CHAPTER 16 – A WELL-EARNED VACATION
House in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, France, where Joan of Arc (Jehanne de Domrémy) was born in 1412.
09:05 (France Time)
Friday, May 06, 2332
Nancy Regional Airport, Province of Lorraine
France
Jehanne’s level of attention rose as she stepped out of the airbus that had flown her from Paris, where she had first landed on Earth. That enhanced level of attention was not due to a sense of imminent danger but rather to the level of interest she had about this first visit ever by her to Earth. The last three months had been spent by her on security duties aboard the NOSTROMO, mixed in with a few weeks spent on Glyyn, either protecting the Kiryns from any possible remaining marauding Predator ships or helping them to rebuild their villages. Now that the Spacers’ League had downgraded the Space Predator’s menace to ‘minor’ level, Tina had offered a month-long vacation to her security androids, with her 800 androids splitting in two groups, so that half of them could stay on duty while the other half went on vacation. As the first security android to have been built, nearly four years ago, Jehanne had been named as part of the first half to go on vacation and had then received a substantial pay bonus, made both of a special vacation bonus granted by Tina and of a combat pay and retroactive pay raise granted by the Spacers’ League’s Ministry of Defense. Now, Jehanne had plenty of money to spend on her vacation, even though she didn’t need to spend anything on food and drinks, normally two of the biggest expenses, along with lodging, during a vacation as a tourist. Even lodging should not cost her much, as she could live in about any kind of weather without any undue hardship and as she had a small tent folded and rolled on top of her backpack.
It was thus a relatively small but definitively robust-looking late teenager with short black hair and pronounced tan, dressed in shorts, T-shirt and ankle boots, who entered the passenger terminal of the small regional airport, along with 31 other passengers. She had already gone through customs and immigration controls in Paris, so had no need to go through another official check in Nancy, a good thing when considering the initial hassle she had been subjected to on arrival in Paris in a runabout from the NOSTROMO. However, a more open and sympathetic French immigration agent had quickly replaced the first, rather obtuse French agent who had initially received Jehanne at the immigration and customs counters. The fact that the Spacers’ League’s embassy had applied some political pressure on the European Union before the arrival of the first batch of vacationing androids had helped a lot in that aspect.
Jehanne’s first move once inside the terminal was to go find the tourism agency counter of the airport, where a young and pretty woman greeted her with a big smile.
‘’Good morning, miss! May I help you?’’
‘’You may, miss! I want to go to Domrémy-la-Pucelle. What would be the best way to get there?’’
‘’You are in luck, miss: Domrémy-la-Pucelle is a well-known and well-visited touristic destination in the region. We have a regional bus line from here to Neufchâteau, which is only twelve kilometers south of Domrémy-la-Pucelle. Once in Neufchâteau, you can take either a taxi or a local bus to get to Domrémy-la-Pucelle. A bus will depart for Neufchâteau at ten this morning. Our bus stop is in front of the terminal, next to the taxi stands. If you need a tourist map of the region and an information pamphlet on Domrémy-la-Pucelle, I can give you a copy of each.’’
‘’Please! That would be really helpful to me. Huh, where could I buy a bus ticket to Neufchâteau?’’
‘’Right here, miss!’’
‘’Excellent! I will buy a one-way ticket to Neufchâteau and will take a copy each of your map and your pamphlet. Do you know if the family house of Jehanne de Domrémy is open for visits, miss?’’
‘’It certainly is, miss: it is one of the main regional touristic attractions and tens of thousands of persons visit it every year. Here is your map, pamphlet and bus ticket. It will be six Euros for the bus ticket.’’
Paying the woman and then grabbing her three items, Jehanne then walked out of the terminal and went to the well-indicated bus stop, which had a large transparent anti-rain shelter with a wooden bench. Taking off her large backpack and putting it down in front of her, Jehanne then sat next to a mature couple. From hearing their accent as the couple spoke to each other and from their exchange, Jehanne quickly pegged them as British tourists. Furthermore, they apparently were also headed towards Domrémy-la-Pucelle. She however didn’t intrude in their conversation, not wanting to appear rude or impolite. It was actually the man in the couple, who was maybe sixty years old, who spoke to her first after looking at her big backpack.
‘’This looks like a military backpack, miss. Are you in the military?’’
‘’Sort of, mister: I am a security officer aboard a merchant spaceship.’’
‘’Oh! So, you are a Spacer, I presume?’’
‘’You presumed right, mister.’’
‘’When you say a merchant spaceship, do you mean one of those big star liners, miss?’’ asked in turn the woman in the couple. Jehanne replied with a gentle smile.
‘’Oh no, madam. I work on an ultra-heavy cargo ship. However, my ship also has lots of capacity for passengers. In fact, it can accommodate up to 20,064 passengers, on top of a cargo capacity of over twelve million tons.’’
Both the man and the woman opened their eyes wide at her answer, with the man exclaiming his surprise.
‘’Dear God! Your ship must be huge, miss!’’
‘’It is! In fact, it is the biggest starship in existence today, with a length of 3,000 meters and a body diameter of 1,800 meters. I work aboard the NOSTROMO.’’
That name only redoubled the excitement of the couple, with the man grinning to Jehanne.
‘’Good for you, miss! The NOSTROMO has distinguished itself a lot lately, along with its captain, Tina Forster. The way it destroyed that Space Predator threat was epic! Then, you must have fought against those monstrous Predators, right?’’
‘’I have, mister, but I would per to speak about it: I don’t want to appear to brag about my actions in combat.’’
The man nodded slowly his head then.
‘’I can understand that, miss. To be brave is good. To be both brave and modest is even better.’’
‘’Well said, sir! Did you serve as a soldier before?’’
‘’I did, miss!’’ answered the man, beaming with pride. ‘’I was in the British Army in 2316, when Zembelo’s thugs tried to occupy Great Britain. We stopped them cold and threw them out before they could enter London.’’
The man’s reply made Jehanne grin in response.
‘’So you, an old British soldier who fought to stop invaders from taking Great Britain, is now going to visit the birthplace of a French heroine who fought to throw the English out of France. That sounds truly delicious.’’
‘’It is, isn’t it?’’ replied the man, chuckling with his wife at Jehanne’s remark.
The trio then discussed more mundane things, like what they were hoping to see and visit in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, and that until the bus to Neufchâteau arrived at the bus stop. Giving her ticket to the driver, Jehanne then sat down in one of the frontmost seats, while the British couple sat in the same row, but across the central aisle from her. Seeing that Jehanne was eagerly looking out at the scenery they passed by as the bus rolled, the couple politely abstained from trying to speak with her during the trip to Neufchâteau, reasoning that they would have plenty of time to acquaint themselves better once at their destination. On her part, Jehanne eagerly embraced the local sights as they rolled, this being the first day she finally was able to look at Earth from its surface. The historical buildings she could see from time to time particularly attracted her attention and curiosity: in truth, nothing in the Spacers’ League dated more than about 240 years, the time when Humans had started to colonize the outer planets and moons of the Solar System, so each old church or medieval house she saw was truly a novelty for her. Once in Neufchâteau, she and the British couple and herself agreed to take a taxi together to get to Domrémy-la-Pucelle.
As their taxi approached their intended destination, Jehanne started sensing something furiously akin to excitement mount in her. While wondering if that could even be possible for her, Jehanne put that on her databanks working full time to dig every piece of data she knew about Joan of Arc, her life, her death and her subsequent fame as a French national heroine. By the time that their taxi stopped in the small square next to the medieval home that had been Jehanne’s family home in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, the British couple still knew her as simply ‘Jehanne’, with the latter resolved to keep it that way. All three stopped for a moment to take pictures of the old home with single inclined roof and whitewashed walls. Next, they went to the entrance door of the house, where they paid the entrance fee before being allowed inside. Jehanne then found herself in a large, mostly bare room with a large fireplace against one of the walls. A door frame at one end of the room showed part of a smaller room, while a staircase in a corner near the entrance door led upstairs to the upper floor. Seeing a bronze statue set on a stone base in one corner, Jehanne and the British couple approached it to examine it.
‘’A statue representing Jehanne in her fighting days.’’ said softly Jehanne before taking a picture of it, like the British couple. She then looked around the nearly empty room, a bit disappointed.
‘’I was expecting to see more than this in her family home.’’
A young tourist guide standing near the door smile to her on hearing her remark.
‘’This house is deliberately kept bare, to facilitate its maintenance and avoid damage to artifacts through wear. This house is over 900 years, after all. You will however be able to see a lot more historical objects related to Joan of Arc in the small museum situated just across the street.’’
‘’Oh! Thank you for the information, young man.’’ replied the male British tourist. After a quick walkaround, the trio then exited the old house and crossed the street, entering the decidedly more modern small building housing the Joan of Arc Museum. There, they effectively found a small but interesting collection of medieval objects on display, along with a counter offering for sale books on Joan of Arc, both in paperback format and in electronic format. Jehanne selected the two most attractive books on sale and bought them in both formats. However, she had a question to the sales clerk that took him a bit by surprise.
‘’Sir, if I can refer to this picture on the illustrated book I just bought, Jehanne used an arming sword while fighting the Englishmen. Is there anywhere around, or in France, where I could buy a good quality replica of that kind of sword?’’
‘’Er, you won’t find this here in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, miss. After all, the local population counts less than a hundred persons. However, I once visited a medievalist shop in Neufchâteau that specializes in period replicas of costumes, banners and weapons. I don’t remember seeing an arming sword there but my last visit to that shop was five years ago, so it may now have one in stock, if you are lucky. It is called the ‘Antre du Dragon’, or ‘Dragon’s Lair’ in English. It is on the main street in Neufchâteau. If you don’t find such a sword there, then you will surely find a shop in Paris that would have one, along many other medieval weapons replicas.’’
‘’Thank you very much, sir. You were most helpful.’’
‘’It was my pleasure, miss.’’
With her two new books now inside her big backpack, Jehanne went to speak with the British couple, which was still browsing through the displays of the museum.
‘’I am mostly finished here, Mister and Misses Farnsworth, and I don’t want to push you to go quicker, so I intend to go walk around town and take some pictures. It was truly nice to know both of you.’’
‘’And it was nice to have met you, Jehanne.’’ said the woman before kissing her on both cheeks. Her husband then did the same and ended with a solid handshake.
‘’Have a nice vacation time around France, Jehanne.’’
‘’Thank you! The same for you.’’
Jehanne then left the museum-cum-sales boutique and, her backpack on her back, started walking around the old village, taking pictures of the nearby old Church of Saint-Rémy de Domrémy-la-Pucelle, where the historical Jehanne had routinely prayed. It didn’t take her long to look at everything worth a picture in the tiny village, so soon ended wondering what she would do for the rest of the day, as it was still only mid-afternoon. She finally decided to use this occasion to do something she hadn’t been able to do on the NOSTROMO: she started walking around the trails and dirt roads of the area, admiring the open nature around her and sniffing the smell of the various plants and trees growing around. By the time night fell, she was quite content with the views she had seen and photographed. Finding herself alone in a small trail away from the village, she then took a decision and, activating her directed gravity drive system, flew off into the night, roughly heading West towards Paris, some 250 kilometers away.
14:18 (France Time)
Wednesday, May 11, 2332
Les Champs Élysées, Paris
Jehanne had been really enjoying her vacation time in Paris, a city full of history, monuments and some very old buildings, like the Notre-Dame Cathedral which, after nearly burning down in the 21st Century, had then been restored and subsequently carefully maintained and repaired to conserve its thousand-year cachet. While Jehanne couldn’t really ‘feel’ enjoyment, excitement, happiness and other emotions, she had other means to measure the degree of interest or attraction she had towards certain objects, places and vistas. Things that brought forward in her electronic mind more questions, more search for background information and the desire to learn more about them were her way to measure how she ‘felt’ about something. In this optic, Paris definitely rose to the level of ‘very interesting’ for her. While she couldn’t enjoy nor was attracted to one of Paris’ prime touristic factors, gastronomy, Jehanne still could sniff and analyze the odors coming from the various open restaurant terraces and cafés lining the streets of the old French capital and could now rate that experience as amazingly diverse. A couple of times, Jehanne had stopped at a terrasse or small café to sip on a cup of strong coffee or a small shot of liquor, tasting and analyzing them with her olfactive sensors and artificial tastebuds. Then, she would go to the washrooms of the establishment, where she could discretely wash her mouth and throw out the little liquid she had stored in the small pouch down her throat which she used to simulate drinking. That apparently futile exercise for an android actually served two purposes: first, it made her appear more human to the persons around her; second, it added to the things she experienced and learned while visiting a place.
Jehanne had just visited a small café-terrace located along the wide avenue of the Champs-Élysées, where she had tasted a small shot of green mint liquor, and was now slowly strolling up the wide sidewalk towards the old ‘Arc de Triomphe’ while often stopping to browse the façades of the hundreds of boutiques and shops lining both sides of it. She was about to arrive at a street corner where a much smaller side street joined with the boulevard when the sound of a gun shot from nearby made her stop, all her senses now on alert. Two French police officers, a man and a woman dressed in the blue coveralls of the French Gendarmerie, also heard that shot and immediately reacted to it, looking down the side street while the male officer briefly spoke on his pocket radio. Both police officers then started to run, disappearing behind the corner of a building bordering the Champs-Élysées while other passersby hurriedly ran away. Just then, a loud alarm bell started ringing down that side street. Jehanne immediately recognized what kind of alarm she was now hearing.
‘Anti-robbery alarm! A boutique or establishment is being attacked by armed robbers.’
She didn’t hesitate one fraction of a second then on how to react to this: she had been built as a security officer, with her primary goals in existence being the protection of the innocents and the prevention and stopping of crimes and aggression. Activating her individual force shield generator implanted in her torso, Jehanne started to run and turned the street corner, following the two French gendarmes. Some fifty meters down the street, along the left side on which she was with the gendarmes, she saw the façade and advertising sign of a high-end jewelry shop. Then, before she could intervene, a man who had been sitting in a car parked in front of the jewelry shop opened his door and pointed a weapon at the two approaching gendarmes. A burst of automatic fire from a machine pistol then rang out and both gendarmes collapsed on the sidewalk, while some lost bullets ricocheted against Jehanne’s force shield. Deciding that her first priority was to help the fallen French gendarmes, Jehanne braked to a halt next to them and crouched to examine them. She quickly found out that the male gendarme was dead, having received three bullets, including one that had hit him in the forehead and had exploded the back of his head. As for the female gendarme, she was conscious but was crying in pain while holding her right upper leg, which had been pierced by one bullet and was bleeding profusely.
‘’Hold on, miss: I’m going to help you. First, though, I will move you out of the line of fire of that bastard.’’
‘’My partner…’’
‘’I’m sorry, miss, but he is dead: one bullet through the head. Now, be strong: I will have to carry you behind that parked car and it could be painful.’’
While in great pain and starting to show signs of shock, the female gendarme nodded her head and clenched her teeth as Jehanne scooped her in her arms as gently as she could, then lifted her from the sidewalk and carried her to the space between the two nearest parked vehicles, where she gently put down the woman on the asphalt. Thankfully, the gunman who had fired on her didn’t fire more shots at them, probably judging that he didn’t have to, so Jehanne was able to quickly apply an improvised bandage on the gendarme’s bleeding leg, taking off her wool sweater and folding it in order to use it as a bandage. In the process, Jehanne ended up topless, as she normally didn’t wear a bra, not needing one. However, she couldn’t care less about that right now. She also used her leather belt to help keep in place the folded sweater and also took the right hand of the female gendarme, putting it on the sweater.
‘’Keep pressure on this, so that the bleeding can stop, miss. Have you had time to call for help?’’
‘’Marc did!’’ answered the grimacing gendarme, probably referring to her dead partner.
‘’Then, stay here and wait for help. Here is your pistol, so that you can defend yourself.’’
The female gendarme took the pistol offered by Jehanne, then gave her a grateful look.
‘’Thank you, miss. You are a brave woman.’’
That compliment made Jehanne smile in response.
‘’It’s in my nature, miss.’’
Not letting time for the wounded gendarme to ask what she meant by that, Jehanne then got up and walked back on the sidewalk, where she approached the dead male gendarme and grabbed the pistol he had held and which was now lying on the sidewalk near his body. Jehanne quickly checked that there was a bullet in the chamber of the pistol, a model with a twenty-round magazine capacity. The gunman sitting in the parked car saw that and fired a burst at her, making half a dozen bullets ricochet against her force shield. He didn’t have time to fire another burst before Jehanne shot once, exploding the back of his head with a bullet between his eyes. Ignoring the dead man, she fired a second shot, this time aiming at the man sitting in the driver’s seat and killing him as well. With that taken care of, Jehanne next walked to the glass door of the jewelry shop, where she could see a number of people inside. Some of them were obviously customers or sales staff but she could also see four men holding weapons and hammers, busy either threatening the customers and staff or smashing with their hammers the presentation cases containing rows of expensive jewels and then grabbing and throwing into bags those jewels. All in all, a classic jewelry shop heist, but one done in a most violent and brutal way. One of the armed men saw her approach the entrance door and pointed his machine pistol at her but didn’t fire. The reason for that became clear to Jehanne when she saw that the door was made of bullet-proof glass, something one could expect for a jewelry shop. She thus refrained herself from shooting until she had thrown open the door, beating the robber by a fraction of a second and killing him with a head shot before he could fire at her. The loud pistol detonation inside the shop was deafening and made the customers and sales staff scream and cower with fear, while the remaining three robbers all turned towards her while pointing either machine pistols or semi-automatic pistols at her. Using her android flash reflexes and ability to fire with an accuracy no human could equal, Jehanne then fired three more times in less than one second, killing all the remaining robbers with head shots before they could fire at her. Scanning quickly the boutique for more robbers, she saw a man lying in a pool of blood in a corner next to the entrance door. Approaching him cautiously, she saw that the man wore the uniform of a private security guard. His pistol was still in its holster and a large patch of blood stained his shirt at the level of his heart. Crouching next to him, Jehanne checked him for a pulse but found none. Next, Jehanne went around and collected the robbers’ weapons before putting them on top of the counter, where the cash register was. Next, she gently smiled at the petrified customers and staff, who were staring at her with disbelief.
‘’You are now safe, ladies and gentlemen. Is any of you hurt?’’
One female sales clerk answered her, showing her a man sitting against a wall and holding his bleeding mouth and jaw.
‘’They pistol-whipped our manager after he pressed the alarm button. I believe that his jaw is broken.’’
‘’Then, call for an ambulance now. Tell the dispatcher that there is also a wounded police officer outside, with a bullet wound to her upper right leg.’’
‘’Huh, right away, miss!’’
As the female clerk hurried to her desk telecoms unit, a mature woman who appeared to be a customer looked up and down at Jehanne, some reprobation in her voice when she spoke.
‘’Why are you going topless like this in public, miss?’’
‘’Because I used my sweater as an improvised bandage to help that wounded gendarme outside. Now, please keep quiet until the police and an ambulance could arrive.’’
It actually took only a couple of minutes before a police vehicle, its sirens blaring, screeched to a halt in front of the jewelry store, with two policemen then jumping out, pistols in hand. Jehanne, on seeing them arrive, put down on the counter the pistol she had used, then went to join the female sales clerk near the cash register, so that the newcomers would not mistake her for a robber. The two policemen entered the store with weapons pointed but soon stopped where they were at the sight of the four dead robbers and one security guard sprawled in large puddles of blood on the floor. One policeman then noticed the topless Jehanne and gave her a puzzled look.
‘’Did these robbers assault you, miss? And what happened exactly here?’’
‘’I was passing by when I heard a gun shot and an alarm coming from this jewelry store. Two of your gendarmes also reacted to that but were shot by one of the two bandits waiting in a car parked in front of this store. The male agent was killed, while the female gendarme got shot in the leg. I then pulled that female gendarme out of the line of fire and used my sweater as an improvised bandage for her leg. That is why I am presently topless. Next, I grabbed her dead partner’s pistol and killed the two bandits waiting in their getaway car before entering the jewelry store and killing the four criminals I found inside. I put their weapons, plus the pistol I used, on the counter next to the cash register. Apparently, those robbers killed the establishment’s private security guard and pistol-whipped the store manager before I showed up.’’
The policeman stared at Jehanne for a moment, apparently having difficulties in believing her story, as more police vehicles arrived, disgorging more agents. The young sales clerk who had been looking after the store manager then spoke up.
‘’What this young woman said was the truth, officer. I can testify to that.’’
‘’Very well!’’ said the gendarme, lowering his pistol. ‘’An ambulance is on its way and should arrive soon. In the meantime, I will ask you all to stay where you are and to not touch or disturb anything: this is now a crime scene.’’
As more policemen entered the store, pistols and submachine guns in hand, the cop who had been asking questions walked to Jehanne and, doing his best not to look down at her exposed breasts, nodded once his head at her in a sign of respect.
‘’Thank you for caring for our wounded officer, miss. Do you have some kind of identity papers on you, so that I could name you in my incident report?’’
‘’I have my passport and my badge, mister.’’
‘’Your badge? What kind of badge?’’
‘’I am a Spacer and work as a security officer on the Armed Merchant Ship NOSTROMO. I am presently on vacation and was touring France. Here are my passport and badge.’’
Taking both items presented by Jehanne, the gendarme first examined with curiosity her badge, which was actually gold-plated and bore the flag of the Spacers’ League, plus the words ‘Security and Law Officer’ and her name and badge number. Next, he looked at her passport and frowned on seeing the date of birth mentioned in it.
‘’Activated July 20th, 2328? What does that mean, Miss De Domrémy?’’
‘’That is the date I was activated after being built at the Avalon Space Yards, mister. I am an android.’’
The policeman’s head snapped up in shock, while the other persons who heard Jehanne also stared at her with disbelief.
‘’You…a robot?’’ could barely manage to say the French policeman.
‘’Not a robot, but an android. As such, I am considered as a full-fledged citizen of the Spacers’ League, with equal rights to those of the other, human citizens of the Spacers’ League. The only main difference with Humans and other living beings is that I cannot reproduce biologically and don’t need to eat or drink to survive.’’
‘’Huh, that may complicate this case, miss. I am not sure what the legal status of androids like you is in the European Union.’’
From friendly, Jehanne’s expression changed to a warning one.
‘’Well, your European Union better treat me like any other Spacer’s League citizen, or it will get trouble from my embassy. Look, mister. I gave assistance to one of your officers who had been shot, then stopped six violent criminals who were in the process of robbing this store after killing two men. Can’t you consider these as positive points in my favor?’’
Now assuaged, the French policeman adopted a more friendly attitude towards her and presented his right hand for a shake.
‘’I am sorry for my initial reaction to you, miss. You will understand that this is the first time that I deal with an android.’’
‘’There is a first time for everything, mister.’’ replied Jehanne while shaking his hand. The young sales clerk then approached Jehanne while holding a light windbreaker.
‘’I believe that this should fit you, miss. Please accept it: you shouldn’t need to have to keep going around topless like this.’’
‘’You are too kind, miss. Thank you very much.’’ Said Jehanne, who took the light coat and put it on before looking back at the French policeman. ‘’What’s next, mister?’’
‘’We will drive you to our police station, where you will be able to fill a statement concerning this incident before being allowed to go. However, there are possibilities that your presence will be required again as the inquiry in this progress.’’
‘’Inquiry? What kind of inquiry do you need to do? These criminals were caught in the act, in front of multiple witnesses, and are now all dead. There is nobody else left to inquire about.’’
‘’You are most probably right, Miss De Domrémy, but a magistrate will have to decide on that, not me.’’
At that moment, a senior police officer who had entered after the others and had then examined the bodies of the dead robbers, signaled to Jehanne’s interlocutor to approach him. Both men spoke together for a moment before the senior officer came to Jehanne and shook her hand.
‘’Commissaire Genest, at your service, Miss De Domrémy. I just had a look at those dead robbers and I must congratulate you for your brave