Prosperous: Chutes & Ladders
Chapter 11

TRU STOPPED OUTSIDEAMBASSADOR ANDERSON’S DOOR, TAPPING THE doorbell. After a few moments the dooropened. The man wore a dark red Drasparah linen robe. In one hand he held aglass containing a carmel colored drink and with the other a long Havana cigar.

“Admiral Larson said yourmother-in-law has contacted him again about her daughter. Did you contact yourwife and ask her to contact her mother?”

“Yes.”

Tru frowned when his stomachturned. Anderson had done no such thing.

“Perhaps you should send yourmother-in-law a letter to reassure her that her daughter is okay.”

“Even if I tell that bi…woman that my wife is spending a month on Venius she wouldn’t believe me.”

“Is she?” Tru asked him.

“Is she what?”

“Is your wive on Venius?”

“I don’t know.”

The lie twisted Tru’s belly.For a moment he bit down hard to resist vomitting.

“When did you talk to herlast?”

“What business is that ofyours?” he snarled.

Tru’s chin lifted. “None,except that if you don’t contact your mother-in-law, Admiral Larson willcontinue contacting me until you do. I advise you to decide on a course ofaction to deal with your domestic situation. It’s starting to interfere withthis ship’s business.”

Anderson smirked. “I replacethat improbable.” He stepped back so the door closed before Tru could reply.

Tru reached out to touch thedoorbell again. He wasn’t about to let the conversation end here.

The ship alarm suddenly went off and the warning lightsalong the baseboard and ceiling began throbbing red.

A recorded voice warned, “Malfunction has been detected in aft cannons. System overload detectedand temperature is rising to critical. Please evacuate to the nearest life boat.”

Tru inhaled and exhaled slowly. Each day this horrible crewpushed his buttons, he was replaceing it harder to control his temper! Putting upwith this erroneous warning for a week and a half, at all hours, was nothelping his ever thinning patience.

“It’s a simple alarmmalfunction,” Tru growled to himself. “How damned time consuming can it be to fix?”

He charged off down the hall.If his chief engineer was too lazy to fix it, he’d do it himself.

Commader Ag, a burly, out ofshape, Drasparah and the Chief Engineer, crawled through the access tunnelbehind Tru. Behind him followed Lieutenant Dalekechi, a limber and agile Quiir.In these tunnels it was apparent that Quiir’s ancestors were once Formicoidea. Dalekechihad no trouble navigating these tunnels unlike the human and Drasparah ahead ofhim.

“I think we should considerupgrading the injectors in this section,” Lieutenant Dalekchi said.

“You shouldn’t think at all,”Ag snarled at the Quiir.

“You may outrank me, but youcan’t stop me from thinking, Commander Ag,” Dalekchi replied.

“Don’t bet your offspring’slife on that, Lieutenant!”

Tru glanced at them. Was ittheir dark history that created their tension, or the fact that Ag was hidinghis embaressment of Tru doing his job? Tru hadn’t even climbed into the accesstunnels before Ag came running with Lieutenant Dalekchi trailing behind.

“You know, Ag, if you’d havefixed this when the Captain first asked, we wouldn’t be in trouble at all. Atleast I was doing my job.”

Tru looked away, seeing thebulkhead door ahead. He stopped and turned his head to tell them. The two hadstopped becuase Dalekchi was blocking Ag.

“This alarm isn’t the onlything that needs fixed on this ship you damned Quiir!” Ag snarled. Then heturned his scowl on Tru. “Which I can’t fix because you’re damned computer won’tallow me access to areas to fix allthose other things!”

Tru ignored his anger andpointed at the door. “We’re here. Let’s focus.”

Ag made a sound like a growl.It was a sound Tru had never heard a Drasparah make, and judging from the lookon Dalekchi’s face, neither had he. None of them moved for several minutes.

“Are we going in there orsitting out here?” Ag snapped.

Tru tapped a control by thedoor and they climbed onto a cannon shaft catwalk. There were six catwalks thatran the circumferance of the circular shaft, each reached by a maintenance liftor access tunnels. The group had come out on the second level and from herethey could look straight up the cannon muzzle. The deadly energy componentsinside were hidden in darkness, awaiting commands to destroy. Age andexperience had quashed Tru’s childhood longing for battles and these days hewas happy to see the cannon in this peaceful position.

“Lieutenant, go check thetemperature sensors. I’ll start weapons diagnostics,” Ag ordered.

“What would you like me todo?” Tru asked.

Ag moved back a step. “Sir?”

“What would you like me todo?”

Ag was silent a moment, andthen pointed to a terminal station on the other side of the room. “The problemcould also be in the relays. Do you know how to run diagnostics on them?”

“Yes.”

Tru walked over to the terminal,and realized the diagnositic would only take a few minutes. He turned to askwhat else he could do but stopped to stare. Dalekchi was climbing up the cannonlike he was able to defy gravity.

Tru turned back to the paneland opened the cover. He laid a hand next to the controls and gasped as apremonition grabbed his consciousnes, violently yanking it through time.

A warning alarm was going off. Tru looked up, seeing the cannon glidingdown the shaft, called to defend the ship that housed it. He walked around theweapon as the arm lowered. Below him the cannon cover opened and the shaftdepressurized. A small voice told him that he should be gasping for oxygen andthe near hurricane force wind caused by the depressurization should be pullinghim out of the ship, but that voice was easy to ignore.

As the end ofthe cannon glided past him, sparks leapt off of it. He climbed over the railingand jumped onto the cannon. Scorched metal showed where sparks from a damaged powercable had been burning it for months. His attention went to a warped cover. Trupulled it off, replaceing the source of the persistant warning. Under him he feltthe cannon began to vibrate as it charged up to fire.

Tru looked up.The cannon was locked into place outside the ship, exposing him to outer space.Nearby a sun glowed brightly and he saw an enormous gas planet in the distance.A ship bore down on Prosperous,firing at her. The ship passed as the cannon turned to take aim. Tru whippedhis head around to keep his eyes on it. The ship’s hull wavered and the outerhull shed like a snake’s skin to reveal a completely different hull. It was aTerallian attack raider and the emblem on the nose was the Terallian BattleFleet.

But Terallianswere Merchant Raitor allies. Why would they be attacking another MerchantRaitor ship? Was this a premonition of the past? No. This had to be apremonition of the future.

Tru suddenlyfound himself back inside Prosperousstanding on the catwalk. The canon fired a laser beam, but the blast went thewrong direction. It fired back up the cannon, up the cabeling and blew a holefive decks up. Seven crewmen fell into the hole, two of them burned beyondrecognition. With complaining, groaning metal, the cannon broken free from itshousing and joints, and dropped into space. Tru looked up at the large hole inhis ship. Something dark and organic hung from between the damaged decks andthe inner and outer hull. A deep Carmine red liquid spurted into space,freezing as it came in contact with the sub-zero temperature of space.

Tru’s visionbegan to violently shake and he felt like he was being torn in half.

He heard someonequietly tell him, “Come back now, son.”

Tru gasped,unexpectantly replaceing himself in the present. Two pairs of hands held his armsand pushed back on his chest. Tru looked down, replaceing he was standing on thetop rung of the railing that ran around the inside of the catwalk. The cannonhatch was a deck below and while a fall from here probably wouldn’t kill him, buthe wouldn’t have escaped without something broken. Tru jumped back onto thecatwalk and safety and leaned back against a wall. He leaned on his legs,panting to catch his breath. He knew Commander Ag and Lieutenant Dalekchi werestaring at him, but his ability to speak wouldn’t return until he couldbreathe.

“The buffer chips are friedfrom a short in the power cable. If we have to fire the cannon, it will blow ahole five decks up. Take it off line until you have it fixed and make this apriority.”

“How do you know that?” Agasked.

“Why you were about to jumpover the railing, sir?” Dalekchi asked.

Tru closed his eyes,swallowing hard. “It’s a long story. Do as your ordered. If you delay thistime, you’ll endanger everyone’s life, Ag.”

“Aye, sir. Lieutenant, goback and get Ensign Flavaa and tools. I’ll meet you at the top catwalk.”

Dalekchi left and Ag headedfor the lift. Tru leaned on the railing, staring at the hatch below him.

“Gracie,” he muttered.

Yes? she asked.

“Transport me to my quarters.”

Truwas transported out of the room.