Planet inherited

STARTING POINT: AUNT CHELSEA’S PLANET

by John Reiher John Reiher  Sci Fi Ideas Starting Points

AUNT CHELSEA’S PLANET

© Vanessa Ravencroft

(as usual this story takes place in my “Galactic Chronicles Universe. The year is 5030 OTT )

I should have sold it. I still can, but now I know too much about the place to offload it on someone else without some guilt. Why aunt Chelsea gave it to me in her will I’ll never know…

OK, OK, let me start at the beginning. I’m John Hargreaves. I’m an actor. Yes, that’s still a career. Synth-actors still don’t have the range that a human has, so we humans still can have a career as an actor. What was I in? Um, well… I used to work in an amusement park as train engineer.

Yes it’s not a true acting career, but it paid the bills. I could improv some of my lines, and the train drove itself. But that’s beside the point. About a year ago, I came home from being Engineer Bill… Yes, that Engineer Bill, and there was a message waiting for me. It was a GalNet message from a probate attorney.

My aunt Chelsea Hargreaves had passed away about a standard month ago.

Turned out she was past the bicentennial threshold and no longer wanted another cell refresh.. Sad really, she was a pistol. I already knew she had died from my dad, but I didn’t know how much she cared for me and my sister… Aunt Chelsea never married, never had kids, but she did dote on my sister and me. I just thought that she was a crazy scout working for the Union explorer corps or something. Well to be honest no one really knew what she was doing exactly..

Now it turns out that she was a private contractor, and a successful one.

So when she passed on, we all found out how much money she had. Dad and my uncle Earl were set for life, for as long as they could possibly live.

My sister got aunt Chelsea’s ship, the Sparkle Twilight. Sis did take after dad’s side of the family. She’s planning to head on out and see what she can see.

Me… I got DM-54.234-28 e.

No, it’s not a computer or robot. If you look it up, it’s the fifth planet in the DM-54.234-28 system. It’s a “marginal” world. classified by the Science Corps Astrographic Institute as a GWC 1E (Gardenworld Class 1 E) not very promising as it was just a smidgen above 1F (Fail).

And it was all mine…

That’s when the whole mess started.

-1-

“Got yourself a planet, eh?” Said Harold who played Steve the Conductor.

“Yes DM-54.234-28 e. It doesn’t even have a real name. It’s just a junk of rock with a marginal atmosphere. Somewhere in the Coreward fringes.”

“Planning to go there?”

“Just how would I do that? The closest space bus destination is Shaitans Playground, 80 light years distant. Unlike my lucky sister. My aunt did not leave me a spaceship.”

Harold shrugged and swiped his ID across the access panel. While he walked past the opening door he said. “Unless she is rich to begin with,or has a shipmaster patent, she won’t able to use it.”

Before I could answer or do the same with my ID, a gorgeous human female approached me and said with a wide smile and breathless excitement. “Aren’t you Engineer Bill? Would you mind giving me an autograph?”

The employee access door to the ‘Pre Astro Earth Train experience’ closed. I felt flattered that this gorgeous blonde with delectable assets squezzed underneath a tight satin top recognized me and gladly agreed. “Of course!”

Another woman came running and yelled. “Mr. Hargreaves. Don’t sign anything!”

The approaching woman was rather plain looking, shouldered a startled Klack Insectoid out of the way. Grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the now angry looking blonde.

I  resisted. “Just hold your train. What is this?”

“You are in terrible danger, Mr. Hargreaves. Follow me or you die. She already points a Neuro Ripper at you!” The blonde did suddenly hold a strange looking device. “Just stay and sign this and we all go on with our lives.”

The plain looking brunette kept pulling. “Leave him be! The truth will come out! You can’t shoot him here!”

Completely confused and more out of instinct I stopped resisting and followed the brunette.

I turned and saw the blonde aiming the device, but a big Botnaar  stepped into the line of sight, and collapsed screaming.

That immediately caused sirens to go off and people screaming. In all that commotion, the woman kept pulling me through the morning crowd of Park visitors and then she pushed me onto the main slide belt connector and hissed .”Quick now! change to the Express belt.”

Completely against all safety instructions. I followed her hopping over the accelerator belts and almost stumbled as I stepped unto a express belt link. A soft safety field caught me and an insubstantial voice said. “Diagonal crossing of acceleration lanes is not recommended.”

Only now did she let go of myhand and the first thing that came to my mind. “I am going to be late!”

She caught her breath. “If you value your life, you won’t go back to work anytime soon.”

“Why? What? Who are you?” Was all I managed to say while my mind still could make neither rhyme nor reason about  what just happened.”

“I am Sheila Baxter, The blonde you just met was one of your Aunt’s colleagues so to speak and with your signature you would have signed your planet over to her.”

“DM-54.234-28 e? Would that not require more than an autograph? And why like this?”

“John the people your aunt and that woman work for have no limits. They get everything they want and what you call DM-54.234-28 e is something they want very badly without anyone official getting involved.”

“I don’t understand. Did she actually shoot that Botnaar?”

“Yes, the charge felling the Botnaar was meant for you. Something that makes a Botnaar scream would fried you for good.” While I was certainly no expert on powersettings on illegal weapons I had to agree. Something that affected a thousand pound Botnaar giant was bad news for a standard human. Then I realized I just escaped my own murder, “Oh by Donald. She was trying to kill me!”

“We are not out of danger yet, Rise your hands!”

“Are you going to shoot me too?”

She yelled. “I you want to live, raise your hands.”

I did.

A robot drone swooped down grabbedmy  wrists and took me into the air in a breakneck speed.

I never claimed to be a brave man  and now I found out I was afraid of heights.

My feet dangled over the roof tops of Western City.

I saw her hanging just like me underneath a courier robot,

Any form of conversation, well any acoustic form was impossible and I was rated just above 35 on the HPI scale, meaning I had no psionic talents at all.

What was going on? What kind of freelancing did Aunt Chelsea do anyway? Scouting for the Union Explorer department seemed very unlikely, they did not have big-chested blonds with illegal hardware trying to kill me,or did they?

Oh for Donald’s sake and all the saints of Disney what was going on? My wrists and arms started to hurt. This was by far the most uncompfortable ride and I had no idea where it would end.

But it finally did, the robots deposited us on the roof terrace of a very tall building.

Having solid ground under my feet was a very re-assuring feeling and I realized I had screamed formn the most part of of this crazy ride.

“Yoy don’t fly very often so it appears, Mr.Hargreaves.” The brunette commented as I struggled to my feet and tried to ger my bearings. “I am an actor, I pretend to be a train engineer on a steam engine replica in an amusement park. I don’t need to fly. Now I think I go to the next police station and report all this and explain to my employers why I did not show up for work on time. “

“You could do that of course, and perhaps you stay alive for a little longer, but I won’t expect you to be among the living by tomorrow.”

I sighed. “Can you maybe explain to me what this is all about?”

“What do you know about your Aunt Chelsea?”

“She was the sister of my grandfather. Came to visit us every once in a while and was real nice to my sister and me. She was some sort of freelancing scout for the Explorer…” I stopped. “Now wait a minute. I am the one shot at, dragged through the air and man handled by you. I want tom know whom you are and why I am in danger?”

She looked around. “I guess we are safe for a few moments. I am Sheila Baxter and I am with the Truth Finders. Your aunt was a very successful operative for SII Black Ops. She

When I say jump. Jump!”

“From an express connector? Are you insane?”