Ellie had found the place; in fact, it had been her parents' homestead before their deaths. Ellie was well known in the area, and I wasn't certain whether that was a good thing. Still, the ranch covered several hundred hectares. Since her parents' deaths, Ellie had been leasing most of the land to her neighbors for grazing of the odd local "cattle". Ellie told me they were actually a hybrid of cattle brought as fertilized ova aboard Adventurer and a native creature resembling an armored ox.
The Haveners were very matter-of-fact about this, never realizing that such interfertility was incredibly rare; the biosystems of different planets are almost never that compatible. In fact, Lisa knew of only two other cases in the thousands of settled systems of man-settled space.
Ellie had bought a steam carriage to get us back and forth to the train station. Unfortunately, it was the first one in Boville, and she had to spend almost a week showing it off and letting the neighbors satisfy their curiosity. Even so, our steam carriage passing by was sure to attract the notice of everyone we passed.
"I thought about getting some horses and paying the Costo boy to feed and care for them," Ellie reported, "but I decided it wasn't a good idea to have him prowling around the place every day, especially when we're not here."
She was right, of course, we couldn't risk the boy finding out that the "pump house" contained more than a pump; it also contained a small fusactor and a waste processing unit for the concealed 'indoor outhouse'. Or that the stable now contained a starship's lander!
At least the steam carriage was nearly silent. We decided that we'd try to use it after dark or before dawn. There was no night train to Tarrant, so we planned to drive to the train station early in the morning, and wait for anywhere from six to ten hours for the train. No fun, but better than having the neighbors keeping track of our comings and goings.
The President of Westin Mining and Metals was a large bear of a man, with an aggressive enthusiasm that had communicated itself to his two Vice Presidents. The trio were determined to make Westin Mining the largest metals company on Haven, and they practically ripped our sample and documents from Ellie's hand. The Vice President for Metals Processing caressed the aluminum ingot as though it were covered in diamonds, only reluctantly passing it to the President when he demanded it. At that point, he grabbed the book, and turned immediately to the section on processing aluminum from Bauxite, and started frantically reading, obviously cramming as much information as he could before he had to return the book.
There was no doubt they would participate, although, like the others, they disapproved of the auction format and the requirement to release their experimental results. But I insisted that they take the 30 days, review the sample booklet to get an overview of what would be involved in preparing to process aluminum, run tests on the sample, and have their lawyers review the contracts.
"Messer Carver is hoping to establish a long-term relationship with the winner," I said, "and he wants to make certain there are no misunderstandings."
Finally, we could return to Startrader. The pace of our activities left all of us exhausted, and we took a day off to simply lounge around, enjoying the comparative luxury of the starship before throwing ourselves once more into the University whirl.
The wheels were in motion; all we could do now was wait.
I was amazed at the change in Ollie in the few days we'd been gone. Brown hair was pushing his former gray away from his scalp, and I was almost certain it was visibly thickening. Lines in his face were disappearing, replaced by full, ruddy flesh. He even seemed to be losing some weight, and his movements now were surer and more coordinated. He seemed fifteen years younger than the coughing, wheezing, dying man I’d known.
“Welcome back!” he shouted as he bounced from his chair. “I’ve almost run out of excuses to explain your absence. Be sure to give Doctor Toray a chance to register all his displeasure. We want him to make a full report to Duke Richard. Your ‘assistants’ have also been getting curious.” He paused. “And you’ve brought the beautiful Heidi! Wonderful! You bring beauty to our spartan establishment, my dear!”
Heidi blushed, but I grimaced. “A nice welcome. What horrible indignity is being heaped on our beloved leader now?”
Ollie sighed in mock sorrow. "Ah! Our leader's burdens are many; his life but a series of insults and indignities. At the moment, though, there are two that rise above the rest: First, he finds it intolerable that the Chancellor of the University does not have complete access to the University's computer.”
I rolled my eyes. "He barely knows how to use his tablet to access the comp. I'll bet Duke Richard has some people that do, though."
Ollie smiled and nodded. "That agrees with my own observations. His other main complaint at the moment is that the University's Chancellor doesn't have a personal lander. He mentioned something called a 'gig'.
I shook my head. "And we know who taught him that word. He was certainly uninterested when I explained the term."
Ollie nodded again. "Exactly. I have heard little but those two complaints for the last three days. Apparently Duke Richard is becoming impatient."
I sighed deeply. "I guess it's time I taught the professor a few things."
Toray rose to his feet as his secretary ushered me into his office. "Carver! At last! where have you been? I sent for you three days ago!"
I waited until the secretary backed out. "I've been busy. There's a lot to do before the big ceremony celebrating full life support and the opening of the entire ship."
Toray snorted and dropped back into his chair. "Pah! I've more important things to worry about than a staff party!" He put on what he apparently thought was a threatening glower. "For instance," he continued, "I demand to know how you dared limit my access to the ship's computer! I am the Chancellor! Nothing is forbidden me! You will authorize me full access at once! Do you hear me? At once!"
I smiled gently. "What were you trying to access when you were told your access was denied?"
He frowned. "Well, it wasn't m… That doesn't matter! What matters here is your impudence in limiting my access!" He stood up and began to move from behind his desk. "Now get over here and authorize my access!"
I caught his eyes, held them with my own. "No," I said flatly.
His eyes widened, shocked. "Wha … What?" the shock turned to fury. "How dare you …"
I waved dismissingly. "Sit down," I snapped. "It's time you learned a few facts of life aboard Adventurer.
"Yes," I continued, "You're Chancellor of the University. But your university happens to be located on my starship. I am Captain of Adventurer. I command her, and her comp obeys only me. It might be wise for you to consider me your landlord. This university was my idea, and I have put few limits on it." Toray opened his mouth to speak, and I waved him to silence. "Yes, Adventurer actually belongs to the people of Haven. But for the moment, she's in my custody. Among other things, that means I have a responsibility to protect the people of Haven from threats stemming from her advanced technology.
"At the moment, the only information I've classified has been military. I will not allow advanced military weaponry from Adventurer to bring war and conquest to Haven. The fact that you've triggered that denial tells me that you were trying to access weapons information. Please tell your friend Duke Richard that pomposity didn't work, and King David's war of conquest will have to wait."
"Conquest? Preposterous! His Majesty merely wishes to keep his people safe from threats." He threw me a shrewd glance. "The same thing you say that you wish."
I shook my head. "With Len dead, King David's people aren't threatened; and if they were, he already has the largest standing army on Haven."
I paused. "Sire, the University is designed to be an international institution. If you cannot accept that, if you insist on remaining an agent of New Home, perhaps you should consider resignation. Because in that case I will do everything in my power to get the Planetary Council to replace you."
His eyes widened. "
Ha! So that's it! You want to replace me with that buffoon Canva!"
I shook my head again. "No, sire, that's not it. I consider you a pompous, pretentious ass, but for all I know you may be an excellent Chancellor. But I will do my best to make certain that spies from the nations do not succeed in bringing war to Haven, even when the spy is the Chancellor."
Toray's face was red with fury. "I am no spy! I merely try to assist King David and encourage him to lend his support to the University."
I sighed. "You would do better to simply be honest with the Council. New Home, after all, doesn't control a majority, even with its domination of East Brent." I shrugged. "At any rate, you must know this: I have taken care to remove nearly all of Adventurer's weaponry, and I will not permit anyone to access military information stored in her comp. That includes you. I suggest you forget this 'secret agent' nonsense, and simply do your job. Adventurer's reactivation is the biggest event in centuries, and the entire planet is preparing to celebrate it. I suggest you get out front and lead, before the crowd runs over you!"
I spun on my heel, and started for the door. I stopped. "Oh," I continued, "You can forget about your personal lander, too. We have Adventurer's three workboats, her lifeboat, and her gig. But we will be transporting thousands of people. I am also willing to use Startrader's two available workboats and her lifeboat, since we will be short of transportation. Several of the workboats are being converted to passenger use as we speak. But while Adventurer's gig will be used for VIP transportation, that doesn't mean it's your private yacht."
"I understood that there were two gigs. What … what about the other one?"
I gave him a cheerful smile. "That one's my private yacht!" I breezed out of his office, struggling to contain a huge grin. Okay, I admit it: that was petty but it felt good!
Of course, there were two landers I didn't mention to Toray. One was the one I was outfitting for deep space use. The other was sitting quietly atop my headquarters in the International Zone. Kidnap by New Home was still very much a possibility, and the greatest risk of it was during my visits to the Zone. I regretted the loss of that workboat from my inventory; but I wasn't foolish enough to remove my last-ditch escape resource because of it.
I didn't exactly lie to Toray; I really had been busy with Adventurer's reactivation. But I'd been doing it by remote control, via Ollie, Lisa, Jane, and robot work crews. The endless hours I'd spent with my tablet had helped me considerably in dealing with the creepy, oppressive silence of Haven.
I'm a city boy, and I grew up with the raucous, around-the-clock clamor of the slums. But on Haven, light was expensive. Very few homes could afford electricity, and oil and gas for lamps was expensive in the city, and gas wasn't even available outside them. Even the wax and wicks the poor used to make candles cost money many could not afford.
As a result, people tended to go to bed at what I considered an absurdly early hour. Only the largest cities could afford gas street lighting, and even in them, few were willing to brave the cutpurses and thugs that roamed the shadows.
Outside the cities, of course, economics was the determining factor. Lamp oil, as I mentioned, was expensive, and used sparingly; so most people were in bed only an hour or two after dark. No people, no traffic, no noise. The first few nights I spent on Haven were largely sleepless, and it took me several days to isolate the cause.
When we'd installed the fusactors at the safe houses, we'd also had to install heavy curtains to conceal our bright, whole-house lighting from our neighbors, few though they were.
All this gave me plenty of time to work with Ollie and the comps to prepare Adventurer for her grand opening.
We'd devised a routine for reactivating life support on each of Adventurer's decks. First, the robots would erect a temporary airlock taken from the ship's emergency supplies over a hatch leading to the unpressurized deck. Then a work crew of robots would enter the deck and search for weapons. These searches turned up an amazing array of mostly home-made weapons. There were few blasters or lasers, but there were plenty of needlers, and hundreds of knives made from almost anything that could form a blade. And clubs. And axes. and dozens of bloodthirsty combinations of all of them. All these weapons were gathered into a secure storage locker, boxed and labeled by deck and dorm.
Once the search was completed, the deck was pressurized and checked for leaks before the temporary airlock was removed and human work crews were admitted to begin adapting the deck to the University's needs.
This procedure was modified slightly after Ollie succeeded in finding Tul Rana, an archaeologist that hadn't alienated Toray, and hired him to evaluate and document the various artifacts found aboard. The robots still did their search with the deck in vacuum, to make certain there was no human interference; but they only gathered advanced weapons. The home-made weapons were left in place. Once the deck was pressurized, Tul and his crew swept in like a plague of locusts. They treated each deck like an archaeological dig, carefully documenting the position of each knife or other weapon, as well as even the smallest artifact or scrap of cloth, before permitting it to be moved. They shot thousands of photographs of artifacts 'in situ', and treated every scrap like a golden treasure. Finally, though, even they had to ask me to locate secure storage for the thousands of improvised weapons.
Tul's peoples' inspection took weeks on each deck, and neither I, nor Ollie, nor even Toray could get them to accelerate the process. Once Tul finally admitted that he couldn't justify making a deck into a museum, we could finally allow crews to begin work.
On all our VIP tours, all of us, even Toray, emphasized the inadequacy of the installed furnishings, and the desirability of replacing them with Haven products. The original furnishings were starkly utilitarian, with mass and cost being the primary considerations; comfort had been far down on the list of priorities.
But now we were creating Haven's most prestigious university. Mass was no longer a consideration, and appearance and comfort had moved to the top of the list. Even cost was a secondary consideration. If the University was to succeed, it would need tuition-paying students. Tuitions would have to be pretty high, since all the students would be staying 'on campus', so to speak, and the University would assume responsibility for all their meals. Students with the resources to attend the university would not be impressed with worn, grimy, 500-year-old furnishings and appointments. For one thing, they would not be satisfied with the 216-bed open dormitories.
So, major renovations were necessary. Tul nearly cried to see the work crews tearing out the beds and classroom furnishings. Ollie and I had to finally agree to tie all the old stuff into a growing bundle, which we then towed into a carefully calculated position and set to orbiting Haven. That way, we assured Tul, they would be in 'vacuum storage'; still available to 'researchers', but they'd be out of the way. By the time we finished, the bundle was the size of a small moon, and only its lack of density kept it from affecting Haven's tides.
There were 25 dorms, besides the crew berthing areas now earmarked for faculty and staff. After much discussion, the committee appointed to design student accommodations came up with a design we could approve.
Originally, each dorm contained 216 bunks, arranged in 18 groups of 12. But students would not be willing to pay to live in bunks stacked three high and arranged head-to-foot. Even if we made each group into a cramped 4-person cubicle, the dorm's capacity would be reduced to 72; giving the university space for a student body of only 1800, about half of our expected enrollment.
So we'd pored over Adventurer's schematics, identifying cargo holds and other spaces that could be converted to student quarters, lunchrooms or recreational spaces. This resulted in a decision to offload much of the cargo remaining aboard Adventurer, the stuff they had needed so badly 500 years ago, and whose lack had nearly caused the failure of the colony.
That decision caused much excitement and discussion at all levels and in all the nations. Finally, the Planetary Council decided that the cargo
aboard Adventurer belonged to all the nations of Haven in common, and should be maintained in the International Zone, where it would remain available for study by scientists from all the nations. The Planetary Council voted itself the right to make certain 'surplus' artifacts available to the nations or by auction sale to the people of Haven.
It was the first decision the Council had made that didn't directly concern the university, and marked the planet's first, faltering steps toward a planetary government. I was pleased. According to Lisa, history has not been kind to multi-government planets involved in interstellar trade, as we hoped Haven would be one day. Sooner or later one or more of the nations would take offense at one of the others, and begin smuggling in advanced weaponry or tactics, or both. The result was nearly always bad. Haven was a beautiful world; I didn't want to see it ravaged by war.
The International Zone was enlarged to include several warehouses, and we began shuttling down landers full of cargo to fill them. I wondered how different the history of Haven would have been had all this stuff been available to the original colonists. Now, most of it was just curiosities, rather than essentials for survival. Still, study would reveal many concepts and methodologies that would benefit Haven.
Ollie looked up and smiled as I came into his office. "Ollie, can you come with me for an hour or so? There's something you must see, and something you can help me with."
Ollie looked surprised, and then frowned. "Is it really important, Jerd? I'm up to my eyebrows in work, here."
I nodded. "I know, Ollie, and I'm sorry. But yes, I think it's that important."
I took him to Adventurer's most isolated VR gym and had him don a VR helmet. "Ollie," I began, "I know you have at least a theoretical concept of some of the star weapons. But now I need your help to smuggle some stuff off Adventurer and over to Startrader."
Stranded on Haven Page 28