All in Good Time

by Mackey Chandler

  “Well, that’s going to impress the Earthies,” April said.

  Irwin winced. “Nor do I have my luggage or clothing beyond what I am wearing. They also didn’t return my supposedly illicit coins or bits. The charges against me were not withdrawn, rather the fellow releasing me said I was being expelled.

  “Who was that?” April demanded.

  “You have to understand. There is a certain psychological battle one engages in as a prisoner,” Irwin explained. “They had certain expectations about how one should react that I refused to fulfill. I strove to stay outside the typical responses of the helpless and frightened. So refusing to ask the man’s name was to imply he didn’t matter.”

  “That’s hardcore,” April said. She obviously approved.

  “I sang quite a bit too,” Irwin revealed.

  “Oh, sort of reverse torture,” April said, nodding her understanding.

  Irwin ignored that. His mother always said he had a nice voice.

  “I put myself in your hands,” Irwin decided. “You’ve had such success so far. It seems short-sighted and ungrateful to ignore that and chart my own course before I even know how you brought me to this point. I have more stories, but if you wish to arrange my reception I’d welcome that. We can speak again and decide if I should return to Home or continue my business trip. I have no idea what may have changed. The investors may have been intimidated by my arrest. I need to speak with everyone involved.”

  “I’ll go do that before you’re on the ground,” April said and disconnected.

  April punched in Mssr. Pierre Broutin, Foreign Minister of France as a search. It would be embarrassing if he’d been retired or removed in the short time since he’d visited Home and April didn’t know. She didn’t follow Earth politics closely enough to know but what they might have had an election last week or if they might be in the midst of some uproar about him or his party. If he wasn’t in power and in favor she really didn’t know another French politician to call directly. The first story up was about him dealing with some mess involving Albania just three days ago so he was golden to call for help.

  As always, Broutin looked like an ad for an exclusive men’s tailor when he appeared.

  “Pierre, April here. I’m still on Home so don’t let the speed of light lag on the com drive you crazy. I have a friend now being transported over the Atlantic to be released in France, expelled really, by the North Americans. Nobody told me they were transporting him. He called from the biz jet himself. I don’t know who to call on your end. Can you make sure he is met and kept safe? I have no idea who to call. He has no clothes and little in the way of papers. I suppose they should just put him up in a decent hotel. I’ll send private security, but I’m sure he’ll be wheels down before I can get them there.”

  There was lag while he listened and perceived she was done.

  “We are aware they intended to accept our invitation to host Mr. Hall. I’ve spoken with Joel about this just yesterday, but they have not informed us he was on the way. If it was a commercial flight he’d have been required to be pre-cleared before he left, but if it is a diplomatic flight that isn’t done. I’ll have it investigated and get back to you shortly. Is that satisfactory?” Broutin asked.

  “Perfect, April agreed. “I didn’t know if you would be aware of it, much less the Prime Minister. It’s more a financial dispute that should have never been a problem.”

  Pierre smiled. “The Prime Minister follows any news about you. He’s a romantic and sees you as a pirate and a throwback to a simpler more direct era.”

  He paused, smiling more than could be accounted for by lag, considering what to say, or perhaps whether to say it at all.

  “I believe in the English idiom you’d consider him a fanboy.”

  April had suffered through a period when Home was in revolt where the newsies promoted her image, abused her naiveté really. It hadn’t helped she’d adopted a dark and militaristic mode of dress. The result had been a lot of fanboys, but they were mostly teens and twenty-somethings copying it in rebellion. There were flash copycat outfits sold that were quickly banned from schools and public venues. The fanboys grew out of it and she rarely dressed like that now. To think that somebody still thought that way was a little creepy but a middle-aged politician even more so. She’d have said so, but it seemed counterproductive to scold the people rendering her aid.

  “Thank the Prime Minister when you have an opportunity,” April said.

  “I will, but you might consider taking a few minutes to do so yourself after the affair is concluded,” Pierre suggested. “It never hurts to have friends in high places.”

  True, and a cheap price for their help, April realized. “I will,” she promised.

  Pierre nodded and disconnected.

  April hoped Jeff was as receptive.

  “Hello dear,” April was gratified to see he didn’t have his distracted face on, and she could really speak to him in detail. “Irwin is on his way to France. Mssr. Broutin is supposed to arrange a safe reception and confirm it with me. Can you arrange some private security to cover Irwin until he is safely back here?”

  Jeff frowned. “I think so. Otis and Mackay declined a rescue, but I believe they’d take a guard assignment now that he’d freed. If they aren’t free they have partners to take the assignment. I’m very aware I can exert undue influence as you taught me. I’ll ask them and make sure they understand they can refuse without prejudice.”

  April for her part was regretting they’d had that talk.

  “When do you want them ready to go? It will be a good five day trip to France even if the shuttle flights all line up nicely,” Jeff reminded her.

  “I’d hoped we could provide transport,” April coaxed him. “Dionysus’ Chariot isn’t in use is she?”

  “OK, call it two days with aggressive acceleration,” Jeff corrected.

  “I thought we agreed to stop hiding our jump capacity,” April reminded him.

  “You want to micro-jump through Earthie radar coverage to LEO direct and land? We could do that in three jumps, but we’d need a bit of velocity to insert in LEO. It would be a long burn on top of obvious superluminal transitions. Are you sure you’re ready to put on that big a show?”

  “Why not? How long are we going to tiptoe around and hide it?” April asked.

  Jeff took a deep long breath. “OK.”

  “Can you get Deloris to lift for Home dock as soon as you have a contract for security?”

  “Deloris and Barak are in the outer system with an apprentice, collecting product off the French mills and refueling things,” Jeff said. “Alice isn’t rated and doesn’t want to be and I wouldn’t trust Kurt to play jump ship billiards inside L1 and do a hot atmospheric landing. He just doesn’t have that level of experience yet.”

  “You just want to do it yourself,” April accused.

  “Not really, and that surprises me as much as you. I’m gotten to the point where what once sounded like an adventure to me now just sounds like a thousand ways for things to go bad. I know I’m much more experienced and understand the systems and software better than anybody else. I have no desire to taunt anyone to make a point, and would take every opportunity to avoid coming anywhere near North America airspace.”

  “If you’re going to play it so safely then you’d have no objection to me sitting second seat and weapons board,” April challenged him.

  “There’s nobody I’d rather have beside me,” Jeff said, shocking her. She expected endless reasons not to risk both of them, including what a disaster it would be for Heather.

  “What’s your estimate from dock here to ground in France then?” April asked.

  “Assuming we can hire the security and they are waiting at dock with you, an hour for me to get to Home, a half-hour to load, a half-hour talking to traffic control between jumps and an hour deceleration and atmospheric entry. I’ll try to call and hire them on the way to save time,” Jeff said.

  “Three hour
s? An hour to Home?” April asked skeptically.

  “Including my time to get aboard,” Jeff said. “If we’re not being shy about demonstrating jump technology then I’ll jump away from the Moon after I’ve lifted a kilometer and jump right back to Home as close as I dare.”

  “Is a kilometer safe?” April worried.

  “I’d do it at a hundred meters straight up in an emergency,” Jeff insisted. “In fact, I’ve given it some thought. If you jumped from Earth it would just drag an envelope of air along with you. I’m still not eager to find out what would happen if you transitioned into an atmosphere.”

  “Promise me you won’t do that just to find out if it works,” April asked. “That’s the kind of thing you need to test with a robot from a good safe distance.”

  “Absolutely, I wouldn’t do that unless I was sitting under an inbound warhead there was no way to intercept or evade any other way,” Jeff promised.

  “Go, and let me know if Otis or Mackay sign on. If they don’t we need to find somebody else. I’ll pass what the French say to you as soon as I hear. I have no idea where in France we need to go or if they will allow it.”

  Now all April could do was wait. That was the hardest of all.

  “Otis, this is Jeff Singh. I’m on the lift to board the Dionysus’ Chariot at Central. Irwin Hall is released and on a plane for France. It’s no longer a hostage situation or a rescue, but April wants to deliver security to him. If you want the job, be at the north docks as fast as you can gather your equipment and be there. If you don’t want it I absolutely won’t hold it against you, but see if somebody else qualified will take it. I’m flying the drop myself with April second. If nobody takes the contract we’ll guard him,” Jeff suddenly decided. He’d argue that with April later.

  “As fast as we can get there? Today?” Otis demanded, shouting a little.

  “I expect to be there in less than an hour, in France in a couple more hours.”

  “We’ll be there,” Otis promised, if only to see what the man was flying.

  “Otis says yes,” Jeff sent to April. “They will be at the north docks as soon as he collects Mackay and gears up. He may beat you there.”

  Chapter 19

  “Central Traffic Control, this is the armed merchant Dionysus’ Chariot piloted by Master Jeffery Singh ID number 899-17-1179 piloting solo, requesting clearance to exit controlled lunar space. Be aware I am filing an unconventional flight plan. Please do not assume there is an emergency or declare one when I disappear from your radar.

  “I request lift on my 14:07 Zulu tick at two g to a kilometer altitude and I intend to make a superluminal transition to exit your control volume on a line tangent to lunar orbit two hundred thousand kilometers along the negative vector. I will then rotate and do a superluminal transition to a point trailing Home’s Earth orbit sweep and contact Home Local Traffic Control for entry to their control volume while braking to match their orbit and request docking. Please copy Armstrong Control and advise my status.”

  To Traffic Control’s credit, there were only ten seconds of dead air time before they responded to this outrageous flight plan.

  “Dionysus’ Chariot, you are cleared to lift on your numbers and we are copying Armstrong Control. We suggest you allow us to advise Home local by relay, as they will have less than the usual lead time to accommodate fitting you in traffic.”

  “That’s an excellent idea, Central, thank you. I’m in my two-minute window.”

  “Be careful out there,” Central said automatically.

  “What the hell?” said an indignant unidentified voice. It wasn’t Central and Jeff didn’t think it was Armstrong. He strongly suspected it was Earth Control monitoring and they just saw his flight plan, but they didn’t say anything more before the Chariot lifted on auto.

  A short boost ended in free fall. Dionysus’ Chariot turned itself on thrusters and did a star shot to lock its attitude well before it started to fall again. Only the lines on his screen changing as the computer worked down through the flight program told Jeff that the ship had jumped. It wasn’t obvious until the ship rotated a hundred eighty degrees and the crescent Moon recentered itself in the forward viewports. The Earth hung to one side.

  There was a brief movement as the ship aimed slightly away from the Earth at Home, which was of course not visible at this distance. Jeff programmed that as a separate action. It might not be as elegant but if anything went wrong it would be easier to figure out why later. He had a stop programmed. He wasn’t sure why. It just seemed like the right thing to do. “Execute,” Jeff said, and the Moon was suddenly big and off-center to his left.

  “Home Local, this is the armed merchant Dionysus’ Chariot inbound along your trailing Earth orbit. Jeff Singh, Master. Requesting clearance to match velocity to the edge of your controlled space opposite the Moon. I then intend to request docking on the north spindle.”

  “Dionysus’ Chariot, we were told to expect you. There is no obstructing traffic. You are clear to decelerate to your requested area at will. This is freaky. I see you on radar and briefly saw your transponder at extreme range at the same time.”

  “Thank you, Home Local. I am flipping and braking to match you.” He didn’t really see any point in addressing the controller’s comment. It was still freaky from his side too. There wasn’t much difference in retained velocity from Central to Home, so he slid to a stop with Home outside his right viewport in an easy ten minutes. He called April and advised her to coordinate with Otis and hold any conversation with him until he docked. Clearance to lock three on the north spindle was granted and both normal and anticlimactic.

  * * *

  Otis and Mackay were at the third lock waiting before April could get there. Both of them looked a little rattled. She hoped they’d lose that before they landed. It wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring.

  “You know we only have couches for two?” April asked. They had a third man she didn’t know and a huge pile of cases and bags on a big freight cart. “Gunny wanted to come along too, to guard me not Irwin, but there just isn’t room.”

  “Lou is just here to take anything we don’t load back to storage,” Mackay assured her. “We brought everything we could think of and expect to leave some of it.”

  April had on the armored tunic she owned. It was older but she’d never bothered to upgrade it and it still offered significant protection. Otis and Mackay had on some sort of semi-rigid armor she’d never seen before.

  “What is that stuff you have on? This is ballistic protection,” April said, tugging at the fabric near her hem. “I’ve never seen the stuff you’re wearing advertised.”

  “The backing in this is similar to what you are wearing,” Otis explained. “Jeff didn’t mention this to you? It’s a joint project and he bought in on it recently. He’s counting on Heather buying some units too. These are the first copies we just got for evaluation. We had no idea that we’d have an opportunity to test them in the field so quickly.”

  “You don’t have a set for Jeff?” April wondered.

  “No, sorry, we don’t have a set for you either,” Otis said.

  “This is fine for me. I don’t intend to get out there on the pointy end of things,” April assured them. “Jeff shouldn’t either, but you know Jeff. I brought soft armor like this for Jeff because he didn’t take it when he went to the Moon. This stuff goes inside a pressure suit easily enough.” Both of them were bulky even without armor, but April didn’t want to mention that.

  “It didn’t seem to us it would be of that much benefit to be well armored inside a regular p-suit that is so easily opened to vacuum. We intend to have a version made that protects against injury and pressure loss.” Otis said.

  “Makes sense,” April decided. “You can leave anything that you wouldn’t use in pressure here. You are going to be protecting Irwin against individual agents or nut cases, not any sort of military action. You won’t need anything long-range or explosive munitions. If you blow up buil
dings or endanger the public we’ve failed because we’re guests. The Foreign Minister informed me that the Prime Minister ordered you to be regarded like embassy security.”

  Otis nodded and made a gesture to Lou who started setting things off on the deck to be loaded and leaving other bulkier items on the cart to take back. Everything was in sticky bags and the cart itself tacked to the deck with a sticky strap. April was glad to see a couple of shoulder fired missile launchers with huge bores left behind.

  “I got a call back that Irwin will land on the spaceport side of Macron Field,” April said. “They diverted the flight there from the civilian jet port. The crew didn’t like it but they were invited to pick another country to land if they flat out refused. They may just hold him on the field until we set down nearby. We’re not going to be running that far behind their arrival.”

  “That’s what Jeff told us,” Otis said, and looked at her funny.

  “You didn’t know? Recently I was told rather emphatically this was an open secret. Gunny knew. He never hinted at it?” April demanded.

  “Gunny won’t tell you your hair is on fire if it isn’t mission-critical,” Mackay growled.

  “I’d find it hard to mention anyone as secretive,” Otis said, looking at her accusingly.

  “That’s… courteous,” April decided. People didn’t usually discomfort her so directly.

  “Pretty much everybody who can get their own socks on in the morning without help knew that you had a star drive,” Otis admitted. “But we had no idea you could use it to move around inside the system.”

  “We couldn’t at first, but like anything we are still improving and developing it,” April said. “We only recently decided there is no point in actively hiding it. If the Earthie governments want to pretend and keep it off the web, hiding from their own people, that’s theirs to decide to do.”

  “They’ll make it a legal secret so even if you do know you can’t say so,” Otis agreed.

  Otis frowned at the two piles Lou made and retrieved one heavy item from the cart. He didn’t say anything to Lou like he was unhappy. April wondered what it was but didn’t want to seem critical.