Marco Domici: Road to Askerlund

The truck rumbled and moaned a bit as SuziG downshifted. They approached a sharp left turn and she dropped speed. "Been some rain this week, not all the roads are as solid as you might like." She smiled. "Course, you should see the main road into Akserlund now, I bet it's chewed up like grass twice through a Hrota."

Marco picked up a crumpled green sheet from the floorboard. "Not much for paying tickets, are you? This one is over a year old."

"They're not likely to find me in Oregrund, either." SusiG replied. The light beams cut deep into the woods n both sides, and revealed broken sedimentary rock formations surrounded by trees. "Not a bad town overall, but I took a couple jobs that might have been passed up if some repairs weren't needed. Now it's not on my radar."

"Speaking of radar, does this thing work?" Marco played with the dials and knobs. There was some oily smudges on the screen and he wiped them off with a rag on the dash.

Suzi reached over and smacked the side of the radar unit. It came to life.

"Nice." Marco adjusted the knobs.

"So...." Suzi paused. "Is it true your girlfriend is three meters tall?" She didn't seem phased by Marco's raised eyebrow. "It's a long drive, gotta talk about something."

"Hmph." Marco replied. "Only two, but fairly strong. Her hair is longer than your's."

"Much longer and it gets in the greasy spots." Suzi flopped her braid back and forth. "This is about the right length." She drained the last of her mug and held it out to Marco for a refill. "You seemed to pick up this old thing pretty well, but she's simple. What's the biggest thing you've ever driven?"

"Hey! It's my turn." Marco replied. "As a gentleman I won't ask about your relationships, but I'll follow the current train of thought. What's the biggest thing you've driven?" He half-filled their mugs; the truck vibrated too much for a full cup.

"A twenty-seven fifteen." Suzi smiled at the memory. "It's about twice as long as an Askerlund city block and half as wide. Huge thing! Used to move grain over flat ground. Well, mostly flat ground. You can do some fun things with them."

"Nice." Marco replied and sipped. "Go very fast?"

"Up to seventy eight if you don't care about crashing." She gulped her coffee and gasped. "That's hot! I thought it would be cold by now." She coughed again and fanned her mouth. After a minute she added. "Okay, your turn. Size."

"A twelve hundred." Marco replied.

"Is that the Frammer G series tracked hauler?"

"No. A twelve hundred displacement ton star ship."

"You're a pilot?" Suzi yelled. "Cool!"

"No, sorry. Don't get your hopes up. As you've seen, I can only drive so well. It took two weeks pay and the best pleading I could do. A cousin was on bridge watch, they were low powered in high orbit, and I was visiting. I don't think I made it maneuver more than a meter and a half off it's default course, but it was fun to man the con."

"You like driving?" Suzi asked.

"I like being able to get stuff to where it needs to be. Usually better people are doing it, but sometimes being able to help is nice." He reached over and poured her some more. "Slowly, this time."

"Yeah." Suzi replied.