The deck vibrated with the bumps and mechanical vibrations of a ship touching the spindle and the grapples latching. The readouts by the lock turned amber and then green.
Jeff came out of the lock looking entirely too cheerful for somebody involved in a serious rescue operation. April immediately thought he’d been buried in mundane business too long. Doing something different ignited that spark in him she hadn’t realized was dulled.
“Oh, very good, you have the protos on the armor already,” He said, checking out the new suits on the security men. “Have you shot anything at them yet?”
“There’s nowhere to do it safely on Home,” Otis said. “Maybe on the Moon when we come back.”
“Or somebody may help you test them on Earth,” Jeff said. April wished he’d shut up. That wasn’t a positive reinforcement that they’d made a good contract. Otis apparently knew that was just Jeff and ignored it.
“Can we load this stuff up? It’s about two hundred kilograms plus both of us.”
“That’s not worth putting in the freight hold. There’s netting on the back bulkhead on the flight deck. Secure them there. Are you going to ride in your armor?” Jeff asked. “I’m suiting back up after I put on the soft armor April is waving at me.”
“Do you expect anybody to be shooting at you?” Otis asked.
“No, but silly me, I never expect strangers to shoot at me,” Jeff said.
“I’ll trust you to evade and not bust it doing something stupid,” Otis said. “It takes longer to get in and out of this than a p-suit. That is, unless you hit the quick release and then it takes even longer.”
Lou started taking the equipment inside even before they finished talking.
“I had them top us off on mass. We’re good on fuel and coffee. I’ll put this on out here where I have more room,” he said taking the tunic.
In zero-g all April had to do was get her toes jammed in a take-hold and pin Jeff’s boot with the other foot. He handed her his helmet and pushed the attached suit top away while he wiggled the tunic down. By the time he was shrugged back into the suit and sealed back up except for his faceplate, Lou was back out and dismissed to take the cart back home.
Jeff made sure the lock was set to admit both security men and gave a perfunctory glance to satisfy himself the luggage was distributed and secured. Then he and April got their hires strapped in. They fit the acceleration couches without removing the cushions, barely. The danger was their arms wouldn’t tuck inside the sides, but they assured Jeff they had commands to lock them in position.
Once they were safely positioned April and Jeff sought their own couches.
* * *
“I’m going to go meet these Home people,” Joel said.
“That will complicate things for all the security involved,” Broutin said.
“I’m under no obligation to make their lives easier,” Joel scowled, “though you’d think so to talk to them. I’m sure our security, the port police, and the national police will all be watching these Home agents and the North American agents if there are any on their plane like they are threats. One hopes they remember to look for external threats.”
“Our security?” Broutin asked.
“Oh please. Tell me you didn’t intend to meet them,” Joel said.
“I certainly will if you are going to meet them,” Broutin said. He didn’t speak to his original intent.
“You just want to meet Miss Lewis,” Pierre accused.
“Absolutely, I doubt I’ll ever have another chance. I’m surprised she’ll set foot on the Earth after all the problems she’s had here before.”
“You should really consider going to Home yourself and getting the full life extension treatment before you are too old and doddering to benefit from it,” Broutin said.
“Are you planning to do that?” the Prime Minister asked. “You are only a decade behind me after all.”
“Yes, if you’d only have the courtesy to lose an election,” Broutin said. “If it looks like you intend to die at your desk I may bow out and resign in another cycle or two. If you wait until everything is as you wish it you will never leave. There will always be a new crisis.”
“And here I thought you were waiting for me to die to have a shot at the job yourself.”
“Now you are just mocking me,” Broutin insisted. “I’d rather open a bistro. Somewhere I could have a private table to the back and entertain interesting people in the evening.”
“The little pirate has a club,” Joel remembered.
“Perhaps that’s where I got the idea,” Boutin admitted.
“You didn’t get a start on some gene mods when you were up there did you?” Joel asked.
“I wish I had, but they keep adding to the prohibited lists and I was scared I’d outlaw myself early by carrying one of the forbidden mods,” Broutin said.
“You always were a cautious one,” Joel said.
Pierre suspected that wasn’t a compliment.
“Do you want to ride over together with me?” Joel invited.
“Our security won’t like us all in one car, so yes, definitely yes,” Pierre agreed.
* * *
“Home Local, the armed merchant Dionysus’ Chariot piloted by Master Jeffery Moses Singh ID number 899-17-1179 assisted by Master April Lewis ID 737-62-4002 with passengers request clearance to undock your north spindle and leave your controlled volume. Please be aware we are filing an unusual flight plan. We intend to transition at your control limit to uncontrolled translunar space, make a burn to acquire velocity sufficient to make a reverse transition to a tangential insertion in LEO adjusted for axial tilt and below orbital velocity for the emergent altitude. We will be making a descending approach from the east southeast entering controlled airspace over France and landing on the spaceport side of Macron Field. Please copy as filed to Central, Armstrong and Earth Control.”
“Dionysus’ Chariot, please hold ten minutes for inbound traffic to the south spindle. Forester’s Ferry anticipates docked and clear by 15:25 Zulu. Can you adjust or do you need to refile?”
“Local Home, we shall adjust our first transition and burn while in uncontrolled space to match the first filing with the same arrival time,” Jeff promised, punching the change in the computer while he was still speaking. Nobody said anything for several minutes.
“Dionysus’ Chariot, be advised Earth Control declines to release on your filed flight profile. Their members are protesting it is not physically possible. Your filed final approach is across disputed areas of Iran and Turkey. We can not guarantee the local authorities will not launch on uncleared traffic even above their controlled airspace in the absence of their positive assent back to Earth Control.”
“Thank you, Local Home. I certainly can’t ask them to guarantee what the Turks or Persians will do, and I totally acknowledge that. I do however intend to fly it as filed. Please copy the objecting members via Earth Control that I can’t guarantee it won’t rain thermonuclear weapons from their sky if some excitable fellow shoots at me.”
There was snickering from the back. Jeff ignored it.
“Uh, Dionysus’ Chariot, we relayed the recording of that so they have it verbatim. You are cleared of Home control per your filed plan at 15:15 Zulu. Be careful out there.”
* * *
After a lengthy burn, Ceres slid into view beside them. It didn’t look all that different than the Moon except the scale of the craters made obvious it was smaller and had not had the cataclysmic collisions Luna experienced. Laja was interested but not overwhelmed.
Deloris said what she was doing establishing an orbit, but wasn’t excessively chatty.
“We’ll have a chat, snack, sleep period, and set down tomorrow,” Deloris said. “Last time we were here I didn’t sleep well at all on the surface. There was just enough pull to give me odd sensations my sleeping brain interpreted weirdly.” She retrieved a tray of bite-size snacks from the galley and made it adhere where they could all reach it.
“Now, about assigning you some duties,” Deloris said. “I have no detailed orders from Heather, but she wishes you to gain skills, not just be a tourist.”
Laja perked up but didn’t start pleading her case.
“How much vacuum time do you have accumulated?”
“Three thousand three hundred seventeen point four hours in vacuum, and six hundred seventeen hours in the suit but in pressure,” Laja said consulting her spex.
When Deloris just blinked at her Laja went on. “My suit meter automatically senses if I’m in pressure and logs it separately.”
“Have you started Life Extension Therapy?” Deloris asked. “You don’t look old enough to have that many hours.”
“Wait,” Deloris said sharply, lifting a forestalling hand before Laja could reply. “That sounds like I’m calling you a liar. I’m not and don’t want… conflict with you. I’m just trying to understand how it can be possible.”
“No, I have no LET. The main thing is I started doing supervised vacuum work when I was eleven. I learned to drive rovers, do survey work, and boreholes. My mom didn’t let me put charges in them until I was fourteen. I’m almost seventeen and I still haven’t run a tunnel boring machine,” Laja said, like that still was a sore point with her.
“Were you a big eleven-year-old?” Deloris wondered. “How did you fit the suit? Or did you have one custom made and carry your hours over?”
“This is my third set of arms, and my second set of legs. My legs were already getting a growth spurt at eleven. Mom bought me the smallest torso they made and it’s still not tight on me. It used to be awkward to walk in. If the legs were short enough to push my shoulders against the pads the crouch was like half-way to my knees and I had to have a double pad behind my butt in order to be able to sit down. It took a couple of years to grow into it to be able to walk fast with big steps.
“I know most folks won’t let a child wear a suit with accessible controls and fasteners until they are twelve. I was very serious and mature. The family needed the help, and girls mature faster. My cousin wasn’t allowed in a suit that wasn’t slaved to somebody else’s control and the closures keyed or zipped until he was almost fifteen.”
She gave Barak a challenging look.
“No argument,” he said, showing his palms in surrender.
“I believe I will risk allowing Barak to take you out on these minor planets,” Deloris decided. “They will have less gravity than you are used to. Barak has experience on even smaller bodies, where the gravitation was more of a hindrance than just being weightless. If he finds too much to do to instruct you or watch you as closely as needed he may choose to go out solo. Don’t take that as criticism.”
“Do you set a watch?” Laja wondered. Deloris noted she didn’t frame it as “Don’t you set a watch?” Neither did she volunteer to sit a watch.
“It has not been our custom even with a crew of four,” Deloris told her. “If there seemed a hazard or an environment poorly understood I might. Given the small volume of the cabin, we wear suits maneuvering and on duty. A fairly small breach would drop us below breathable pressure faster than you could get in your suit. But they are optional in your sleep period. You are simply trading trusting the cabin integrity for trusting your suit.”
“True, but I know my suit and maintain it,” Laja said. “I don’t have the knowledge to feel safe trusting the ship integrity when I could add another layer of protection.”
“You can suit back up to sleep if you like,” Deloris allowed. “The ship was designed by Jeff Singh with the idea he’d be using it himself. That’s about the best recommendation I can make for its integrity. You may come to trust it more with familiarity.
“Our tours are too long to stay buttoned up start to finish and we clean up when we go off duty. I hope you are not body shy. We don’t have the means to accommodate that. It would take a contortionist to clean up in the toilet and change in there. It hasn’t been a problem because we four are all family. You can string an elastic tube hammock like we’ll use or grapple your suit to a take-hold to sleep,” Deloris invited.
“My family hasn’t had the luxury of much private space until quite recently,” Laja said. “Nor much in the way of comforts like soft furniture or decorations. My mom compared it to pioneers living in a log cabin. I slept on a king-size air mattress with five other kids until I was ten. We all had one toilet and shower to share and our clothes and personal stuff were all in duffle bags. I can’t tell you how tickled I was to get not only a tiny room but a rug too.”
“I grew up spoiled,” Barak volunteered. “My mom has a huge cubic on Home and I had my own room with carpeted walls and a private com desk. Our common area was a big open room with viewports and a low overhead area to grow tomatoes and herbs. We had a full kitchen and a table to sit everybody at once and guests.”
“And your sister became the sovereign,” Laja remarked.
“Not that she aspired to that,” Barak said. “Have you ever heard the story about how she started taking oaths?”
“No, that was before we came up from Earth,” Laja said. “Nobody has told me much about before we bought in. Mom hasn’t included it in my schooling so far.”
“Then that’s another long story to tell in detail later,” Barak said. “As well as more details about our voyage from hell of which you only got the barest outline of so far. Be assured, I don’t get much in the way of special treatment. Don’t think for a minute it intrudes on the command structure.”
“You aren’t as old as she is, are you?” Laja asked Barak. She was obviously trying to figure out the social dynamics that were much more complicated than the command structure.
“No, Deloris obviously has life extension work. Nobody her apparent age would have command authority. All of my partners are physically older than me and more experienced. I defer to the ladies in social things too. Kurt pretty much follows the same rule.” Barack hoped Laja would take that as a hint to direct social questions to Deloris.
“After you advised him to do so,” Deloris reminded him.
“I do occasionally have something to contribute,” Barak admitted.
They all cleaned up with wipes and got fresh suit liners. The dirty ones went in the vacuum cleaner to be pumped down and tumbled clean. Laja might not be shy but she did turn her back to clean up and didn’t intrude on their baths. When they climbed in their tube she got back in her suit and clipped on to a take-hold so she didn’t drift.
Barak was mildly uncomfortable with a stranger aboard even if they had agreed to it. After all, he worked with other people on the Moon. Heather kept them busy when they weren’t flying. He’d just gotten used to crew and family being the same very quickly. There was a nagging worry that Alice and Deloris might want to expand the family to Laja and where would that end with a long program of recruitments? That was more worrying because he’d delegated those sorts of decisions to the ladies and would have to live with it.
He hadn’t thought of all these questions back on the Moon with Alice and Kurt. Now was an awkward time to bring them up. He couldn’t even speak privately with Deloris until he had spex or a suit on. He had no idea if Laja used helmet talk. He hadn’t seen her use it. He’d have to find that out before they went EV tomorrow. If she didn’t know it that was just one more thing he had to teach her.
He wondered if the times it was just the four of them flying together was something he’d look back on fondly, and never experience again? But maybe they could form a company and work for themselves. It just depended on what they found out in the stars. So far there hadn’t been anywhere you could actually live, or resources any better than you could still find inside the solar system. But Jeff seemed very optimistic and he was uncommonly smart. If they didn’t find anything he thought his time was still well spent.
Just about the time he was wishing he had an electronic sleep inducer to quiet his racing mind, Deloris gave him a poke in the ribs. Her nose was over his shoulder from behi
nd and she could easily speak low to his ear.
“Relax,” she ordered. “You are stiff as a board and I suspect you are being stupid. Everything is just fine. If you don’t relax I swear I’ll go get my Taser and zap you limp.”
When he stifled a giggle she knew that was just what he’d needed. It wasn’t long before his breathing slowed and he curled slightly in the zero-g.
* * *
At 15:15 Jeff gently pushed them off the spindle with thrusters and gave a very brief burp of the main drive when they were pointed safely away from Home. At a kilometer away and a little bit to make sure nobody complained he was shaving it too close to the local traffic zone he reminded his passengers to make their arms safe. He was going to do a one-g plus burn to get up to the proper velocity he’d need emerging in LEO. That was adjusted up a little to make up the time they waited for traffic. The Moon slid by with increasing speed on their left and the Earth emerged from behind it.
Otis and Mackay were talking low in the back. Jeff only caught an occasional word.
“You guys might like to look over at the Earth and the Moon,” Jeff suggested. “The first time I did this I was oblivious and didn’t even know it had happened. I was trying to figure out where my drones went and didn’t even look up through the viewports. Jump is coming up in thirty seconds. Get a couple blinks in or you can be looking at your eyelids when it happens and miss it.”
The twin crescents of the Moon and Earth vanished and the sun didn’t shift location enough to notice.
“Just out of curiosity, how do you know it’s the same universe?” Otis asked.
Jeff didn’t say anything for a long time.
“Sorry if that was a stupid question,” Otis said after the pause was embarrassing.
“I’m thinking. There is nothing in the math to address that. I simply can’t answer the question that poses. Now, if we went to a universe that is so similar to ours that another ship with analogs of ourselves made the same transition and is now in our universe, then how would I ever know? In that case, I’m not sure it would even matter.
All in Good Time Page 31