Expert Assistance

Chapter 2 - Off To a Bad Start

Jake rose early the next day to be ready to start his employment under Sid Kraft and Evangelyne Martini. Not that he was looking forward to the work. He didn’t like Sid from the instant he stepped on the ship, and he was almost certain that he wouldn’t like the pop star either. But they had erased his debts and were going to pay him well for his services. Jake felt that at the very least he ought to be appreciative, and that meant getting up early and appearing to be committed to his new employers.

As it happened, Jake’s effort was slightly wasted on them. It was midmorning before Sid contacted Jake to inform him that, “Evvie would be along any moment.” About an hour’s worth of moments passed between that call and the actual request to enter Skuld. Jake walked down the corridor to the airlock to meet them in person.

Sid was the first to come through the entrance. “Great to see ya again, Jakie.”

“Thanks.”

“Now, I’d like ya to meet the star of the hour, the sensation the whole family can enjoy, Miss Evangelyne Martini.”

Miss Evangelyne Martini appeared to Jake’s eyes to be a girl of nineteen going on sixteen. She was short, maybe five-one if she was lucky, with body hovering between average and petite. She had an inoffensive face, light brown eyes, and an almost-earnest smile. She was clearly a brunette, but had dyed her hair blonde, then dyed strands of it yellow and light orange. Her clothing was brightly colored, with yellow the predominant shade, and was styled “good girl” with a few hints of “young woman.”

Her look meshed with what Jake knew about her past. She was the only child of parents who had married, divorced, remarried, and were now separated. She’d shown talents for dancing and singing at a very early age along with a great deal of personal charm. At the age of ten she became the star of Captain Sandy, a kid’s show, entertainment computer program, and info-site that was popular on a half-dozen worlds for about a year and a half. At thirteen she was cast in HeritageNet’s Nice Ice Club, an entertainment show that doubled as promotion for the corporation’s indoor fun center chain.

It was there that “Evvie” began to emerge as a celebrity in her own right. Within a year she became the show’s star performer. Sites popped up devoted to her, media outlets began to pay attention to her offstage life, and her mother hooked up with a celebrity career advisor. Luckily for Evvie, her mother, and the advisor, one of the other, much prettier girls on the show became jealous of the rising teen star. The “good girl” persona being crafted for Evvie fit the situation almost too perfectly. When she was more-or-less forced out after a three-year run, fame was practically kicking down her door.

The next step in Evvie’s ascent came a year after she left Nice Ice. At seventeen she released her first music single, which quickly jumped into the top fifty. Her third release went into the top ten. Now, two years later, she’d had eight hits with her current release at Number One. These hits were to be combined with a couple songs that hadn’t charted and a few that were planned for release, as Jake understood it, to make up enough material for this live performance tour.

In short, Jake thought, she’s the typical “nice girl” pop singer on the standard celebrity track.

With that Jake returned to the present and the guest coming aboard Skuld. “Miss Martini,” he said, “I’m Jake Bonner. Welcome aboard my ship.” He offered his right hand.

She shook it once, more politely than his greeting had been. “Thanks.” She stepped around Sid through the airlock and into the corridor. She turned to Sid. “You coming?”

“Sorry, Evvie. I’ll be traveling with the crew.” He smiled to Jake. “Gotta keep the natives happy and the ball rolling, y’know.”

“Sure.”