Free Stories 2011 Read online

  Jake didn't reply to Dan on the screen. He pushed off from the window and headed out of the manufactory toward Central as fast as he could move.

  The Central hub had all Tri-Star's communications and control, and by the time Jake shot in, bouncing hard off a bulkhead, everyone else had gotten there first.

  All the screens flashed warnings, and a looped clip of Holly played in one corner, declaring an emergency. All flight plans were rescinded, all stations to maintain alert.

  "What has he done?" Jake asked. Dan hovered over to him.

  "This has nothing to do with the space cowboy," he said. "The Astro-Disney boat hit a solar panel fragment an hour ago and lost control."

  Jake let out a breath. Just the usual over-caution when any mishap occurred. There would always exist a danger of an expanding debris field after a collision, and space tracking would take a while to count all the pieces. He saw the tourist ship on the radar screen, looking to be in one piece, but tumbling.

  Dan pointed to the rest of the crew. "If we get him back in time, they might not even notice," he said. "He hasn't gotten far."

  Jake grabbed a headset and turned back toward the main communication console. The emergency looked under control; Astro-Disney ground control had good telemetry from the tourist ship, and although they had lost navigation, life support remained on-line. He found the com freqs for Mars One, and switched on the transmitter.

  "Rob, you couldn't have picked a worse time for a joyride," he said. "We got an emergency and everyone has to stay put."

  The station handshook with the ship and data flowed back and forth. Half the displays stayed dark, with the ship waiting for most of its major systems.

  "Rob, I know you can hear me. Listen, you've only got a hour or two of air at best, and we don't have time to mess around. Come back right now."

  "Jake, good to hear you." Rob's voice came over the headphones with his usual bright attitude. "She flies better than I hoped."

  The ship had cleared the solar panel boom, heading for the transit lane. "Look, Rob, this will mean your career. We don’t have any flight clearance, and even if we did, you don't want to fly around when a debris field could expand into your orbit."

  "We have a bigger problem than that," Rob said. "I got in touch with Norad as soon as the tourist ship went off-line. Hang on, I have to program my burn, talk to you in a minute."

  Dan moved in closer, picking up a headset. "Has he started the Mars mission by himself?"

  Jake paid no attention. He signaled to Freedom, trying to get Holly on the line. After a long moment, her face came up.

  "I don't have time to chat," she said. "Astro-Disney's got a rescue ship prepped. They should launch in an hour, and I have to clear traffic."

  "We have an unscheduled launch," he said. They'd never hide Rob's joyride once he entered the transit lane. "We will attempt to recall."

  "Attempt? Negative, Tri-Star station. You will recall all ships." With a jab at her console, she closed the screen. Jake switched channels.

  "Rob, listen, you got to get back now."

  "Jake, I'm almost ready to burn," he said. "You know what the difference between a government contract and a commercial contract?"

  "Rob, please, no jokes."

  "A government contract goes to the lowest bidder, a commercial contract goes to court. You should hear from Norad soon."

  Dan shrugged his shoulders when Jake shot him a look. "He must have gone crazy," he said. The rest of the Tri-Star crew had assembled around his console, watching. They all looked to Jake, as if he had launched Mars One.

  Then Holly's screen popped up. "Tri-Star, Norad had requested your assistance."

  The alert screens shifted as the tracking updated. The circles expanded, encompassing more of low earth orbit. Tri-star and Freedom hung on the outskirts, and the tourist ship flew above them.

  "Norad casts a wider net," she said, highlighting a dozen orbits that intersected LEO. "Once the tourist ship lost thrust, it put them right in line with an old booster. Can you render assistance? We've got no ships in the transit lanes."

  The telemetry from Mars One had the interception course plotted.

  "Affirmative," Jake said, feeling like he had arrived in the middle of a movie. "We will assist."

  ***

  Jake stayed at the terminal as the rescue unfolded in slow motion. Rob still had an hour to match orbits with Astro Princess and dock, and just a nudge from his thrusters would pull them both out of the path of the booster. Some of the Tri-Star crew filtered out, back to the production areas.

  Still, something didn't look right. Mars One had most of its parts, could fly, but a lot of pieces had never been installed or tested out.

  "Looks like you got yourself another mission," Jake said. He had the schematics out, and kept checking the telemetry. He worried that something wouldn't work, and unlike wrangling a dozen welding robots, lives hung in the balance.

  "This one might have to last me for awhile," Rob said.

  Then Jake saw it, right on the schematics. "Rob, confirm your O2 reading."

  "You know what I read."

  "Rob, you have to come back."

  "Negative."

  "Rob, you saw it yourself when you went on board. You don't have a auto docking module. You'll never mate with the tourist ship, and you don’t have enough O2 for a return trip."

  "I got a mission to last me a lifetime," he said.

  "Rob," Jake said. But Holly's screen came up, interrupting him.

  "Jake, what's going on? Rob's changed course."

  Mars One veered away from an interception with the tourist ship. "Rob, speak to me," he said, switching channels.

  "I knew about the docking module," he said. "But I won't need it to hard dock with the booster. I'll just take it out of harm's way, and the rescue ship can bring the tourists back home."

  Jake punched up the orbit of the booster. "Rob, that's an eccentric orbit. You'll never get back in time."

  "I know. But I had to do this."

  "Rob, you still have the fuel. Turn back now. The booster might not even hit."

  "I can't take that chance," he said.

  "What about Mars? You could still go to Mars."

  "That's a long way off, my friend, even if everything falls into place. To tell you the truth, I just can't wait that long."

  Slowly the ship diverged from Astro Princess, toward the booster.

  "Getting kind of stuffy in here," Rob said. "Two minutes to rendezvous."

  He made a neat hard dock, grappling the front end of the booster on the first try. The two jittered as thrusters stabilized them.

  "I'm going to let the autopilot take over from here," he said.

  Mars One's main engine fired.

  "Mainly," Rob said, his words starting to slur, "I didn't want people to forget. You'll remember me, won't you, Jake?"

  "Sure, Rob. No one can forget you."

  ***

  Holly stood watch on the docking hub alone when Jake arrived. Dan and the rest of the contingent from Tri-Star headed over to the observation deck for the memorial service. Freedom had shuttles from every station docked, and an honor guard had come up from Houston.

  Jake floated over to Holly. She closed down her terminal, plucked a data chip from the console.

  "Wait," she said. "We have to talk."

  Jake anchored himself. "I know this has been hard on you. I liked Rob, too."

  "Not that," she said. She held up the data chip. "Telemetry."

  "So Rob left before you actually requested assistance. No big deal, he had Mars One ready, so what if he entered the transit lane early?"

  Holly ran her hand through her hair. "Not that either."

  Jake took her hand, closed her fingers around the chip. He waited.

  "The news people keep hounding me, asking for more details. They want to know everything."

  "So tell them. Rob would've wanted that."

  She opened her hand. "The booster never would ha
ve hit the Princess," she said. "I've gone over the numbers again and again. Nothing more than a near miss. Norad's numbers weren't as good as mine."

  Jake closed his eyes. "I think he knew. And he would have gone either way." He took the chip from her hand. "NASA contacted Tri-Star this morning. They want us to finish Mars One. I can find a place for this on-board."

  Holly kicked away from the console. "We'll let the news guys make up the story," she said. "They'll do a better job."

  THE END

  Tanya: Princess of the Elves

  by Larry Correia

  Once upon a time, in the state of Mississippi, there dwelt an elf princess. The princess lived in the Enchanted Forest with her mother, the queen of the elves, in a ninety-foot long aluminum double-wide trailer.

  “I’m bored, Momma,” the princess of the elves whined. She was sitting on the couch and painting her toenails. The princess had been complaining a lot lately. “This is stupid, stupid and boring.”

  Queen Ilrondelia grunted and used the remote to turn up the volume on the TV so she wouldn’t have to listen to her youngest and only daughter. It was an infomercial about some blanket thing with sleeve holes for your hands so you could sit all warm on the couch and still work the remote. The queen decided she needed one of those and wondered if they made it in her size.

  “Tanya! Write down that number,” the queen ordered. “I need one of them snuggly blankets for keeping warm.”

  “You ain’t listening. How come you won’t let me do nothing?” Tanya said.

  “You wanna do something? Get that skinny ass offa’ the couch and get a ink pen like I said!” the queen bellowed.

  “Yes, your majesty,” Tanya answered sullenly, got up, and went to the kitchen.

  “And fetch me some Ho-Hos while you’s at it…” the queen said, then thought about it. “And some ranch dressin’ for dippin’ sauce.” She returned her attention to the TV. Tanya came back, but as usual, took her sweet time, so the phone number was gone, and the queen would be forced to wait on getting her snuggly blanket with sleeves, but she did bring the box of Ho-Hos and the bottle of ranch dressing like she’d been told. The queen took the snack and glared disapprovingly at Tanya’s too-small shirt. “Your belly’s stickin’ out.”

  “It’s fashion,” Tanya said. “You’re just jealous.”

  The queen snorted. Fashion. The girl had no sense. Tanya went back to the couch, but one of the cats had taken her spot. Tanya tossed it on the floor and went back to painting her toes.

  The queen forgot about the TV for a minute and concentrated on her kid. She didn’t do that very often. “So… You wanna do something’?” the queen asked.

  Tanya sighed. “Yeah, I do.”

  “So the Enchanted Forest ain’t good ‘nuff no mo?”

  “That ain’t what I meant,” Tanya said. “But elves used to do stuff. You know. Outside.”

  The queen of the elves pondered on that while she unwrapped a Ho-Ho and squirted ranch dressing on it. Her people had a sweet deal. The government paid them good money to stay right here in the Enchanted Forest, but some of the younger elves were getting uppity, talking about adventure. They’d been watching too many movies with fancy movie elves in them. They didn’t realize how good they had it here in the Enchanted Forest.

  The world had moved on. It wasn’t a magic world no more. It was a world of techno-thingies and computing boxes and inter-webs. It wasn’t a world fit for her kind.

  The queen knew her youngest was going to be a problem child since she’d gotten that butterfly tramp-stamp tattooed on her back. Somehow she’d gotten it in her head that she wanted to “see the world” and such nonsense. She even talked to those damn pixies. Hell, the girl probably didn’t have the smarts not to consort with a filthy orc if left on her own. But since Tanya was the prettiest girl in the trailer park she had all the boys wrapped around her finger. Her crazy talk could cause trouble. Trouble could make it so that the government checks quit coming.

  The government didn’t want people knowing about monsters or magic or the things that lived on the outskirts. Other than shopping at the Walmart, the Elves kept to themselves. All it would take was one dumb youngster to go and pull something stupid in town, and their sweet gig would be up. And with Tanya flouncing around like a cheap pixie, talking to humans, and sneaking out, it was only a matter of time. The princess was a pain in her ass.

  “Tanya, Tanya, Tanya,” the queen said around a mouth full of Ho-Ho, “what am I gonna do wit’ you?”

  Tanya looked up from her toes. “Let me travel. You let other elves go out. You let Elmo and the trackers get work.”

  That much was true. She wasn’t above farming out her people for odd jobs, under the table of course, to supplement the government checks. In fact, Harbinger from MHI had called earlier, saying he needed a diviner, and he was willing to pay big bucks for only a few days labor. “So that’s what you’s all spun up on? Cause I’m sendin’ Elmo with that boss Hunter? That’s ‘cause there’re some elves smart enough to do some job, get paid, and get back! You’d just screw it up. You ain’t wise like them yet.”

  “I can do magic, too! And I’m educated!” Tanya shouted loud enough to make two cats retreat under the couch. “I got my GED.”

  The queen frowned while she chewed, chins bouncing. She never should have let the girl take that correspondence course. It had made her even more uppity. It was time to put the royal foot down. “I forbids it. You’ll be queen someday, so you need to learn ‘bout how to be a proper type ruler, meanin’ you ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

  Tanya screeched in frustration and stomped off. She slammed the door to her room hard enough to shake the whole trailer.

  It had taken another hour for her momma to fall asleep on her recliner. Tanya waited until the snores were nice, even, and loud before sliding out the window. She’d snuck out many nights before. She knew every bar from here to Tupelo, and had danced on most of them.

  But this time was different. Tanya wasn’t coming back. It was time to make it big. She was sick of the Enchanted Forest, sick of her Queenliness always bossing her around, and bored out of her mind. She was too big for the trailer park, and she was going to show them. She had a backpack full of clothes, spell fixings, a pocket full of money (mostly stolen), an iPod with every single Eminem song on it, and her dreams.

  She’d heard the legends. Elves used to be beautiful, immortal and magical. The elder Vartinian used to tell the youngsters the stories. Their people had been brave, and had fought mighty wars against the fearsome orcs and the evil fey. It was impossible to imagine her mighty ancestors living in the Enchanted Forest and being happy. She’d heard about other elves across the sea. They had to be cooler than her stupid relatives. She watched a lot of TV. She knew what was out there.

  It had been on one of her weekend scouting trips that she’d finally come to the realization that her destiny lay outside the Enchanted Forest. After hitchhiking to Tupelo, because she’d heard about an awesome kegger, Tanya had come across a magical shrine where a mystical hero had been born. She still wore one of the great one’s holy symbols on a chain around her neck, a solemn reminder that a legend could come from humble beginnings, plus she thought her Elvis Presley medallion looked wicked cool in her cleavage when she wore one of her low-cut tops.

  If a human could go on to become a god, what amazing things could an elf of the royal line accomplish? All sorts of badass stuff, that’s what. But first she needed a ticket out of the Enchanted Forest, and by royal decree, Elves were not allowed out without leave. Sure, the queen looked the other way for Tanya’s sneaking out, as she knew that youngsters needed to blow off steam, but leaving for good would be different. Momma would be sure to send the trackers after her. So she needed to hatch a scheme that would let her go in a way that the queen wouldn’t dare drag her back.

  The getaway plan had been in her head for quite some time. The idea had started a couple years back when she’d watched some Hunters come to
bug Momma for information. Tanya had always found humans interesting, especially the cute boys, but most elves hated their cousins because they were squishy, mean-tempered, and short-lived. But they respected the Hunters. The Monster Hunters put boot to ass on a regular basis, and even the snootiest elf in the Enchanted Forest had to admit that they were the real deal, so fearsome that they even owned a tribe of vicious orc barbarians, let free only to eat the babies of their enemies.

  There had been a funny looking red-bearded one, a big ugly with a scar face, a black guy with badass dreadlocks, and a blonde girl with attitude, so pretty that she had left Tanya jealous enough to start bleaching her own hair. All of them except for the ugly one had come back the next year, and Tanya had eavesdropped again. These people had adventures and they made serious bank. They were feared and respected, riding to battle on a flying death-machine driven by their insane orc slaves, and living in a mysterious palace known only as the Compound. Now that was living large.

  Summoning up all her courage, Tanya had confronted the Hunters as they were leaving and had asked what it took to become one of them. They didn’t laugh at her at all. The one with the red beard had seemed a little confused, but had started to give her a serious answer, until Momma had hit her with a well-aimed bunny slipper and ordered her back into the trailer. The slipper had nearly put out her eye, but it was worth it. Just the fact that they hadn’t laughed at her told her that there was no reason an elf couldn’t join up.

  When she’d overheard Momma saying that she was going to assign that idiot Elmo to do a little job for the king of the Hunters, she knew that she’d have to move quick. She was a much better diviner than Elmo was, probably twice as good when he was liquored up, which was most of the time.

  After sneaking out the window, Tanya had hunkered down behind the back of the trailer and waited. Most elves slept in pretty late, so if the Hunters were coming in the morning, then she’d have a good chance of reaching them first. Momma wouldn’t dare send the trackers after her if she was working for the Hunters. Tanya congratulated herself on the brilliance of her plan.