The Intergalactic Peddler-Volume 1 by Ronnie Coleinger
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Jill was very proud of Trish; she had completed her doctorates degree in less than 30 months. She had written her dissertation on dimensional time travel, and did a follow up to her Uncle Ronnie’s original work. She had worked with her college and they hired a publisher to publish a revised addition to Ronnie’s original book that many colleges were still using. Now that Trish’s college work was complete, Jill wanted to put her education to work and begin traveling to some newly discovered universes. The astrophysicist that Jill knew said two of the universes they had recently discovered had habitable planets and entities that were very willing to trade outside their own universe. Jill discussed her thoughts with Trish, and met with instant excitement.
As they began planning their travel plans, Trish asked one simple question, “Could we spend two days with our family on Quantum before we go. Grandma Janet is having an operation in two days and I am very worried about her.” Jill looked Trish in the eyes and said, “When were you planning on telling me about this operation?” Trish looked at Jill and said, “I did not mean to hide it very long from you, but you have had a lot to take care of in the last couple days. Besides, The Empress needed your full attention. I planned to tell you if her condition worsened, or if I heard you planning a trip that would overlap into the surgery date.”
Jill hugged Trish and said, “Tell me everything, and then we will finish business here. We can go visiting tomorrow so we can spend some time with Janet before her surgery.” Trish took Jill’s hand and escorted her to the bedroom where they could sit in their recliners and talk. Trish explained that Janet’s heart had a valve that was failing and the surgeon wanted it replaced while Janet was still healthy enough to tolerate the surgery. The doctor was concerned that if he let the valve continue to fail, Janet’s body would also begin to fail, and he did not want to wait. Janet’s doctor said that Grandma was a very healthy lady and if they fixed the heart valve now, she would live many more years. It seems that this heart valve problem is genetic and runs in the family on Grandma’s side.
Jill walked over to Trish and sat down in front of her chair. She took both Trish’s hands in hers and said, “Please don’t hide things from me, I know you are stronger emotionally than I am, but I would always like to hear you tell me whenever something is going on, okay?” Trish kissed Jill hard and said, “Yes, I promise to tell you immediately from now on.” Jill took Trish by the hand and walked her to the ready room. She opened a drawer beside the radio room and said, “Trish, I would like to replace the travel watch you received at birth with a new one that was designed by Ronnie, and will put you in constant contact with The Empress. Trish held out her arm. Jill placed the new travel watch on Trish’s arm, pressed two buttons simultaneously and the process began. Within seconds, the original IFTT birth travel watch released where the band touched the edge of the watch, and it fell into Jill’s hands. Jill held the new watch into the correct position and the new band cold fused to Trish’s arm. Jill placed the original watch into the drawer and said that the IFTT director would finalize the set up of the new travel watch tomorrow.
When they got up from bed the next morning, Jill said that she had about two hours work with the IFTT, getting the last of the paperwork completed. The IFTT was officially transferring The Empress’s operating license to Jill, as Ronnie’s surviving daughter. Jill had also included Trish as the Senior Engineer for The Empress, and the IFTT was verifying her educational degrees and knowledge to insure she was qualified for the position. Trish had become an important asset to The Empress, but the IFTT was very strict about whom they allowed to update and repair the Super 11 transceiver, and program the teleportation computer.
Jill sat Trish down in the copilot’s seat, connected her to the director of operations at the IFTT and let him discuss her duties and her responsibilities aboard The Empress. He requested Trish’s signature on two documents. The computer displayed them on the screen and Trish carefully signed her name. When the computer sent the documents back to the director, he welcomed Trish as the new Senior Engineer of The Empress, and then made certain she had his radio frequency installed in her travel watch in case she needed his assistance or required information.
When Trish was done with the IFTT director, Jill said they could now visit their family. Jill requested a flight plan from the Quantum Director of Operations, and then spoke to the computer. “Computer when the Director inputs our flight plan, please place us into a stable orbit and wait until we rejoin you here in the ready room.” The computer chirped three times in agreement. Jill looked at Trish and asked, “Would you join me in the shower before you and I teleport down to Janet’s house?” Trish smiled, quickly stood up and began unzipping her flight suit. Both girls dropped their flight suits into the disposer as they headed to the shower. The computer heard the giggles, but paid no attention to the pleasure that was occurring in the shower; she was just a machine after all, and did not feel passion or emotion, just tiny surges of energy as her memory bits charged and discharged while maintaining The Empress in a stable orbit around the planet Quantum.