King's County Read Free Page B

town for North
America is what the obnoxious warrant officer sitting next to us
called it. We ditched him at the hotel when he went into the
bathroom and hopped into a cab. The cab was self driving, the guy
up front was more of a manager or concierge and he told us about
this place.
    "Lt. Waller, I have a girl back home.
We all do, all the men in the Territorial." Geake said.
    I had heard this before but didn't
really believe it. I certainly didn't have a girl back
home.
    "Geake, Sergeant, we’re not going to be
marrying these broads. It's just a good time. When was the last
time you saw your girl, anyway?"
    "It's been almost ten years." Geake
said.
    "How about another?" Snake lady said
clinking together our empty heavy crystal glasses.
    "Another round. Hold on, what are you
about 22, 23?"
    "Yeah, 22. Or 28. Good guess,
LT."
    "Well... Jesus Christ, Geake." Strange
guy, this kid. "Let’s just see where the night takes us,
OK?"
    *
    WY/MT 2065
    I left the squadron and didn't look
back. After the meeting with the Major, I felt almost nothing for
the place. We had a little party for me, no big deal, a minor dent
in the beer wall. The squadron slept in their bunks while I dressed
to leave. Greater prospects awaited.
    The training facility was in Montana: a
single plain white and windowless box-like building surrounded by
tall double fences on an endless prairie. The helicopter landed on
the roof. I was the only passenger and a group was there waiting to
receive me. It felt pretty good, to be honest. I felt
important.
    There was about ten minutes of
paperwork and I was shown to my quarters by a young airman. I
shoved the one small bag I had under the bed nearest the wall and
went to sleep still in my uniform.
    After dozing about an hour, I awoke to
find a man asleep on the other bed. He also still wore his uniform.
I saw that he was a Captain.
    *
    Ruth 2092
    The bar had gotten stale so I left to
explore the place. Geake had gone off with a couple of Colombian
girls. They dragged him off his seat at the bar. He'd played his
dumb and innocent routine but went eagerly nonetheless.
    I settled on a lounge at a lower level.
There were more people here. I got a drink from one of the machines
lining the wall.
    A cute blonde chick, a little too short
with closely bobbed hair, came out of the dark to help me operate
the drink machine. It was kind of complicated to get exactly what
you wanted - I didn't really know what I wanted. I ended up making
something in a big thermos type thing with vodka and salty tamarind
and what she said was a mild nor-epinephrine and dopamine
activator, a mild stimulant in other words. I don't think she knew
what she was talking about but the end result wasn't too
bad.
    Drink in hand, I wandered around and
lucked upon a nice heavy easy chair that was out of the way of the
main action in the lounge, perfect for me.
    From this new vantage, about midway
down the club, I watched the light show come on in the open center.
It was almost palpable. Below the distant ceiling star lights,
holograms came and went in a shifting scheme of colors. I watched
dark purple African elephants on a pale yellow savanna lazily strip
tree branches with their trunks and chew the bark. The sliver of a
cobalt blue stream weaving through the stand of trees slowly began
to widen and expand to eventually cover everything. The savanna
became a lake. As the water rose, the elephants moved their legs to
keep their heads and trunks above the clear, dark blue
water.
    The elephants rose with the water to be
replaced by a universe of marine life. The cobalt blue shifted to a
deeper navy. A bright, brick red octopus jerked through a
gracefully fluid mass of silver and orange fish. A school of
twitchy bone-white sea horses poked around the railing and entered
the lounge. They seemed nervous and didn't stick around very
long.
    *
    MT 2065
    Captain Edward Hart was my roommate. We
were selected to train together and then go into space as a two man
crew for