Patreon or PayPal Me keeps this site and its author alive. Thank you. |
Stories from the Verse
A Dozen Verses
Chapter 72: Cooper 96
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Kondor 279
The octet, whole in number if not completely in body, walked out the exit of the ruins, and up to the exit from the quarter of the ruins they had been investigating. In high spirits after having survived the planned and the unplanned adventure, they chatted as they located their flight gear and packed it up to carry it out. Cooper joined in easily as they went into the giant open square between the four quarters of the ancient ‘temple’. He was starting to think it had not been a temple but a base, the initial city where the People Before had landed on Venus. No doubt down below it had many more secrets, like how Venus was terraformed, and the genetic engineering which led to the design and creation of the varied races of sentient Venusians as well as the megafauna and the jungles. But he, he had enough, he thought as he flexed the glove that he suspected was a gift of the Shining Light, or the guardian computer programs who watched over her as she slept for ten thousand years.
The talk shifted to what the Venusian diamonds might buy, and when it came to Angle’s turn to speculate on what he might buy even as they walked downhill from the giant square to the lake, he spoke of the longing of his heart.
“I have loved the short time on The Energetic, but I was in Selene City when I was kidnapped. My Mathers clan must have no idea what became of me. I would go back.” This was a bit of a downer in the midst of wild ideas of parties and buying stakes in other ships, and magic amulets, but then the others crowded in, and gently slapped their weaker fellow on the shoulder.
“So you should, shipmate, so you should,” Kark said. “We will miss you. That Zait in the reactor room will miss you as well.”
“Me too,” Cooper said, “but you really do need to let your family know you’re safe.” After a bit of teary eyes, the others asked Cooper what he planned.
“I don’t have a plan other than to hang on to it.”
“Money burns through a sailor’s pocket faster than a gigantisaurus squashes flat a tenderfoot hunter without a guide, or so the locals say,” Murane said. The others laughed.
“Even if Murane made up that saying, he’s right,” Lodotti said seriously. “Hard for a sailor to hold on to his money.”
“Well,” Cooper said, “I don’t drink, I don’t gamble, and I don’t--indulge in other popular vices. I might buy some clothes, or some equipment, or eat an expensive meal, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. That should make it a bit easier.”
They were now following along the lake, and after a quarter of a mile came to a large wooden house formed of immense timbers. The octet walked up and Lodotti rang an iron bell hanging on a stand in the front yard. A couple minutes later a navy-blue-skinned man, about five feet tall, came out of the front door thirty feet away. He looked at them, and shouted to them.
What he shouted was the price for travel across the lake, and for food. Lodotti countered by asking for how much to travel to the plateau and food and drink. This started a bit of bartering which went on for nearly half an hour and involved much yelling at a distance, and refusals, although it was all polite. Eventually terms were agreed, and the Venusian native (of a different species than Litel of the Turquoise People) led them around the far side of his house-fortress.
There was a pier, and a raft with a single mast and a rudder. Next to it was a chain that ran from a huge tree to droop into the water, and Cooper could see it going off into the lake. He assumed that it went to the far side of the lake. The ferryman opened up a box and rang another bell. Two huge orca-looking but much larger whales burst up out of the water two hundred feet away to leap and splash back. They raced in to shore, and the Venusian dragged two living octopi out from the box to toss into the water. This was just a little tidbit to the giant orcas, but they seemed to enjoy them supremely. The octopi presumably had other opinions about the process.
Putting the orcas into leather harnesses, he yelled at the octet, and everyone boarded with their gear. He shoved some lever on the pier, and the chain began to pull them across the lake. The orca helped, and so they were creating a bow wave. Then the yelling Venusian chivvied everyone out of the way as he put up the square mainsail, and their speed increased again. Next he opened another box containing fruit juices and wines, and something like turkey drumsticks that had been fried in oil. The others grabbed theirs as if this were a prime treat, and Cooper as he tentatively ate his had to agree it was pretty good. In any case, it was better than the food pills aboard The Energetic, which was all that was required.
After crossing the lake, the ferryman disconnected them from the chain. Looking at it, Cooper saw that there was a small windmill on shore which in fits and starts wound a chain. He asked Ren, the Engineer, who said that it was a drop weight mechanism. A heavy weight on a chain went to the bottom of the lake which was ‘way down there’, and the windmill rewound it. The whole thing required no fuel once you got it set up.
The giant orcas and the sail took them over to the nearby head of the river, which flowed gently down to the plateau. At first Cooper watched and asked questions, even about the ferryman, who it turned out had been injured in the neck by megafauna.
“My old house, not as sturdy as mine current one. Walked right through it, the big grasseater did, caught me by accident with a horn to the neck,” he shouted to Cooper’s ringing ears. “Now my house. Timbers ten feet thick. Even a gigantisaurus could not knock it down.”
Eventually the excitement of the day and the calm of the river lulled to sleep first one, and the others, and last of all Cooper.
Hours later in the shade of the Venusport plateau they were awakened at a pier near the base. Leaving the ferryman, who was going to turn around and go home, they walked another mile through the jungle and came to a tunnel entrance in the base of the five-hundred-foot tall plateau. Inside they hired cart riders to take them up. Reaching the top they returned their rented flight gear, and that night they slept in The Energetic.
The next day Angle made a deal with the captain, who was eager to help, but also had to turn fuel to energy and to feed sailors, that they would go to Luna next. After that, the next day was spent loading the ship with new treasures to go to other planets and moons. So on the morning of the sixth day the squawks of morning flying lizards and birds and the occasional roar of giant beasts was silenced by the massive song of a plasma rocket powered by a nuclear reactor as The Energetic trembled on the plateau before climbing skyward.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #529: Characters in Action. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
