Here's Jack - 29/Aug/2012
Fall 2013, Ganymede/Luna.
As Brains suspected, his Uncle Jack had left a way to get in contact. It turned out he'd attended the rest of the con, in particular Noah Scott's presentation. Brains wished he had gone to that, but he'd still been repairing bits of hotel. So he'd have to make do with Uran's recording.
The Whole Fenspace Catalog. People would be picking bits of that out of their teeth for years, decades maybe. Brains wanted to know how the other worlds worked. The tech was interesting, but it was how the people lived that he really wanted to know. Did they love and hate the same way? Had they solved, or got different approaches, to any of Life's great problems? On a personal level (yes, it was petty), was he recorded in fiction on any of their worlds?
They'd handed over the last of the Boskone prisoners to the Patrol. Attended the last funerals. Steam cleaned the SS Champ; vacuum would help on the way back to Luna, and they'd do a more thorough clean-up there, just in case any nasty little surprises had been left behind. The Gibson Girls chose to fly back under their own power - they said they needed time to think. Uncle Jack joined Brains, Uran and Doctor Venus in the SS Champ.
It was the first time Uncle Jack had visited the Lunar home. They'd crossed paths a few times in the last five years, but Jack or Brains were always on their way to somewhere else. Brains said he trusted Jack, as a member of the family, and Jack pursed his lips and said that was OK.
Brains was pretty sure Jack was impressed, though he controlled himself pretty well. Brains had a good enough artists eye that he spotted the little pauses, the controlled casual look around. Jack seemed particularly taken by the garden in the central courtyard, shaded his eyes, looked straight into the 'Sun'. "Nice" was his comment.
Then Brains showed Jack his guilty secret. The mauler pit. While only a skeleton the scale of the immense tear-drop shape was clear. Jack was clearly taken aback. "I know you play with big toys, but this is a bit much. They'll crucify you for this. Didn't you follow your mother into CND? Now, tell me that isn't a warship."
Brains explained how it kept niggling at him. How it only left him alone if he came and did a bit more work on it. "Thermite, or cement. Burn as much as you can and fill-in the rest of this pit. Then go and have a nice holiday. Somewhere you'll really enjoy. Read a few books by your favourite authors. Turn your brain off." Brains was quite certain his Uncle Jack was totally serious.
"I'm not sure that'd wreck it thoroughly enough" admitted Brains. "Will it fly?" asked Jack. "Yes", said Brain, unhappily, "I've waved about 12% of the Function Nodes and 10% should be enough to make it work". "So, when've you organised the Boskone raid?" asked his uncle. Brains just rolled his wheel chair back and forward, unhappily.
A week later they were within the orbit of Mercury. An emergency skin on the skeleton had made the thing nearly invisible, and Uran had flown it by remote control, as they accompanied it in the SS Champ. All the filters were on maximum, as they watched the stripped hulk be pushed into the Sun. Uran's other half was wearing her red-headed human body, and hugging Brains, then Jack, then Brains again, as she dabbed at her eyes.
"I never even got to launch her", she said.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Fall 2013, Ganymede/Luna.
As Brains suspected, his Uncle Jack had left a way to get in contact. It turned out he'd attended the rest of the con, in particular Noah Scott's presentation. Brains wished he had gone to that, but he'd still been repairing bits of hotel. So he'd have to make do with Uran's recording.
The Whole Fenspace Catalog. People would be picking bits of that out of their teeth for years, decades maybe. Brains wanted to know how the other worlds worked. The tech was interesting, but it was how the people lived that he really wanted to know. Did they love and hate the same way? Had they solved, or got different approaches, to any of Life's great problems? On a personal level (yes, it was petty), was he recorded in fiction on any of their worlds?
They'd handed over the last of the Boskone prisoners to the Patrol. Attended the last funerals. Steam cleaned the SS Champ; vacuum would help on the way back to Luna, and they'd do a more thorough clean-up there, just in case any nasty little surprises had been left behind. The Gibson Girls chose to fly back under their own power - they said they needed time to think. Uncle Jack joined Brains, Uran and Doctor Venus in the SS Champ.
It was the first time Uncle Jack had visited the Lunar home. They'd crossed paths a few times in the last five years, but Jack or Brains were always on their way to somewhere else. Brains said he trusted Jack, as a member of the family, and Jack pursed his lips and said that was OK.
Brains was pretty sure Jack was impressed, though he controlled himself pretty well. Brains had a good enough artists eye that he spotted the little pauses, the controlled casual look around. Jack seemed particularly taken by the garden in the central courtyard, shaded his eyes, looked straight into the 'Sun'. "Nice" was his comment.
Then Brains showed Jack his guilty secret. The mauler pit. While only a skeleton the scale of the immense tear-drop shape was clear. Jack was clearly taken aback. "I know you play with big toys, but this is a bit much. They'll crucify you for this. Didn't you follow your mother into CND? Now, tell me that isn't a warship."
Brains explained how it kept niggling at him. How it only left him alone if he came and did a bit more work on it. "Thermite, or cement. Burn as much as you can and fill-in the rest of this pit. Then go and have a nice holiday. Somewhere you'll really enjoy. Read a few books by your favourite authors. Turn your brain off." Brains was quite certain his Uncle Jack was totally serious.
"I'm not sure that'd wreck it thoroughly enough" admitted Brains. "Will it fly?" asked Jack. "Yes", said Brain, unhappily, "I've waved about 12% of the Function Nodes and 10% should be enough to make it work". "So, when've you organised the Boskone raid?" asked his uncle. Brains just rolled his wheel chair back and forward, unhappily.
A week later they were within the orbit of Mercury. An emergency skin on the skeleton had made the thing nearly invisible, and Uran had flown it by remote control, as they accompanied it in the SS Champ. All the filters were on maximum, as they watched the stripped hulk be pushed into the Sun. Uran's other half was wearing her red-headed human body, and hugging Brains, then Jack, then Brains again, as she dabbed at her eyes.
"I never even got to launch her", she said.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind