Blood Debts

Chapter 7

Samson didn't understand reporters. He had tried to scare them off. But in the end they were only more eager for the story. As a result he found himself irritable and the invisible shadow off camera.

Persephone on the other hand got to shine like a glorious new dawn's sunrise.

That Persephone was actually ... 'having fun' ... set Samson's teeth on edge. Protecting her in this environment was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of his life.

The reporter, April 'Something-or-Other's' habit of walking backwards while talking was disconcerting to Samson. Samson kept expecting her to trip over her shoes. It was irritating because she could keep talking to the camera while Persephone's back was turned or forcing her to look to her side, brushing hair back behind her ear. It was puzzling because Samson couldn't figure out how she knew when to turn, and he was looking for the signals from her camera man while trying to watch the crowd. Whatever the signal system was that they were using it was escaping Samson.

The ground based factory and star ship yard they were visiting was actually where the Guard Battle Cruiser 'Warsong' had been built. 'Warsong' and her sisters were as large as could be assembled on the ground. Anything larger and the force required to lift them from the planet's gravity well would overwhelm the numerous tug's ability to lift the hull into orbit without creating so much backwash from their thrust that they would damage local structures. The ship yards were massively liable for any damages they caused to civilians and the properties surrounding their structure, so they were very careful.

This structure was unlike most others on the planet in two distinct features. Assembly of major components was completed on the upper level. Final vessels or major components for capital ships were too large for doors so some clever designer had removed the necessity for doors, since they would only limit the size and design functions of objects produced. Eight component factories consumed raw materials in their bottom floors, received from ground based rail cars, and worked those materials until they arrived as large subcomponent parts on the upper floors. The upper stories were all removed from those factories, making each different from every other building on the planet in that they had no crystalline office suites in the clouds at the top. The second feature that made this type of building different was a massive one by two kilometer horizontal work space and assembly area on the upper levels. Very few buildings bothered connecting at the top with anything other than the micro thin, light but tenuous and well marked tram guide cables.

It wasn't a problem of engineering. Luxury suites just made too much money to sacrifice to something as onerous as practicality. Since the people who made the final decisions liked their luxury, it had to be extremely practical to goad them into surrendering it.

Samson had always wanted to see the ship yards but had never had the opportunity or motivation. When Persephone had asked that morning 'Where do we want to tour today', Samson had simply said without thinking, 'Let's go see the ship yards, I've never seen them'. When she had responded, 'Neither have I, sounds like fun,' they had immediately begun their circumnavigation of the multiple tram stops and roundabout routes that had ultimately deposited them in the lap of 'April What's-her-Name'.

He was bumped and jostled, tossed and pressed, by the eager crowd, until the returning workers from the first of three mid day meal shift cycles, activated a peripheral bay door that opened to the work area, to admit them.

"Now there's a sight," Samson said. When Persephone, April, and the camera man all turned towards him, Samson realized he had said that out loud. The gleaming silvery steel skeleton of a massive ship lay truncated into pieces and parts moving by gantry and ground lifts filled the sky through the open bay doors.

"Don't pay no mind to that..." said a stranger pushing pasts Samson to his work station somewhere in the chaos.

"'e's right. This 'un ain't nu'in," said a second stranger as he slipped past too. "Jus'a ore ten'er."

The shift that had trailed Samson, Persephone, the reporter and cameraman filtered back into work, from their meal break, they needed to relieve the second lunch crew for their break.

Persephone smiled before turning back to look out the small personnel access bay doors.

The late morning sun split and refracted from the gleaming new components. The freshly worked, milled, filed, smoothed, and fused steel broke the project into tens of thousands of shining gems in the sunshine. Since half the population jokingly believed the sun was only a myth, it was an amazing sight.

The double gantry delicately lowered the hundred meter long assembly into the rear of the frame. The pipes, tubes, twists, turns, too complex for the eye to follow, part cylinder part cube dropped laboriously down and Samson realized it was a single drive engine and housing being lowered into the skeleton of the waiting ship.

Finally turning from the camera, and no longer obscured by the passing workers, April's interview microphone dropped, forgotten in her hand, as the camera shot over her shoulder, "Wow", she wondered out loud too. Stunned but remembering to turn back to the cameraman and only using her mounted microphone, "Um, this is April Nightingale, concluding part one of our exclusive interview, with Persephone Chroynos, visiting the starship foundry."

45)

The boy sat in his booster seat at the kitchen table coloring in his school book. He liked the book. He could use colors on his numbers. As long as his colors matched the number of colored shapes above, his answer was right.

Ever page had a new game. Today he even got to turn to the correct pages himself.

The busy adults were talking adult stuff, and moving around quickly and putting things into boxes.

As long as he stayed put working on his homework book none of them would raise their voices to him. He could happily sit at the table and play today's game, while swinging his feet free in the air.

Mommy normally made him take his shoes off at the door. But these adults didn't seem to mind. These shoes had lights and characters on them.

Mommy said, she could always find him because ever step he took she could follow the light, and always know where he was. They flashed every time he kicked the legs of the chair.

The busy adults didn't seem to mind. So he got to wear his favorite shoes inside for the first time ... ever!

He wished Mommy had the same shoes so he could find her.

These adults were mostly nice, but Mommy was better. She was prettier, and didn't talk too loud, and kissed his cheek and gave him a hug when he came home from school every day.

These adults just picked him up out of class, and told him he had to go. They didn't say where, just that he had to go.

Mommy was sad the last few weeks. She always said she wasn't but she was just trying to be nice, Mommy was crying the last few weeks. He didn't like seeing Mommy crying.

He put down the yellow. The next color was blue, he found his blue. Three blue circles. He found the number '3' and started to color it blue. When he finished with his numbers he could color the page any color he wanted. As he finished the top round part of the '3' he stopped a minute and wondered what he wanted to make the rest of the page look like when he was done.

One of the adults dropped a bag next to him and walked away. He didn't like that man. He wasn't nice when he talked and Mommy would call him rude. He didn't answer questions right. Mommy was better, she could explain things.

One of the other adults put a box on the counter and started opening Mommy's drawers. She started pulling out all of Mommy's cooking tools and dropping them in the box. Mommy will be very upset when she sees what that mean woman was doing to her kitchen.

Mommy will be very angry when she comes home and finds that man pouring all of Samson's milk down the drain. Mommy didn't like wasting food. Now that stupid man was throwing all of Mommy's food in the garbage and pouring perfectly good milk down the drain. Mommy was going to be very angry.

The adults had already yelled at him the first time he tried to get up and help. They weren't even doing it right. They were dumping Mommy's clothes into plastic boxes. They weren't even folding them, just dropping them in the boxes and squishing them down.

Mommy let him help fold clothes. These adults were doing it all wrong. They were making a mess out of what was already folded.

He wished Daddy was home. He could have scared all these people away. He could have taken care of Mommy better too. These people were not helping. They were making a mess and stacking a big pile of plastic containers in the middle of the apartment floor.

He finished making the '3' blue and even colored in the sides by the lines. The next shape was a square, counting, there were four squares, and they were red. That meant he needed to find the number '4' and color it red. He liked this game.

Mommy said that Daddy was on a business trip. She said he wasn't going to come home for a very very long time. They went to a big room with lots of people he didn't know. Most of them were people Mommy worked with. She introduced them as they walked by but he didn't remember them. He should but didn't remember them. All he could remember was that Mommy was very unhappy. He felt very bad for Mommy and wanted to be extra good for her.

It was very nice of them to all look at the big picture of Daddy, with all the flowers around it. He was smiling and handsome in his uniform. He knew the colors. It was black, with not gray, but 'silver' as Daddy called it. With big pretty yellow piping, Daddy called it, at the collar and sleeves. That was three weekends ago. He was taken out of school for that. He wanted to be in school, but Mommy wanted him there, so he went.

Why Daddy called it piping was silly. There was no water in it. But Daddy was smart, so he didn't correct Daddy. Daddy said that the yellow piping made him extra special. He said it made him an Armored Ground Forces Crew Man. Daddy made him practice saying it all with him every time he was home from business.

Now Mommy was not home, and only these strangers, their plastic boxes, and mess.

The last one before he could color the rest of the page, he counted five triangles, this time. And they were green. He couldn't decide which color was his favorite. He liked them all. But if he had to pick it would probably be green. He found the number '5' and started to make it green.

The adults stopped making the mess, and a plastic crate thumped into the pile. He looked at his triangles and counted again. Then at the adults and counted and he counted again. There were five adults too. He liked this game. He went back to making the number five green.

The adults finished their conversation. Two of the stupid adults sat in Mommy's couch and put their dirty shoes up on Mommy's table. Mommy was going to be very angry with them.

The rude man took his colors, and closed his book. Samson shouted angrily at him, "I wasn't finished!" The rude man shoved the book and colors into the bag next to his chair.