April 2: Down to Earth

by Mackey Chandler

  "No I have no idea. And I don't know anything about a new crewman. I mean, I just quit, so he'd have had to hire the guy today. None of this has anything to do with me now."

  "We're worried he might have been forced to leave," her dad theorized. "Perhaps this guy kidnapped him."

  "That would be pretty hard to do," April thought out loud. "There are times you are really at the mercy of your fellow crew. Unless the man had something subtle to coerce him. But something as simple as holding a pistol on him just wouldn't work."

  "That's what Dave told us," her dad admitted.

  "Bob has been acting strangely," April said truthfully. "That's why I quit working with him. I didn't even get a payout of my share. He wouldn't buy me out, or let me buy him out. There was no coming to any agreement with him about anything. I just walked away, because he was hell bent on treating Eddie badly. He said bluntly he was going to cut him out as soon as he could and intimated he would do the same to Jeff as soon as he could get control of the drive technology."

  There was a sudden silence of dead air time. Nobody was saying anything and every one of them was thinking the same thing.

  "He wouldn't try to take the technology literally would he?" Dave asked. "I mean he wouldn't hijack the ship to try to strip out the drive and reverse engineer it? He's more the sort who would maneuver legally, or with business pressure to get what he wanted, not just grab it."

  "I'm not sure anymore," April admitted. "He said some very hurtful things yesterday, I never thought I'd hear. I offered him six million for his share and he bragged on how he had positioned the company for a huge run up of value and expected that pay out. He told me what I had contributed he could have hired out to a salary man, so I didn't deserve any more than a hireling."

  "What sort of ship climbed out of Armstrong to match with him?" Her gramps asked.

  Dave looked off screen for a moment and came back. "It was a heavy Lunar transport. USNA military. I don't think they're armed, so we never were concerned about their few Lunar vehicles. He does know the drives are booby trapped. I don't think he is stupid enough to try to open something Jeff wants sealed up. He should have some idea how inventive Jeff can be and know there's no way they could ever get in."

  "He might, but I wonder if the USNA knows it?" Heather asked. "If they insisted on opening it up, I doubt if they would care to allow him to stand off at a safe distance. It would be foolish to deal with those devils. What were Bob's politics like anyway? Did he even have any?"

  "He really wasn't very interested in politics," April's dad answered. "He wanted to do business and make money. He never really expressed any dissatisfaction with being under the USNA. But he didn't mind Home either as far as he ever said."

  "When we know something we'll call you again," Dave offered. "Thanks for helping us."

  "Talk to Eddie," she suggested. "Even if he doesn't know anything, because he never did pal with Bob, he should know about this because the Home Boy is his ship. Then she thought of something. "Have you seen your man Del today?" she asked Dave.

  "No, It's not his work day. Why do you ask?"

  "He and Bob seemed close and frankly he seemed a bad influence to me. I just wondered if he could tell us anything about how Bob was thinking."

  "I'm trying his number. I'll bring him in the call if he's answering." After a moment, he said in a more subdued voice, "His address is no longer in service."

  "Well isn't that a coincidence?" she remarked deadpan, "I don't have any hard evidence, but I bet that's worth looking into also."

  Dave just nodded grim agreement and closed the connection.

  April folded the pad down and explained the side they could not hear to her hosts.

  "So he's in orbit around Luna?" Adzusa asked. She was craning her head around and April wondered why. Then she looked and there was a bright new moon in the dark sky. They were all sitting looking at it, thinking of an invisibly small shell of metal racing around it close. Then against the dark face of the satellite, cupped in the bright arc of the sun lit part, there was a white flare that equaled the illuminated part for an instant in brilliance. It faded in a heartbeat through orange and red. After awhile her phone started ringing again, but she didn't answer it. Then the moon got all blurry through her tears.

  "I think I'd like to go to bed now, if you'd show me my room," she asked Adzusa.

  Chapter 28

  In the morning a young woman entered her room and asked if she needed anything. She requested the small carryon bag be fetched out of the Mercedes and gave the girl her vest and asked it be put on the passenger seat of the truck. She was offered breakfast in her room, which was really sweet, but she asked when her hosts would eat and was told about a half hour, so she asked to join them. First she called her dad and got his voice mail. She said she'd call again and called her grandpa. When she got him he looked absolutely haggard.

  "Do you know anything about Bob?" she asked right away.

  "Honey, all I can say, is he didn't have any legitimate business for the ship, that we could discover at all. I don't know how or why, but it looks as if he was working with the North Americans to get a look at Singh technology. No matter what happened between you two, there was no excuse for theft. And from what you said, about him wanting to dump or pressure out Eddie and Jeff, it just looks like whatever he did was something he felt hurried up to do now instead of later. It hurts to think that, but I can't see him being forced to do it, unless they had some unknown way to blackmail him."

  "Your mom in particular, is grasping at that idea that he was forced to do this. I think your dad knows better, but doesn't want to disillusion your mom. Actually I'm not going to argue it with her either. He's gone and what difference does it make what she wants to think, if it gives her any comfort at all? Dave is upset with himself, because his man Del is still missing and he's sure he was involved somehow. He said he never liked the man, but never felt he had real cause to fire him."

  April silently promised herself, she'd always go with her gut feeling about an employee, after seeing how this work out. "You do what you need to down there dear and we'll talk more when you come home. I'll tell the folks you called and that I said you don't have to call them now, since you talked to me. I think you'd find it upsetting to talk to them right now. I do," He hesitated and took a big sigh. "I have to mention this. You need to know. Bob left a will that you are his only heir. So you are again owner of the Happy Lewis and the courier company, as well as a bunch of other stuff. Do you have any orders?"

  "Why would he do that, as badly as we were getting along?" she asked.

  "I don't know. Just one more thing we have no idea what he was thinking."

  "Do you know when he made that will?" April asked.

  "No, his lawyer called us up as soon as his death was public and he didn't indicate how long this had been the arrangement. Who else would he name?" her Grandpa pointed out. "If he was close to somebody outside the family, he certainly never mentioned it to me. He did business with you, but not me or your parents."

  "I never asked him to do this." April said, perhaps a little too emphatically.

  "I wouldn't think you would. Now, honestly, I could see him asking you to make him his heir. Or at least taking insurance out on you, while you were in a business together. He would be concerned with retaining control. But maybe at some level he knew he was doing you dirty and set that up to make things right. I'd like to think so."

  "Maybe," she said unconvinced. I don't know what I want to do. I'm too upset right now to deal with it."

  "I understand. You have always been a steady one and you are doing better than your Mom," he said. "We had to push her a little bit to take a tranquillizer. Just don't take too long, there are people hanging, waiting to hear what your direction will be since it affects their job and livelihood. Goodbye little gal," he said. "I love you, ya know," and closed the connection.

  She felt overwhelmed with sadness again, but resolved to get cleaned up and
face the day. Even as upset as she was, she still marveled at the bathroom she entered which was just for her use and easily twice as big as any her grandparents had in Australia. When she came out her case was there and her outfit was laid out neat for her to put on.

  It bothered her for an instant that the woman had dug through her things. Then she realized that was her job. She could see you could have servants, or you could have privacy, but not really both. It couldn't have been a much simpler outfit. It was a white hooded t-shirt and a pair of baggy cotton pants with a drawstring waist. She had her same Moon boots. The maid (Four servants! April thought.) Stood around like she was waiting for something.

  "Do you need any assistance?" she inquired nicely. "April almost said something snarky and then realize the maid was doing exactly what was expected of her and she was the one who didn't have a clue.

  "I've never had anyone wait on me like this," she explained. "I live very simply, in a very small apartment and have never had help, so I wouldn't have any clue what to even ask you to do. If we wore big complicated dresses, like you see in period movies, I'd need all sorts of help. But for a t-shirt and pants, I can't think of anything you could do. But if you see me doing something that doesn't conform to local custom or the habits of the household, I'd really appreciate a private word. Would you feel free to do that?" She went ahead and started dressing.

  The young woman nodded yes and April had an idea.

  "Do you speak Japanese?"

  "Yes, it is my own language. Do you have trouble understanding my English?"

  "Not at all, but if you would take the time to speak to me in English and then repeat it in Japanese, that would be a huge help to me."

  She seemed to like the idea too. "I can help you with makeup, or I should have offered to scrub your back and helped with your bath. I see now you'd never have thought to ask. Would you like me to take yesterday's clothing off to be cleaned?" Then she repeated it all in Japanese.

  "That would be nice to have my laundry done." Then she struggled to repeat it in Japanese, but got hung up and the maid had to correct it and finish it out for her.

  "These are the only two outfits I have, so I need to have Adzusa take me into town today and buy some more things."

  The maid looked oddly at the white clothing. April had worn all black yesterday. "They told us not to be surprised if you seemed very sad. They said they were pretty certain your brother died yesterday. I'm sorry to hear that, but are these mourning clothes? Was it something you knew was coming?" Repeating it in Japanese was automatic now.

  "No. It was a complete surprise. And not a hundred percent certain even yet, but I think that's what happened. For the Japanese, mourning clothing is white isn't it?" She couldn't finish the idea again before she had help. "I have a habit of wearing black. It started almost as a joke. A costume really and I sort of got carried away with it."

  "Perhaps you should branch out and buy a few white outfits too," she suggested. It would look appropriate to the Japanese and white is much cooler in this climate. The things you buy here will not be powered or cooled like your vest."

  April thought that pretty good advice.

  They were all waiting for her at the table and she felt a flash of guilt that she held them up. But when she sat she saw they had already gotten coffee and were working on some pastries. She was starved after skipping supper last night, all upset over her brother. Once she joined them they gave the young man their orders. She asked for a stack of hot cakes, six eggs on top sunny side up, orange juice, a sampler of whatever meat they had and some of the coffee.

  Papa-san had on sunglasses, regular old fashioned ones not spex and she could see his eyebrows rise behind them. She took a long sip of the coffee and pronounced it good. When she inhaled the second half of the cup the waiter hurried over to refill it. She could get used to this she decided. When the food came she saw the cook had pretty well figured her out and had included a small grilled tenderloin in the meats, as well as a side dish of lovely pineapple chunks and melon balls.

  She explained about her outfits and how she needed to get some things to wear. To her surprise Adzusa was dead set against taking her shopping. "I detest shopping," she assured her. "Have my mother take you. All the clerks in the nice places just love her and she'll take you somewhere fabulous for lunch. Which should probably be by eleven or so," she suggested to her mother, looking at the expanse of empty dishes. "Else she's likely to start snacking on a small clerk."

  Lin was at first going to have one of the young men drive, but agreed to drive April's truck and when she did so she started explaining everything she was doing. It was obvious she expected April to remember. They passed Sam's corner store and there was a section of fence down with yellow tape replacing it and in the field was a olive colored military vehicle even bigger that the Mercedes and a tarp over a small mound. There were a couple plastic tote trays on the ground with debris piled in them and a couple young soldiers with slung weapons guarding the site. There was a temporary plate laid over the ditch to access the site and lots of heavy tire tracks across the grass. Sam's was open with the fans visible through the windows lazily turning. But he didn't have any customers.

  "Soldier boys make the customers nervous," Lin told her. They'll come back after they're gone. We'll have lunch somewhere else today too," she informed her.

  After they drove a bit she said, "Adzusa called your security people this morning. They are pretty sure the Home Boy and the USNA shuttle are both gone. Neither sat back down after they met in orbit, so your brother is presumed gone. The USNA is talking it up like a chance but hostile encounter of warships, that escalated for unknown reasons into a fight when something went wrong. Things like that used to be common on the oceans. The fact they aren't denouncing you and saying it's a provocation, is a pretty good measure of how guilty they are."

  "Thank you," April said. "I talked briefly to my grandpa this morning too. He also said he was gone. It doesn't seem real, even though I saw the flare."

  The complex they drove up to was low, with lots of polished marble slabs and the outside was landscaped like an exotic tropical fantasy. There was even a waterfall outside with black haired Polynesian maidens frolicking in the pool beneath. April couldn't imagine getting paid to play in the water. She had never seen automatons before. She mentioned she'd like to dive in herself.

  "You're welcome to use the pool at our place you know. You do know how to swim don't you?"

  "Sure I swam a lot, in the surf even, at my grandparent's home in Australia."

  Lin carefully explained the concept of valet parking and how she should do it and what she should tip later, when she pulled up. She had visions of April burning her own tires off with laser fire, thinking someone was stealing her new truck. The kid who took it was just barely restrained enough to still be marginally professional. He obviously highly approved of both the truck and April. Lin was so amused, when the truck was moving off she told April, "If he had to choose an hour of play with you, or the truck, I think he would lock up solid at the dilemma." April was embarrassed.

  April had shopped once with her grandmother in Australia. The stores they'd visited had racks of clothing grouped by style and a bunch of different sizes marked, all hung together or on shelves. It was quiet and carpeted and nice. There was a dressing room and a seating area for people accompanying you. She assumed this would be the same.

  Here they were shown through a gallery of clothing, where only one of each outfit was shown and that was just representative of the line or style and others would be shown on request. Their private sales room was brightly lit, but all indirect lighting and there was a pair of deep green wing back chairs with a cherry table between them. To the side was a low upholstered stool. A life size thin screen showed views of the center section from all sides.

  Lin seated herself quickly and a thin fellow came in wearing actual glasses on his nose and introduced himself as Frank. Why anyone would do that, instead of having t
heir eyes fixed April couldn't imagine. The man had an even skinnier assistant, who spoke in low tones to Lin and scurried off.

  "I'll let the young woman tell you what she wants. She is from Home and she's from as different a culture as you'll ever have standing in a fitting room. Approach it with the same caution you'd have fitting an Arabian Princess and I'm sure you'll do fine. She does apparently have a sense of personal space. I have it from reliable sources, she was pressed too closely by the paparazzi at the airport and she shot four of them."

  "Good," he hissed. And it's a very hard word to hiss April realized. "I hope she taught the barbarians some manners. What do you need today my dear? And even more important, what do you desire?"

  The assistant came gliding back in with a service for tea, that was the oriental style instead of English and an assortment of tiny cookies and little square sandwiches he placed on the table. He served Lin and stepped back to watch carefully. April bet if she'd come in with an English lady, it would have been served in Silver and handled cups.

  "I only brought down this outfit you see and another that is also all black. I've been a little stuck on black for political reasons and I'd still like some more black, but also some all white and I'll look at color but probably not with much patience. The Moon boots are my only shoes, but they aren't real."

  "In what way are they not real?" he asked confused.