ABC Shorts: The Double…
[Note from Steve: Leave it to A.B. Carolan to turn an ordinary business trip into a space adventure. A wee bit of Irish humor….]
The Double
Copyright 2019, A. B. Carolan
Filton hated spaceports on backward planets. As head of regional sales for the planet Sanctuary’s largest android factory, he had to visit them, even some outside of the trade union.
He also hated it when his wife Dal and daughter Shalin accompanied him on a business trip. Even though he often enjoyed their company at meals during the few subjective days the starliner hopped among the multiverses, popping out light-years away from their home planet, his usual corporate stateroom seemed to be a lot more crowded with them along.
He always used the same old beat-up suitcase, putting a few extra toiletry items in his briefcase. He had that briefcase in hand now, but his little suitcase would be lost among their luggage. They all crashed out of the tube onto the carousel. Not an android porter in sight, he thought. He started to load the luggage onto a cart.
“I need my makeup bag,” Dal said. “I need to touch up.”
He looked at all the suitcases on the cart. “Which suitcase is it in? And how long will that take?”
“The green one. And I’ll only be a moment.”
There were two green bags, both toward the bottom of his orderly pile on the cart. He offloaded all that were on top of one and handed it to her. She rummaged around and shook her head. Naturally, it’s in the other one.
“I think Mom brought too much stuff,” Shalin said, watching her mother head for the bathroom. “And why didn’t she fix her face before we disembarked?”
Filton just turned a suitcase on its end and sat down, assuming a pose he’d seen once in some ancient Earth bronze statue. “The Tinkerer”? Shalin is at the age where she criticizes her parents. In this case, Shalin’s critique was appropriate. He wrote it off as Dal not traveling much. Guess that’s my fault.
He looked at his watch. It was still on ship’s time. He’d have to find out what the local time was. Good thing I don’t have any appointments until tomorrow.
***
When Dal returned, they looked for the tram, the first leg of their journey into the main terminal, unless you counted the shuttle ride down to its dock in the spaceport. After waiting twenty minutes, a car screeched to a halt in front of them. The doors slid open. A huge Tali female exited the otherwise empty car; she was pushing a wide stroller. She blocked the entrance to the car as she began talking with someone on the comlink device surgically attached to the side of her head.
Triplets. Triple trouble. He smiled at Shalin, knowing his daughter would think the three little Tali were cute. He had to admit that it was hard to imagine the Tali as Humans and Rangers’ worst enemies so long ago.
Dal and Shalin squeezed around the stroller, but Filton couldn’t manage it with the luggage cart.
The tram car took off.
***
The next tram car pulled up fifteen minutes later. In the interim, the Tali mother had disappeared. The car was empty. Filton had a clear shot. But the car’s floor level was higher than the platform’s; it blocked the wheels of the luggage cart. He decide to make a running start, but the wheels caught, and all the luggage spilled into the car. He pushed the cart aside, entered, and began making a pile of luggage in the center of the car, which toppled over when the tram car took off.
The car stopped one more time at a landing pad. An Usk entered the car, carrying a shiny gizmo in his hand and conversing with someone via his comlink. He tripped on Filton’s briefcase and lost the gizmo in the pile of luggage.
“I’ll find it,” Filton said.
As Filton bent over to peer among the suitcases, the Usk grabbed his briefcase and pushed him into the pile. The Usk exited as the tram’s door whooshed open at a stop inside the main terminal.
Filton chased the Usk, yelling, “Stop thief!”
But passengers from another ship poured into the corridor ahead of him.
“Papi?” Filton turned to see Shalin.
“Where’s your mother?”
“I lost her. She probably went ahead to the hotel. I decided to stay and help you with the luggage.”
Filton spun and looked back along the corridor. The tram car was gone!
***
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the AI terminal at the hotel’s check-in counter. “We have no reservation for you.”
“Okay. That’s happened before. My company sends them out weeks ahead of time, but maybe that information came on the very ship we were on.” The dangers of doing interstellar business. Communications were slow in the Union because starships were the fastest way to communicate between star systems. “Do you have any rooms available?”
“All suites are taken. Do you want me to see if there’s one available in our hotel on the other side of the city?”
Filton shook his head. I always use this hotel because it’s near the planetary HQ. “We’ll take any room.”
“There is one room for Humans with a double bed and a cot. Would you like that?”
Filton looked at Dal. She nodded. Shalin looked at the ceiling.
The room was at the building’s rear and looked out at the rear of another building across a garbage-strewn alleyway. Dal and Shalin used the bathroom and then went shopping. They would have to replace all their clothes. Filton tried to contact the company’s planetary HQ.
“Excuse me a moment,” he said to the AI switchboard operator that didn’t seem to know how to find Filton’s contact…or anyone else alive, for that matter.
He’d heard a knock at the door. He opened it and saw Shalin crying.
“You’re here,” she wailed. “I lost Mom on the tram. I remembered the name of the hotel. Where is she?”
He took Shalin inside, gave her a hug, and then went to the door again, looking both ways along the corridor. What’s happening here? Didn’t Shalin just leave with Dal?
“You just went shopping with your mother,” he said after reentering and closing the door. “No one asked me what I needed.”
Just then he heard his comlink device. “Filton? That you, old buddy?” The AI had found someone. ”Dru here. We’re all set for tomorrow’s meeting, except for the building’s environmental system. They assure me it will be fixed by tomorrow.”
“Good. I have a little problem here. Just checking in to let you know I’ve arrived. Have a good one.” He turned his attention again to Shalin. “Let me get this straight. You lost your mother in the tram?”
Shalin blew her nose again and nodded.
So who was the girl who went shopping with Dal?
He grabbed this Shalin’s hand. “Let’s go find your mother.”
***
They didn’t have to go far. In the lobby area, Filton found Dal in a shop, holding several dresses.
“Why are you here? You know I can’t shop with you. You’re impossible.” She then saw Shalin and looked at the dressing room where Filton saw the curtains moving. “I thought you were trying clothes on in there.”
“I just arrived at the hotel, Mom. Why did you leave me in the tram?”
“Leave you? I didn’t leave you. You got away, but I found you. Your father was the one who was lost.”
Filton went to the dressing room and pulled the curtains aside. He saw a pulpy, blobby mess of something that shimmered and then became Shalin. He looked back over his shoulder at his Shalin.
“We have a problem,” he said.
***
“I’m so sorry,” said the Renzel adult. “Our child has not yet progressed beyond the play stage. She meant no harm. Thank you for taking care of her.”
Filton and his family watched the two slither away.
“I’m still not sure I understand,” said Shalin.
“If I may explain?” said the android cop.
Filton gave a thumb-up, already worrying about purchasing something a bit more business-like than his rumpled travel clothes for his meeting.
“The planet’s dominant species has the ability of camouflage—even at a young age, they can bend and modulate light so they can look like anyone. The Renzel toddler was simply playing a game of hide-and-seek with one of its parents, #3 in the pentad, I believe.”
“How strange,” said Dal.
Filton nodded, stepped back to let an adult pass by, and fell into the hotel lobby’s fountain.
***
Comments are always welcome.
Rembrandt’s Angel. “Greenly glanced at the letter and then looked at Brookstone. ‘A Rembrandt for sale? Preposterous!’” Ex-MI6 agent and current Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone becomes obsessed with recovering a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War II. Interpol agent and paramour Bastiann van Coevorden tries to control her obsession and keep her safe. Their quest to recover the painting leads them to an international conspiracy that threatens Europe. Published by Penmore Press, this mystery/thriller is available in ebook and print format from Amazon and as an ebook version from Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) Also available from the publisher or your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it). A sequel is coming.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
