"If I get somebody on it, right now," Tara agreed.
"Do so," Li ordered. "Things are better in port, but finding a major part, not just common service items, for an older diesel may still be a bit of a challenge. Our friends on Home can copy this one easier than we can find one. And we know we'll be meeting them again, so they can just bring it along."
Tara called on the wheelhouse com and had someone on it faster than Li could run down the companionway and see to it himself.
"Do you want to go get some rest?" Li offered.
"I couldn't sleep. I'd just be laying listening for you to start the transfer and loading. But if you want to take the wheel and ease her up to the Chariot, you are probably safer than me, having rested."
"All right, I have the conn," Li acknowledged, and took the wheel. "Did our guests stir last night?"
"Not that I saw. They didn't come up here. I'm going to use the head and get a coffee," Tara said. "Want some?"
"Yes, and a couple breakfast sandwiches," Li requested. "They should be ready by now."
"Excellent, and a couple for me too," Tara said, and went below.
* * *
When his com beeped Jeff was surprised. He had it set to only alert him to calls from a handful of people past 22:00. When he went to bed, which he was near doing, he activated another filter that took it down to seventeen people currently entitled to wake him up.
It was Irwin from the Private Bank of Home on com. From the color of the wall behind him Jeff knew the man was still at work. Of course Jeff was too, except his bed was in the same cubic since he had his engineer Mo occupying his own apartment. Irwin looked frazzled too.
"Did you dump those funds like you were planning to do?" Irwin demanded.
"Starting three days ago," Jeff assured him. "The Russians are already dispersing it through several European banks. I don't know the details, but I trust the agents working for me. Don't worry, they have your funds too. I sent it all at once, although they won't publically dump the whole amount at once."
"They've been selling USNA dollars three days?" Irwin asked.
"Right, and a few EuroMarks we got stuck with, and some Brazilian notes too," Jeff said.
"If that's been ongoing why did things only start going screwy about four hours ago?" Irwin asked.
"Well, I know this will be hard for you to understand, because you live and breathe banking, but I've been busy with other things and haven't followed the markets into the evening. If it wasn't a big enough problem to make the regular news flow, and trigger my news bots, I wouldn't know about it. I'd guess off hand perhaps what triggered this, is that late this afternoon I decided I had to put my customers on notice we weren't dealing in USNA dollars any more. We'll take Aussie dollars or gold. Anything else is negotiable at that instant. The thing about several of those customers is they may not have the annual cash flow of a small country, but there is no other source for what they make. There are legal barriers as well as physical to making them elsewhere, beside the time it would take to build the capacity. Also, now is not the best time to be forced to lift lots of heavy specialized equipment to orbit. But you still haven't said how things went screwy."
"Oh...The Australian dollar went up almost five percent against the USNA dollar. By the time I wake up in the morning it will buy two and a half dollars USNA. And gold has climbed to over eighty two thousand dollars USNA. That's an eleven percent rise from midday Hong Kong price. But the USNA dollar seems stable against everything else other than the Aussie dollar. It hasn't taken a dive like we discussed might happen."
"Don't be silly, it just took an eleven percent drop," Jeff said.
"How do you figure?" Irwin asked.
"You didn't phrase it correctly. How many dollars does it take to buy an ounce of gold? A lot more because they are worth less. Or how many dollars can you buy for an ounce? A lot more, they are on sale," Jeff said.
"Gold hasn't been pegged to the dollar for a long time," Irwin objected.
"Indeed it hasn't. But it's not gold having a problem right now," Jeff explained. "The problem they are having at the moment is that the dollar is not pegged to gold."
Irwin just looked at him uncomprehending. It was too big a mental leap for him to see valuations in anything but dollars. That was his life long experience and training.
* * *
Barak took a deep breath, looked at Alice and apologized. "I don't know why I'm so irritable. It wasn't worth a cross word at all. I'm sorry."
"Deloris is in a foul mood too. She was frowning and unhappy when I went by to have a bite with her mid-shift," Alice revealed. "I'm not really any better, just better at hiding it."
"Did she cheer up from some company?" Barak asked.
"I can't help her," Alice said. "We like each other, but not like that, and I'm wondering if you have a problem with me? You've been...stand-offish since we started the new shifts."
"I don't want to be, but it doesn't seem fair to Deloris that she's the only one excluded. That doesn't come under the heading of the loneliness of command. Or it shouldn't. I wish you could sit a bridge watch for a shift," Barak said.
"I can't learn enough to do that in the time we have left. Not legitimately anyway. You could overlap a watch with her," Alice suggested.
"There's a video record of all bridge time," Barak reminded her. "Maybe if we didn't need a clean record because of Captain Jaabir, I'd think about having an equipment failure. But how can we ask the owners to decide stuff about his death and Dobbs flaking out, based on the record, if we play games with it ourselves?"
"I think we need to ask Captain Wrigley to make a command decision and declare a rest day. Not ask but just tell the owners we are cutting the engines back to an idle, setting the boards on automatic, with alarms for vital functions only, and take a recreation day. In my opinion, it will enhance safety, not damage it."
"Your idea, you should come present it to Deloris," Barak said.
"Of course. You're a sweetie, but you'd still get all embarrassed and tongue tied. See?" Alice asked him. "You're blushing just talking to me. Why in the world do you need to blush with either one of us?"
"That's such a basic part of me. I'm not sure I can ever unlearn it. I always seem to be intimidated with older women," he admitted.
"Poor baby, because you're never going to catch up," Alice said, amused.
* * *
The sky was clear and beautiful, the sea peaceful, with long shallow swells. The Tobiuo sailed across the waves with such a slow even pitch that crewmen with their sea legs didn't even notice the motion. The sun was clear of the horizon behind them and the moon was low to the southwest bleached out to a ghostly crescent by the sun.
Chen's man and the scientist came up from below. The agent made a little clipping motion with his hand and Li pointed to a locker. He got the right one on the second try and put a safety line on his charge and then himself. Li was impressed he didn't have to be reminded, and didn't argue that the day was so nice it wasn't necessary.
The Canadian quietly questioned his minder however. "Do we really need these when it's so calm?"
The agent waved at the expanse of the ocean around them. "Think you can swim to shore?" he asked with a faint smile.
"No, but I wasn't planning on jumping overboard either."
He was wearing a safari shirt with lots of pockets jammed with stuff, and cape shoulders, loose over a t-shirt like yesterday. It wasn't cool enough to warrant it, so Li wondered if he was carrying a pistol and wanted to hide it. If so, he had no idea how indifferent they'd be. Wait until he saw Home...
"Very few do," his handler told the scientist. "Yet every year people fall off cruise ships. Strange things happen. It may sound crazy, but people have been sailing along, enjoying a cold drink and relaxing in the sun, and had a playful whale bigger than their boat jump out of the water and do a belly flop right across their boat. Even on the shore, folks feel safe on solid ground, fishing from the rocks or a jetty, and th
e odd rogue wave sweeps them off before they can scramble to safety."
The fellow probably wasn't fully convinced. But he had the decency to nod his acquiescence.
The agent looked at his charge. Not angry, but thoughtful. "I've talked to people who have been there, and read a lot before I decided I wanted to go to Home the same as you are. In a way it's as beguiling an environment as the sea. You feel safe because nothing is happening, but it can swallow you up as easily as these waters. Just as these folks have life vests and survival suits, the people on habitats and space ships have emergency suits and survival balls. They know how to patch a hole to keep air in as well as a sailor can to keep the water out. I strongly urge you to pay very close attention when they tell you any safety procedure."
"Of course I will. I'm not stupid," he said defensively.
"Good, stupid people don't do well there," he assured him.
Nobody said anything for awhile. The scientist sat on one of the benches by the gunwale, face into the wind that had swung about, and they were running against. The agent stood behind Li, checking out the plot screen in front of the wheel but not crowding him.
"It was never made clear to me...Do you mind me asking if you also work for Chen Lee?" the agent asked Li.
"I'm the owner of the ketch," Li told him. "I think you'd probably consider me an independent contractor. Are you aware of a person named Tetsuo?"
"No, where does he fit in?"
"Tetsuo had to leave North America because of the chaos and danger during the coup of the Patriot Party. He was living in Hawaii, and playing host to a young woman from Home named April Lewis."
"I'm aware of that name from news reports," the fellow said.
"Tetsuo fled Hawaii in this boat, with some members of his household. He eventually delivered Miss Lewis and her bodyguard to Tonga, where they could safely lift to Home. Later, when he went to Home himself, he liquidated his Earth holdings and gifted those who served his household according to their service and their needs. The Tobiuo was a sort of severance pay to me."
The man looked down the length of the boat. Even with bullet holes and blown out ports it was impressive as an employment bonus. He seemed to come to a decision from that.
"I'm Peter Martens," he belatedly volunteered. "I was one of Chen's men in Europe, but I doubt I shall ever set foot there again. Things are getting normalized again there, after the terrible flu, but one wonders how much will be remembered, or worse, records found of it, from back in the worst of the chaos. I felt it too hot for me. Chen Lee, Tetsuo, and Miss Lewis...How do they relate to each other?"
"You may call me Li," he said. Since the man finally offered his name. "How all these people relate is pretty complicated. I'll try to simplify it," Li said scrunching his eyebrows together. "First, Home is like a small town with one drug store, one hardware. People tend to all do business with each other of necessity. If you can't get along with someone it's a problem, because there may not be a lot of other choices. Miss Lewis, April that is, had a role in the revolution that created Home. She is associated with another young woman named Heather Anderson, and a young man named Jeff Singh. They have business interests in common. If you deal with one, assume you are dealing with all three."
Peter lifted an eyebrow, but Li ignored the unspoken question.
"April came to Tetsuo's household as a guest of his daughter," Li said.
"Ah, are they of an age?" Peter asked.
"No, Tetsuo's daughter Adzusa must be near twice April's age, but you should understand, the children on Home tend to be precocious, unless they are not very bright. And most of them are of sufficient intelligence simply because in order to get to Home their parents have to be of good stock. It's harder to find a fool there than a genius. They tend to do things at a much earlier age – such as youngsters did in earlier periods of history out of necessity."
Peter had that intense look on his face that said this was an adjustment to absorb. So Li paused and let him think on that a moment before he went on.
"Adzusa is a reporter and photographer, associated with a very well regarded Japanese writer. She actually knows April because Adzusa covered her professionally. How she came to invite April to visit her family home is a story she never shared with me. But they showed up one day at the house, and both Tetsuo and his wife Lin were quickly taken with her. One of the reasons April came to Earth was to effect a rescue of a couple USNA naval lieutenants. Tetsuo remained on Earth, on the Tobiuo, and we sailed around the Horn to the Atlantic and picked up her lieutenants on Mount Desert Isle off Maine."
"That's...a challenging passage," Peter said.
"It is, in certain seasons, and with a lesser vessel. The Tobiuo is very hard to break," Li assured him.
"That's reassuring."
"Chen works for Tetsuo and for Jeff Singh both," Li revealed. "That tells you something right there, since they don't expect it to put him in conflict between their needs. I know he also does occasional security work with other security professionals on Home. Most just know him as Chen, if you refer to him as Mr. Lee you'll probably get some blank looks. Tetsuo similarly is only known as 'T' to a number of people, and the three young ones sometimes call him Papa-san. He also does some business with the three kids. I know he banks with them, but he has mostly independent interests. So everybody is interconnected."
"Banks with them?" Peter repeated.
"Yes, the System Trade Bank. Home also doesn't have an official currency. But the System Trade Bank coins its own money. They call them Solars."
Peter was nodding. Li wasn't sure he believed everything.
"Heather is really the quiet one of the three kids. She started a real estate development on the moon. Right smack in the center of the face toward Earth. We had them down for a vacation, along with Heather's younger brother, Barak. Mostly we anchored in an uninhabited atoll, and they enjoyed the open air and swimming and snorkeling. They were dropped off by the same shuttle we're going to meet. And we took them to Tonga again to lift. If they come again I suppose they might take the ocean landing shuttle both ways. I'm not sure it's safe to mingle with Earth crowds yet," Li said.
"No, if they haven't been exposed, I'm not sure this last strain of flu is burned out yet. They have good reason to be cautious," Peter agreed.
"You realize it hits the gene altered much harder than unmodified people?" Li asked.
Peter opened his mouth, shut it, and seemed to swallow something. "Yeah, I heard that. I had it, but was fortunate to survive. It didn't leave me impaired either." Peter looked at the plot display and scanned the horizon again. He'd done that several times. Li was starting to worry he might have called someone and was watchfully waiting, expecting them to show up.
"Looking for someone?" Li asked bluntly.
"We did...harm USNA assets," Peter said. "It would not shock me if somebody is looking for us. Somebody I'd rather not meet. I notice you don't seem to be running any radar either." That seemed to worry him, and apparently he really was averse to saying they sank a Coast Guard cutter out loud. Li had no idea who he thought was going to hear it or record it. That made him really stop and think what sort of things the man survived in Europe. He might have cause to be paranoid, and Li should cut him some slack.
"You may take some comfort that we have an over-watch," Li said, making a sweeping wave at the vast dome of the sky. "The Home militia is monitoring us, and watching for aircraft or submarines to approach. They can do so much better than we can. Both Home Security and Jeff want your scientist very badly. If the militia can't handle it they can call on Jeff Singh for backup."
That got a stare and a slow blink. "Not the other way around?" Peter asked.
"I imagine you were busy in Europe, surviving. Were you aware China stole one of Home's ships and it had all sorts of proprietary goodies in it and wouldn't give it back?" Li asked.
"No, that sounds bad. One might take that for simple piracy."
Li nodded agreement. "Where they landed it
in China is now a crater, three or four kilometers wide and a kilometer deep. The kid didn't have to ask the militia to intervene. He dealt with it."
"I think that's all I can absorb for now," Peter told him.
* * *
Deloris listened with disturbing neutrality to Alice's proposal. She didn't display any emotion. To the point Barak expected her to reject the idea, which was really going to bother Alice. Barak felt Alice had real problems with self confidence and her professional image. She didn't make any sort of proposal easily, and he hoped she'd get over a rejection.
"I believe you are correct," Deloris said. "The current schedules are an improvement on our initial adjustment to losing half our crew, but we are still stressed. I will inform our control and liaison with the owners I intend to take a recreation day, with appropriate safeguards as you mentioned. It's a command decision and not subject to negotiation.
"I also intend to have such breaks again at thirty day intervals. While that is far from an optimum schedule it is a vast improvement. It will give us two more breaks before we bring the ice ball to rest and can turn it over to a local team to position and start removing both the Yuki-onna and the embedded engines. Such rest breaks will have a minimal effect on our arrival time and navigation. We make periodic adjustments anyway. If we need to increase thrust two or three percent to compensate that's easily done."
Alice looked relieved.
"You may have discussed plans," Deloris guessed. "I don't intend to impose anything. On break I'm not captain unless we get an alarm. But if you want to rig the double bunk back up, and make sure we have plenty of beer in the room cooler that would be fine with me. We'll dip into the special items in our food stores.
"I had to do an inspection and inventory of the captain's and the XO's quarters for the owners. If anyone complains later I shall replace it, but our captain had a sealed bottle of peppermint schnapps in his cabin, and I intend to seize that for ship's stores. I won't drink from the open one I saw."
They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7) Page 10