Rich, pompous people made him tired and those people who fawned and scraped for rich people were even worse.
“Let me explain something to you, Mr. Grey. Alphas of this particular class and station expect a certain level of professionalism and courtesy when they board one of our cruise liners. They don’t want to be rescheduled like they are on a cheap sand-rail tour of the Outer Basins on Alpha-Prime. Now I’m—”
Axel was tired of being explained to. He was truly tired of this pompous man.
“Oh. Okay. So, your passengers want a really up close and personal look at an active volcano spewing molten lava into space on a collision course with their luxury cruise liner? Awesome. Message received and that saves me quite a lot of time and effort. Thank you, Director Patmore, for making the difficult call.”
Lava wouldn’t really reach the airship, but Patmore didn’t know that.Hopefully.
Axel brought his arms from behind his back, crossed them over his chest and displayed a happy expression, as if all his problems were now solved. “I’ll simply issue a retraction on my last message. I’m certain everyone will be grateful. Besides, the extra acidic ash and hardened lava spray probably won’t even be noticeable in the luxury liner vents for the duration of the trip.” He picked up the phone, but Patmore’s arms went up into the air like a puppet master had just forced his will on the man’s limbs. He had paled considerably.
“Wait!” he screamed. “I understand that you have a very valid point, Mr. Grey. I was merely stating my opinion on the situation of our company’s careful scheduling. No need to endanger our passengers.”
Axel purposefully slumped and put the phone back in the cradle. “Okay. So…youdowant to leave early and allow the extra time to go around the lava blast, is that right?”
“Yes. I’m certain that would be best. Unless we can leave immediately.”
Axel shook his head. “The earliest I can get your ship gassed up and ready for transport is noon, which is in approximately four hours.” He probably could have done it sooner, but wanted a chance to see Lucy again. Perhaps he’d add an hour-long inspection of the ship before takeoff. That would still leave plenty of time for the airship to continue its journey safely.
“Fine, we’ll leave at noon,” Director Patmore said, lowering his head to stare into Axel’s eyes. “That’s twelve o’clock, sharp.”
Axel nodded, resisting the impulse to tell Patmore he understood that noon meant twelve o’clock and had known it since preschool. He probably should have come to attention and shouted, “Sir, yes, sir!” accompanied with a crisp salute, but he didn’t want Patmore to expect that treatment from now on.
Cam certainly wouldn’t do it. Blow raspberries? Possibly. But salute? Never.
Axel grinned at the picture in his head of the possible gesture Cam would give Patmore if he demanded a salute the next time they met.
“What are you smiling about?” Patmore asked as if no one should ever smile in light of this drastic schedule change for the rich and famous on his important luxury airship.
Axel frowned. “Nothing. When will you make your official announcement, Director Patmore?”
The man sniffed and consulted what looked like an expensive, old-fashioned gold pocket watch attached to his waistband with an equally impressive gold chain. “I’ll do so within the hour.”
“What time will you ask for your passengers’ return to ship?”
He paused as if he had to think carefully, when they both knew he’d say two hours, like they always did. “Two hours before noon would be appropriate—”Just say ten o’clock, Mr. Pompous. Sheesh.
“How long before we can do a count of your passengers aboard the ship, Director Patmore?” Axel interrupted. He hated playing this stupid repetitive game.
Patmore sniffed as if having to deal with uncouth Earther port personnel was distasteful at a cellular level. “I was about to tell you that, if you’d waited before interrupting me. You will be able to do your final inspection an hour before we leave.”
“That doesn’t give me much time. It’ll have to be a quick check.”
Patmore lifted one shoulder the barest of an inch, as if that was the best he could offer as a shrug. “We’ll have to do our best, won’t we?”
We?You mean me.Axel took it in stride. No one was happy about this change. “I guess we’re lucky you didn’t dock last night. We’d have a bounty of inebriated stragglers returning from all the drinking establishments.”
Before Patmore could lecture him on the fact folks from Alpha-Prime loved Earther booze, especially Arkansas moonshine, even though no one ever mentioned howmuchthey enjoyed it, Axel asked, “Speaking of that, our vendors will be mighty disappointed that they are losing so much time with the passengers, especially two months in a row. Is there any way you could shave a day off your trip and come back to Earth sooner so that folks have a chance to shop and get all their souvenirs?”
Patmore’s eyes narrowed as if suspecting a trick question. They both knew that if Patmore didn’t allow extra time at the way station for passenger spending, the contract stated the cruise line had to make up half the revenue for each day not spent on Earth.
“I want it noted for the record that I do not like changing the ship’s travel plans mid journey.”
“Be that as it may, theInterstellar Weather Reportshould not be ignored, but as I said earlier, it’s your call, Director Patmore.”
“Fine. We also want our exclusive clientele to be able to purchase their souvenirs here on Earth as well as all the other amazing stops along the trip.” He looked up into the air as if consulting an invisible itinerary. “We should be able to shave half a day in two separate places along our journey. If we repeat the schedule from last month, then we’ll return in ten days and stay docked here for two days instead of just one, as scheduled.”
“Perfect.” Axel pretended to make a note on his desk calendar. He nodded at Nova, who’d been quietly waiting by his office door. Picking up his cue, she said, “I’ll take care of the return arrangements and send out an electronic missive to all the passengers, letting them know they’ll have extra time on the return trip to Earth.” She promptly left the office to carry out her tasks.
