Preview: Captain Scarlett vs The Scrapper
Dirty Pool

Danger at the Speed of Stationary

©Copyright 2024 by Duleigh

Dedication:

To Curtis, who had faith in me and convinced me to publish my stories, and Tom, who has followed me since day one and actually got to talk to my hero, the inspiration of two of these stories - Isaac Asimov

Chapter 1

SS Garriott, June 1, 2161

High planetary orbit over Saturn

The "scooter," an open style space truck with four spacemen in full environment suits and the two zero G forklifts, had returned to the parking bay of the SS Garriott, a Livyatan class freighter like the SS Peake, and like the Peake it was named for a friend of Alan Scarlett that was murdered by Eastern Bloc thugs in captivity after the Battle of Venus Prime.

This day was a red letter day. The men and women of Scarlett Water Systems were officially two weeks ahead of their schedule on the Luna Hydration project. The last N-52 engine was installed on Saturn CXCVIII (Saturn 198), known to Scarlett Water Systems as Big Berserker 03, and the wiring was half done on the eight engines installed on Saturn CLXXXIV (Saturn 184, Big Berserker 02). There is still more work to be done, but the hard parts were over.

Big Berserker 02 and 03 were two moonlets of solid ice, a cubic kilometer in size and if their calculations are correct, in about a month they will fire the engines they installed on each moonlet and shove them out of orbit. Why not? Big Berserker 01 was three times more massive, and it's already laying on the surface of Mars.

Carl White, the chief field engineer, and his assistant Scott Anders were excited about this one. Two ice moonlets, about a cubic kilometer in size were outfitted with eight N-52 engines on each moonlet, and in about a month, those engines were going to fire up and the little moons were going to move out of Saturn's orbit and eventually enter Earth's orbit at Lagrange point 4 and Lagrange point 5, on either side of the moon. The ice there will be used for colonies, orbital stations, and provide reaction mass for deep space exploration.

And there was more planned for the future. The chief engineer for Scarlett Water Systems was Roy Bridges. He was the man who designed the 'ice ships,' was back on Earth at their company headquarters, working on a new plan to move an even bigger ice moon to Mars to fill the Jezero crater to the brim. That would provide Mars with water for centuries. He was also working on a covert program to move a small ice moonlet to the Sol/Earth Lagrange point 3 on the opposite side of the sun from Earth. There's only a few people who know about that one, and it may be the project that finally gets Alan Scarlett back into space.

At dinner that evening, the mood was jovial among the crew. The SS Garriott was rotating on its axis, providing 0.5 g of gravity for their celebration dinner, and to map several other moonlets which Mr. Scarlett may want to gather for future water projects. The minute they landed Saturn CLXXII (Saturn 172, Big Berserker 01) on Mars, they realized that the sky was the limit. They could provide water in the form of ice anywhere in the solar system and charge whatever they had the guts to ask.

Scott Anders turned to Gene Cernan, the primary equipment engineer. Gene could fix anything, which is why Mr. Scarlett keeps him close. At that moment, he was chuckling to himself. "What's so funny Gene?"

"Just a funny thought," said Gene. "Could you imagine the look on the Eastern Bloc and the Western Alliance if we showed up heading straight at earth with two moons and Mr. Scarlett forgot to let them know?" The gang around the dinner table roared with laughter.

"I guaranteed delivery in six months, I didn't guarantee anything about stopping," said Carl White to even more laughter.

Trying to emulate Alan Scarlett's Martian drawl, Scott Anders said, "I have one for this bunch of assholes, and one for that bunch of assholes. Now, who's going to write the biggest check?"

That didn't draw as much laughter. In fact, it was a wet blanket. The owner of Scarlett Water Systems absolutely despised the Eastern Bloc and would not shed a tear if they were slaughtered in a firestorm. They took so much from him, put him through a living hell, and killed all his friends. He wouldn't blink if he found the button to press that would slaughter the Eastern Bloc. He really had no love for the Western Alliance, either. They stood back and let the eastern bloc butcher his friends and torture him. And their involvement in the politics of his beloved Mars angers him to no end.

"He's going to be President of Mars," said an engine specialist. "Mark my words."

"He can't be president of Mars," said a co-worker. "He lives on earth."

"His Uncle Ray Clark is president of Mars, and he spends half the year on earth himself," said one of the fliers assigned to Fighter Escort.

"That's where the Joint Committee on Homeland Authority is," said Gene Cernan. "You're right though, the minute Alan sets foot on Mars they're going to elect him against his will. You watch. It's going to happen." All the men and women in the room were told to address Alan Scarlett as Alan. Gene Cernan has worked with Alan for over a decade, and he was the only one who felt comfortable doing it.

"Well," said Carl White with a sigh. It was Carl White's brilliant mind, along with Roy Bridges, that made this silly idea work in the first place. "Let's just hope we can slide these two little moons into their Lagrange Points with no problem and we can all go home very, very, Very rich."

Scott Anders raised his glass. "I'll drink to that." The entire table joined him in a toast to their success.

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Mars, June 4, 2161

Perseverance City

Winston Scarver was what a past political failure would call "A real bad dude." He was the embodiment of crime. There wasn't something he didn't commit on earth. Murder, theft, kidnapping. It was all in a day's work to Winston Scarver. He was deported from earth and sentenced to work in a mine in the asteroid belt. That lasted until the day that Winston Scarver disappeared, and three guards were found floating naked outside of the barracks. Their frozen corpses told the complete story.

Winston Scarver stowed away on a freighter headed for the Deimos Steel Plant in orbit around Mars and was next seen in Perseverance, the capital city of Mars. There he found Dr. Franco Aldini. Franco was a professor at the Martian Institute of Technology until he started talking about armies of robots that were being built on the "dark side of Mars" and were going to take over earth. He was hysterical about it and in the end the University decided that Franco needed rest. Franco was given a full pension six years earlier than he normally would have received, and he disappeared.

Not long later, Winston discovered what Franco Aldini was working on and went to visit him. "I hear you have the perfect weapon."

"It could be used as a weapon, si."

"I'm willing to invest if it's a worthwhile invention," said Winston with his Million Dollar Grin. That grin has opened doors for Winston, and it's closed morgue drawers on others.

Franco led Winston to a room where a pool table and a complicated device waited. The professor walked around the billiards table, explaining relative motion and speed differentials. All of it was lost on Winston Scarver, who only understood blunt weapons and sharp blades. Standing at one end of the table was a two foot by two-foot piece of steel that was three inches thick. On the steel plate hung a paper target like you would see at any shooting range. At the other end of the table was a device that looked like a dental x-ray machine. The machine pointed down at the center of the table. "This is a weapon?" asked Scarver.

Dr. Franco Aldini nodded. "Very much so." The old man walked slowly to the device and patted it. "The device generates a field where items that enter the field come to an immediate halt."

"Like a bullet, if that was fired into the field would it come to a halt?" asked Scarver.

"Absolutely."

"It stops…" Scarver shook his shaggy head. "Just how the fuck is that a weapon?"

"Watch." Aldini slowly turned on his machine and it illuminated a circular spot in the middle of the pool table. He placed the cue ball on the table where he had made a chalk mark, and took a stick, then bent over and carefully tapped the cue ball and sent it slowly towards the illuminated field.

"Doc," snarled Scarver, "if this is some kind of scam you're running I'll…"

Just then, the ball entered the illumination field. There was a bark and a roar, and the ball was gone. The plate of steel fell to the floor with a clang and a cue ball size hole opened on the wall. Another cue ball size hole also opened on the exterior wall and air was leaking out with a roar. A repair robot slapped a patch on the hole and went outside to patch the exterior of the laboratory.

"Holy shit!" cried Scarver. He looked at the three-inch-thick steel plate. It had a perfect cue ball sized hole cut through it as did the paper target, which was smoldering. "How fast was that ball moving?"

"It wasn't moving. It was perfectly motionless."

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