The Twins Paradox - Alan Gasparutti (top ten books of all time txt) 📗

went over to have a look. It was indeed the one destined for San Diego, so after the transporter was let into the bay, Steve directed it towards Lucas and the other vehicles.
After a brief discussion with Steve, the driver placed ramps onto the back of the transporter’s lower level. Lucas then proceeded to drive the vehicles onto it, one by one. More vehicles were being unloaded at the time, and the ramp adjusted and lengthened to reach the upper level of the transporter. Lucas, again, drove the vehicles onto the upper level.
Steve discussed plans for the delivery with the driver, and when everything was ready, he ushered the transporter away, on it’s long journey to San Diego. He then asked Lucas to sort out the next eight vehicles, as these would be put onto a similar transporter, which would deliver them the shorter distance to San Francisco. It was at this time when the second transporter arrived, so neither Steve or Lucas had much time to rest. When this load was all complete, and directed away by Steve, the two of them went to sit down.
“Phew! I’m starving and exhausted,” commented Lucas. “Shall we go back to the airport to have some lunch?”
“Why not,” said Steve, as he looked at his watch. “I think we deserve it, don’t you?”
“Deffinitely,” agreed Lucas. “Actually, before I forget, here’s something else I’d like to ask?”
“What’s that?” queried Steve.
“Would you mind if I stayed at your place tonight?” Lucas then asked.
“Yeah, sure, no problem,” Steve said to him as they walked back to the terminal building. “I know Frank won’t mind, not that he’s there at the moment. When are you flying back to the UK?”
“Oh, I’m not due to leave until tomorrow morning,” said Lucas. “Henry was going to come here, but he’s had to go to sign the lease on the new showroom, and never arranged to stay at a hotel.”
“Tell me, Henry seems a pretty knowledgeable guy?" Steve queried.
Lucas could foresee a question coming, and considered what to say.
“I’ve begun to wonder, how come we haven’t heard much about Henry until now?” asked Steve.
“I don’t really know,” Lucas replied. “I just work for him. He does seem to have quite a few ideas. It often baffles me why these hadn’t been developed earlier.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” said Steve as he opened the door into the airport. “Anyway, what do you fancy for lunch? We’ll be able to find most things somewhere around here.”
“I wouldn’t mind a pizza,” said Lucas. “And something cool to wash it down with.”
“That suits me fine,” said Steve.
Lucas was now beginning to feel the effects of jetlag, and was happy to find somewhere to sit down. Fortunately, a relaxing lunch break and a smooth drink or two helped him feel a lot better. Steve then called for the third transporter, before he and Lucas went back to the cargo bay, to sort out the last nine vehicles.
After the first 8 were put onto the transporter, Lucas drove the remaining vehicle, following the transporter to the local showroom. He then rested for a while, before Steve handed the keys of the cars to the salesperson at the showroom, and drove home with Lucas.

Meanwhile, back in London, Henry was signing the contract to the lease of the former Woolworths at Rayners Lane. When he was finally handed the keys, he went along to see the premises, and even considered starting work on it. He decided, however, to wait until Lucas arrived back. Before leaving, however, he decided to leave advertisements on the window, about new, green, cars, non reliant on fossil fuels. There was a telephone number to contact on the advert, which was the no. at the warehouse, to see how popular the cars may be.
As it turned out, there seemed to be no end of inquiries for the advertised vehicles, though it wasn’t until the following Monday that Henry and Lucas went to the premises. First of all, they boarded up the windows, before they replicated the showroom overnight. They decided to open it on Saturday.
By this time they had replicated a handful of sporty Green Machines, and D1s, it’s saloon equivalent. They received many inquiries, including several inquiries for the solar cars, but probably due to the British weather, they didn’t really sell.
On a more positive note, however, a digital D1 was sold on the first day. It seemed green power was prevailing, particularly as they had sold 5 by the end of the first week.
People seemed to come from all over West London to see the vehicles for themselves. Henry, however, wanted to get back to Ribblehead Cottage, and even considered hiring a car salesman to assist Lucas, but as Madaly seemed to be quite helpful, decided against it.

The Sex-Mad Doctor

Henry decided to take a long weekend break, and didn’t return home until Tuesday. When he arrived home, the first thing he did was to check his emails, and noticed a lot of messages. One was from a site named ondichi.commander@pilgrim.com. He had a fair idea from whom and where this came from. As Henry read the message, it suggested some of the crew of the Interstellar Pilgrim were considering settling on Earth. They had surveyed the planet and suggested they’d like to visit London. With it’s multi-cultural society, it seemed the ideal place to settle down. The message also queried the best place to land a reconnaissance craft near the city.
Henry replied immediately, saying it was good to hear from his former commander. He agreed with the suggestion, but informed him that there were no suitable locations near London in which to land a reconnaissance craft. If it were to be detected, this would be reported immediately and become big news. Henry suggested they could land in a pot hole, as his team had done, and that Yorkshire was probably the best place for this.
A few days later, Henry received another email from Commander Ondichi, confirming all was well on the Interstellar Pilgrim, and he had noted Henry’s recent comments about visiting London. He accepted that it may be a good idea to land a reconnaisance craft in a pot hole, and asked if Henry could then pick up the Commander and some colleagues, and take them to London for a day or two.
Henry thought this may be a good idea at first, but then remembered how awkward it was to get out of pot holes, and that by the time he may have pulled the Commander and colleagues up from the surface, he may be too tired to drive all the way to London. He decided to reply again.

Hello Commander, he wrote on his reply.
It was nice to ‘hear’ from you again. I hope you and all the crew are well. You are always welcome to come and visit me and my team here on Earth. You may wish to stay at my residency briefly, prior to visiting London. I may have indicated on my last message, my team has since reduced somewhat, so there will be room available at Ribblehead Cottage.
Henry then re-iterated that Arthur, Gaspar, Gonchaves, Frickas and Robinson had now settled in their own jobs on an island elsewhere, and that Lucas and Madaly had since moved to London, before continuing:.
I was unable to return the Large Reconnaissance Craft to the ‘Pilgrim, as you had left Earth by the time my team and I had settled here. If you would like to visit us on Earth, would you like me to return the LRC to you, or will you come in the Small Reconnaissance Craft? If you have a mega-mobile phone, you can contact me on 07999 881881,

Yours Gratefully,

Major (Henry) Retono

Henry read the message again for any mis-spellings, before sending it. He also copied this to Arthur, as well as forwarding him the original message from their former Commander.
Henry then sorted all his messages and had a look on the internet, before he went to rest himself. He went to bed early that evening, still knackered from Saturday’s escapades, but was woken up a few hours later by a familiar tune. It was from his mobile.
“Hello,” he yawned into his mobile. “Who might that be, at this time of night?”
“Hello, is that you Major?” queried the man at the other end of the phone, Commander Ondichi.
“Why hi Commander, it’s good to hear from you,” replied Henry.
“Have I called at an inopportune time?” asked Commander Ondichi.
“As a matter of fact I’d just been sleeping,” Henry explained. “You were probably fortunate to get hold of me – it just happens that I‘d forgotten to switch off my mobile phone tonight.”
“If I’m disturbing you, I can ring again later, Major, or should I call you Henry?” Commander Ondichi queried.
“Oh don’t worry, Commander, I don’t mind what you call me – I haven’t heard from you for a few years now,” said Henry. “So, you must have received my message.”
“Yes, thanks,” said the Commander. “I note that you wouldn’t mind some of us coming to visit you.”
“Well, I could do with some extra help,” Henry acknowledged. “How are you going to get here, though?”
“Oh we’ve replicated a new Reconnaissance Craft,” the Commander told him. “It’s newer than the old one, obviously, and we’ve redesigned it inside.”
“But how did you get to replicate it?” asked Henry.
“We sent the small reconnaissance craft to one of the asteroids nearby,” the Commander told him. “We used some of the asteroid in the process. If there’s anything you’d like us to bring along, just let me know.”
Henry thought about sending details of the turbine, and asking if that could be replicated, but then considered that the reconnaissance craft may not be large enough to carry the turbine and all that went with it..
“I couldn’t recall anyone actually using the replicator in space,” admitted the Commander.
“No, I can’t recall any such occurrence, either,” admitted a mystified Henry. ”Whose idea was it?”
“Doctor Gammazeta suggested that we could use the replicator on the asteroid,” the comander told him.
“Doctor Gammazeta, eh,” muttered Henry. “She’s the one who succeeded Doctor Stardust, if I’m not mistaken?”
“Yes,” confirmed Commander Ondichi. “She had been working with him for some time, so seemed the ideal person to assume his role.”
“It may be a short distance to you and me, but the asteroid belt is a long, long way away in Earth terms,” Henry pointed out. “That reminded me, is the new reconnaissance craft capable of travelling as far as Earth?”
“Yes, definitely,” the Commander told him. “Is there anywhere you’d like us to land the craft?”
“There should be a few pot holes near me, which may be large enough,” replied Henry. “Before you arrange anything though, can you send me the dimensions of the new reconnaissance craft, so I can check if any pot holes are large enough to incapsulate the craft.”
“Doctor Gammazeta has done that already,” said the Commander.
“Oh,” said Henry. “In which pot hole do you intend to land?”
“Well, we haven’t planned anything yet, but the Doctor Gammazeta has suggested a hole called Gaping Gill.”
“No, Commander! Don’t land there,” Henry advised him. “That regularly has people abseiling down it.”
“What!” asked a bewildered Commander. “Do you mean to say that Earth inhabitants actually climb down that large open slit of a waterfall?”
“Some people do, I’m afraid,” said Henry. “It sounds bizarre, really. I’ve never tried it myself, and I don’t fancy doing so. Do you know how high deep Gaping Gill is?”
“Deep enough to hide the reconnaissance craft,” said Commander Ondichi.