Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “But you have industry here, correct?” Horatio asked.

  “Yes, now,” the governor said in a sour voice. “But not nearly what we need to grow and expand like they have.”

  “You don't have to follow their model. Trust me.”

  “They never allowed any industry to export to us—just goods. They sold us satellites but not the means to make them,” the governor growled.

  “So they kept you on the hook or the cost of the manufacturing equipment was prohibitive. Did anyone ever ask to buy it?”

  “I don't know. It doesn't matter now,” the governor stated.

  “You've gotten something of a leg up from Caroline. Bek had no inclination to help you become self-sustaining because then they lose your market. But they don't like the market since they were breaking even. That isn't how you run a business.”

  “True.”

  “And I understand some people have issues with charity unless hardship is involved,” Horatio stated. “That's fine. Everyone has their pride. So, the question is, where do we go from here.”

  “Okay, I'll bite,” the governor said, staring at him.

  “I reviewed some of the discussions your people, the delegates you sent, had with the government. I don't have all the notes, but you are welcome to them as well as a copy of my news archives.”

  “Thank you,” the governor said. “News from outside the system is interesting,” he admitted.

  “Good. I'd like a copy of your news files if possible. I'd like to share them on the station and with Bek.”

  “That you'll have to talk to the media about. They own the rights to their own broadcasts including syndication,” the governor stated.

  “Understood,” Horatio stated. “So, you want …?”

  “Better industry. Better medical. But I understand the industry is in space? Does it have to be?” the governor asked plaintively.

  “Part of the problem with industry is that it takes in raw material and produces waste in the form of slag, pollution, or other things. Closed loop recycling picks up most of that. But not all of it. Space industry is cheap since you can use asteroids for raw material or moons …,” Horatio flicked a hand. “You catch my drift,” he said. The governor nodded.

  “And we don't have that sort of stuff here.”

  “Not in great quantity, which is part of the reason companies in Bek came but didn't stay. They had no inclination to do so since it would have been cost prohibitive. They are near or at market saturation in Bek A and getting there in Bek B. Believe me, opening up new markets is of keen interest to them.”

  “So you may not be doing me any favors by opening the door for them again,” the governor said, eyeing him.

  “Heh, forewarned is forearmed, Governor,” Horatio stated. “They don't need a lot of the material you produce. So, do you know what they want? And the other question is, can you refine it enough to the point where it is more valuable? Valuable to export but not to replicate in their chemical works?”

  “That … is possible. We have organic pharmaceuticals as you pointed out,” the governor stated, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I'll have to check with my people. Go over the old records.”

  “Okay,” Horatio stated with a nod.

  “So, what do you need? I know this isn't just a social call,” the governor said, eyeing the commodore.

  “It isn't. We need a lot of things. Fuel, food, water, and I might be able to squeeze some people into the ship and bring them to the station to be picked up and shipped to the outer Federation. I was thinking army. Those are what my orders say to talk to you about, you and the general,” Horatio stated.

  “Ah. I see. Orders,” the governor stated.

  “I brought with me trade goods. I think we can use what we salvaged as trade. We've reconditioned it all for you.”

  “What sort of trade goods?”

  “Modern equipment. Farm equipment, industrial gear, all sorts of goodies,” Horatio stated. He held up a chip and then passed it over to the governor. “Here is my manifest.”

  “Okay. I'll go over it with my treasury department and some of the corporations here. No promises,” the governor stated.

  Horatio nodded. He had a feeling by communicating his need he was in for a very expensive exchange rate. That was fine if he got what he needed. “I can help you with some tech. Give you pointers. For instance,” he smiled, “if you process water into hydrogen, it is more valuable. If you process the hydrogen into deuterium, well, that is very valuable to a starship,” he said.

  “And the equipment to make that is in your cargo hold?” the governor asked.

  “No. But I can show you how to make it. The equipment I mean,” Horatio said.

  The governor frowned then nodded slowly. “Okay.”

  “Hydrogen you are already making, Governor. It is in modern chemistry. Run an electric current through water and you get oxygen and hydrogen. That's easy. Deuterium … I'm not certain if you are making it.”

  “I'll find out.”

  “I recommend you work on your education. Having a skilled and educated workforce helps.”

  “That's a problem,” the governor admitted. “Running a farm can be hand to mouth. It had been for years. Up until Caroline came around, half our farms were done by muscle power. That is changing. The more industry we can get into the fields, the more it frees up people to pursue other careers and the more surplus food we have in case of emergency,” he stated.

  Horatio nodded. “Or trade,” he added.

  “That too,” the governor said with a smile. “It's honestly hard to educate people when they are out in the fields. You need practical hands-on knowledge for that. Some lessons … have been lost. Forgotten.”

  “Something we can hopefully change when we work together,” Horatio said softly.

  The governor eyed him and then slowly nodded. “Let's hope so.”

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  The governor had to attend to his flock so Horatio took some time off to visit the planet a bit. He was almost absent about it as he thought about the situation he faced.

  No, not just him. The planet, its population, he thought, looking around him. The people were there, right under his nose to be seen if he took the time to notice them, he thought a bit chastened. They weren't as hard up as the governor said, but they weren't dressed in silk and running around with gold air cars either.

  There were hundreds of people in the government district of the capital city. Possibly thousands, he wasn't certain. They were dressed as business people, but he could tell some were only in the job part-time. He nodded in passing to a couple who stared at him curiously. He moved on after a moment.

  No space program, no space skills or advanced technology, so no real need to train for them. The average citizen had a low education, some barely above the basic three R's he bet.

  Nuevo was like that since agro worlds tied people to the land living hand to mouth in order to survive. It was harsh, but you had to do what was necessary to survive. And during the process, some things were lost.

  He could understand their resentment over the cutthroat business tactics of Bek. Bek put itself first, that was normal. But that resentment lingered. He was left to deal with it.

  He already knew he wasn't going to get everything on his wish list. The basics were going to cost him an arm and a leg or at least most of his cargo. He was trading the parts they had found for food, fuel, water, goods, and medical supplies. But the governor hadn't bothered to hide his desire to own the shuttles as well as any parts he had.

  Again he could understand and even sympathize with the desire. They wanted their own space program. They didn't want to be dependent on outsiders for satellites. Apparently, the ones they'd gotten from Caroline were a big hit.

  He wuffled as he strode through the park. He would hold out on the shuttles. If he had to, he might give up one but not all of them. He had to keep something back.

  The problem was; this was just the first visit.
The one to set the precedent. How were things going to go the next time he or another ship came?

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Horatio took note of a growing city as they orbited over the planet. He pulled up telescope images of it, and then a website on the planet's growing internet before he smiled at what he found.

  Zoophobia had been founded and mostly populated by Neo species and some alien species a decade prior, but it hadn't taken off until Caroline's first visit. That visit, and because the city was on a major trade route on the central continent, had kick-started the city into recent explosive growth. It was on track to become one of the fastest growing cities on the planet, one of the first metropolises.

  He was amused by the glittering gold and glass buildings. All that glittered wasn't gold, but try telling them that he thought. The buildings weren't the standard boxy affairs but shaped in organic shapes, many of them spires, but not all of them. Some were geometric shapes like spheres or ellipses, there was even a torus. Some of the better looking buildings looked like horns or antlers. A few resembled various things living or fanciful. He got a kick out of the building that resembled a waterfall. The most realistic was the building that looked like a palm tree near the beach. If a palm tree could be over a hundred stories tall and a hundred meters wide that was, he thought in wry amusement. It was quite interesting to see it, and he wasn't surprised to find out it was a hotel and casino.

  “Sir, are you ready for the meeting with the governor? The shuttle is about to dock,” Lieutenant Olson said over a text message, cutting through his woolgathering.

  “I'll be right there,” the commodore said. He checked his outfit, then nodded once and took off at a trot for the boat bay. He had to get the meeting off to a good start if he was going to get anywhere with his plan he thought.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Gemma grinned as she scanned the hot spots on the planet. She planned to hit every single one they could the moment they hit the ground.

  Leo noted his partner's distraction and shook his head. He scanned the readouts and then went nosing around the other stations to make certain everything was okay. It was all a cover to work his way around to Gemma.

  She had been gushing about their first time on another planet outside Bek. He was not excited about it, however, not that she cared what he thought.

  “You are making such a big deal out of this Gemma,” he said with a shake of his head as she twirled around. He tried to remain deadpan about it all. “Once you've seen one planet, you've seen them all. This one … it's an agro world. Dirt poor farmers and the like,” he said.

  “Don't be a spoilsport,” Gemma scolded him. He looked at her, then over her shoulder to what she was looking at. When she moved away, he caught her and her tablet long enough to see. He groaned when he recognized the search she'd put in. “Really?”

  “I'm just checking out the sites we may want to visit,” Gemma said, jutting her chin out. “Do you have a problem with that?” she demanded, eyes glittering with challenge.

  He released her and held his hands up in surrender. “Problem? No problem. None,” he said backing off.

  “I thought not,” she replied with a smirk.

  He shook his head once he was out of range. He was tempted to try to arrange it so only one of them would have liberty at a time. Tempted mind you, but he didn't like the idea of Gemma off on her own. She was liable to get into mischief or meet someone without him being there to fend them off.

  He sighed heavily. He was going to have to be resigned to her dragging him around the planet. Maybe he could coax her into a beach? He wasn't certain, but he'd like to try. Most people who went on liberty did it to relax and enjoy themselves, not wear themselves out!

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Lieutenant Olson was bemused to begin fielding calls from excited people. He tried to filter them, but there were too many and several called back over and over.

  Finally, he just bit the bullet and stopped procrastinating in order to get through them. To his surprise, they were from business people or people who wanted a fresh start. They had no idea about living and working in space, but they'd heard about the station on the news and the empty shops.

  He grimaced and checked the commodore's schedule. The commodore was busy in talks to try to land them more food and fuel … he frowned, and then decided to get more information before he took it to the commodore.

  He started out by forming a database. He used a matrix to weed out those who were just curious or had no resources to backup their dreams. The people who had the resources, or in some cases the corporations, ended up naturally rising to the top.

  He also filtered the list for businesses that were needed on the station. And then he applied a third filter, looking for those that could be self-sustaining.

  But those that were self-sustaining were a bit too limiting he found. Every business needed to import something. The only ones that didn't need to import a lot were the massage parlors that had applied and one of them seemed to be an “adult” massage parlor. At least, that was what the woman who'd left a message had hinted at with her wink and smile.

  At least he hoped that had been a woman. He frowned and then replayed part of the video on his HUD. He couldn't tell, but he hoped that wasn't an Adam’s apple. He grimaced.

  Instead he focused on the basics. There were a few restaurant people who wanted a fresh start and new challenge, plus a couple business owners who ran service industries like cleaning, tailoring, and such. A few shop keepers, but he wasn't certain about them. Where were they going to get their inventory?

  He snorted when he got to the guy who wanted to run a casino. Quark? He shook his head. The guy looked funky with the big elephant-like ears and wrinkled nose.

  He checked the commodore's schedule. He noted he was just about done with his current meeting so he took off to pitch his proposal before the commodore became distracted by something else.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  “You look nervous. Something wrong, Pietro?” Horatio asked when he noted the lieutenant coming over to see him.

  “No, sir. I thought I'd um, do a bit of work and well, wanted to run a proposal past you, sir,” Lieutenant Olson stated.

  “Oh?”

  “We've been getting requests from people who want to work or run a business on the station. A lot of requests it turns out—thousands. I set up a series of filters to handle them all. I wasn't certain if you wanted to set-up a website to handle it or pass on it for now. But I set-up a database of what I filtered to weed out the dreamers. What's left are the serious people,” he stated.

  “How serious?” Horatio asked. “You said you have a database?”

  “Yes, sir,” Pietro replied. He pulled out his tablet, dumped the database and notes onto it and then passed it over to the commodore so he could look it over.

  Horatio took the tablet and then scanned it. He was pleased with the young man's show of initiative.

  He was also pleased by the show of interest from the natives. He tapped the top entry. There was a nice business plan there in the link, plus requests for space rental, deposits, business license fees, taxes … he groaned.

  “Something wrong, sir?”

  “They are asking questions I don't have answers to,” Horatio said.

  “I see, sir,” Pietro said quietly.

  “Not your fault, it is mine. This didn't come up. So, we get to deal with it.”

  “Now, sir?”

  “I don't know. It is something I'm going to need to add to the agenda of discussions with Governor Tribek as well as Admiral Irons I suppose or the treasury department. Hell, Beck might get involved,” he mused.

  “Sir?”

  “The costs we're supposed to charge. I'm not a businessman. Technically, we should let Commander Decoure deal with it. But we're the ones on the spot,” Horatio stated.

  “So …”

  “And I don't know what Bek has done either. I think though, we're going to run with this.”


  “We are, sir?” Pietro asked, wide eyed.

  “Yes. Get an idea on how much square footage runs for a business here. Then figure out the costs of running the business. Use ball park figures if you have to. Ask if you need to do so. See if there are any rules of thumb on the web. Contact Treasury here,” Horatio ordered.

  “Sir?”

  “You started this; you get to run with it. It is your baby, Lieutenant,” Horatio said as he handed the tablet back. “But I want you to make one thing perfectly clear. Warn them that they will have to make do with what they have on board. They'll have to agree to that and the rule of law on board. Taxes …,” he grimaced. “We'll figure something out I suppose. And I guess we can offer them cut rates for shipping to start-up to help them along.”

  “Shipping costs,” the lieutenant said slowly, thinking about the situation. He had a sinking sensation, one he knew he was in over his head.

  “Warn them it is tight quarters on the ship. And we'll give them a cut rate on passenger fees but only up to a certain amount. Get with Commander Simpson to find out how many extra warm bodies we can support. Go over our manifest. We've got plenty of space, but some of the stuff they may want to bring might be a problem. Also, remind them about equipment and that some things in space don't come cheap. Like dumping heat,” Horatio said.

  “With heat exchangers, sir?”

  “They don't work fast. It has to go somewhere. Heating and air, electric … some of those businesses use more than others. And some need chemicals that will require permits and special handling. Hell, the restaurants are going to need permits, inspections for health code …. gah!” Horatio said, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

  “I'll do what I can, sir. I know some want to bring their families,” Pietro said, suddenly regretting bringing the subject up.

  “You do that. I'll bring it up with others. We'll start small. Consider it a small pilot project. No more than a few businesses.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Good. Keep up the good work, Lieutenant,” Horatio stated as he left.