That sort of trust was a huge compliment, but April was too much of a snoop at heart. She did want to know what everybody was doing. For the first time she had doubts that was always a good idea. Even worse, April suddenly realized Jeff might not be strange, but simply a better person. It was a disturbing idea. But she still wondered how much of 'every little thing' Jeff didn't tell her encompassed. But now April felt just a pang of guilt for wondering.
"Do you think we need a way to get our own views out," April asked.
"The majority of folks seem to want the same things we do," Jeff replied. "I've certainly been happy with most of the votes in the Assembly. If we sponsored a public news site or even wrote a regular feature then people will start to see us as having a formal agenda. I don't think you know how much influence you have, but it's partly because you aren't beating a drum constantly. You need to be aware of this. A casual word might have influence you didn't anticipate or want. Chen has told me he runs into people doing intelligence work who know he has a relationship with us. He said people ask what your views are on matters, assuming he has the inside track on your opinions."
"They do? On what? And why would they care? I'm no official, and have no power," April said.
Jeff looked amused. "Yet you can call Jon up and tell him you want to see him, right now, and you are sitting in his office with Gunny telling him he may have to quarantine the station in the time it takes you to walk over. Do you really think everybody gets treated that way?"
"Jon and I have a special relationship. We formally agreed to be allies back when I wasn't 14 yet. When I told him about that first USNA spy he had the sense to see I knew what I was talking about. When somebody agrees they are on your side and will watch your back I expect them to mean it."
"I'm very aware," Jeff said. "And God help anybody who forgets it, or doesn't mean it. How many young girls do you think would put conditions on helping the head of security and demand he treat you with respect? Much less ask for a formal relationship. Scratch that – Demand a certain relationship. You might be surprised how many people have picked up on that. You have a reputation as being formidable all out of proportion to your age or any official position.
"Chen gets asked how you will vote on things coming to the Assembly, or what you have said about Heather and things at Central. He even gets asked what you say about me. And I don't just mean the tacky interest some gossip sites have in exactly how we three regard each other. They want to know if you support specific business projects and plans."
"I've never thought to tell Chen what I think!" April said, surprised. "He's right out on the pointy end of things, or at least his agents are. I try to use what he tells me for our purposes, but I wouldn't presume to try to tell the fellow doing the hard dirty work, and seeing so much more than me, what it all means. I'm sure he has his own firm opinions."
"I'm sure he does too. But with Chen and you, people are aware who works for who. Chen said he always tells them that the information flows from him to you, and not the other way. That you hold your cards closely, and he has no idea what you think most of the time. That just adds to the mystique.
"Indeed he often has no idea why you ask certain questions that seem complete non sequiturs to him. Sometimes it is unexpected, and scares the snot out of him when he finds out the answers to those weird questions.
"Like when you called him from the Fox and Hare and asked about the names of Spanish royalty from the ninth century. He kept muttering about that for days – 'How the hell could she possibly know that meant anything?' - You connect the dots that are not even close to each other, and as an intelligence officer he admires that. If you haven't noticed - I take it very seriously when you suggest something. For example, it was you who suggested we needed to have our own bank, remember?" Jeff reminded her.
"Yes, thank you, and Heather agreed," April said, uncomfortable with praise and deflecting some to Heather. "Barak is another one you don't want to ignore," she said redirecting more attention. "He gets sudden insights that amaze me."
"I agree. Then he irritates me by saying it was obvious," Jeff said.
"We'll try to train him out of that," April decided.
Jeff tried to cover his smile, unsuccessfully. "Thank you for the coffee," he said quietly, setting the mug back within her reach. That meant he was ready to go, April knew.
"Stop by and visit when you want more," she suggested.
Jeff looked at her oddly for some reason April didn't understand, but said, "I will. Sunday?"
"That would be nice. I'll expect you," April said.
I wonder how I'm being trained? Jeff thought as he left. Yet the idea didn't bother him.
* * *
"Barak, I just can't keep up with maintenance," Alice said. She didn't sound angry, more desperate.
"Have you told Deloris?" Barak asked.
"I hate to. She's sitting long hours on the bridge. I hate to whine. What can she do? She can't come help me. Neither can you. I didn't mean to imply that," she added quickly.
"We can talk about it. The first few shifts after Dobbs deserted us were really rough. Twelve hours is just too long to stay alert shift after shift. If the investors hadn't suggested we go to ten hour alternating shifts Deloris and I would both be just as ragged as you are now. I'd have never thought of breaking out of the twenty four hour cycle myself," Barak admitted.
"She did desert us, didn't she? I never thought to say it that way. But the ten hour shifts – they made it easier on me too. To be honest - I was scared you guys might cheat like they did, to be together with no shift overlap. It isn't really fair to Deloris," Alice said. She said nothing of herself.
"We're adults," Barak said. "This goes to the core of what my friend Jeff is facing to pick ship crews in the future. I didn't appreciate how difficult the problem was when he gave it to me. We have a history of managing people without sufficient tools. I didn't realize it before. Tests and certifications can tell you if a person could do the job, in an ideal world. They don't do a thing to tell you if they will. They don't start to warn you if they are lazy or arrogant or selfish and will avoid duty out of fear of ever exposing themselves to responsibility for their actions. They don't tell you if they are such flaming jackasses that nobody can work with them, and they destroy the morale of a crew. Excuse the rant..."
"That's OK. I understand." Alice actually gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder. "That's pretty much what I was just saying. As well as I think of both of you, I didn't know if you'd do your duty until I saw you do it. I've had some people I really admired disappoint me when they had to step up and didn't. Stuff I'd rather not talk about," Alice added, before he grilled her.
"So has Deloris, I think," Barak told her. "I made her cry once with a stupid crack about her childhood. I've been careful not to go there again. I'm starting to think I had a very sheltered life."
"You're a little younger than either of us. We've both had experiences elsewhere, like you are having now on the Yuki-onna. And your family sounds like really nice people. Nothing wrong with being sheltered by those you love. I wish somebody had sheltered us from Jaabir and Dobbs. At least you didn't get close to them and then have them disappoint you," Alice said.
"I didn't mean to go off on a tangent and ignore what you said," Barack apologized. "How about if you come to the bridge with me when we shift change and we can discuss it with Deloris? If she doesn't have any ideas she can put the question to the shareholders and see if they have any solutions."
"OK, but don't make it sound like I was complaining behind her back," Alice insisted.
"Not at all. I asked you if you were OK because you looked really tired. Just now," Barak said.
Alice smiled. "Thank you, Barak. Yes. I'm having a really hard time keeping up."
"Ah, just as I thought. We'll speak to the captain about it," Barak told her.
"Of course," Alice agreed.
* * *
"We found the fellow who created the sensor
for early viral detection," Chen informed Jeff.
"Wonderful. Did he point you to the paper or patent application?"
"No. He announced it at a professional conference, but he just alluded to it at the end of another presentation he made. The pandemic hit before it was submitted to anybody. The research lab where he was working technically still exists, but the whole school is like a ghost town. It's deserted and nobody is holding regular classes or getting paid for that matter, unless they are paid direct from Federal funds. There are still some students living in the dorms, but you might as well consider them squatters. They have no way to go home or family to go to, and some of them have paid for their rooms. The maintenance people have been keeping the basics running by selling things off. They don't have anywhere better to go, and some of them have moved their families into the dorms too. The grass is all grown up and my guys said the deer are grazing in the middle of the campus like a park," Chen said.
"So, is he asking payment for the tech? That's not a problem," Jeff said.
"He wants to come here in exchange for his knowledge. He says he'll bring all his research notes and some bits and pieces of equipment and show us how to build the thing, if we'll see him lifted to Home. He's thirty seven, single, and speaks English very well. I had my guys explain he might not be doing the same line of research up here once this project is done. He said he can do lots of things and he knows we have a labor shortage. If you want to get him, one of my guys in France wants to come up too, and will escort him all the way," Chen offered. "If it was me I'd take the deal."
"You want your guy up here too?" Jeff asked.
"I owe him. He went to extraordinary lengths for us on the flu creators and he'd like to be where they can't find him. His partner already headed off to some remote village where he has family. So yeah. I'd be happy to bring him up," Chen said. "It may take him a couple weeks to get out of France and to Canada, but he's very resourceful."
"Where is the closest functioning spaceport the inventor can get to?" Jeff asked.
"He's in Canada, and while North America is still under Patriot Party rule, I wouldn't give him much chance of getting on a shuttle anywhere on the continent," Chen said. "Very little is lifting, and you can't just go online now and buy a ticket. The pages and forms are still there, but there's always some excuse why they can't sell you a ticket. Most of the time they tell you all seats are sold to 'essential personnel' if you try. To watch the news programs you'd think everything is almost normal. But you snoop with a high gain antenna and listen to the local cops and emergency services it's anything but normal. Just getting a car and driver to safely take you to a shuttle port would be challenging."
"What do you propose then? Jeff asked. "Could he go meet your fellow somewhere in Europe?"
"No, I doubt he has the skills to travel solo in the chaos down there. My French fellow can get to him in Canada much easier than he'd ever get to Europe and meet up. He'd also have a hard time arranging a meeting with the security my fellow would demand. The inventor is near Vancouver. I was hoping your friends on the Tobiuo would meet them up outside USNA territorial waters, and head out far enough west in the Pacific that your shuttle could pick them up. Picking them up out in international waters should be easy. We avoid all the hassle of dealing with port authorities, treaty or no."
"The Tobiuo is loitering around Australia. That's a huge voyage across the Pacific, but still easier than asking the crew to take the passage into the Atlantic again. Are you sure they couldn't lift from Hawaii, or even go all the way back to the South Pacific, to Tonga?" Jeff asked, scrunching his eyebrows up. "We occasionally drop the Dionysus' Chariot in that part of the ocean for freight transfer. There's nowhere on the west coast of the USNA where we do business directly right now. Even for the South Pacific we'd have to put a couple seats in for them temporarily, and that would reduce what they could lift back."
"Hawaii isn't any better right now," Chen objected. "You have to be an official or heavily connected to get a seat. They are lifting maybe six civilian passengers a week to ISSII who usually transfer on to New Las Vegas. If they come through ISSII from Tonga they still could be stopped or turned back. You have to be a media star or a billionaire to buy a seat. There's a lot more traffic direct to New Las Vegas from Europe, but the USNA is discouraging traffic to Europe a lot more than the other way around right now. It's too risky. Any given day you don't know who will get on a plane with no problem, and the next day the same person would be pulled out of line and scrutinized for security issues."
"Our treaty guarantee of free travel is pretty much a joke, isn't it?"Jeff said bitterly.
"Unless you are willing to threaten war every time you invoke it, yeah," Chen agreed. "It's not just us. It's impossible to drive from state to state right now in North America without being stopped by every town and county you go through, if you aren't in a military vehicle, or something with Federal plates. There are still check-points in rural areas at the expressway off ramps from the flu epidemic. The small towns will encourage you to buy fuel if they have it to sell, and move on if they don't think you have business there. So a lot of it really isn't directed at us."
Jeff sighed. "OK, I'll start setting it up. I'll make it as profitable to pick them up as possible. Make sure we have everything we need to build his devices. If we don't, the time to lift it is with him, not scramble to get it later."
"Good, I'll tell them," Chen Lee said.
Chapter 3
"Yeah, I can build that," Mo agreed, watching the model rotating on the screen. "But it's wasteful and time consuming and I don't see the point. We've standardized on three meter vertical spaces for almost all mechanical and industrial spaces. Just a few things like rover garages are taller. Even most people cutting residential cubic have gone with that height to allow alternative usage. Everything we make from insulating panels and conduit length to lighting fixtures is based on that dimension. Why does this court need to be so different?"
"If it were an Earth courtroom I'd agree. That's just another administrative space. It could be like any office space, and furnished well to add a little dignity," Jeff said. "A royal court is a very different beast. Think of stories you've read about King Arthur's Court. Go look at pictures of Versailles. We are creating a space that speaks to the dignity and power of a nation by how it presents its ruler. She may make judicial rulings there, but also think in terms of receiving ambassadors and declaring law. Even republics house their representatives and law makers in great capitols with columns and domes and lavish interiors to match anything a monarchy erects."
"OK, so it needs to be impressive, I can see that," Mo agreed.
"Have you ever been in a cathedral on Earth?" Jeff asked.
"No, we weren't particularly religious. The family tended to go to the beach on vacation. I'm not an architect, you know. I'm a mining engineer," Mo reminded him.
"Consult if you need to," Jeff allowed. "Go take virtual walk-throughs of tourist attractions on Earth. Look at more sites and cultures than just European. There's some very impressive architecture in Asia. We aren't going to cut this until we are a little deeper anyway. I don't intend to heat or cool it. Nor do we want to cover the naked stone with insulation. It will be built at a level where the stone is naturally at a comfortable shirt sleeves temperature. If anything a degree or two to the cool side, so that formal wear is comfortable."
"Those arches are very strong. Stronger than needed for lunar gravity," Mo said, just factually, not being critical. "I suspect our aesthetic sense is still biased for forms that full Earth gravity required. Lunar furniture still looks dainty to me. There'll be a stress point at the top more subject to failure than our standard geometry, but I can do a few unseen tricks behind a false facade to relieve that, and the root can curve under the flooring, It's not quite as safe from bombardment as the polyangle forms we've used. But that many kilometers deep if they can bust the roof in, no shape is going to mitigate it."
"It doesn
't have to be finished all at once either," Jeff assured him. "The ribbed shapes can be rough rock and we can smooth them out with a special purpose robot. If it takes years to do that's fine. The galleries in-between are even less urgent. We have no idea how some of the space will be used. We will eventually have art painted on some of the overhead I hope."
Mo looked at him funny. "Art has a certain viewing distance. My daughter has made me very aware of that. She has to do her drawings to accommodate the very short viewing distance that the small apartments on Home necessitate."
"Good point," Jeff agreed. "I'm sure artists who do murals and paint ceilings are aware of that. Now that you mention it, I should speak to Lindsey about doing some of this art for us. If she is interested, it would be well to let her have some time to think ahead and consult muralists on what she would do once the space is finished, and she can actually work on it."
"I'll leave that to you," Mo said, quickly. "Coming from her father she might think it was an elaborate joke."
* * *
"What are you doing that is least important?" Deloris asked. "Where can we cut back?"
"It isn't mine to decide," Alice said. "We have a checklist of required maintenance on the Yuki-onna. I'm also doing a few things like water testing Harold used to do. Even the chores that are automated require somebody to monitor the results and make an entry in the maintenance records. You don't trust the system to tell you when it runs out of spec. You should see it trending that way before it goes to crap. It all takes time that adds up, even if it only takes three or four minutes a day. If I'm to meet my obligations and get a decent review nothing can be skipped. It's all mandatory."
"Those maintenance schedules didn't come down the mountain on Moses' arm, inscribed by the finger of God," Deloris said. Barak had no idea what she was talking about but Alice seemed to. She even nodded to acknowledge it, and looked hopeful.
They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7) Page 3