P.S.S. Stardust
Chapter Seven
© 2012 Mr. David R. Dorrycott
“Sir? There are men here to see you sir.”
Kirby Landers opened his tired eyes, looking with aged dimmed sight at the two black suited men standing just inside his private office door. “I trust you have a warrant to enter an old mans private home” he asked in a soft voice. Death was near, he could feel her waiting him, waiting to guide him to the next place his soul would live. Landers no longer feared death after all, she was but a neutral Goddess, one who guided each soul to its destination. She neither hindered nor helped. She was, that was all anyone needed to know.
One of the men walked in, reaching into his coat to withdraw a folded paper. “Sir, the President has fears for the young women you have sent to space.” He laid the paper on Kirby’s desk, standing back a step. “It is his decision that all twelve be returned to Earth and their parents forthwith.”
“Jerry? Would you read that for me please” the wolf asked. Looking up at the stiff Doberman standing across from him he managed a little shrug. “It would take me ten times as long to read it with my eyes son” he explained.
Stepping forward past the black suited government agent the stag picked up that paper, reading through it while Landers calmly watched the vixen Gilda Rodriguez working her way through STARDUST’s launch sequence. “Sir? It stats that the United States is taking possession of both TIN CAN and STARDUST, as I read ‘For the protection of the yong girls presently aboard those ships.’ You will be reimbursed the cost of both vehicles.”
“And my girls?” the white furred wolf asked.
“Returned to their families, entered into public school where they will have a normal social life. That is if they pass the standardize tests for their grade levels.”
“Scandalized you mean” Landers corrected. “Every one of them have college creditts, some have Masters degrees.”
“Sir, that may be true on paper but the degrees that you bought them won’t stand anywhere in the United States. They will just have to get their degrees like everyone else sir.”
“In a pigs eye” Kirby chuckled. “You two will be long in your graves before our government releases one red cent or those girl on Earth again.” He sighed, nodding to his personal assistant. “All right, see that these young men are shown the door. There is nothing else I can do.”
“Sir” the first agent said. “You are to go with us to Washington, the President wants to talk to you himself.”
Smacking his gums the ancient wolf grinned. “Son, a year ago maybe, ten years ago with great excitement. Today? No son, I won’t be alive that long. You have stolen my property, killed my dream and left me to die a broken man. Now off with you, I’m cold. So very cold.”
Unseen by anyone Kirby Landers turned a key on a panel of his wheelchair. A moment later a weakened thumb pressed one of several very sensitive buttons. Leaning back in his chair Landers smiled when he saw a light blink on STARDUST’s control panel. He watched as Gilda checked the alarm and reset it. “Son, just go home. Remind the president that there isn’t enough re-entry ships for more than the six men NASA has up there on TIN CAN, he can refurbish and refuel QUEENSRYCHE and PINK FLOYD. If they work hard enough they can get them up there in a week, then the ships are all theirs.” He took a deep breath watching the two control rooms of TIN CAN and STARDUST as events cascaded the way he had planned. “That is, if they can catch them.”
With a wink to his assistant Jerry, Kirby Landers closed his eyes for the last time.