.
The manifest listed a short hop of 200 people on Samen, that was easily within the capacity of the Always Forever so it made a good place to start.
To make a bit more on the side I took a boom time delivery of Biowaste from Aztlan that was needed on Samen .... just need to make 100% certain those tanks are well sealed!
As the ship was being loaded I comm'ed James
"Hi babe" he answered
"You'll never guess where I'm off to just now"
"Samen to pick up the harvest workers?" He said with a wicked grin
"What! Killjoy, how did you know?"
"I'm working in Sector Control today, abusing my power to keep an eye on this hot chick I know"
"Most inappropriate," I said getting in on the joke, "What's she like this chick?"
"pheew she has the best arse I've ever seen and amazing ti.."
"New contact bearing 775, Baal sector" called a Yeoman breaking James out of his stride
"Sorry babe, have to go. I'll send you an address. GO THERE" and he cut the link
A moment later a street address popped up on my comm unit, I beamed it to my data wristband
"Cargo Hold at Maximum Capacity" the COVAS chimed
"Off we go then," I said to myself, punching the comm for launch clearance.
Before long I was shooting through slot, looking to line up on the vector for Samen. It felt good to be back on the trade routes, it's where I do my best work. For centuries I've read the markets, taking the risks, nabbed the top cargoes, I never tire of it.
Jumping to Samen was a single hop, the run into Peter Terminal, an Orbis just like Tannhauser, a short 240ls S-cruise.
I was glad to dock and offload the sh... Biowaste.
Just think, we'll be buying that back in 3 months time as carrots and potatoes.
While that was being sorted I made a quick jaunt up to the hab levels to the address James had given me.
It was a modest house, set in an average district of the hab.
I knocked on the door .......
Nothing seemed to be happening
I knocked again ......... "Hello ?"
I tried once more knocking a little louder. I was about to leave when the door flew open
"You Maggie?" a small and very old woman barked at me, she had the Asiatic look common to those of Samen and spoke in the heavily accented Standard typical of someone who's usual tongue was the Samenian Asian Creole.
"Yes that's right, James asked me to drop by "
"Ask? He tell not ask!"
"Well yes I suppose he did"
"You alway do what man tell you?"
"Well, umm no, not always no"
"HAH !" she cackled, turned and walked inside.
....
She didn't close the door so I took that to be the invitation to come in
I hesitantly walked inside. The house was small but comfortable, it had the look of a long time family home, with all the bits and bobs of a lifetime of memories.
"You come, sit" the woman called as she gestured to a beautiful table, laid out with what was clearly the best china. "You like tea?" she asked, softening a bit more now she was in the role of hostess.
"Oh yes ra-ther, I'd love a cup"
"You sit here," she said proffering me a chair "My name is Soon Ling"
"Delighted to meet you, Ling," I said, using the familiar form of address, being the second name.
"Did Jam tell you who I am?" She asked
"Um no, he didn't get a chance to, he was called away when we spoke"
"Not even when you and he spend weekend on Island?"
I blushed a bit " Um no we were umm talking about ah a lot of other things at the time"
The old woman roared laughing, her whole face splitting in a huge smile
"You mean you jus' shag like rabbit all wee'end"
I couldn't help but laugh as well
"Well yes I guess that was pretty much it" I was beginning to get an inkling who this person was "James certainly has some stamina"
To which the woman roared laughing again.
We chatted for a while, sipping our tea, Ling speaking mainly about life on Samen, what it was like to grow up there. Seems she had always lived here, never wanting to leave. Ling showed me pictures of James when he was young, first and second life, even as a gawky teenager he was a handsome lad.
"So you just with Jam' for sex or you wan' somethin' more," she asked in her delightfully blunt but endearing manner
"I can't really say at the moment, Ling. It's all a bit confusing. I'm sure you know I'm a Generational Clone like he is so I'm not sure what we are to do long term, do we marry or what? To be honest I'm just playing it by ear at the moment. I DO know I love him with all my heart though, and that's enough for now"
She smiled a warm smile and patted my hand
"You are good lady Maggie, Jam' is lucky boy to have you"
"Thank you, I'm lucky to have met him too I think" my wrist band chipped "Oh bugger," I said "I'm afraid I have to go that is the docks letting me know my ship has been loaded"
"Ah, you take pickers back home? "
"Yes that's right, it's a real carnival atmosphere over on Aztlan at the moment with everyone coming home. It's such a jolly time, you must come over if you can"
"We see, I not been off Samen in a long tim'. I don't go much for Space"
"Oh ok, well if you change your mind, just let me know and I'd be glad to come and pick you up"
"Here, you take this," she said and handed me a small elongated stone with an intricate fretwork pattern on it. "This Dzi Bead, it bring you good luck"
"Thank you Ling, that's most kind"
She beckoned me to bend down and she kissed my forehead.
"You be carefu' out in that Space" she said waving her hands at the sky "Jam' he silly in love with you and he be heartbroken if anything bad happen, then he be mopey for months" she said, making an exaggerated sad face on the last and laughing
I laughed as well "Thank you for the tea Ling, hope to see you again soon"
I hastened back to the Spacedock and quickly prepped the ship for launch.
The comm chimed and it was James
"Hi Mags," he said "a couple of things to know before you go to that address"
"Oh I've already been, your sister is delightful, real fun"
"Oh ... ah ... she's not my sister"
"Oh?"
"She's my Mum"
......
"Oh, Jesus, James! We talked about screwing!"
"Oh"
"Oh my God, I can never look her in the eye again! " I was mortified. "How could you not let me know!"
James laughed long and hard "Maggie, it's fine. Mum may not have left Samen much be she's a woman of the Galaxy for sure. She's 182 you know"
"Yes ok ..... hang on you mean First life 182, not whole life? "
"Yes, she's not Generational, she's original equipment"
"My God that's amazing"
"She's had 3 husbands, outlived them all and 4 children. All of her children, my brothers and sisters, have all passed away. I'm the only Generational though."
"So she's given birth to you, seen you die and then return"
"Yes, it's a bit hard to comprehend isn't it? "
"It sure is, even for me, I saw my own children grow old and pass away. "
"So a conversation about screwing her 2nd time around son probably isn't going to rattle her very much I think"
"I'm still bloody embarrassed though and you're a bugger for not telling me"
"I'll make it up to you"
"You better! Can you come to the Mardis Gras tonight? "
"Yes I think so"
"Good, bring your Mum"