The promise
The sun shone down in the neighborhood of Vargas city on Mirgos-12. Gunny’’s Agri-Mart was a bastion of activity as people were entering and leaving the store.
The red V.X. 40 sky car circled over the place. The flying machine descended on one of the parking lot landing pads.
A human courtesy clerk walked about the parking lot looking for carts. The man driving the car couldn’t help but smirk.
“Once upon a time they tried using machines to carry out the job of courtesy clerks. It didn’t work out very well, guess some things just need a human touch.” The blonde-haired man in military attire thought out loud.
The man looked on the screen to the right of his control grips. The screen showed a picture of the blonde-haired blue-eyed man. The name on it read Jonathan McCoy, Sergeant Tri-Worlds Alliance Marines. It also stated Placed on active leave for honorable service.
The car bumped as it landed. Sergeant McCoy pressed a button to the right of his steering grip. The roof/cockpit lid of the car opened up.
The tall man got out of the car and stretched. He then headed for the one level building. But instead of going in he went around the back.
Behind the building was a large field full of varying types of vegetables. What stood out were the large array of pumpkins set up. A large tractor was collecting the grown orange-colored vegetables.
Nearby a chubby man was looking over the device. The hovering harvest tractor was being operated by a humanoid robot.
Jonathan walked towards the chubby man. But stopped when he noticed the pumpkins collected started to pile up on the belt of the harvester. The chubby Auburn man sighed and asked, “It’s safe to say the belt is gumming up again Winston?”
The hovering harvesting device lowered itself to the ground as the engine shut off. Ladder rungs extended from the machine as the cockpit opened. The humanoid robot climbed out of the machine.
“As if it were anything else,” the robot complained.
The robot's voice had an aristocratic British accent from back on Earth. "I’m telling you Mr. Mason everything around here is nothing more than cheap piles of rubbish!”
The man called Mr. Mason retorted, “That so huh Winston? Does that include yourself too?”
The robot’s face in a mechanical fashion broke into a look of outrage. “What? I should hope not!”
Mason chuckled and stated, “Take it easy Winston I was only joking.”
He sighed and added, “I’m going to have to work on your sense of humor.”
“I see not much has changed about you two.” Jonathan commented.
The chubby man and the robot turned their gazes on the tall Space Marine. “Jonathan McCoy you lunatic!” Mason greeted.
“Welcome home Sergeant McCoy.” Winston greeted.
Jonathan walked over and clasped hands with the Agri-Grocer head. “I see your chain is doing well since I left.”
Mason smirked showing clear pride. “Everyone’s got to eat. I heard that the war with the so-called Egalitarian Republic of Earth is over.”
Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, it is.”
The Marine noted the robot clamber down the ladder and walk over. “It’s quite the relief if you ask me. The way that those entitled tyrants treated their people was horrendous!”
The blonde nodded. “Agreed, I saw some horrible stuff in the final battle on Earth. The Eco-teams are taking care of fixing things up now.”
And then he returned to the Grocer head. “I got in after the higher ups deactivated me. It’s good to see you again Royce.”
Royce Mason asked, “Do your wife and daughters know you’re here?”
The blonde shook his head. “Nope, thought I’d surprise them when I get to the house. I made a promise that on Halloween I’d take my girls trick or treating. For my youngest this will be her first and I want it to be memorable for both, in a good way."
The marine looked around. "There any way I could buy a pumpkin from you?"
Mason nodded, “Sure thing, but why come to me out here?’
The Sergeant added, “Well you’ve been like a brother to me since childhood. And I’d like to keep a low profile for a bit. There’s a lot of hoopla swooning over us war heroes.”
Royce nodded in understanding. “War is never something to celebrate. Could you put those battlefield engineer skills to use with something more mundane?”
McCoy chuckled. “You want me to have a look at that hover tractor of yours?” the man surmised.
Royce nodded his confirmation.
From his belt pack Jonathan took out a strange rod. Pressing a button on the device he called out, “Wrench!”
The device morphed into said tool. “Well, let’s have a look.” McCoy chirped.
As they turned to approach Winston noted, “XL-90 morphing tool, fine tech.”
They walked over to the tractor and Jonathan looked it over. “Hmm, you know the M-90 tractors are a bit on the old side.”
Royce snorted and quipped, “If you’re trying to convince me to trade Ol’ Betsy for a newer model you’ll have a long wait. This may be from my grandpa’s time but it’s still useful.”
They found one of the two story vehicle's hatches. Winston opened it. Jonathan turned his tool around. “Flashlight,” he called.
The other side transformed into a flashlight. Jonathon clambered into the vehicle.
Looking on the inside Jonathan’s nose wrinkled and his eyes watered. “Ooh, looks and smells like something got burnt in here.”
Looking around his nose and eyes got drawn to a gear of the belt. Then he saw the crisped piece of vegetable matter wedged into the gear itself.
“Ah, here’s your problem. Looks like you got some vegetable matter stuck in there.”
Royce clambered in and looked at the belt.
“Damn it, looks like some of the fall lettuce crop got stuck in the gear. And it looks like the gear got singed and stress cracked too. I’ll have to talk to Chester about custom making a replacement.”
Jonathan looked at the tool and commanded, “Wrench to pliers."
The wrench part changed to a pair of pliers. Jonathan extracted the burnt piece of Fall lettuce.
The two hopped out of the tractor. Then the marine disposed of the piece of burnt vegetable matter in a recycler bin. Royce stated, “As a token of my thanks, you get a discount.”
The Marine smirked. “Good, because I want to surprise the girls with the biggest and best pumpkin I can find for Halloween.”
Royce explained, “Funny you should mention that. We’re having a sale on pumpkins today.”
Jonathan rubbed his hands in excitement. “Excellent, this will be a perfect something to bring home to Molly and the girls.”
“I’ll show this Agri-Grocer’s fine selection.” Royce chimed in.
“Excuse me sir, what should I do?” Winston asked.
“Put a call in to Chester and let him know I need a new custom belt wheel made and delivered first thing tomorrow. And his usual fee will be fine." Royce explained to the robot.
Winston nodded and responded with, “Very good sir.”
The two men walked over to several large boxes. Each had what Jonathan could tell were some of the most gorgeous looking pumpkins he’d ever seen. He whistled his appreciation of what he saw.
“I see even with all that time in the military the farmer in you never left.” Royce quipped.
“My family have been farmers since we landed here back in 2100.”
The two turned towards the pumpkins. Jonathan perused the picked stock. His eyes moved to one large pumpkin in particular.
"This will serve as the Pumpkin King for the girls.” He thought out loud.
Royce pulled from his apron a small metal stick which he aimed at the vegetable. “A hefty thirty pounds, that’s about right for pumpkins in this neck of the woods.” The Grocer head noted.
Jonathan pulled out a rectangular device and produced three red chips. “These 30 credit chips should handle the cost.”
Royce pulled out a similar device and inserted the chips. In turn another container opened with two blue chips. ‘And that will be your change, thank you for your patronage.”
Jonathan nodded. “No thank you, for helping me take a step towards making this Halloween the best ever for my daughters.”
The Marine took the chips and put them in his device.
Royce then went to a watch like device on his wrist. “Hendrik, you mind coming out back with a cart? We have someone who’s bought one of our fresh picked pumpkins.”
Jonathan smiled and said, “Thanks Royce, I appreciate this.”
“The least I can do for you good buddy. And welcome home.”
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