by Ginger Booth
And did anyone ask him if he wanted to go to Denali for years? No. And to think he took this ‘chief petty officer’ crap at face value. Suckered. A flatterer like him, and he fell for it.
Spaceways was no different from Vultures. Besides bankrupt.
84
The following morning, Ben hung back as Cope, Teke, and Elise crowded the screen. Their hopes were dashed yet again on a real-time conversation with Sora. Pono was no longer blocking line of sight to Denali. In fact, they had two light speed transmission modes available, as the Mahina-to-Denali satellite was also in their sky now. But to use that instead of a tight beam would give up comms silence.
Now that they had line of sight, Teke began the morning by calling Sora. But she didn’t answer. He called again and left a message, citing two times to be in front of her copy of the moose-bot. By now the second window had come and gone.
Ben sat on Cope’s bed, thinking it through. “Cope, please confirm. We need this communication to begin tests on the micro warp drive. Correct?”
Cope turned, puzzled. “Yes?”
Ben nodded, and called Hunter and Kassidy into the room. He held up a wait finger when his ex tried to ask him to explain. The duo worked in Hunter’s cabin, once Willow’s, just a few steps away, hammering out their PR campaign to destroy Carmack. In a few minutes, they squeezed into the chief’s already crowded cabin.
“Kassidy,” Ben began. “Is your first announcement ready?”
“Oh, yeah!” She oozed enthusiasm. “We’re going to geld him!”
Ben held up a hand to prevent her from providing the lurid details. “Hunter, do you have someone you trust on Mahina, where you can pass all your material for safekeeping? And not have them release stuff out of order. Just as insurance.”
“Josiah,” Hunter and Cope supplied unanimously.
“Or Anjuli,” Kassidy attempted.
The other two shook their heads no. “Josiah was part of this from the start,” Hunter explained. “And he doesn’t talk to the media. Anjuli Spiegler might think her opinion matters.”
Kassidy scoffed, “Her opinion does matter! You think a mob boss in Schuyler is more important?”
“Enough,” the captain cut them off. “The point. We need to get Scholar Sora’s butt in that chair on Denali. Or a grad student, I don’t care. Teke, you don’t really know anyone else in her department anymore, do you?”
Teke glanced at the distant silvery lab on the screen. “We don’t even know it’s Sora’s. I haven’t talked to her in years.”
Ben nodded. Teke was a 17-year-old kid when Thrive launched from Sora’s Advanced Materials Lab in the outskirts of volcano-obliterated Denali Prime. The empty lab on the screen could be anywhere. “Time to cut through the impasse. I propose we call Aurora on Mahina. Let her find someone on Denali and get their ass in that chair.”
A general hubbub arose, which Ben also silenced with a raised hand. Of the five Denali they brought to Mahina, Aurora was the overall designated envoy. She was in constant contact, even now, and her loyalties lay with her home planet. That was why Aurora and the technician envoy, Reza, were never invited on this trip. Cope wanted their technological leap forward to belong to Spaceways, and Mahina. Aurora wouldn’t see it that way.
As their comments died down, Ben spelled it out. “Aurora can make this happen. Yes, then Denali will know. And Mahina and Sagamore, and those two spaceships hunting for us. If we contact Aurora, we lose comms silence, and they’ll have our position. But I’m betting Vultures, on Gorky’s ship, wants to suppress the dirt we’ve got on Carmack. We take that off the table. We make it so Hunter and Kassidy’s material cannot be suppressed, and the eyes of the world are upon us.”
Cope folded his arms and considered that. “Lavelle and Gorky want our breakthrough. Hell’s Bells and Ring Ventures, anyway.”
“That too,” Ben allowed. “But they can’t claim it belongs to them if the worlds see that it’s ours. The clock starts ticking when we contact Aurora. We need to perform this test, in public, before Gorky or Lavelle can reach us. There’s no telling how long it could take Aurora to get someone’s ass in that chair. I just know that she can.”
“Ben…” his ex replied. “We could wait. It’s only been three days. That lab on the other end, it’s obviously someone’s back burner project, but. We could give it a week.”
Funny how the temptation endured, after all these years, to defer to Cope’s opinion. But right now, Ben was the captain.
He shook his head and met the other’s gaze with determination. “My call, President Copeland. You’re too close to this. You mentioned stakeholders, but you didn’t even include everyone on the crew. The true stakeholders include all of us, three worlds, the entire Aloha system. And yes, our children on Mahina. If the micro warp works, or even just the quantum moose, we could open up the system to the rest of humanity again. For better or worse.”
“Knowing mankind,” Hunter murmured, “it’ll be both.”
Ben nodded. “Hunter, get that data locked up and beamed to Josiah. As soon as we’ve got his receipt, Kassidy, you announce your first bombshell on Carmack. And I call Aurora. And the clock begins, as Lavelle and Gorky turn to reach us.”
Within fifteen minutes, the die was cast. Elise slipped out to watch Kassidy and the young sex slave Sophie commence their destruction of a world leader. Teke and Cope conferred quietly while Ben held himself aloof, rehearsing his appeal to Aurora.
His pocket buzzed with confirmation from Hunter. Josiah had their proofs of malfeasance. Ben used another corner of Cope’s bedroom display for his video chat with the envoy, who picked up promptly.
“Ben! The fugitive of the hour!” the beautiful bald Denali greeted him. “To what do I owe this call? Am I invited to crime myself too?”
Ben attempted to ignore the fact that Aurora was dressed in her native style, nothing but a loincloth. The woman knew precisely how her lovely bare breasts distracted a Mahinan. “Aurora, it’s been too long. You probably know I have Quire, Zan, and Teke with me.”
“I did notice that, yes,” the envoy confirmed. “Reza and I were hurt. That you didn’t confide in us.”
“I need your help. Is this line secure?”
Aurora pressed a button. “It is now.”
“We believe we have a quantum communications gateway.” Ben rapidly filled her in on the moose-bot, the state of play, and the ask. Aurora soaked this in without interrupting, nor giving anything away in her expression.
“I’d like to speak to Quire,” she requested.
“Teke is right here.”
“Quire,” she insisted. “I’ll wait.”
Ben shrugged and called in Quire. He took a few minutes to arrive since he was busy in the engine room, tending his crops.
“Aurora.” The farmer and the envoy peaked their fingers with a tiny prayerful bow.
“Quire, do you trust them?” Aurora demanded. “To heed input from our world?”
Nervous, Quire glanced around the others in Cope’s cabin, his eye lingering on Ben. “I trust Ben. The scientists… They need their tunnel vision, to focus. Ben sees broadly. I recommend you do as he asks.”
Aurora repeated the little prayer gesture. “Thank you, Quire. May we share a meal again soon.”
Ben swapped places as the quiet farmer left the cabin. Aurora ran through her assignment again to confirm she had this straight. The captain stressed that they needed to speak with a scientist able to verify there was no time lag, not a Selectman seeking to argue politics.
Aurora rolled her eyes. “My people are more pragmatic than yours, captain. Aurora out.”
“How long do we expect this to take?” Cope asked.
“Current time lag nine minutes each way.” Ben tuned his quarter of the display to catch the end of Kassidy’s show.
“– People of Mahina, there is far more.” She shook her head in solemn dismay. Not a bad acting job for someone who was positively gleeful to bring down Carmack. “We will shar
e more evidence with you over the coming days, more despicable than you can imagine. Cole Carmack is a sick, depraved individual. And a con artist. And it’s all deliberate. Until tomorrow, this is Kassidy Yang aboard the ringship Prosper.”
Ben rewound the broadcast from the comms buffer to watch it from the top. He shook his head in amazement as her case unfolded. Kassidy had such a gift for public speaking. He always felt like she was speaking directly to him, as a friend she knew, like she understood how he felt, what he cared about. How does she do that? He watched it through, then amused himself clicking through cameras around the ship to check in on what everyone else was doing.
“Sora!” Teke cried an hour later. He thrust himself front and center at the gray scale corner of the screen, displaying the distant lab on Denali.
“Teke!” Scholar Sora cried simultaneously. “It is you!”
Simultaneously!
They crowded around. They recognized the woman now, older but not much changed. The display now featured more contrast, with shadows. Why did we not notice that? Ben mourned to himself. No shadows showed in the distant lab before, and thus no light. The picture was still gray, but much sharper than it had been.
Teke and Sora prattled away rapid-fire, Teke laughing while Sora teased him about what a rotten teenager he’d been. Elise also took her turn enjoying the novelty of conversation with her colleague, instead of asynchronous info dumps. It took them a good ten minutes to settle down to business.
Ben fielded a call from Aurora in the meantime, to confirm that her efforts worked. Sora ran to the lab without replying to the envoy first.
The brilliant woman understood the need to test the time lag. They verified simultaneous transmission and reception to their senses readily enough. But Teke needed it down to the tiniest interval of an atomic clock – the smallest interval available. Fortunately, Sora had access to such a clock, calibrated to one on Mahina for use in joint astronomical observations.
Ben couldn’t begin to account for the offsets between Prosper and the nearest master clock, but to Teke such calculations were child’s play.
They confirmed the signals were sent and received at the same time to within the standard error of clocks that would barely lose a second in a billion years.
They were on! Testing the micro warp on the skiff could begin.
85
Ben strolled to the head of the table for dinner, the crew pounding and cheering. With such a rowdy crowd, he remained standing at first. “Attention! Thank you, attention!” He grabbed his wine glass, already brimming with a sweet white wine. “To the Thrive Spaceways scientists, for successful completion of phase 1! We salute you!”
Everyone drank to that with enthusiasm. Though Sophie, Willow, and Judge didn’t know what phase 1 meant. This didn’t trouble them unduly. None of them expected to understand science. They expected a propulsion test. Whatever theoretical milestone the geeks achieved while holed up in Cope’s bedroom, the skiff hadn’t moved.
The engineer rose at the foot of the table while Ben settled to his seat. “And to our political team, Hunter, Kassidy, and Sophie! Who made that snake Cole Carmack writhe and squirm!”
More table-thumping applause.
Ben raised his glass again after drinking. “And to the President of Thrive Spaceways, who brought us all together to achieve these wondrous things!”
“Hear, hear!”
Cope countered, “And to the best spaceship captain in the Aloha system, and the finest ship, Captain Ben Acosta and the Prosper!”
“President, how are we looking to proceed tomorrow?” Ben challenged.
“Captain, we are looking very pretty indeed,” Cope returned, with a crooked smile. “Ready and able, good to go.”
A grinning Ben nodded acceptance of that on both levels. He trusted he could expect to see his ex in his bed tonight, not working on the skiff into the wee hours.
This round of hubris accomplished, everyone happily settled in to eat an enormous and elegant salad put together by Quire, Hunter being too busy to cook. Breads, cheeses, and fruit passed around the table as well. Still being cagey about the quantum breakthrough, Ben led conversation to focus on Kassidy and Hunter.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen such a jubilant celebration in his galley.
He’d rather have done the skiff test this evening. But the afternoon was packed. Kassidy and Hunter fielded credentials checks and confirmations from journalists and politicians on Mahina. Every moment they could spare went to monitoring the Mahina news. Teke caught up with his old mentor Scholar Sora, Elise joining in. Quire and Zan endured a thorough drubbing by Aurora and Reza.
And Ben received comms from Lavelle and Gorky, and thereby their exact locations. He had two days before Gorky could reach Prosper, and a few hours more for the Sagamore pirate Lavelle. They were indeed on their way.
After chuckling over a joke with Eli, Ben caught Cope studying him through his wine glass from the far end of the table. He picked up his goblet and saluted his ex in return, also peering through the pale liquid. Only then did he notice the glint of his own wedding ring on Cope’s finger.
Smiling warmly, he rose to have a quiet word with Cope about that development. The pair hadn’t even managed to make love yet this trip. Or more precisely, they’d made love plenty, but hadn’t advanced to sex.
But his phone buzzed him en route. “Ah! Quiet down, everybody! I’ll take this call!” He threw it up on the big screen. “Abel! Jules! How ya doing?”
The Greers beamed down on the table, waving to old friends. Cope shot Ben a middle finger, which Ben prudently ignored. He continued around to perch next to him, taking over the middle of the callers’ view.
“We’re great, Ben!” Abel returned. “Loving the hell out of the news today. We’ve heard a dozen commentators say Carmack can’t last the night. Is Hunter there? Everyone wants to know if you plan to take over.”
Hunter rose and joined them on Cope’s other side. “Nope. No, it was a choice. Either take Carmack down, or shoot for president after him. Can’t do both. That’s alright. I can accomplish more behind the scenes. Mover and shaker. You can relate, Abel.”
“I can,” their old friend agreed, hand to heart. “So Kassidy?”
“Kassidy what?” she inquired.
“They’re bandying your name around.”
Jules Greer nodded emphatically. “Everyone’s saying it was a shame you backed Spiegler instead of running for president yourself. I told you back then! A leader needs to communicate. No one beats you at that. You should rule this moon!”
Kassidy hung on Ben’s shoulder now. “You know, if you’d asked me years ago, I would have jumped at it. Now I’ve been thinking. I make more difference with Yang & Yang. No, I’ve decided to split our headquarters between MO and MA and Schuyler. I mean, if we’re allowed to land. You’ve got ears with the power brokers, Abel. What do you think? Can we return to Mahina?”
“Carmack’s not officially removed yet,” Abel equivocated. “But the bigwigs in Schuyler demand a board of appeals, to right the wrongs. So you’d submit your damages and a proposal for how to reverse them.”
Jules elaborated, “For instance, my real estate. I list every property I sold at a loss, low rents and what they should have been, damages from bad tenants. My case is simpler than yours.”
“In your case, Ben,” Abel continued, “you need to get the criminal complaints settled, too. Could be a mess. Hey, Cope, we don’t want to sell the house right now.”
Jules pounced on this. “I got one low ball offer, a tenth of what it’s worth. If we just wait for the dust to settle, property values will come back up. Maybe not back to the boom market days, but not like this.”
“Your biggest need for cash down here is lawyers for now,” Abel added. “I can cover you for that. I spoke to yours. She’ll work on contingency plus a little. And Ben already funded his dad.”
Ben seized on this as a lifeline out of the deep business swamp di
scussion. “Dad! And the kids! Can we talk to them?”
Jules cast a furtive glance and a head-shake at her husband. Abel patted her. “They left. No, Cope, we didn’t kick them out. Nathan made other arrangements. Look, he should talk to you about that.”
“Oh, Ben!” Jules deflected. “Your dad finally used his Yang-Yangs! Yeah, he said the kids were running him ragged, so time to be young again. And Yang & Yang offered a ten percent rebate for full-price treatments.”
“You gave him that kind of money?” Cope asked Ben, annoyed.
Ben hit him lightly. “Paid for years ago. You remember.” This was one of Kassidy’s clever product concepts. Some credit-pinching old settlers like Nathan Acosta preferred to live out their ‘natural’ lives first, then reset with nanites only when they grew uncomfortable or unable to work. They bought their treatments ahead of time, ready to apply on a moment’s notice. If he accidentally died first, Ben would inherit the treatment, which could be resold or used for Frazz or Sock.
“We should let you go,” Abel said, suddenly eager to escape the call. “Great to see you!” His image cut off in the middle of Jules’ following, “Bye!”
“They’re hiding something,” Cope concluded.
“Yeah. Huh. My dad young. That’ll take getting used to.”
“Our reunions are complete!” Kassidy claimed in satisfaction. She laughed. “Except for Sass and Clay.”
Cope grimaced at her, less enthused by the head count. This afternoon he got grilled by Aurora and her pet technician Reza. Hailing from the same city and ‘cosmo’ caste, Reza’s allegiance fell with the envoy. He probably slept with her as well. Aurora was a gifted manipulator.
Ben bumped him with his hip. “You need to get past being mad at the Greers, you know.”
“Not yet, I don’t.”
Ben chuckled. “Stubborn as always.”
“You colluded with them,” Cope accused. “You used Abel to launder that money.”