The back of Jamie’s head hit his neck, so tall was the structure of the cone-shaped craft. “Wow, is that the spaceship?”
“Yes, this is Space Opera Beta,” Tripp said. “How tall do you reckon it is?”
“It’s massive. It’s like a skyscraper but, like an ice cream cone skyscraper.”
“Ha, very true. It’s nearly one thousand feet, end to end. About the length of the Eiffel Tower. Do you know what that is?”
Jamie shook his head as they kept walking.
“It’s that triangle-shape building in Paris, France. It’s really big. It’s sort of the same shape, really?”
“Yes, but it looks like a white, upside-down ice-cream cone.”
“Yes, that’s true,” Tripp wondered aloud, finally able to see the ship through the eyes of a child. “You’re quite right.”
Emily was impressed, also, but tried not to display her wonder. “It’s pretty good, I suppose.”
“You suppose?” Tripp approached the landing gantry that led to the opening at the base of the spaceship. “Suppose nothing, honey. This is absolutely amaziant. Wait until you see inside.”
The view from Jelly’s cage was less impressive. She saw the ship through several plastic bars. The edges of her cage meant she couldn’t grasp the enormity of the vessel. Then again, she was only a cat after all, and it didn’t matter as much.
Jamie felt the need to hold her up so she could get a better view of her new home for the foreseeable future..
“Look, girl. This is all for you.”
Jamie and Emily entered the spacecraft. Tripp jumped up and down on the grille on the floor, trying to prove a point.
“Know what’s underneath here?”
“No,” Jamie said, “What is?”
“The thrusters. The back of the cone is effectively one huge blaster that makes the spaceship go forwards and backwards.”
“Like a big fire?” Jamie asked.
“Sure.”
A slightly overweight man with glasses, Captain Daryl Katz approached the trio. In his fifties, he sported a withered face that had seen many a flight in his time.
“Well, here’s the captain,” Tripp said. “Why not ask him?”
“And who do we have here, Commander Healy?” Katz asked in his thick Texan accent. He shook Emily’s hand.
“This is Jamie Anderson and his mother, Emily. And their cat, Jelly.”
Katz pressed his hands to his knees and took a good look at her through cage’s bar. “Cute little thing, ain’t she? Coochie-coo, oh, you’re cute, aren’t you? Yes, yes… yeeeeees… you are.”
The others sniggered as Katz spoke to her in a silly voice.
“Mister?”
“You can call me captain, champ,” Katz said, adjusting his spectacles.
Jamie looked at the strange object on his face. They had no lenses in them.
“What’s that thing covering your eyes, captain?”
“Oh these,” Katz slid them off his face and showed them to the boy. “They’re called glasses. People used to wear them decades ago.”
“Why?” Jamie took them and put them over his face. “They look silly.”
“Well, in the old days folk were born with eyes that didn’t see so good. So they needed to wear these to help them see better.”
“Weird,” Jamie decided he didn’t like the antiquated gadget and handed them back.
Katz admired the unusual device for a moment and thought about his past. “Ah, they’re more for decoration, really. They remind me of my grandfather. He used to wear them.”
Tripp chuckled to himself. “I was just about to explain to young Jamie, here, how the thrusters work.”
“Ah, the thrusters,” Katz put his glasses back on and looked at the fat-end of the ship. “Gaseous core nuclear engines. Powerful stuff, but the ol’ girl gets the job done, don’t it?”
“What is gassy binocular?” Jamie asked, unsure if he’d heard the man correctly.
“Nuclear engines, Jamie,” Katz banged the side of the vessel. “Kinda like tiny nuclear bombs that get thrown out the back and blast the spaceship to where it needs to go.”
“Wow,” Jamie blinked at the captain. “Sounds powerful.”
“It sure is,” Katz walked along the corridor and waved his hands. “The bombs create a ripple in the fabric of space and Opera Beta can surf on them to get where it needs to go much faster.”
“Yeah,” Jamie nodded, enacting the thoughtful scientist he’d want to become. “Surfing is cool.”
“Cool? It’s positively chilling, young man,” Katz chuckled at the child’s wonder at the information. “Speaking of which, the whole outside of the ship is made of ceramic. The heat shields are made of it, too, to protect the crew.”
“What is that?” Jamie asked, “Ceramic?”
“It’s kinda like what your dinner plates are made from. You know when you take your dinner out of the microwave, and the plate isn’t as hot as the food?”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, like that. All the older spaceships didn’t have it, and the people inside got very hot. But the clever scientists at USARIC figured out a way to modify its structure. It’s lightweight and heat retardant, and works well.”
Jamie sniggered to himself, hoping not to get caught.
“What’s so funny, young man?”
“Nothing,” Jamie wiped his mouth and tried to stop laughing.
“Naw, c’mon,” Katz said. “Spit it out?”
“You said retard.”
“Eh?”
Katz looked at Tripp for answer. All he got was an “I dunno” shrug of the shoulders.
“Did I say that?”
Tripp pushed through to the next point of interest.
“Aww, no,” Katz finally caught on, “I said retardant, not retard. Though, I guess they mean the same thing…”
The door to the armory slid open.
Jaycee, dressed in his threatening exo-suit, inspected a variety of weapons.
“Ah, Jaycee,” Katz said, “We have a guest. Thought you’d like to meet them?”
Jaycee stood up from the bench and lowered the machine gun in his hands. As he stepped forward, the room rumbled back and forth under his heavy mechanical suit and footwear.
He saluted Jamie and smiled at his mother. “Yes.”
“Jamie, this is Jaycee Nayall,” Katz tapped Tripp on the back, “He’s in charge of the armory on the spaceship. I’m afraid I have to go and run some last-minute checks. I’ll leave you in the company of my second-in-command.”
“Bye, sir.”
Katz winked at him and pointed at Jelly’s cage on the way out. “Cute cat, by the way. Looking forward to working with her.”
Tripp looked up at Jaycee and made some small talk. “Jaycee? Wanna tell the kid about yourself?”
“Sure,” Jaycee slung the machine gun over his shoulder and pulled out a pistol. “This here is the Rez-9.” He dropped the clip into his palm, satisfied that the chamber was empty.
“Here, wanna hold it?”
“Okay.”
Emily watched her son take the gun in his hand and aim it at the lockers on the wall.
“Careful where you point that thing, Poppet,” Emily turned to Jaycee. “Sorry, we don’t have guns back home.”
“I know,” Jaycee sniggered, “And look where that’s gotten you.”
Emily ignored his pithy remark and turned her head.
“Bang,” Jamie pretended to shoot the locker door, having the time of his life. “Wow, I love this. Can I keep it?”
“Oh, no, no,” Jaycee grabbed the gun from out of his hands and slipped it back into his belt. “It’s not a toy, it’s very dangerous. It’ll disintegrate every molecule in your body if you’re not careful.”