Picnic

뒄

Picnic
by Scott Carpenter
artwork by Gary Mitchell

The ship Folded spacetime, and in an instant jumped a thousand light-years to the next Possible. From the destination point, ten thousand meters above the planet's surface, the ship's computer quickly confirmed what Jim's eyes had already told him: the planet was a "hit." Habitable, and earth-like to a score of 76 on the Hoffman Scale.
Jim landed the ship on the daylight side, in a meadow that lay within hiking distance of a large lake. Trees that could pass for lodgepole pines surrounded the meadow, and white-capped mountains presided over the scene.
Nancy's eyes shone with delight. "It's beautiful!" she said. "Perfect for our picnic."
"Just the two of us," Jim said. At least until he registered the planet later, but even then it might be thousands of years before anyone visited the place again. There were more than a million habitable worlds already on record at the Hall of Exploration, and the Survey listed a billion more Possibles. Still, this was his third discovery in the four weeks since he had received his pilot's license. No small achievement for a seventeen-year-old, he thought.
"This is way better than Gundar's World," Nancy said. Then, with satisfaction, "Jenny is going to be so jealous."
She was right on both counts, although Jim didn't care about Jenny or what she thought. He did care about finding new worlds, however. When his dad grudgingly let him use the ship for the weekend, it was with the understanding that Jim was going camping on Gundar's World with his friends. But Gundar's was overcrowded, and majorly uncool. The Fold parameters for the planet had long been in the public domain. Poor families and newly licensed kids went there.
But not Jim! With the Planet Explorer software he had installed on the ship, he could show Nancy a time that few other boys in their class could match. He hoped she would be appropriately grateful.
"Maybe we'll treat the local fauna to a display of human copulation," he said, leering at her and hoping he sounded rakish.
[Illustration]
"Oh, that sounds romantic," she said, looking at him dubiously. She couldn't maintain the look for long though, and let out a laugh. "We'll see. We don't want to be late for Jenny's party tonight." She sounded more noncommittal than he would have liked from someone that he had just treated to a planet discovery.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," he said. Nancy was okay, but she cared a little too much about the social scene at school. He always felt pressure to be "on" whenever they went places with other people, and much preferred being alone with her.
He called out for Old Bob to follow them as they walked down the corridor to the outside hatch. The robot would serve double duty as steward and protection against wild animals.
Old Bob caught up to them at the hatch. He was carrying a wicker basket, a large blanket tucked under one arm, and a vase with a dozen synthetic roses. Nancy clapped her hands, delighted at the old-fashioned picnic basket. Jim had thought it would be a hit.
They went off and had their picnic next to the lake, and much to Jim's delight, Nancy decided they had time for a "romantic interlude," as she called it. The guys at school were right: chicks loved being the first to do it on a new planet. Fortunately, there were a lot of habitable planets out there.
Two hours later they were back at the ship. "Take us to Bright's World," he instructed it.
The drive motors remained silent. "I'm sorry," said the ship's computer, "I can't calculate the Fold equations necessary to make the jump. The license for the trial version of Planet Explorer has expired."
Jim looked at Nancy, but she was busy combing her long blond hair and hadn't noticed anything wrong.
"Would you like to upgrade to the full version of Planet Explorer?" asked the ship.
"Yes! Yes, run the full version. We'll transfer the credits when we return." There was no way his family could afford the software, but he'd worry about that later.
"The software will be upgraded the next time we reach a certified docking station," said the ship.
"What? There must be a way to get home one last time with it. Look for more options in the program." What kind of company would design software that would leave a customer in the lurch like this?
"There are no options for cheating on the license."
"Try reinstalling it."
"The software has ceased responding," said the ship.
"Why didn't you warn me before the last jump?" he asked in a fierce whisper. He snuck a glance at Nancy. She was now putting on lipstick, oblivious to the developing problem.
"Because you told me to keep my mouth shut when we picked Nancy up. I only warned you about a million times before that."