Daily Scifi Shorts, Sketches, & Starts

Thursday October 16

Artois PT Americus was the largest ship ever put into space; eleven miles long, roughly cylindrical, with a diameter of nearly four miles. Spencer Vilkenon, captain, crewman, medical officer, and loadmaster for the 51 quadrillion liters of Saturnine atmosphere that constituted the effective payload, often wondered why such a technological wonder as the ship he commanded would be named after such a small town; he'd never been to Georgia, and in fact had never been to the United States at all, but he'd posed the question to the other crewman of Americus, Tammilyn Pilkington--the former Mrs. Spencer Vilkernon, in fact. "Americus is Ran Streden's hometown," she said flatly. "I'm surprised you don't know that."
    "How would I know his hometown?" Spenscer had responded.
    She shrugged. "Well, it's a stupid little town out in the middle of nowhere. It's near Plains. You know Plains, right?"
    "No."
    "Plains, Georgia? Where Jimmy Cater was from?"
    "Jimmy Carter?"
    "Jesus Christ," she said. She pulled her head out from under the panel and scowled at him. "You don't know who Jimmy Carter was?"
    "Sounds familiar," he said. "He was a president, I think."
    "Yeah." She st;uck her head back in the panel. "Hand me that