Ronald Rickenbacker
Dec 2, 2022 6:43:45 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Dec 2, 2022 6:43:45 GMT -5
Ronald Rickenbacker
by Radrook
by Radrook
Ronald Rickenbacker leaned back in his office chair, closed his eyes and imagined himself on some exo-planet gallantly standing atop a barren hill staring out at a distant horizon of high jagged cliffs. Beyond them, the sky was brimming with stars like the sprinkling of salt on a black velvet canvas. Above undulated an aurora Borealis of greens and reds and yellows.
But reality was far more mundane No, he wasn’t on a mission for NASA or any other legitimate space exploration organization or agency. Instead, he, a schoolteacher, had agreed to go to travel to an uncharted part of the galaxy and retrieve a box hidden there by none other than the notorious space privateer Ignacio de Saragossa who was wanted for crimes committed against ten separate species.
These crimes ranged from kidnaping, extortion to murder. Saragossa had cunningly offered Rickenbacker transportation to the planets Rickenbacker was daydreaming about if he would agree to personally retrieve a certain box that the pirate had hidden there during one of his escapades.
Nothing fancy, just a box with a secret content-that was all he needed and he would collect his reward. a warp drive capable ship and a crew at his command for a period of five earth years. The pirate promising the reward had heard of Rickenbacker’s aspirations from one of his crewmembers who was Rickenbacker's cousin and had suggested Rickenbacker as a possible candidate for the box’s retrieval.
Of course Rickenbacker hadn't refused the tantalizing offer. Although a mere school teacher by trade, he had always been a space explorer by heart. A romantic dreamer of exotic adventures in which he always emerges the victorious hero. Better yet, he was bored to death in his teaching job and needed to use his summer vacation in some gut-wrenching way in order to feel right in the universe.
Sometimes he’d go mountain climbing, well, that was until he fell and broke both his legs when he was caught in an avalanche. Other times he tried scuba diving until a barracuda latched on to his elbow and wouldn’t let go. Skiing in the alps had saddled him with a painful ground injury when he slid down an embankment with his legs spread-eagled and slammed into a tree stump which shattered his pelvis. Such accidents had infused the fear of God so he was seeking something safer. What better than a space adventure? After all, space travel had become routine. Nothing to it.
So when the potbellied, white mustachioed, white-bearded pirate appeared at his office, with the lucrative offer, he readily made the deal in order to avoid the inevitable nervous breakdown he usually experienced if his vacation merely involved sitting around repeatedly counting the number of toes on his feet.
Of what did it matter if he lived in the twenty-fifth century if he was grounded to Earth for lack of funds? Only the wealthy could afford travel via warp, and until the price was reduced-he was grounded. That wasn’t fair! That wasn’t fair at all. It should have been obvious to anyone with an eye for detail that he was cut out to be a space adventurer and not some lowly school-teacher with his buns stuck to an Earth chair for most of the day.
Because, he was getting up in years, if he didn’t make his move now, then he never would. Already his skeletal system was showing the tell-tail signs of the inexorable aging process. His chest was gradually shrinking, his belly had begun to protrude, his joints ached and threatened to come loose over any little effort. No, if he was going out he was going out kicking and screaming in protest and that was that. So when the pirate showed up at his office and made the proposition he jumped at it like a piranha jumps at a piece of meat dangled near its ravenous snout.
“What exactly does this involve?” he had asked the pirate who was dressed in a very respectable space academy suit he had left over from his academy days.
“Nothing much. We take you to the planet, you take a shuttle down as we wait in orbit, You bring the box back”
Rickenbacker had stared at him intently before he asked the next obvious question.
“Why can’t you do that yourself or have one of your crewmembers do it if it’s so simple?”
“Because the box is rigged to explode at the approach of myself or any other member of my crew.”
“Who rigged it that way?”
“That is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the box will not explode at your approach and that you can then defuse it before bringing it aboard.”
“Ï don’t know how--”
“We will teach you!”
“How do I know it won’t go off when I approach it?”
“Well, I guess you will simply have to take my word for it. Believe me Mr. Rickenbacker, I would not go through all the trouble of risking arrest to contact you if I felt you were going to be killed in that way.”
“Excuse me for asking, but why me??
“Your cousin Emmanuel Rickenbacker suggested you might be available. Said you feared nothing. Described how you had scuba dived in shark infested waters, and mountain climbed without proper gear. Not everyone has that intrepid attitude Mr Rickenbacker.”
The memory of his Cousin Emanuel had done nothing to set him, at ease since he recalled him as this Juvenile delinquent who had been constantly in and out of correctional facilities due to unlawful activities until he disappeared without a trace some two decades before. Never associated with him but only remembered that evil look in his shifting dark eyes.
“So how do I know you will keep your side of the bargain once I retrieve the box?”
“That will necessarily be an act of faith Mr. Rickenbacker, but I can assure you, that the pirate code of honor doesn't allow for that kind of deceit. We may be thieves murderers and vagabonds, but our word of honor we keep. Of that I assure you,”
Rickenbacker had heard of the vaunted honesty and trustworthiness of the Pirate brotherhood and had no reason to cast doubt on it. Nor did he dare for he was aware that such an insinuation could cost him his life.”
“Well Mr, Rickenbacker, do you or do you not accept the offer?”
“What’s in the box?”
“That is none of your concern. Retrieve the box. We will provide you with the small ship and crew of three, and that’s the end of it. You are free to explore to your heart’s content, and I to do with the box as I please.”
Rickenbacker had thought it over intently and had finally shaken hands in agreement. Soon he found himself traveling toward the destination at warp aboard the pirate ship.