Family Law

by Mackey Chandler

  "Frankly, I found the funding of exploration indefensible for a bank. He might as well have funded someone to take it to a casino and lay it on the roulette table. The exploration department never had the return of other lending lines and even had occasional years of losses. So my primary thrust is to recover what assets are recoverable and write off the losses where they are not, so we can close the books out on the adventure."

  "We had six years remaining on our agreement." Gordon pointed out.

  "Yes, but the bank has the option of terminating the contract with cause. Certainly the loss of the principal signatories of the loan and their expertise for the partnership might be sufficient to do so, if we take it to arbitration. You have two-hundred twenty-seven million EuroMark left in your draw account. But from what I see on your account history sheet, it takes a good fraction of that to outfit and fuel up for another three or four year trip, besides finding new partners or employees to expand your team back to a workable size for your ship."

  "Your situation is only slightly better due to having paid off your vessel loan. Most exploration companies are carrying that debt too. If you insist on using up the draft already pledged, by issuing new vouchers, then at the end of six years with no significant claims or patents you will owe it and the previous draws as a balloon. I'm concerned you may not be able to pay the balloon, even if we refinance and allow you terms to do so. In fact you might be so far in arrears even the sale of your ship won't cover your debt by that time, because central banks on Earth have been pushing the interest rates up steadily."

  "OK, I can see it from your viewpoint. But what did you expect us to do? Sell our ship to cover our draw and be planet bound? We wouldn't do that when we might force the matter and hold you to the contract. What exactly are you proposing?"

  "But Uncle Gordon, this doesn't make any sense to me." Gordon held up a true hand and cut her off, turning his head to her.

  "Let your uncle Gordon take care of it and I'll answer your questions later," he told her and gave her a big wink on the side Christopher couldn't see.

  "OK," she agreed, suddenly starting to clue up.

  "I understand you people have an obsession with chasing the big find. That was part of why Glen Sherman kept the department going so long. He was an explorer as a young man and followed that dream himself. However the senior management at the bank took emotional attachment as financial expertise, for too many years."

  "You mean he was reliving the thrill of exploration vicariously, through us?" Lee asked.

  "Why, yes. That's very perceptive for your age Miss Anderson. I'd say that's fairly put. So I know you'd like to force our hand on terms of the contract, to go out "one more time" as they always say, but in consideration of the fact you might win such a demand at arbitration, I'm prepared to offer you some very good terms to wrap it up now." He shuffled the papers around and looked at them some more.

  Lee saw Gordon mouth form, "That's twice."

  "You have several hundred thousand in your debit card account. If you sign a termination of contract and allow us to recover the two-hundred twenty- seven million pledged in your draw account, we will forgive the previous disbursements in their entirety. You can keep the minor balance in the debit card account to make a transition, to find another backer, or to live on until you can find some employment below."

  "Why should I throw the bank's good money after bad, if I can recover half the funds? Our percentage of your previous patents and claims continues at five percent of course and tend to increase in value. So eventually we'll make good our losses. But those same royalties give you a nice little cash flow, to help you get established down below. It may not seem much compared to the cost of refitting an expedition, but you would find it to be considerable income, with the lower cost of living on a planet. Many people on Derfhome live comfortably on as much income. I consider the package a very generous offer. What do you say?"

  "If you will make two things explicit on the termination agreement, I think we can wrap things up as you wish." Gordon offered. "The first, you make clear you have no interest in our ship, High Hopes and will not seek to put any lien on it, for any reason. The second point is, that while our relationship on previous claims continues as is normal, you have no interest in any claims or patents we file hence forth, as you are no longer our backer. If we say, walk across the corridor to Royal Bank and they will stake us, we are free to offer them terms on all future claims and patents we file, from this date forward."

  "If you don't want our business anymore, I'd like to make sure it is a clean and complete break. I don't want to come back with a nice discovery and have you hassling Royal Bank that you had a six year contract and wanting a piece of the action, because things went better for us than you expected. Make it in plain language, like I just said."

  "Excellent, Mr. Gordon," he said, as he typed something in a virtual keyboard they couldn't see, from their side of the desk. "I'm having my secretary add two paragraphs, stating both things almost word for word as you requested, although they were implicit in the original. We'll just avoid mentioning our rivals across the corridor by name, if you'll forgive that small vanity. When he prints them we shall sign and witness them."

  "Thank you for accepting. I know it must have been hard for you, but six years from now I think you'll look back with relief and feel it was the wise thing to do." He couldn't hide a flash of smugness on his face. Gordon gave him back a tooth filled carnivore's smile, that didn't mean at all the friendly agreement he took it to mean.

  A middle aged lady and two gentlemen in suits, all human, came in with four hard copies and they all examined them briefly before signing. Nobody was introduced to them and indeed they seemed distracted and anxious to leave as soon as they signed. This obviously pulled them away from important matters.

  Gordon made sure it was exactly what he requested. The secretary must have printed it off an audio recording, because it was almost word for word, except Royal Bank was replaced by 'another backer'. They were given two copies in envelopes and reminded a copy would be posted to the public net on Derfhome. That was the Derf custom for all commercial contracts to be public, not secret.

  "Can you tell me if Glen retired out system, or went down to Derfhome to live?" Gordon asked after he stood. "I wouldn't mind at least calling the old fellow and relating how Lee's parents passed and the adventures we had."

  "I don't know for sure. We never had much to say to each other," Christopher said. That didn't surprise Gordon. "But I believe he's still on station, because I heard someone mention he was looking for commercial property on hab and had called our mortgage unit. Normally we'd insist on keeping our employee's privacy, but if you want I can have somebody from resources leave a message with him, that you're in system and would like to be contacted."

  "I'd appreciate that." A nod of his head to Christopher's secretary established it.

  * * *

  "Was that honest?" Lee asked dubiously, when they were outside.

  "What?" Gordon asked in an astonished tone. "In what particular was it dishonest? You cut me to the quick," he said with a theatrical British accent and a very well done human gesture of a slack hand touching spread finger tips to his breast.

  "You never told him we made a big find!"

  "Did he seem interested at all? - Hmm? All I heard was he was eager to get rid of us low class treasure hunters and get his cash flow in nice orderly streams, instead of fits and starts. He freely offered the deal before I could even tell him about our discovery. I had every intention of doing so, if he'd have just shut up a moment. But the hand stopped me," he said, holding his hand up flat like Mr. Christopher had, to silence him.

  "I'd sure hate to upset him with the five percent of our claims. Why, he'd have been embarrassed by all the money flowing in, bigger and bigger, quarter after quarter, all from the disreputable Exploration Department, they didn't really want anyway."

  "To him, finds like ours just don't happen to real people.
So it never crossed his mind, to ask if we'd made any discoveries. And it would ruin his slander of Glen, as a desperate gambling has-been. Not to mention, he's such an ass for not even twitching at your parents' death, he doesn't deserve to suck down the gods good air, much less share in our fortune!"

  "Well, yeah, I kinda noticed that too. In fact I was having a hard time not crying. It was like they were just nothing."

  "Thank you for your courage. That would have been the final straw with me and Mr. Christopher. I'd have probably ripped his ugly face off and pasted it on his behind if he made you cry."

  "I like it when you get all indignant for me. Thanks, Uncle Gordon," she sniffled.

  "You're welcome sweetie."

  "He's handling this for the bank and yet he didn't even have a clue what the green earrings were about, did he?" she realized.

  "Not a bit. Glen would have yelled - Waahoo!!! - and broke out the champagne when we walked in with Greenies hanging from our ears, without our saying a word."

  "OK then. I mean, I'm OK with the whole thing. I apologize for questioning your honesty. That was unkind of me, disrespectful even."

  "Hey - no offense taken. I may need a conscience sometime and I want you to speak up then. But this is what I was talking about before. When we get to Earth I may not be there at your elbow, to caution you not to say anything. You just have to learn reserve and to mull things over and be slow to speak. In 'civilization' the quieter you are, the safer, most of the time. You could have insisted on speaking over him and blurting out about our find, but you certainly had no obligation to forcefully interrupt him to do so."

  "I see that," Lee agreed, concern showing on her face. "I almost blew it back there. He was busy messing up and I almost corrected him when he didn't deserve the help. How much money are we talking? What would have been their cut, he threw away?"

  "Well our personal claims, like our land, they don't have any cut. But the general discovery reward, is fifteen percent of everything the survey charges to settlers and miners and leasers. Their five percent is off the fifteen, so we'd have actually collected ten percent. But that's the going rate for bankrolling exploration. Once you have a proved out discovery, that's a different matter," he said solemnly.

  "I could walk across to Royal Bank of Canada, like I told him and they would be delighted to advance us almost any number I could name, for just one percent of a documented discovery. It keeps rolling in year after year and keeps getting bigger after all. But now that I have control of it, we're never going to sign that sort of a contract again. We can ask a normal loan at market rates and just use our claim for collateral, not dip into it. We'll talk to another bank that has an office planetside though. I just threw out Royal Bank as an example."

  "Come on Gordon. Give me a number, what kind of money we'll have coming in."

  "We'll get a big hunk quickly, certainly several hundred million EuroMarks within weeks for the initial leases. Then there will be a steady build up for years. Say four or five years from now, several billion EuroMarks a quarter. Twenty years from now? Probably more than either of us can imagine. It's a life benefit and you are young. Eventually you'll be a trillionaire in a few decades as it's developed. By the time you or I die, any heirs will be looking at a fortune many sovereign countries would envy."

  Lee didn't say anything. She couldn't really get her head around it yet.

  Chapter 9

  The journey to Gordon's home was like a trip in a time machine. They took a shuttle down to Derfhome, which was the name of the capitol as well as the world. Gordon bought supplies there he knew wouldn't be available out in the countryside and packed everything compactly in soft luggage. They barely saw any of the town before leaving.

  An aircraft, modern by Derf standards, clunky by human tastes, took them across the ocean to the major city on the lesser continent, with a name that meant literally, Fish Town. A motor bus took them to a smaller city, where they spent the night in a hotel that, while not as fancy as the one on the orbital, had hot water in the bath and modern carpets and services. Gordon went down stairs and came back in a bit with two small phones.

  "Here, your regular spex com won't work when we leave town. You might as well pack it away. These work out in the wilds, off an aerostat or satellite. It's a different system and you have to be fairly open to the sky. When we get to my clan's place they will just have one phone and the eldest wife usually keeps it on her person. They'd think it an outrageous extravagance to carry a personal phone, so keep it tucked away out of sight unless you need help. If you need to look up info on what passes for a web mirror here, do it in private."

  A taxi service took them from the small town, deep into woods. The trees slowly got closer to the road, until they were almost in a tunnel. Eventually the climbing road started twisting back and forth and rose until the trees got stunted and wind sculpted and the land started opening up into meadows.

  The village they finally came to was named Hill Fort and had no concrete or metal buildings like the cities. Everything was stone and massive timbers, with stucco covering the facing between the frame members. Most were sunken into hillsides until it was hard to tell what was natural contour and what was covered building. The main road they came in on was the only one paved and every side street was stone or gravel. Gordon offered the driver a room for the night, but he declined, turning to start the long drive back in the dark.

  Their inn for the night was more the neighborhood tavern and village restaurant, than hotel. The dining room was busy and full of locals who presumably had homes to go to, but preferred spending their evening in the tavern. It was one big room and had a huge fireplace at one end that was fully functional, with a huge seared quarter of something, turning slowly over the fire. It smelled good.

  They went to their rooms first and Lee was surprised to find they had no bathroom.

  "It's at the end of the hall. There's a commode there and you'd better be careful using it, because if you fall in I think it's big enough we'd never see you again. Maybe best you use the honey pot and the maid will empty it in the morning." He ducked down and found it under the desk dragging it out for her. It was stainless and lidded, but being Derf sized it was about twenty liters.

  "You've got to be kidding. I'd rather go outside and dig a privy."

  "Well the locals might take exception to that too. At least I brought a few rolls of toilet paper for you in our bags. I also brought some plastic liner bags too, because humans are really offensive that way to Derf and we might want to stay here again someday."

  Lee didn't say anything, because she knew it was true. But her face said she wasn't in a mood to hear it again either.

  "The locals use a bag-like cloth they slip over their hand like a glove and then wash and reuse. Trouble is they are almost big enough to make you a shirt. And if that doesn't deter you, they are about the same texture as a burlap bag. I don't think you'd find it invigorating like Derf."

  "And what do we do for an actual bath?"

  "The maid will bring us a bucket of hot water in the morning and leave it outside the door. We can wash up with the basin there on the side table. Guests are expected to have their own soap and washcloths, so I bought them for us."

  "OK. It's just kind of like camping out, but in a room. No problem."

  "But there is one tiny matter we have to talk about."

  "You understand that isn't one of my favorite things to hear?"

  "Hey, just hear me out, OK?"

  "Give me a pass on using vicariously the third time, or I'm liable to say something stupid when we go to dinner, just to get it in."

  "Deal. Now, about going to dinner, we're starting to get up in the hills here and Derf out here follow different customs than in the city. That affects you, because I'm presenting you to them as my daughter."

  "OK, what do I have to do? Follow you around ten paces back, or call you master or something?"

  "Please understand, some of their customs may bother you. Usu
ally there are reasons for them, or at least there were at one time. Plenty of them I'm ready to see gone and the Derf like me in the cities already have ditched a lot of them."

  "You're explaining so much this is really going to be bad, I can tell."

  "It doesn't have to be. In a nutshell, if you are a child you have to stay silent when in the company of your elders. Not in my company like now, in our rooms and not outside traveling. But like down in the tavern when we get dinner, I should order for you. You could whisper in my ear if you really need to, but even that's bad form. And when we visit my relatives in their homes, if there are adults present, they'd have to give you leave to speak as close family. You of course can answer a direct question from an adult, but on the plus side you can refuse and tell them to ask me and they can't take offense at it. Speaking freely is not something either of us could request either. It's something they'd have to offer."

  "Are they the sort who would offer?"

  Gordon wrinkled his snout in a grimace. "Probably not. I have a couple old female relatives who are real fossils. Reactionary is probably too mild a description. Even the ones that might offer, would hold back for fear of offending them. Now, we could probably ignore it here and get away with it. But not any further up in the hills."

  "It's only about a week. I can stand anything for a week," she said, resigned.

  "Except if you want to, you can be an adult by Derf custom. Our way is not to set an arbitrary age. A Derf declares they are assuming their majority. Now, that doesn't mean as much for a Derf as a Human. They usually declare long before they leave home and still live with their parents and clan and still get told what to do most of the time. It's more like a coming out used to be in human society. They were accepted then to attend social events and go to public things like the horse races where little children didn't belong. It's like a human child who reaches the point they are responsible enough to baby-sit, or drive the farm tractor, or ride the fence line alone. I understand your people have no way of formalizing that. It doesn't mean that somebody is ready to move out and live on their own."