Chapter 25
It is an interesting coincidence that everyone always seems to know 'someone' who can help. It doesn't much matter what the problem is or even if the solution is legal or not, they always have a person to contact.
Of equal interest is how often the required payment to get said problem resolved ends up being considerably higher than is expected.
This is a fact that is apparently lost on the humans. Sheanna'Ree's claim to know someone who could help Jim Bob get arms and legs back should have been a red flag. Should have been, but wasn't.
Grokmar, on the other hand, is simply a ship with no experience on the various truths that biologicals live with everyday. Between the ship and the humans, ignorance is bliss seems to be the saying du jour.
So, they blissfully travel to Sheanna'Ree's 'guy' and Jim Bob dreams of walking on his own two legs once more.
Only Sheanna'Ree knows what trouble is coming and she isn't talking.
***
Jim Bob had never seen anything quite like it although it did remind him of Cooter's junkyard back home. That actually made him feel a little bit better about his impending visit to Sheanna'Ree's fixit fellow.
As it turned out, her man was located in an asteroid belt that orbited a small white dwarf star. Jim Bob wasn't too sure what a white dwarf star was. Whenever Sheanna'Ree or Grokmar mentioned it he had a vision of a tiny little Elvis impersonator.
They had both assured him that a dwarf star was not a long dead celebrity. It was, in fact a very small, very hot sun* (*And thankfully for Jim Bob they didn't refer to the sun as a blazing inferno of flaming plasma. There would have been no explaining all of that to him). He wondered why they hadn't said that in the first place.
The asteroid belt was easier to understand once they explained that an asteroid was essentially a rock floating in space. Rocks were one thing he understood.
He flexed his right mechanical tentacle and looked around the crowded cargo bay. The mechanical arms had their advantages, it was true. But they also had problems too. It was just plain creepy the way they sometimes moved around on their own. Bobby John had said it was because his subconscious was doing funny things.
He'd never realized that Bobby John knew any words of more than two syllables. Jim Bob hadn't dared to ask the boy what subconscious meant. It was bad enough asking the ship but one of his own folk? Jim Bob wasn't ready to have his status as smarter than Zeke too closely questioned.
The mechanical body was another thing entirely. Sure, it allowed him to move around, but it was also so big he couldn't go into the ship properly. Instead, he had to sit in this cold cargo bay like some piece of furniture. It wasn't right!
The mechanical body also meant that the others singled him out to do all the heavy work. Ever since he'd got it, all he had done was carry this, pick up that. It was more than a man could stand. Especially a man who prided himself on doing as little as possible at all times.
That, of course, didn't take into account the fact that no woman wanted a mechanical monster in her bed. It was really crimping his romantic ambitions with all the interesting alien women he might meet. Betty Sue too.
Nope. He wanted, no needed, his arms and legs back. And soon!
That thought brought him back to the here and now. He stared out at the image on the view screen Grokmar had thoughtfully left on for him.
Massive rocks tumbled in the star-freckled blackness. The biggest rock he could see had a metal dome plastered to its surface. If he hadn't known the matte-black bubble was there, he probably would have missed it entirely.
Occasional flashes of sunlight spoke of metal floating in the blackness around the large asteroid. By magnifying the screen's image he saw the wrecks of starships, simple metal blobs and even what appeared to be frozen bodies floating outside.
The bodies were a surprise but what really shocked him was the old Chevy pickup that orbited the big rock. How in the heck had that thing gotten way out here?
Betty Sue popped her head in the door to the cargo bay. "How ya doing, Jim Bob?"
"Hmm?" He gazed up at her. "Oh, I'm doing fine. I'm a little worried about this doctor fella. Never had much confidence in doctors."
Betty Sue smiled. "You'll be fine. You do still want to go through with it, don't ya?"
Jim Bob snaked a tentacle up and looked at it. "You bet I do. I can't wait to get my arms back."
"Well, it shouldn't be much longer now. Grokmar is just jabbering with the computer on that there rock so's we can land." The woman started to leave.
Jim Bob thought about the floating bodies and swallowed. "Um, Betty Sue?"
She stopped and looked at the mechanical man. "Yes, Jim Bob?"
"Would you...could you be with me when that doctor fella gives me my arms and legs back?"
She smiled again. "Sure, Jim Bob. I'd be happy to."