Red Shift Tours

By Lillian Baker O'Malley

 This is Book #2 in the new exciting series that features Timo who owns Red Shift Tours. Timo has built a spaceship that will travel farther, faster, and quicker than any other ship in the Multiverse. Timo's son calls on Colton of The Aurora Dimension, (from Book #1), to find his father Timo when the brand new spaceship is hijacked on it's first day trip tour.  

.Travel on the Red Shift Tours brand new spaceship to the newly discovered blue planet in unmapped space. The tourist passengers don't know that just because you buy a return ticket, it doesn't mean that booking a day trip will get you back home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lillian Baker O'Malley
• Release date: Oct 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386208501

Book preview

Subject: Red Shift Tours

An Imaginary Friend’s Tale

© Lillian Baker O’Malley October 2018

Chapter One

Departure will begin as soon as we get loaded so everyone line up and present your passes to the new, the incredible, blue crystal jewel planet, on the first tourist ship to offer this trip to the discovery of the ages. We will be the first visitors in history to actually see and observe alien primitive life in its natural state on a formerly undiscovered planet world in another universe.

The passengers were straddled along the pre-flight deck not wanting to mingle with the foreigners from other planets but they also all were determined not to be the last ones in line. It was the last 2 places in line that were held by the most influential people though.

The second to the last place was held by Timo, the engineer master mechanic who had built this amazing space ship.

The very last place in line was held by a group of people with the most important member of the group at the very tail end of the line. His name was Oth and he was a king, the ruler of a large planet. He had become very rich by plundering precious metals and fluids and food from other planets. He always looked at potential planets himself, never relying on anyone else to spend his wealth or bring back sloppy reports on new conquests. He was also always the last person to enter a room and that signified his importance because the size and splendor of his entourage that went before him made his entrance truly spectacular.      

Mommy, Mommy, why is that person so shiny and sparkly? a young child demanded as she crowded close to her parents.

Shh , I told you that we do not talk about the strangers we will ride with. They are all different from us. Now be a good girl and move into the carry seats so they can load us into the observation shell. They placed themselves into the seats that rolled into place on the craft. Each seat was engineered to run on a track then to hook itself to a place in front of the huge observation windows that were so clear that it looked like there was nothing in the frames. It made any trip seem like you weren’t just a passenger observing wildlife, but a resident of the visited planet with the surrounding windows putting you right in the middle of the action.

The King Oth and his entourage were the last to be seated at the side of the large observation room, in a large private section with double windows and plush roomy couches and chairs. There were round pocket tables with the centers hollowed out where drinking vessels could hold liquids without spilling though the journey was usually always smooth and pleasant.

No bumpy rides or space sickness were ever tolerated by the tour company. If any incident happened that caused a major problem, the pilots and crew were dismissed without discussion and the tour company never considered itself to be responsible for any short comings of either pilot or the space craft.

The tourist business had so many companies jockeying for the clients, that sabotage and undercutting rivals was common. This made a large heavily armed security force necessary on every flight. The technicians, pilots, crew, and service staff and cooks, as well as medical staff were all taking up space that could be allotted to paying passengers but there was no way to completely automate the staff positions because the customers demanded personal service and live attendants to answer their demands.

The tickets were very expensive and other tour companies offered lower prices and automated service, including automated meal service that looked like military field rations, but Red Shift Tours advertised itself as a unique luxury one of a kind experience Everyone on staff had to have multiple skills and did double duty. The finest chefs and staff catered to the wealthy clients and there was no room for anyone who was not excellent at their jobs.

Welcome aboard the Red Shift Scenic Tours. I’m your tour guide for this flight and my name is E-Lona. Please get comfortable and as soon as everyone is settled we will embark on an adventure tour that is the first of its kind. Today we take a journey no one else has ever experienced. We offer this unique historic trip to a never before explored planet that was just discovered recently in a solar system that is new to us. We present this maiden voyage of our newly designed spaceship with pride to our most adventurous customers and we know that you will enjoy sights and sensations that no one else has ever experienced before. We will travel farther and faster than any other ship or tour company. We take pleasure in providing you with excellent service and we want you all to sit back and relax and have fun. We should arrive at our destination shortly but first we want you to enjoy the talented floor show performers that we have arranged to entertain you before our first dinner servings. Please feel free to sample the complimentary food, snacks and drinks until then. There are many wonderful sights to be seen through our unique observation windows. No other tour company has anything like it. Thank you for travelling with Red Shift Tours.

The floorshow was almost over when Timo went to look for E-Lona. Why haven’t we started the trip? What’s delaying us?

E-Lona frowned a bit at his impatient tone. My father has ordered us to wait for a passenger who is going to be late. My father is the head manager at Red Shift Tours. He can give us orders and we have to obey them.

I didn’t know that your father was the head manager of Red Shift Tours and I have worked for this tour company for a long time. I haven’t met you before either. Timo waited for her answer, but E-Lona turned away from him and straightened the flower arrangement in a vase on a table.

Well he didn’t want the other employees to know that I am his daughter. It’s better that no one knows, and I hope that I can count on you not to let anyone else know. We just joined this division of the tour company in the last few months. We worked out of the Daire division on the outer rim of Danann.

I’m surprised that he made an exception for departure time, said Timo. It’s costing a fortune for any delay and I was worried that something was wrong.

Nothing is wrong, we just have to wait for the late passengers to arrive. The new passenger is a High Born and has paid a premium for a private suite. We hope they choose us for future tours. She walked away from him as she was talking and never looked back.

Timo was back in his seat before he realized that E-Lona had said passengers not just one passenger. He could see E-Lona at the entrance directing one seated passenger to a prime spot near the King Oth’s private section. As the new passengers’ seat slid into its slot, the king looked up and when he saw the new tourist, he looked shocked and displeased.

He must be a business rival, thought Timo. It looks like more people than the King Oth have heard of the fortune to be made on this new planet. I have to keep an eye on them and on E-Lona too. I don’t want anything happening on this trip. Too much depends on my success.  He looked to see if there were other passengers but no one else came into the main cabin. There was a soft hum and blue lights swirled around the outer shell of the ship and they were all on their way to the unknown.

The spectacular floor show ended, and everyone applauded. They were going through a dark belt before they reached the SkyPath Access that would take them onto the intergalactic skyhighway and then the observation window brightened, and a short movie played on it to shut out the monotonous scenery.

There were funny animated screen stories in the children’s section, and an enclosed private lounge where people could relax and gamble or drink or just make business deals with the other passengers. Soft music played in the background and a big screen at one end played holograms of supranational superstars like the famous singer, Colton of the Aurora Dimension, and the other famous family group called The Nine from the planet Szend, during the gathering time when people who were bored demanded real entertainment, not just music channeled in from the galaxy stations.

Some passengers spent the whole tour in the bar area and bought the recorded version to show to family and friends. It was considered a prime social status symbol to possess and display the case of one of the videos because it proved you were wealthy and did High Born cultural activities that showed your superior social status. Social status was more coveted than actual money.  

Timo was impatient again because the Access Station to the cross roads that would put them on the M88 skyhighway was overcrowded with other impatient star- spaceship operators and privately-owned personal spaceships, and it was costing his company a lot of money to hover in line and wait for access.

The sky highway must be blocked for the asteroid sweeper ships to clear the asteroids and space junk out of the sky highway flight paths. They also had to dispose of the asteroids safely so that they couldn’t be a danger to the crowded lanes of spaceships that traveled at speeds that made it almost impossible to stop quickly. The star-spaceships already had warning systems and push pulses that cleared the way for them on all sides, but sometimes the area was so thick with debris that the sweeper cleanup crews had to be called in. When he designed it, Timo put in shield layers of light pulses that repulsed anything too close to this new spaceship.  

The skies were becoming so crowded that the wait to access a lane in the skyhighway was getting long and costly. Timo could see long lines of spaceships hovering in rows in front of and behind them, and above and below them on the view monitors that showed the outside space around his whole ship. There were rumours of deliberate traffic throttling by the private companies that owned and maintained the different SkyPath accesses to the sky highways. They were demanding a paid alternate toll route that would make them so wealthy that they could even buy several lives to enjoy their wealth in. They could also decide their own speed limits because the current speed limit of AccSlot 55 was too restrictive when they had spaceships that could reach AccSlot 125 speeds. Timo’s Red Shift Tours new spaceship could reach AccSlot 200 or more. He had the fastest spaceship in the known multiverse. The paid access roll routes would also eliminate the long waits for access to the skyhighways that everyone had to endure.

This was the maiden voyage of the Red Shift Tours spaceship and Timo was the engineer master mechanic who designed and built it. It was designed to reach destinations other tour companies couldn’t reach. Faster and farther was the cutthroat ambition of anyone who wanted to stay in business. It was critical for the success of this mission, but also it was necessary to come in under budget so that the voyages could continue and be profitable.

There was a prototype ship back at home base that was built to test out his designs and it was modified until they were satisfied enough with the build to put finances together to build this ship. They were travelling at full capacity with paying customers who would be repeat customers if he could deliver the kind of awe inspiring tours