Space Pirates
an excerpt

It was November 5th, the feast of the Hunters Moon, and a farm in the state of Iowa was the best way to experience it: At least to Max Bennett.
The air was cool and crisp, without a cloud in the sky. You could see for miles, being away from the city and the pollution that accompanies such a place. Looking up toward the heavens, you could see the stars and planets that inhabited the sky. The North Star, the Big Dipper, and the planet Venus, were all in array, as if they were on parade on the clearest night that Max had seen for months.
Max had not seen such a beautiful sky anywhere else other than the SETI radio telescope site in Arizona, where he had toiled these last few years as a scientist in search of intelligent life other than what he found here on Earth. Now that was about to end as he prepared to take a job with NASA in Houston.
He would have preferred to stay at SETI. It was the dream of finding intelligent life “out there” that had moved him to become an astrominor. However, years of listening to the static of the Radio Telescopes and finding nothing had taken a toll on Max Bennett. No matter what Jodi Foster and Carl Sagen might say he no longer was sure that intelligent life existed on any but on his own planet. Somehow,that made him feel owfully alone, even when he was surrounded by family and friends. Yes, he still felt alone, in part because deep down inside he felt he had failed, both himself and science.
So he had taken a trip to see his parents at the family farm in Iowa. He remembered growing up on the farm and how he enjoyed it, especially at night, when he watched the stars and planets roam the sky. Late at night he would listen to the radio and hear broadcasts from not only Ceder Rapids the nearest city where he lived, but also places like Chicago, Boston and New York. They were foreign, distant plaaces to him, much like the places that he hoped to catch when he listened to the big radio telescopes in the desert in Arizona.
As he walked along the fence that diveded his parents property from the next farm,owned by some guy named Lightspeed, he sadly shook his head. “Well, at least I can go back on vacation and listen for the sound that eluded me all these years.” He hoped that that would be enough to help him carry on in his new job. He hoped that his dream could somehow still be fulfilled.
”Looking at the stars too?” Suddenly looking around, Max saw a man, slight of build, with madium length brown hair and a ready smile, staring straight at him.
Max smiled back. “Yeah, just admiring the sky and enjoying the view frrom down here.I take it that you are my parents neighbor?”
“That I am, let me introduce myself. My name is Ron Lightspeed and I’m the owner of this little piece of property.” Ron stretched out his arms toward the land that he called his home. Then offered his hand to Max in greeting.
Taking Lightspeeds outstretched hand, Max looked over the farm that LIghtsoeed owned and commented, “I take it you don’t do much farming, loooks like most of your land is fallow.”
Ron Lightspeed looked at his farm and chuckled. ”I guess I don’t. But I don’t really need the money. I have other ways to make the money I need to live. I bought the place because it’s quiet around here and no one bothers you and you can do what you please.I take it you don’t live here? Sorry for the intrusion.”
Max shook his head. “No problem. In a way it’s nice to have someone who enjoys the stars with me. I’m an astrometer by trade and looking at the stars is a part of what I’m about.”
“Lightspeed slyly smiled. “Really! That must be facinating work! What do you actually do?”
Max leaned against the fence and looked up at the moon and all the attendant stars and told Ron LIghtspeed his story and about his job at SETI and how he had become disappointed in finding nothing after nearly 14 years and now taking a job at NASA his dream had become distant as the stars above him.
Lightspeed listened with more and more intensity as Max Bennett told his story. He nodded and smiled at the right places and seemed truly interested in what Max was saying. Almost as if he understood what Max was going through.
After talking what seemed like hours, Max looked at his watch and said, ”Look at the time, it’s getting late and I’m getting a little chilled and sleepy in this cool night air. I think I’ll go back in and get to sleep.”
Ron Lightspeed agreed and turned to go back to his place. Then he turned around and shouted to Max, who was now a distance away fom where they were talking. “Hey Max! How about coming over to my place tomorrow, I got something to show you. I think you’ll get a bang out of it, maybe even want to be involved.”
Max looked back at Lightspeed and thought to himself. What the heck, it probably nothing, but I’ll humor the guy and and have something to do tomorrow. “Sure, I’ll come by, say about 7 o’clock?”
”That‘ll work, see you then.” With that Lightspeed strolled back to his house whistling to himself, wondering how Max will take to the opportunity that he was about to present to him.