Chapter Seven: True Blue Worlds — Part 1

Bamboo insisted on stopping in on Zon on the way to Earth, having the emotional courage, apparently, to visit Jun so long as his sister was with him. Strictly speaking, Zon’s location in the galaxy was so far from Earth relative to their asteroid as to be practically in the opposite direction, but for a bender that really didn’t matter much. Zon was, after all, a mere couple of days out of the way. Throughout the trip to Zon, Bamboo found himself rechecking his gages, as he seemed to have recharged unexpectedly. If he could see the smile on Orchid’s face, he would have known that in her smug little way she had made changes to their suits, changes that would explain the trickle charge of power that occasionally brought his suit back to what would be full power once they left the Snap. Orchid was to be Bamboo’s eyes on this trip to a third world, Earth, and second world, Zon, and she didn’t want to worry about their power needs.

“My suit’s acting weird. Think the meters are bad?” Bamboo asked.

To which Orchid tried to keep quiet, but couldn’t, and her giggle was always contagious to Bamboo, even when he didn’t want to share it. “We’re set up to receive a trickle charge from the black hole I tapped out. It comes in as a controlled pulsed signal, the amplitude of which your computer can control with great precision.”

“Just how much power did you manage to capture from that black hole anyway?” Bamboo wondered.

“Not very much, all things considered.” Orchid said, trying to remain as vague as possible. “It was, after all, a rather young black hole. I lost twelve percent to powering the containment glyph.”

Bamboo knew better than to pester her for further details. By his own calculations, Orchid had enough energy from that black hole to power every hume interest in the galaxy for several million years to come, though he doubted she would share it with too many other people. The two dropped out of orbit and landed far more gently than Bamboo had previously descended at the outskirts of a city nearest to where he had left Jun during his previous visit. The city was New Amazonia, and Bamboo had left Jun to enter it alone a little over two months before. He had also left an emotional connection to Jun at that time, one that at the moment brought him nervous jitters unlike any he had felt before. His heart sped along hard and fast, hoping that she would feel something for him. Orchid had taken the courtesy of announcing their arrival, so there would be no misunderstandings of their intentions.

Chen greeted them at the entrance to the city personally, catching the two off guard. “Welcome to New Amazonia. You must be Bamboo and Orchid. Your reputations precede you.”

“Might I ask how you know of our reputations?” Bamboo said, a hint of curiosity working into his voice.

“Galactic Press, of course. Jun protected you from me before her termination.” When Bamboo started forward, Chen raised a hand in a fair attempt at good nature, and Orchid stopped Bamboo with a touch. “Well of course I fired her, she was thinking in her best interests. You just can’t do that when you’re working for somebody else. She’s gone to Earth. The Bug took her there, and oddly enough, all his fellow species have gone off as well. I have no idea what Swift would find appealing about a planet even more backwards than Zon, but then again, Bugs are not hume, and what motivates them is not within the grasp of hume minds.”

“You fired her?” Bamboo said. “As opposed to, say, killing her?”

“Yes, as opposed to killing her. I fired her, and kicked her off the planet.” Chen said calmly, as if talking to a child. “The job was hardly worthy of the woman holding the position. No benefits, no chance for promotion, really crappy hours, and and terrible pay. Only in place of ‘terrible,’ put the word ‘no.’”

“Well then,” Bamboo said. “We’ll be on our way.”

“If you could please do me a favor before you go.” Chen said, before the two of them could synchronize their suits for departure. “Her father, having recovered from his injury gained a couple of months prior, and now being healthy enough to travel, wishes to be with his daughter. I can guess already you might think him a frail man, which is far from the case. An angry employee of mine injured him unnecessarily during Jun’s out-processing. I was going to send for Jun’s friend — Swift, I think his name is — but he hasn’t been returning my calls. I think I must have said or done something to offend him. Bugs, after all, are easy to offend, and though they will forgive one in time, the length of that time is not something I can control. Could you please get the old man off my hands and take him with you? I know that this is all news to you and I am rather surprised you stopped in at this time, when I was beginning to contemplate hiring a bender to get the old man off my planet and leave me in peace. After all, having three solid defeats with such an avid strategist as Alon Metalsmith is beginning to wear on me.” Chen said.

“Strategist?” Orchid asked.

“Yes, strategic board games with pieces of mixed movements and rules are his specialty. He beats me quite frequently. Considering the intelligence required of me to acquire the full resources of this world, I would say the old man is quite the wit. So if the two of you would please escort Alon off my recently acquired rock before he tries to take it from me, I can get back to games more to my taste, ones with geopolitical — rather than purely symbolic — outcomes.”