“Everyone coming up from Earth wants to try it in zero-g,” he said after their laughter had died down. Then he disappointed her. “I think we’d better just leave the ship on course – don’t want them bumping into walls, ceilings or floors,” he said.
She reluctantly agreed. The disappointment faded as he asked her about her time on Amalgamated 684, which started a conversation.
When next she looked at the chrono, she realized that over two hours had gone by, and she practically knew his life story, his desires, his fears. And he knew hers, as well. She had never before found someone so easy to talk to.
When the door opened, and Ritter and Carol floated into the room, she felt a loss. Ritter helped Carol strap in, then floated to his place.
“Ready for jump?” he asked as he slipped into his restraints.
“I hear it can make you sick,” Carol said.
“A slight, passing feeling of nausea,” Angela answered her. “You can have a space-sick bag ready, if you want, but it’s rare that anyone ever vomits.”
She didn’t look very reassured, so Angela dug one out and passed it to her. Better safe than sorry – especially in zero-g. Carol accepted it gratefully, and prepared it for use.
“Taking us in, Angela?” Ritter asked.
“Rolf says I can,” she replied.
“Then let’s do it.”
Rolf called up the equation, and gave her the course. She needed to adjust the ship’s attitude only slightly, and then she hit the thrusters to get them on the correct vector.
“We’re at twenty percent of maximum recommended insertion velocity for this distance from Earth. I think that’s good enough,” Rolf said. “Shields down.”
She cut the power to the shields, feeling a slight jump in her stomach. The time between the dropping of shields and the actual jump held the most danger.
“Jump.”
She activated the jump sequence, felt the slight nausea as they entered hyperspace with only a very mild shudder.
“Aw,” Carol said as the starfield disappeared, to be replaced by the swirling greys of hyperspace.
“Not much to see in hyperspace,” Rolf affirmed. “That’s the view for the next day. How do you feel?”
“Not bad,” she said, sounding surprised. “Just as Angela said: a passing nauseous feeling. I’m fine now.”
“Wait until drop,” Ritter said, his voice a bit of a leer. “The feeling of drop more than makes up for jump.”
She grinned at him. “And we can drop linked?”
He laughed. “You’ve been watching too many vids. But yes, if you like. It increases the feeling of euphoria. Okay, Rolf, Angela, you’re relieved. You want gravity or not?”
“Gravity,” said Angela reaching for the controls. She slowly raised it to Earth-standard. With one last, wistful look at the controls that had both Rolf and Ken laughing, she removed her restraints, and stood. She stretched, hands above her head, and twisted her to her left and then her right. In her peripheral vision she caught both men eyeing her figure. She hadn’t intended putting herself on display like that, but appreciated the reaction. Carol winked at her, and she felt her face heat. No, she hadn’t done it on purpose. She quickly turned and left for the dining area.
A few moments later, Rolf joined her. They pulled out two of the meals that Aunt Sophie had packed for them, and ate with joy.
“We’re at six and six, now,” Rolf said.
“Pardon?” she didn’t understand.
“Pilot Ritter and I will stand six hour shifts. Nothing much happens in hyperspace, so there’s no need to stay sharp. But one of us should stay in the cockpit – or at least awake nearby – in case an alarm goes off.”
“So,” she said, “we have six hours to rest, sleep, eat, whatever.”
He grinned at her. “I have six hours – you, your only duty is to make sure that Carol enjoys herself.” He winked at her. “And I think that Ken has taken that duty for himself. Thus, you get to do whatever you want.”
He cleaned the table, putting the packaging in recycling. Done, he turned to her, and asked his question.
“What do you wish to do?”
It suddenly struck her exactly what she wished to do with her time off. She looked at his kind face, recalled his voice talking about whatever she wished to talk about, being open and honest with her.
“I can do what I wish?”
He nodded.
She reached up, pulled his head down, and kissed him on the lips. He stiffened for a moment, and she felt an awful pain inside as she prepared herself for the rejection to follow – just like Wen had rejected her on the lifeboat. But then he returned the kiss, his arms went around her, and tightened.
“You don’t want to wait for Wen Pearson?” he asked softly, his lips mere centimetres from her ear.
She relaxed her hold on him, and stepped back as he did the same. She looked into his eyes, but found no recriminations there.
“Wen doesn’t want me,” she said. Then she waved that off. “I don’t mean he dislikes me, and he saved my life ... and, were I in danger, I have no doubt but that he would risk his for mine again. But he doesn’t want me the way I wanted him. I understand that, now.”
She looked away, not wanting to have to bear another disappointment.
“The question is,” she said, “do you?”
He placed a finger on her chin, and directed her head to turn back to him and up. “I heard about what happened on the lifeboat.”
She felt her face grow hot. “It’s no secret.”
“Let’s just say that I would have reacted far differently.”
A tentative smile came to her lips as she searched his eyes for the veracity of his statement. Gaining what she considered confirmation, the smile changed in character. She turned her head slightly to the side, while keeping her gaze on his face.
“Let’s find out if that’s true.”
Angela took Rolf’s hand, and led him to her cabin. There, she took off shoes, picked them up, then slipped off one sock, which she dropped on the floor outside the door. She pressed the button that caused the door to slide open, and pulled him in.
He looked down at the sock, a question on his face. The door closed, blocking the sight of it.
Angela smiled. “An old Earth custom.”
“Tell me,” he said as she began to undress.
“It’s a signal one roommate leaves for the other to tell her that she should not disturb the occupants. But we don’t have a doorknob, so I just left it on the floor.”
Rolf laughed out loud. “A very sensible custom,” he admitted. Then the time for talk ended.
CHAPTER 23
Venture
Thursday 12 August
“Carly Wilson, Captain. You wanted to see me?”
Carly entered the captain’s Day Cabin at Bettina Yrden’s wave. She closed the door at a second motion, wondering why the captain considered privacy necessary. Surely she hadn’t done anything worthy of censure. And her time with the Yrdens had shown her that they operated in a very fair and open manner.
“Have you studied the financial memo?” Bettina asked.
“Yes, Captain, but I don’t understand. You want me to shift my Earth-based bank account to a Family bank?”
“Yes. I’m sure you’ve noticed that we’re preparing for sanctions by Earth governments and TPCs. That might include freezing of Earth accounts.”
Carly studied the other woman. “I’m not sure that they would freeze employee accounts in North American banks.”
“Possibly not. However, they might stop us from using said banks. If we can’t deposit your wages, it might cause problems.” She waved off any objection. “It wouldn’t, of course, affect your wages, nor your ability to access them from us. But if you have regular payments being made from those accounts that depend on your wages being deposited.... Well, you get my drift.”
Something felt wrong to Carly. All this could have been covered in the memo – partially had
been. Nothing here for an Yrden ship’s Captain to worry about. Their financial officer, maybe, the ship’s paymaster, yes, but a ship’s captain?
“Some of our otherhires have dependents on Earth. Can you imagine if suddenly their rent payment bounced? So, we’re studying workarounds. Part of that entails opening up a special account backed by precious metals and trade goods.” Bettina smiled at her. “It also works like a guaranteed investment fund.”
That interested Carly. “How so?”
“Well, each otherhire gets paid in the currency of choice. You come from the USNA, so you get paid in North American Dollars – as you wished. We have some who are paid in Euros, some in New Zealand Dollars, et cetera. You would have shares in that account, bought by the amount of your wages. And, of course, you could withdraw them – at a minimum, the amount of currency that you put in. So, if you deposited one hundred NADs, the minimum you would have access to is one hundred NADs. With me so far?”
“Yes.” Well, not really. But she wanted to see where Bettina would head this, when she’d get around to the real stuff.
“But the account is based on precious metals and trade goods. So, if we have stockpiled widgets, say, on Haida Gwaii, partially paid for by deposits of our Family and otherhires, and the price we sell those widgets for double because of a widget shortage, then your share value goes up accordingly. So, your 100 NAD investment might be worth 105 NADs – which you could withdraw at any time.”
“And if the price of widgets drops because someone’s found a replacement at half the cost?” Carly asked, playing along.
“Then the total fund takes a bit of a beating but, although your shares may now be worth only 95 NADs, you could still withdraw 100.” Bettina pursed her lips. “Of course, there is a risk.”
“Oh?”
“Although you might gain through our trading, you would have to set that against loss of interest payments that your bank might pay you. These accounts are not interest bearing.”
“Interest rates are very low, anyway,” Carly replied, having looked after her own finances for years.
“Precisely. So, would you like to sign up, not sign up, have more time to think about it?”
“Is this limited to Venture?” Carly asked. “Or is it an Yrden Family initiative.”
“Good question,” Bettina said, nodding. “It’s going to become a Family Trading League initiative.”
And the Family Trading League almost printed its own money. Having shares wouldn’t hurt her portfolio at all. Especially with the guaranteed protection of investment capital.
“I’ll sign up.”
“Excellent. Now, are there any regular payments that you want your new account to take over from your present one? Rent? Mortgage payments? Stipends to family members.”
Carly thought she heard a slight emphasis on ‘family members’, and wondered if this occasioned the captain’s involvement in an otherwise unexciting piece of business.
“Yes, I have a nephew. His parents died in an accident.”
Bettina winced. “That’s hard. Tell me about it.”
The captain listened with interest, so Carly explained the circumstances, and what she did. “Actually, Captain, that’s what induced me to take this job. Good pay and steady work. I’m putting him through school – I couldn’t afford to if I were working back on Earth.”
“No other family members that could help out?”
She snorted. “None that would; and none that I would want to have even near Eddie. He’s better off boarding at school than he would be with any of them.”
Carly noted that the captain’s eyes had narrowed at that last. Knowing how important the FTL considered family, had her dismissal of Eddie’s caused Bettina to think less of her?
“Eddie attends school? Isn’t it holiday time for school children in the USNA?”
“Another three weeks before Fall semester,” Carly agreed. “He stays in the dorms – doesn’t like it, but I can’t afford to send him anywhere else.” She took a breath. “And I’m not letting any of his father’s relatives get anywhere near him.”
“So, he’s your sister’s son? How old is he?”
“Yes, my sister’s son. He’s fourteen.”
“And relatives on your side of the family?”
“He has me. That’s all.”
“But it costs to keep him at the dorm over the summer holidays, right?”
Carly nodded. “Room, board, cleaning fees, supervision fees.”
“And you would save some money if he were elsewhere?”
Carly bristled. If Bettina thought she’d turn Eddie over to those bastards so that she could put more money into this new Families Fund, she had another think coming.
“Some,” she agreed, “but—”
“You know about Carol White, don’t you?”
“The woman who won the lottery giving her a holiday up here? Yes. She’s gone on a trip out to Saturn and Jupiter, I believe.” Carly wondered what that had to do with anything.
“We brought her up to Venture in particular because Venture’s not going anywhere until Haida Gwaii is completed.”
“Yes, I know that, too.”
“So, we have rooms that we’re basically using as transient quarters. And we have shuttles coming up from Earth all the time. One more person – and his luggage, I suppose you’d have to take everything or they’d charge you for storage – wouldn’t burden the Yrdens at all.”
“What?” Carly felt she must have heard wrong. “You’re offering to bring Eddie up to live on Venture until the Fall Semester starts?”
Bettina smiled. “Well, yes. Why not? You’ve worked for us for years, and we consider you a great asset. So, why not? We’d charge a little for food, naturally, but he could stay in your guest room – so that wouldn’t deprive us of any space. Therefore no charge. His trip up and back is on us.”
Shock prevented Carly from saying anything. And she would get to see Eddie, get to know him again. With only a few weeks holiday on Earth each year, he seemed to grow in spurts, and presented her with a different person every time she saw him. She finally recovered.
“Yes,” she said. “I’d like that very much. When?”
“Well, we can put a comm at your disposal. You can contact the school, your bank, etc. Then, tomorrow, you can drop with a shuttle, do whatever business you need to do, pick up Eddie, and return here the day after tomorrow.”
She sat still, stunned at the suddenness of it.
“Um, we’re not exactly in a big city – nothing for the shuttle to pick up there.”
“I’m well aware of that. We have your banking information, remember? And I’d like you to consider something else.”
There was something else?
“You’ve never engaged a courtesan.”
Carly gaped. Bettina wanted her to engage a courtesan? Wasn’t she getting a little personal? But, apparently, Bettina didn’t think so, for she awaited an answer.
“No, I never have. Couldn’t afford one even if I wanted. Not a courtesan and Eddie.”
“Thus, your guest room has remained empty. So, consider this: if Eddie turns out to be a nice lad during his stay – not disruptive – you could keep him in that guest room, and allow him to attend school on board. We would basically consider him your courtesan.” She laughed in obvious embarrassment. “Well, no, we wouldn’t. But we would consider him the same as we consider any courtesan – as your guest and responsibility. Fees would apply, of course, the same as for an actual courtesan. And our learning facility is an officially acknowledged one. Any credits he earns here would be transferable back on Earth if you decided to return him to that environment – or if he hated it here, or if we decided that we could no longer keep him for whatever reason.”
“Eddie’s a good kid.” At least every report she’d received had said so. And wouldn’t he go wild over learning to play in the zero-g room? All the problems that would solve! She could take a more personal interest in his life, be t
here for him. And he could even visit other planets from time to time.
“Yes, I’ll consider that. Very carefully. Thank you, Captain.”
Bettina nodded. “Go see Vic. He’ll set you up with comm and anything else you need.”
Carly almost stumbled out of the room. She couldn’t believe this. Two hours later, she had talked to her bank, talked to the school, talked to Eddie, who sounded absolutely thrilled with the idea of spending the remainder of his vacation on Venture, and had promised to have everything packed before she arrived.
She headed back to work, which the Captain’s call had interrupted.
“Dave, I’ll be gone for a couple of days,” she told Patterson, regretting that this would leave him short-handed.
“I already know, Carly. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just draft Pilot Pearson if I need a hand.” He laughed. Then he said, “Be careful down there. It’s getting really tense.”
Carly went with the rest of the crew to handle incoming pallets. She bent over one, checking the lashings, then froze.
“Dear God,” she whispered.
“What’s that?” Wen asked. She hadn’t even noticed that he had taken another extra shift. “Bad lashing?”
“No. Nothing. Just thinking of something else.”
Her hands automatically undid the cords. And she moved the containers, barely realizing what she did. The Yrdens were pulling up all their people from the planet. The official reason stated the threat of sanctions and loss of trade. But did that really make sense?
And now – why now and not last year or the year before – now, Bettina had offered to pull her, Carly’s, family off the planet, too. All that financial stuff belonged to someone other than the captain. Vic could have done it, explained everything.
The whole interview, Carly now understood, had as its aim an investigation of her family, and how and if it could be brought up. Just what did the Yrdens foresee?
* * *
In her Day Cabin, Bettina breathed out a sigh of relief. One more down. Matt might have his ideas about this – about what it might give away to anyone who watched them closely, but she needed to do something with the information she had.
Not With A Whimper: Survivors Page 24