Star Trek: Bendross

Episode 16 - The Right Stuff

 

(Fall, 2072)

By

Jay P. Hailey

And

The Bendross Players

 

Ranscombe looked somewhat harried. Everyone could under stand why. The Bendross III project was near failure. So when a meeting was called everyone expected the worst.

The colonists of the Bendross III were gathered in a lecture hall at the university of Orbit City.

"People, I have some good news." Ranscombe said. "We have our Captain and crew. May I introduce Donovan Olson."

An old, rounded man with a beard stepped forward. "Hello."

Michelle Gibbons started clapping wildly, followed by several of other colonists. Soon everyone else joined in giving the old man a round of applause.

After it died down. Captain Olson Held up his hands. "Now people-"

"Wait." Hamilton interrupted "The Aries II? The Mars Mission? That Olson?"

A large number of the colonists looked at Hamilton liked he’d just asked the august figure to pull his finger. Hamilton noted a few of the others with the "a-ah, got it." Look on their faces. They didn’t say anything.

"Yes. That’s me." Olson said. "I have been asked to command and administer this mission."

"But, you’ve got to be-"

"I am 78 years old. Yes, that’s right." Olson said he looked right into Hamilton’s eyes as if daring him to continue the thought.

"Uh.. Are you going to be okay to make this flight?" Hamilton asked bluntly. "There’s hibernation involved."

Olson said "I was one of the first long term test subjects for cryogenic hibernation. My medical files are some of the most complete in the world. If anyone has leverage on their side, it’s me."

Knowing he was outgunned, Hamilton grinned "Welcome aboard!" and sat down.

"I have been going through our mission profile and I have noticed some severe lacks in you briefings." Olson said. "I will now fill you the rest of the way in."

"All the experts today, including Zephram Cochrane feel that we need to develop the CDP drive better before start making the big jumps like this. Consequently most of the highly publicized extra-solar missions have been mostly scouting missions. Common wisdom in my industry is that only the foolish or the desperate are trying this right now." Olson continued.

"There were something like eight million applications for this mission. Clearly the general public holds a different view." Olson said.

"Nope!" A voice from the assembled colonists replied "we’re all desperate and foolish."

Olson nodded. "The desperate I can work with. I hope to weed the foolish out of the mission before we launch. To continue, the business world apparently holds the same sorts of ideas about Extra-solar colonies. They see no way to make a profit and so no reason to pursue the project. As a result, Bendross and his Corporation are suffering badly for persevering in this quest. There are currently two more colony ships preparing to leave as we speak. One is an Optimum Movement ship carrying. I suppose you could call them Optimists. One is a Mormon ship. All the other corporate ships have been downsized to the status of PR projects. Lot of busy work and news releases, but I don’t expect them to be launching soon."

"Part of the reason for this is what happened to the Bendross I and the Bendross II. The Bendross I one was heading for star in the constellation Sagittarius about 17 light years away. About three years into it’s flight, it disappeared. It was being tracked visually from the side effects of the drive. Suddenly all the side effects stopped and the ship was gone. We have no idea what happened."

"The Bendross I was carrying 5000 people, and looking at the plans it was not the most well planned expedition I have ever heard of."

"The Bendross II was a near duplicate of our mission, although we’ve refined some elements. It blew up during launch. After the incident with the nuclear limpet mine here, they re-examined the destruction of the Bendross II and now are pretty sure that it, too was the victim of a nuclear device."

"The only colony mission that has been successful so far has been the one to Alpha Centauri and they have an entire civilized world as next door neighbors to call on if they need help."

"My point in explaining this to you is to raise your awareness. This isn’t a milk run. This isn’t a jaunt around the block. We’re taking our life in our hands. I think that you’re a good crew and that if we pay attention and do things right, we can make it to our new home."

"I’ll be posting a revised task schedule and introducing you all to my officers. Soon we’ll be on track for launch. As of today, We’re at launch minus twenty one days and counting."

"Now let’s get to work."

The colonists who recognized Olson and many others started a new round of applause. Hamilton noted that Michelle and the other colonist who recognized Olson as a veteran astronaut right off the bat were mainly the ones who were on the ship legitimately. They’d either done their homework or lived with their heads in the clouds.

Hamilton was embarrassed that he hadn’t recognized Olson immediately He’d had a model of the Aries II when he was a kid, too.

Hamilton also wondered where the old man was going to pull several tens of millions of dollars out of his butt. That was how much the current Bendross Space Ops Budget fell short of that 21 day launch window.

-*-

Hamilton was alertly guarding the cyberspace area around the Bendross III. He’d pissed off all the systems programmers by ordering background checks, Which two of the programmers failed, double checking all tools thy were using, Which halted all work for about three days until he was done, and by cutting the Bendross III off from the net That meant that the systems programmers either had to work in the ship itself, or complete work and then upload it to Hamilton and have him install it.

This had foiled at least three attempts to sabotage the ship, and so Hamilton weathered the complaints from above and below with aplomb. "Hey, it’s my ass on that thing." Was all he’d say.

His main consolation was that Martin Kerenski was making just as much a nuisance of himself regarding the physical security of the ship. Martin had actually order the security checks of the colonists redone. There was nothing discovered, except that Hamilton and a couple of others would have been kicked off a straight program.

A very large man in a black suit with black shades stepped into Hamilton’s office. Hamilton felt his eyes bug out. Where was his gun? Tossed in a chair across the room. Hamilton hadn’t worn it since he’d last been planet side. Physical security was Martin’s department! Hamilton spent a few moments kicking himself before smiling brightly and saying "Can I help you?"

The hulking man steppe lightly over to the chair and took possession of Hamilton’s gun. "Got any more weapons in here?"

"No." Hamilton said broadly. A real operator would have hold out guns hidden every where and throwing knives stuck in his ears. He wouldn’t get any respect from the goon by saying "Nope. Absolutely helpless, thank you for asking."

Another MIB entered Hamilton’s office. It had never felt small to Hamilton before.

"Cover me." The first one said. The second one unbuttoned his coat to make getting at his weapon easier. The message was clear. Give static and die.

Hamilton relaxed as the first MIB searched him for the weapons a real operator would have.

Upon finding nothing the MIB stayed bland. "He’s clear."

The second MIB said "he’s clear." Into his lapel and then they both stood back and tried with little success to melt into the walls.

Several other suits crowded into Hamilton’ office. These were not operator suits, at least not in the way Hamilton usually meant. These were expensive suits. They had expensive and stylish hair, and we accessorized perfectly.

Some were men who tried to present an image of slick hipness, toughness and knowing what was going on. The women presented an image of competence intelligence and restrained energy as though, if you could talk them out of their suits and corporate mentality, they’d be really wild in bed.

And old man can through the door. He was wearing the power suit from about three years ago. His hair and manicure were less precise. This guy didn’t have anything to prove. With a shock Hamilton recognized Arthur Bendross himself. One of the richest individuals in the world, second only to Bill Gates and Bill Gates couldn’t enjoy any of his money from inside a hibernation tube.

Hanging off her Uncle’s arm was Alicia Bendross. Still as a blonde and perky as ever, and being especially vacuous.

Hamilton straightened up.

"You’re Hamilton Ashby?" The old man demanded.

"Yessir." Ham answered.

"I wanted to say thank you, boy. You saved the ship, my niece and a project that I am very committed to." Bendross said.

"Ah, well sir, It was my ass, too." Hamilton said.

"heh, heh, heh. Well yes I suppose it was, but that doesn’t make any difference. You did me a big favor and I wanted to say thank you." Bendross said.

"You’re welcome." Hamilton said.

"Uh, Sir." One of the suits said. "This is the one who came aboard by extortion."

"Enh!? What?" Bendross demanded.

"This is the person who broke into our secure data fortress and then used the file he stole to demand a place on the Bendross III." The suit looked balefully at Hamilton.

"What file did he steal!?" Bendross demanded. "Never mind." He looked right into Hamilton’s eyes "The second thing I learned in this business was that you win some and you loose some. Ashby’s pulling his weight now, so I’m not worried about it. But watch your ass, punk. Everyone who’s tried that sort of game with me has lost so far. I don’t see you as the kind to be the big winner. If my people are right you may have conned your way into a life of hard labor anyway."

Hamilton nodded. "It sounds good to me."

"You’re a weird punk, anyway. Keep your nose clean, Ashby You might make it after all." Bendross turned to leave and waited patiently for his two body guards to lead the way out the door. On the way, the first MIB put Hamilton’s gun down on his dsk.

After the entourage left the office, Hamilton carefully put his gun on.

-*-

Later that day, Hamilton was cruising cyberspace and looked into the administration sector. He was waiting for the pink slips to be ordered so he could have advance warning.

As Hamilton was watching a channel opened and a data download added millions of dollars to the Bendross III budget. Hamilton watched the bank sprite in operation and then ran a routine trace.

The money was from Arthur Bendross’ personal accounts. He was paying to get the Bendross III out of the slip out of pocket.

Hamilton counted and found the amount to be significantly more than he thought that Bendross was worth. It would get the Bendross III out of dock with all bills paid and a few dregs left over.

Hamilton wondered what Bendross would be doing with himself afterwards.

 

 Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.