Bullet Boy Express, between Earth and Mars
Gina:
The 1986 Volkswagen Jetta was a decent little car. Unlike certain other year-models of the make, this particular one was known for being utterly reliable even when horribly beaten. It was a good little car.
What it had not been meant to do was have some Handwavium shoved into the gas tank and used as an inter-system vehicle. That's not what he had actually done, but when people ask him about how he got the Jetta to do that he loved the looks he gets from everyone when he tells them that.
Benjamin felt, that aside, that the Jetta was doing pretty magnificently well. And so was he. Using Gina, he'd become a pretty adept courier, swiftly shuttling small cargo loads, paperwork, and the occasional passenger or two through the system. That and he was one of the first and best Asteroid Racers among Fenkind. The scenery changed and he met interesting people along the way. And at the end of the day he'd return to his homey little niche board the first orbital habitat over Earth.
At this time, Ben was sleeping. He'd been up late the other night on IRC once again. Doing so wasn't such a big deal. Gina handled most of the boring stuff without complaint. She'd usually entertain herself in the process by harassing some alt. group on usenet anyways. Not that Ben cared - he never could get into Usenet.
Gina was more than just the Jetta itself. She was also a computer in the trunk. Ben had gotten fed up with the machine's sub-par performance one day and, for shits and giggles, pulled the old AMD Duron processor and RAM DIMM's out and stuck some Handwavium in their place and a few other key areas like the hard drive and graphics card, etcetera. An AI did not surface immediately, but when he installed the computer into the Handwaviumized Jetta, Gina manifested.
While Benjamin slept, Gina had dedicated a process thread or two to staying on course while the rest she used to have fun tormenting the Trolls and EMO's on Usenet, Myspace, LiveJournal, and a few others. She also kept one on monitoring Ben's e-mail accounts as he'd asked her to whenever she could.
Therefore, she was quick to notice the odd email that came in on from the Nation of the Fen mailing list. Briefly, she checked the message. Had she been human, she would have sighed and shaken her head. Never send a bot to do an AI's job. That aside, it looked like it was worth Ben's attention, and he'd slept long enough anyways...
"Yo, BJ! Wake up. You got e-mail from the Nation's all call."
"Guh?" I replied as I sat up in the reclined driver's seat and began to rub the blurriness out of my eyes. "E-mail? Put it up on the driver's side monitor." So saying, I pulled down one of the LCD displays I had mounted in place of the visors. It was a small miracle that I was able to get matching ones made to be installed inside cars like this, so it didn't look like a kludge job at all.
I sighed after reading the message. "Someone needs to shoot their secretary," I said as I reached for the touch-sensitive screen, hit the reply button with my left hand.
Normally, I'm right-handed, but my biomod forces me to use my left one for more delicate work. I thought that having Kazuma Torisuna's right hand would be useful, and it was, but not in applications like these. Metal fingertips scratch touchscreens and could punch through keyboard if I wasn't careful. With that in mind, I rapped out a quick acknowledgment on the split keyboard that was on either side of the steering wheel.
"Too bad they're doing this convention in a big space," said Gina. "I'd've loved to see the overcrowding issues we would have had back home."
"You would," I replied as I tapped the 'Send' button on the screen. "Don't forget who would actually have to live with that kind of insanity."
"Hah. You humans and your biological needs."
"You machines and your mechanical needs," I retorted.
"Hey!"
"Chill out. How far are we from Home?"
"We're about an hour out," she replied, plotting our position on a map of the Earth and Mars orbits, focusing on the point where The Island would be now. Our position was indicated just inside the Mars orbit.
"Traffic?" I asked.
"Probably because of that e-mail. Its timestamp was for five hours ago. Welcome to rush hour."
"Peachy."
"Island ATC, this is the Bullet Boy Express, requesting permission for a one-hour layover. Purpose, to reprovision and hit the showers."
"Affirmative, Ben. Bring her in nice and easy, and none of that power-slide-landing shit. You still owe us for what happened last time."
"Gah. Yeah, no problem," I replied. "The check's in with this month's rent."
"Good. Island ATC out."
"You really got their knickers in a bunch last time," said Gina once the connection had been cut, popping up on the drop-down screen above. She was a dead ringer for Asuka Langely Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion - something that was entirely accidental. Unfortunately, while she hates being refered to as Asuka by the common Fen, she was almost just like said character. At least she didn't have such a huge superiority complex. Right now, she sounded very much amused. I didn't entirely appreciate it, but this was Gina. I let it slide.
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered. Really, she was entitled. It's not often that I wipe out so spectacularly and she had been miffed about the body damage. The only reason she didn't try to kill me then was because she knew I cared about her looks as much as she did and went right to work on getting her fixed up. Anyhow, I'll rib her back later when the opportunity presented itself - she'll expect me to.
As promised, I landed in a safe and sane manner, the wheels of the well maintained looking (some may settle for rust buckets - I won't) black-and-gold Jetta barking softly as they hit the tarmac. As promised, I got showered, got some food stuffs and enough clothes for a week packed along with a fresh load of fuel, and then I was off for Phobos.
Earth-to-Mars jaunts were so commonplace that The Island took up station in an orbit that would net itself the most traffic between the two worlds. Therefore, it was an ideal place for me to set-up shop. You'd be surprised how much money can be made ferrying packages, legal documents, and the occasional personage or two between the two planets.
Now, I wouldn't say that I was well endowed, but that's because my earnings are all going towards a... Special Project. Hush-hush. Been talking to folks at NASA for a while and that's all I'll say on the matter. Anyhow, at least I can live more comfortably than I ever did on Earth and my downtime spent at The Island is quite enjoyable.
That said, I like my line of work (especially the races), and even enjoyed the occasional jaunt for personal reasons. This time for the 'Con. I could hardly wait see what was going on this time. In the meantime, Gina and I were thoroughly enjoying ourselves as we ducked and weaved through the steady stream of traffic bound from Earth to Mars.
People knew me, if not personally, then by reputation. Some saluted me as I passed in whatever means possible; winking lights, snap rolls, signal flares... Others ignored me. A few whom I'd made enemies of tried to take pot-shots at me. Yahright, see ya!
It was a fun two-hour run, but like all good things, it had to come to an end.
"Attention Phobos Control, This is Bullet Boy Express, requesting parking space for sedan-class Fen-craft."
"Like, yo! Bullet Boy. Ya clear. Sendin' ya data now. See ya lataz and have fun at the con."
I blinked at that. "Gina, was that a person or an AI we were talking to?"
"It was an AI, I think," she replied. "It'd make sense that they'd get one to help out with this much traffic coming in. Opening docking data now."
The folks at Phobos were pretty well on the ball as far as Fen went. The data consisted of not only the basic TOS guidelines and procedures, but directions to your dock/parking-space and navigational markers for those fortunate enough to be using a HUD. I didn't have a HUD myself, but I did have the next best thing.
"Okay then, Gina, stick it on Driver's Side monitor," I said as I pulled down the LCD display. It flickered and presented the forward view outside, along with the Nav point markers and tagged out ships. Funny thing about it is that Gina had used the interface from the old Decent: Freespace game. Not that I complained - it certainly came in handy and I really did like the effect it gave.
A few more irritated Fen later, I had parked the Jetta in it's assigned space and took care of my parking, lodging and Con fees. I was quick to notice that the Sol Bianca was in one of the larger docking slips and smiled. It'd be good to see the Professor again, sleep deprived or not. Though, in this setting, the former would be much preferred.
