Chapter Three

G was the name of the Sol Bianca's computer intelligence. It wasn't a true AI in the sense that it would talk to the crew and make suggestions such as avoid space navigation dangers like black holes, meteor showers or the Police. But it was clever, arguably the most sophisticated computer in the known galaxy. For the crew of five, it made running a ship as large as the Sol Bianca feasible.

Plus, there was the Main Computer Hall (MCH), a multilevel cavern in the middle of the big cruiser, where G, in the form of a huge holographic woman, could be seen.

Jan liked to jog around the hall when she got up. She couldn't say it was a 'morning jog', because there was never day or night in space. But habits die hard.

Years ago there had been a bird, living somewhere in the hall. Jan didn't know how it got there, maybe it had escaped from the storage rooms where the loot from their raids was kept; the bird was gone now, probably long dead, and in an inexplicable way it depressed the stoic woman. In a ship surrounded by the vacuum of space, the sight of a living creature as simple as a bird was a reassure gift.

Around and around, circling G's holographic figure, for half an hour. The seclusion was peaceful.

Sol

"April!" June complained, "Jan's eaten everything!"

Just what I don't want to hear first thing in the morning, April was thinking. Her hair was a mess, and she was still a little hung over from the movie marathon last night. Her stomach growled.

"Don't exaggerate, June."

"April, the amazon has cleaned out the kitchen. She's the first one up and we never see how much she eats for breakfast -"

"Then how do you know that she's responsible?" April yawned, opening cupboards looking for a tinned container, plastic container or cardboard box - anything - that had food in it.

"Because I don't eat that much, I'd get fat. May is just a girl, Feb only drinks, and you don't eat that much either. Jan exercises so much she has to keep eating."

"Amazing deductive reasoning, June. You should have been a Police Officer, not a Pirate."

"April!"

April had by that time opened all the cupboards. "June," she said bewildered, "there's no food."

Behind, June threw up her hands in dispair.

Sol

"I resent June's implication," Jan growled, sitting on the arm of a divan.

"Resemble, you mean." June said tersely, from the other side of the common room, a large room centre-forward in the ship. The mosaic tile insignia of the Sol Bianca was inlaid on the floor around which the sofas were placed. A small waterfall and shrubs were flanked by staircases leading to the quarters.

"No fighting," April ordered. "This is serious."

"What about things to drink?" Feb asked seriously. Except for a shawl, she was in her nightgown, and had dark rings under her eyes.

"G recycles the water and we can gather ice from -" June started.

"I mean to drink." Feb repeated.

"You should know how much you have, Feb. And if it's run out then you can use some of the stash in the aft bulkhead." April said.

"What? I can't drink that normally, it has to age still." the glares from the other three silenced Feb. All the talking was hurting her head, anyway.

"So what are we going to do?" Jan, practical asked.

"Well we have to get some, obviously."

"June."

"Sorry, April."

April rubbed her temples. "Forgetting how we came to this situation, which was all our fault, I suggest we come up with an idea. I don't like the idea of starving on my own ship."

Everyone fell into concentrating faces.

"How much money do we have?" Jan broke the silence.

"Eight thousand, one hundred and ninety two credits," June said immediately.

"It's scary when she does that," Feb said to June.

"That money's for maintenance and customs. If we start using it for food and get into trouble later, we could be in real trouble." April said.

"But I'm hungry." June complained.

"What about our merchandise?" Feb proposed.

"Our buyer wont be happy if we sell it off for food." Jan said.

"We might not have a choice. It's a week to the rendevous. Can any of you wait that long?" April said.

The glum faces said no.

"June, what's the nearest planet with a population we could trade with?" April asked.

"Why not pick any place and gather it ourselves?" Jan said.

"Huh? Don't you remember what happened last time?" Feb was aghast.

"Yeah, we don't have cast-iron stomachs like you do." June added.

"I was just making a suggestion," Jan groused.

"And it was a good one, Jan. It doesn't solve the long term problem. June?"

June looked up, thinking. She was sitting with closed legs and arms. When she had the answer her face it up. "Heilsberg is only a day away, it has a population of three million on two continents. One continent produces agricultural products and the other has local-energy mines. There is no significant police force and interstellar ships are less than one per week."

"Sounds good." April said.

Jan was looking at June funny, wondering how the girl could pull all those facts out of her head, or even remember then at all. June could be scarily weird at times. Like when she got sick during the battle at Earth.

"Will anyone there want our goods?" Feb said.

"Hopefully we'll find someone interested in history." April answered.

"Otherwise," Jan said cracking her knuckles and grinning, "We'll have to get it the old fashioned way."

"Oh, please." June sighed.

"Everybody, everybody!" May shouted in alarm, running onto the mosaic. "We don't have any food!"

Sol

Director's Notes: A hard decision to make is the decision of how much to give away of the various 'mysterious', backgrounds, or plots of the Sol Bianca series. While people who have watched the series should know the answers to things I allude to, other's wont, including those who have only seen one series. For example people who haven't seen The Legacy don't know how Gyunter or Rammy are, what happened, and how the Sol Bianca women are different. Those who haven't seen the original series (and the second episode) are missing a big part of what Sol Bianca is as well.

I could try to find a balance between the two camps, or treat everyone as ignorant and let the secrets come out slowly and in significant plot points. Thinking about it, the latter is the approach I will take because catering too people who know the series will spoil this story for everyone else, and adversely impact on plot pace. Also, while people who know the series may know the secrets, that does not mean any or all of the characters do (this is obvious in a few important secrets!).

So I suggest being and ignorant reader. Or see the series (highly recommended). Unfortunately the crowd that did the US release of The Legacy put it into 3 pricey volumes (very stupid), and the covers were terrible too; this is not an eye-candy babe series but, for the final 3 eps (really a movie length ep), a detailed character story. So rent, or find an Asian VCD source. Japanese DVDs (30 min each) are an insane 5,000 yen each (and would be Japanese language only).