“Possibly. But possibly not.” Patmore gave him a narrow-lidded stare. “Go read the IWR and then we can discuss it rationally.”
“Got it. Read the Interstellar Weather Report.”Such an interesting chore. Not.If he was going to read something he’d rather re-read the latest Dirk Crusher action adventure novel.
Dirk knew exactly how to live, love and work. Dirk would never let Patmore railroad him into doing anything boring. Dirk would never stop dancing with a beautiful girl to discuss the interstellar weather or any other stupid subject. Dirk would probably pop his fist directly into the center of Patmore’s weak chin before letting the director drone on about a mysterious Interstellar Weather Report instead of simply telling him what the problem was. But that was Director Drama’s style and it in no way resembled Dirk Crusher’s awesome panache.
Patmore made a disgruntled noise, turned on his heel and strode away. Axel purchased his bottle of water and headed back to his office. Accessing his live stream feed from Alpha-Prime, Axel pulled up and read the very short report and was reminded yet again that Patmore was in fact a full-throated drama queen.
There was a very small item—less than a full paragraph—about the mix of water vapor and gases spewing into space from a particularly active volcano on an uninhabited volcanic planet halfway through the scheduled journey of theRoyal Caldera Forte.
That was it. That was the gist of the entire report.
Frequentlymaterial shot into the atmosphere from the mountains on the barren, volcanic planet mentioned in the report. Last month, the exact same route had been altered by two days to allow for the unusually excessive outpouring. Today’s report showed the volcanic cloud was much smaller than the month before and appeared to be settling back to normal levels.
Ooh, alert the media! Nothing out of the ordinary is happening today on the volcanic planet.
Axel went back to his regular paperwork, ignoring Director Patmore’s penchant for making mountains out of molehills.
He’d given up dancing with Lucy for nothing. He was not going to discuss this stupid matter with Director Patmore, not even if the man barged into his office.
Axel worked for half an hour on more urgent truck stop matters, when an unexpected sound pealed. He glanced at the feed from Alpha-Prime—that he had neglected to turn off—which was sounding the rather strident alert.
He read the new bulletin. The volcanic cloud had just turned into a lava-spewing super blast, sending plumes of steaming rock and debris into the atmosphere and beyond.Space potatoes.
It looked like Patmore was right. The luxury liner would have to detour around it even further than last month. That would eat up the time available for their next port of call here on the Earth colony.Super space potatoes.
The change in schedule was going to cause all sorts of problems. Not only would Director Patmore be giddy with delight to finally be right about this unexpected long shot dilemma, it would also thwart Axel’s plans to find the girl he’d danced with, Lucy.
Her grinning face slid easily into his mind. She’d stay there right in the forefront until he saw her again. But that was not going to be until the ship returned in ten days. The cruise liner would have to leave immediately to accommodate the once in a hundred years blast on the volcanic planet’s surface.
Axel likely wouldn’t see her before the airship had to leave, but perhaps he could get word to her upon the airship’s return. He’d talk to Patmore about staying an extra day on the return trip. The ship was going straight back to Alpha-Prime after the final stop on Earth. Surely theRoyal Caldera Fortewould spare a day or so before returning to their home planet.
He could spend the whole day with her and show her the joys and fun that living on Earth could mean.
A smile shaped Axel’s lips in anticipation of seeing Lucy again. Maybe he could convince her to quit her job working for rich people and find a job on a colony planet where it was so much more fun and the folks were way nicer.
He vowed to do exactly that the next time he saw his lovely, giggly, sweet dance partner.
Chapter Two
Early morning—Four hours prior to the Royal Caldera Forte’s rescheduled noon departure
Axel Grey was not a guy who was prone to theatrics. Nor was he ever a guy who liked drama. Drama was for movies and TV.And Dirk Crusher.His life was fairly sedate and he liked it that way. He was, in his own mind, an easygoing, glass-half-full, all around even-tempered good guy.
However, even he had limits. Today, he hada lotof limits.
Cam was going to get an earful when he returned for taking a few days off for the second time in a row to coincide with the monthly arrival and departure of theRoyal Caldera Forte. It was becoming a bad habit, since Axel was the alternate, the replacement, the substitute.
Typically, that was okay. Axel regularly filled in for Cam and Diesel when the occasion called for it. And his brothers returned the favor. But with Diesel off at the same time, Axel felt singularly alone at the basement level of the Big Bang Truck Stop’s way station for interstellar travelers.
There had been situations now and again when he was the substitute security guy, but he handled them without too much trouble. Dealing with the chaos caused by changes to the rigorous schedule of a luxury airship twice in as many months was above and beyond the call of duty.
Perhaps the company should change their route, since the volcano planet only seemed to act up when theRoyal Caldera Fortewas about to fly by it. Maybethatlittle tidbit should be covered in the normally bland Interstellar Weather Report.
This morning a space potato farm had blown up and he was the primary recipient of the mashed potato globs flying through the basement facility.
The course change meant that the three or four days the luxury liner passengers would have spent on Earth spending thousands of credits in the stores below the Big Bang Truck Stop were in jeopardy.
