Excerpt: The First Element

"Ante up."

Tom Grady watched wearily as Jake Trotta shuffled the cards.

The back room in the small bar, Thor's Hammer, was packed. The place was a favorite hangout for the men and women in the DSS, the Deep Space Service. Today there were seven tables playing various flavors of poker. The games were ongoing and there were always at least three or four tables in play. You had to know someone to get in, but almost all DSS personnel knew someone who knew someone who could get you into a game.

Jake had shown up with a guy named Carl something-or-other that Grady had known back in his academy days. Usually these games included DSS personnel only but most of the people at the table had heard of Jake Trotta; a homesteader from Nueva Tierra. In fact, Jake had been one of the first to buy land on the planet as soon as homesteads were offered.

Stakes in the perpetual poker game on the orbiting space station could get large as those returning from missions to distant solar systems put up and often lost months worth of back pay.

Grady was tired. Tomorrow he'd catch the shuttle to Earth-side. His fiancée, Carolyn, would be waiting and she would expect him to go out to celebrate his return. "I should go," he started to say, standing up as he gathered his chips.

"You can't go now!" Jake waved his hand in Grady's direction, saying, "Sit. Just one more hand. You gotta give me a chance to catch up."

Sighing Grady dropped back into his chair. He wondered why Jake had returned Earth-side. For most, the trip to Nueva Tierra was a one-way journey. Worm holes might have made travel to distant galaxies possible, but you still had to get to the entry point and then from the exit point to the planet on the other end and that could take from weeks to months depending on how close the end points were to the planet. The round trip to Nueva Tierra was nearly two years. It could seem like two decades sometimes, especially when you were anxious to see the loved ones left behind so few people other than DSS personnel were interested in making the journey more than one time.

"Maybe Grady's got a hot date," said Carl.

"As a matter of fact, I do."

As he began to deal the cards, Jake said, "Tell you what, let's play one more hand, all or nothing and then you can go see your girl."

Grady tossed the chips for the blind into the pot and then took the tall frosty glass of ale from the waitress who had appeared at his side the minute he sat down again. He shook his head as he sipped the tall, frosty brew. The girl had a prodigious memory. If you had been in Thor's Hammer before, she would remember you and what you liked to drink.

Grady lifted the corner of his two cards to see what he had been dealt. Pocket aces? Maybe this hand would be worth playing after all. He glanced around the table. Several people groaned and tossed their cards aside, folding before the first round of betting.

The man to Jake's left rapped his knuckles on the table. "Check," he said.

The next two followed suit. Then Carl leaned forward and said, "I raise… five thousand," and dropped his chips into the pot.

"Call," said Grady. He didn't want to get too greedy and have Jake and Carl fold too soon. Better to build up the pot and make things interesting.

"Call," said Jake. The three men who had checked now folded their hands. The man next to Jake stood up and scooped his chips into a bucket and walked away to cash in while the other two stayed to watch.

Jake picked up the deck and dealt out the flop, three cards in the center of the table. Jake turned over the ace of spades and then the queen of hearts and three of diamonds. Grady held his breath, not daring to move lest he telegraph his good fortune to the remaining two players.

"I'll raise three thousand," said Carl as he pushed a small stack of chips into the center of the table. Then he sat back and crossed his arm, looking at Grady with a smug expression on his face.

"Think," Grady told himself. "Is there any way he can beat you?” There was no way Carl could also have two aces. At most he could have an ace and a queen, an ace and a three, or a queen and a three. Either way the best he could do at this point was two pair. He added his own chips to the pile.

"Call," said Jake. He dropped the next card, the queen of diamonds, on the table.

Grady watched Jake's eyes widen--with pleasure? He gauged the size of the remaining pile of chips in front of Jake while he waited to see what Carl would do.

Carl looked first at Grady and then at Jake. "All in," he said as he pushed his remaining chips into the pot.

"I have a full house," thought Grady. "Even if one of them has a full house as well, I have aces high."

"That's thirty thousand to you," said Carl.

"I'll see your thirty thousand," said Grady, "and add another five thousand on top."

Jake hesitated and then pushed his own pile of chips into the table. There was perhaps ten thousand left in front of him. Grady considered his own pile of chips. He had started with a stake of only twenty-five thousand. Rather than going broke almost immediately, as he had expected, he had won. His pile of chips had grown to over one hundred thousand and then shrunk down a bit from there but he was more than prepared to see this hand through. He still had forty-three thousand in chips in front of him.

He would normally have put up most of his back pay at one of these games, but the rest of his money was already committed. He had an appointment with a jeweler in Port Jefferson near the shuttle port to pick up the engagement ring he had ordered on his last visit to Earth. After nine years of dating--and three trips for him back and forth to Nueva Tierra--he was ready to make a commitment. He just hoped Carolyn would take him seriously.

"Almost over," said Jake. With a great flourish, he turned over the river, the last card, the seven of hearts.

Carl's face fell and Grady was sure that he had beaten him. Did Jake look happy or not? He wasn't sure. On the other hand, what did he have to lose? A measly twenty-five thousand credits. Not a big deal, really. He certainly couldn't count the money he had won because he never really had it in his pocket. With absolute confidence he pushed the remaining forty-three thousand chips into the pot as he said, "All in."

"You must be pretty sure of yourself," said Jake. He tapped one finger against his lower lip as he considered aloud, "Carl looked a little bit disappointed at that last card, so I'm pretty sure I've beaten him." He looked at his chips. "I've only got ten thousand, so I can't really call your bet. Unless…" he reached in his back pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper.

"This is the deed to my 'stead on Nuevo Tierra. He handed it to Carl who skimmed it and handed it to Jake.

"That is five hundred acres of prime land," said Jake. "It's on the main continent and smack in the middle of the temperate zone. It's within riding distance of the town of Mud Flats and within a couple of hours of travel by bus to the nearest shuttle port."

"Why are you so anxious to give it up then?"

"Who says I'm giving it up? Nobody who thinks they are going to lose lays a bet," said Jake.

"I guess it will do," said Grady. He looked at Carl who nodded in agreement.

"All righty then," said Jake. "Let's see what we've got."

Carl turned over his cards, the five of clubs and the Queen of Spades. "Three of a kind," he said.

"Full house," said Grady as he turned over his own cards.

"I have a full house also," said Jake. He flipped over his cards as he said, "I have three sevens and a pair of queens. It looks as though you are the proud owner of a ranch on Nuevo Tierra."

"What are you going to do with that?"

Grady smiled. "I have an idea," he said. He cashed in the rest of his chips while Jake made several phone calls.

"I'll meet you in Port Jefferson tomorrow," he said, shaking Grady's hand, "and we can finalize the transfer."