They retreated to Eric's cubic to actually assemble their creation. It didn't look like much. There was a frame made of the perforated angle iron used to construct shelving. A couple grippy rollers left over from taking an obsolete printer apart, with a motor and switch from the same. That fed the strip of holographic seals. A knife edge split the seals from their backing and advanced them across a plate on top of a strip of Teflon faced tape.
A used servo motor about twenty times as powerful as they needed, but free, drove the device. A faceplate on the motor shaft carried a roller to press the seal and card together. There was a card hopper made from a cut-down napkin dispenser. A power supply for the servo motor and a few other things were bolted to the frame. Or in one case held on with several turns of vacuum tape. The contraption was fancy enough you didn't have to plug and unplug it for power. It had an actual on/off switch.
There was a solenoid which actuated when a little clamp on the edge of the faceplate came around and hit a micro switch. That pushed a new card off the bottom of the stack through a slot. The wheel came around and pressed the end seal against the card and the edge of the wheel split it off the one behind across a sharp edge. Then a spring finger on the faceplate pushed the combined unit out of the way and it fell down a ramp.
That was the theory anyhow. The thing that amazed Eric was that Dick made it without a single sketch. He just rummaged through the junk bins grabbing stuff and remembering what he had at home. Yet he had a clear vision of what he was going to build.
They stacked the cards Jeff had just sent Eric into the hopper. Eric fed his seals in and picked at the end until the first lifted from the backing tape a little and fed it over the separator. He turned the faceplate by hand to work it, but when it got to where it needed to inject a card it wasn't powered up yet. The little solenoid didn't work. Dick got a small Phillips screwdriver and pushed on the back of the solenoid, priming it.
"We should have added a counter, and set it up to make a certain number and stop," Eric said.
"We can add that. Just turn it on and off to do two or three," Dick urged him. "The servo motor is only set for four rpm. It won't spit a bunch out before you can stop it."
Rup, rup, rup, chunka thump! - Rup, rup, rup, chunka thump! - Rup, rup, rup, chunka thump!
It spit out three cards with a seal on top perfectly. Unfortunately the seals all fell off.
"What are you kids doing making a racket?" Eric's mother yelled from the main room.
"Just tested our machine," Eric called. "I should have warned you," he said, hoping that was enough to make peace.
"Well you're not going to run that loud thing in here," he was informed. "Take it someplace else."
"OK Mom. We need to work on it anyway," Eric agreed.
"We need to put these three on by hand," Eric told Dick. The pamphlet says they set up and can't be repositioned after an hour. I guess they have to be pressed on harder." He grabbed a set and started.
"No problem. We can shim up the spring over the wheel," Dick said. "I guess maybe a foam board box to cover it for the noise?"
"Lined with something sound absorbing," Eric said, frowning. "It really thumped loud."
"Yeah...Some Sorbothane feet under it will help that," Dick assured him.
"Probably, but you don't know my Mom. Now that she complained, it's never going to be quiet enough, if she can hear it at all. So I have to find somewhere else to run it," Eric said.
"It's for Singh, right? Ask him if he has someplace," Dick suggested.
"As a last resort. He made it pretty clear he gave it to me to do so he doesn't have to deal with it. I'm already paying you ten bits for the machine. I don't want to rent space if I can avoid it," Eric insisted.
"Who else wants these made?" Dick asked. "They should be willing to help."
"It was Zack who complained he needed smaller money in the first place, but he's skeptical of everything I say," Eric said, frowning. "He's cheap too. He'd never do it for free...I know. Jeff keeps saying April is an officer of the bank. And my sister has been to her apartment and says it is huge. If I ask real nice she might just go for it."
"You know April Lewis?" Dick asked. He was prepared to be even more impressed.
"April does business with my sister, and she and Jeff call me for courier service pretty regularly. She doesn't talk down to you just because you're a kid," Eric said.
Dick just nodded. He understood. "You going to call her?"
"No, it's too easy to say no on com. I want to go to her place and try to catch her home."
"What if she's not there?" Dick worried.
"Then we'll try another time," Eric shrugged. "What else you got better to do?"
"You want me to come along?" Dick asked, intimidated but flattered.
"Well sure. We need to get it working right. And..." Eric stopped, but too late.
"And what?" Dick demanded.
"You're younger than me. I'm getting too big, and I can tell people don't get that silly look that says they think I'm 'cute'. If I try to look cute now my Mom says, 'Oh, bag the kicked puppy dog face.' I really miss being able to work that."
"That's terrible. And they won't let you start life extension early enough to keep it," Dick said.
"Oh, I know..." Eric agreed.
* * *
Chen looked terribly serious, enough to get Jeff's full attention before he spoke.
"I want you to be aware, there are several places where regional conflicts are heating up. India has problems on the western frontier with Pakistan, and on the east with China. Not really with China per se, but with locals no longer under tight central control of the Chinese government. It's all driven by scarcity. There aren't any shipments of fuel, and little of food. Bandits have arisen that steal what little is coming in if it isn't escorted, and escorts are expensive.
"A lot of the soldiers deserted and started the long walk home taking their small arms when they weren't supplied. More commonly they joined local factions and militias and went native if you will. China always brought in troops from outside the region, but an empty belly is a powerful recruiting aid. They bring their rifle and join the locals. In a couple years they'll all take local wives and be totally assimilated," he predicted.
"Not just there I take it? Where else?" Jeff wondered.
"On a large organized scale like this, at the Chile – Argentine border. Also Sri Lanka is effectively independent again. The new problems with Ireland have spread to Scotland. North Africa has never been what you'd call stable, but the lines on the map now are meaningless. It's city states and regions dominated by warlords again. In Indonesia and the Philippines a lot of islands or groups of islands are effectively their own state. The few that have armed boats can enforce it quite well. European Russia isn't in conflict with the east, but Siberia is simply acting independently because they have no supply, no direction and no oversight. There are still even some commercial flights in and out, but the soldiers in the airports have brassards of local police on their arm, effectively identifying them as militia instead of national army. If you can't feed or pay your troops they will serve those who can take care of them," Chen explained.
"How is this going to affect us?" Jeff asked. "Are we going to have anywhere to land and buy the things we need? Is there anything we can do to help those who will help us?"
"We will have to avoid the areas in conflict," Chen said. "There are also bandits and plain old criminals resurgent in a lot of areas that have no military conflict. Nothing as bad as China, but enough to ruin an area for our purposes if products can't get to and from the spaceport. It may not be the time to be building a shuttle that needs fifteen hundred meter runways to land. That is very limiting. If you can make two smaller shuttles that can land vertically or on much smaller runways it may prove wise. You can land on smaller regional airports and if you lose one it's not nearly the catastrophe."
"That's interesting," Jeff allowed. "The captain of the ketch Tobiuo, which regularly
meets the shuttle Dionysus' Chariot to transfer freight for us, wishes to come up on the next supply run and see Home for himself. He says his second in command is reliable. Indeed, he wishes to have that man lifted also, next turnaround. They both profess interest in gaining Home citizenship, and Captain Li said he has a proposal he'd like to discuss with me about this very thing, secure landing rights."
"You'd lose a little freight that lift, although it might be worth it to recruit somebody to become a citizen on the ketch," Chen said.
"Yes, I approved it already. We won't lose all that much in freight. We'll just have more low density things these two flights. The heavier things seem to be priority, but we'll lift a couple flights with things like surgical supplies and clothing. UPS is always delighted to send some small boxes on standby if we can put the Tobiuo in at Sydney or some other large port."
"You realize if we had Home citizens in command on the Tobiuo we could call on it to act as a militia vessel?" Chen asked.
"Yes, we'd like to make it immune from being stopped and boarded. It's difficult to claim it is a warship and carry cargo. Earth law is just not set up to recognize that, but if it is a reserve vessel subject to being called to duty we hope that might be sufficient to make them respect it. At some point we may need to simply say it is our law and we will use force to preserve it."
"That is only smart to do if you are pretty sure you can make it stick," Chen said.
"That's something I intend to discuss with Captain Li. We'll be having this discussion with Jon Davis in his capacity as head of the militia. Specifically, we'll want to know if he and his second would accept the responsibility of being militia members, with a full data link and the ability to help run their own overwatch like we did recently for them.
"Merchant ships once sailed with cannon," Chen pointed out. "There is precedence."
"I totally agree," Jeff said. "But it may take seeing they have the ability to enforce their will for the Earth nations to accept that again."
* * *
"Mr. Singh, if you have time to receive them, I have your first ten thousand bits assembled," Eric said on com.
Mr Singh? Jeff smiled, and wondered who was off camera that Eric was trying to impress with his formality. Well two could play that game.
"Mr. Pennington," Jeff said, with a serious look and a nod of acknowledgement. "I shall be in my offices all day, but if you can come in about a half hour it would be my pleasure to take you to lunch and we can chat a bit about how things are going and our plans."
"That would be very nice, thank you," Eric said, and terminated the call.
"Wow, he talked to you like an adult," Dick said.
"Jeff and April and Heather all treat people right," Eric said. "I've seen them talk to April's grandfather, and they talk to somebody older the same. They really don't seem to care about your age if you know what you are doing and can do your job. I'm really trying hard to give them a good opinion of me. Someday my majority is going to go to vote in the Assembly, and I'll need allies like them."
"I'm not even thinking about that yet," Dick admitted.
"Your dad is OK," Eric pointed out. "My mom is a thousand times better than when we came up from Earth, but I still want out from under her thumb."
"Yeah, I can understand that," Dick allowed. "When it comes time for my majority vote I figure my dad will be proposing it."
"I expect my mom will vote against my majority if I'm forty years old," Eric said. "But when your vote comes up I'm hoping to be able to vote on it for you."
"It isn't a race," Dick said. "I have much less reason to push for it. So yeah, you likely will."
* * *
"Do you realize every room in the Holiday Inn and the Ramada is full and booked for months?" Jeff said. "Some of the shuttle crews have slept in their ship on layover because they couldn't get even a hot slot. We have people selling room to sleep on their floor and ads in What's Happening? offering five and six hundred dollars Australian to use a bed when the owner is on his work shift, or in a few cases share it if you can swear you bathe and don't snore!"
"I should be able to make a fortune," April said with fake enthusiasm. "Two on the sofas and at least three or four on the floor. One with me and one with Gunny. Double up on shifts. That's two hundred and forty thousand a month. It may get a bit tight in the bath early in the morning..."
"You can bet it's tight for four in a tiny two person cubic," Jeff said. "I hope Mitsubishi built a good safety margin in our life support," Jeff seemed distressed by it all.
"There's a problem. I agree," April said. "Apparently nobody anticipated pent up demand and new interest when it became easier to travel to Home again. I can't prove it, but I wonder if you didn't create some of the problem yourself?"
"Me?" Jeff looked startled. "I brought in Dr. Houghton, and I'm going to have Captain Li visit soon, although where I'm going to put him I have no idea. I'm doubled up in my office with Walter and trying to fit a third would be crazy. I haven't brought anybody else in since I hired Mo Pennington and he brought his family along. I haven't been a source of a couple hundred people trying to pack in Home, just these two."
"But I bet almost all those other people are coming in ones and twos and threes too," April said. None of them feel responsible for the others any more than you do. Is there any group of twenty trying to immigrate or set up a business? Ten even? I suspect your response to North America trying to force you out of their banking net helped precipitate this."
"What has one got to do with the other?" Jeff asked, looking genuinely quizzical.
"You're the one who got me studying economics and banking. All the Earth currencies have what backing them?" When Jeff didn't answer right away April said, "The full faith and credit of the North American Union? Their future ability to tax? When you get right down to it – trust."
"I can't argue that," Jeff agreed.
"Well you stopped taking USNA dollars. What did you expect? Things are a mess down there and there were enough people who don't trust them that the dollar took a dip. Has it recovered?" April asked.
"No...The USNA dollar is down seven percent against the Australian dollar and down another two percent – thirteen percent total – against gold. That pretty much means Solars, since nobody else is really trading any volume," Jeff admitted.
"So we live in the least restrictive place in the solar system to do business, and you established the first real hard currency in a century, and you are surprised people want to come here to do business? What you need to be asking is how do we make money from it?" April told him.
"Oh, yeah," Jeff's face was interesting. Once the obvious was pointed out to him he was absolutely brilliant at thinking of ten thousand ways to make it work.
"We build a bunch of cheap low-G cans on a cable and position them off just far enough to be clear of local traffic, with a dedicated low delta-V taxi to run back and forth at least every shift change, and maybe in between if the traffic warrants it," Jeff decided.
"Environmental systems?" April asked.
"Like a ship, a modular system on each can. Centralized water recovery and sell the carbon based waste to Central or other moon colonies. Buy back oxygen and scoop the Earth for our nitrogen." Jeff stopped and re-thought. "No, not on a cable. You can't expect these people to suit back up to commute. Although some will work right there. Just a zero G residence, and maybe some office space, and they can adapt to it. If the drugs don't help somebody to deal with prolonged Zero G they simply can't live there. Some of them will not adapt and have to leave. Economic necessity."
"Can we afford to build something?" April asked.
"We have a sudden influx of capital," Jeff admitted. "I'll make sure our depositors are comfortable with a long term use of it, that ties it up for a period of years. Although I think without running an analysis that a two or three year break-even point may be achievable. If our new banking customer is uncomfortable with the concept, some of the new people are almost runni
ng through the corridors waving money to be invested, but it requires conversion to gold or platinum, often at a premium..."
"What are you smiling at?" April asked.
"I didn't mention, there was a fellow who came in yesterday from a Singapore Bank, he wanted to form a branch here. He approached Eduardo Muños as the closest thing to an official he could find. His firm tried to find a local lawyer they could retain and question on com. When there were none to be found on our com list they finally sent this fellow up. The man wanted to know to whom one applies to form a bank, and what the procedures were to form a corporation. When he realized there was no restrictions that was great. But when he figured out that meant no special status or privilege, and a banker would be personally liable to his clients and subject to the judgment of the entire voting population if there was a serious problem..."
"Let me guess. He was on the next shuttle seat he could buy down," April predicted.
"Indeed, and if he heard me speaking of consulting with my depositors like I just did, he'd regard me as barking mad. They want to operate behind a cloak of secrecy and immunity," Jeff said.
"I'd say the real bottleneck on your idea is construction. We're maxed out on ship building so we can't build them as hulls with composites. It will have to be lunar construction and cheap sintered steel and composite ceramics. But Central and Camelot need the work anyhow."
"Doesn't it look much brighter now as an opportunity, than an irritating imposition?"
"Yes. Thank you, April."
Chapter 15
"I got this as change," Huian said, displaying the bit card to Irwin Hall.
"That was fast, we just started offering them to customers yesterday," Irwin said. "It's nice to see they are accepted and circulating."
"I'd like to withdraw some to send to Myat, with who I am doing business in Myanmar. She has clients who would be interested to see these. I'd like the equivalent of a Solar, please."
"Yes ma'am, I'll have my man count them out and he'll box them for you nicely. Do your people understand they are only redeemable in lots of a hundred?" Irwin asked.
They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7) Page 20