Warp Thrive

by Ginger Booth

  “As for Nico, well here the other teens don’t have work experience. He already landed a terrific job on the programming team that handles air spires, and AIs for tunnel hydroponics and – Yeah, I have no idea what he’s talking about. But there is a new girl! And he loves his room, even if he has to share part-time.

  “Frazzie is less happy,” Nathan allowed. “She’s rather social, and left her little friends behind. She’s also a bit competitive.”

  Cope and Ben snorted. “Hah!”

  “She’s beneath grade level at the new school, which makes her spitting mad. The teachers recommended putting her in a younger class. She demanded a chance to catch up. She’s working hard! I’m sure you’d be very proud of her. Just as soon as she stopped hurling abuse at you. I hope that day comes soon.

  “And I’m great, thanks for asking! Strange, how the sore joints and saggy eyelids and drooping skin snuck up on me over the years. Being young again is an amazing gift. I wake up every morning in a body ready to jump out of bed and frolic! Forgetfulness, gone. Eyesight, perfect. Libido, wow. Youth is wasted on the young. Nico’s friend has a mom. She’s very – Well, I may try dating again.

  “But I too am busy with school! I’m getting fresh dental credentials! ‘Class D’ dentist indeed.” Nathan’s mouth and nostrils pursed to recall this vicious affront to his dignity. His social rank as dentist – and a settler at that – was big mojo for a crappy little ville like Poldark. That ‘Class D’ insult from Carmack’s Medical Board clearly lit a fire in his belly.

  “Aw Dad,” Ben murmured, choked up with pride. “Good for you.”

  Cope looked daggers at him. Teke yawned, still sleepy, and dangled a foot back and forth. Ben’s father was extended family to him, cordial on holidays, but not close.

  “Teke,” Nathan addressed him, startling the physicist. “You should be very proud of yourself for encouraging Sock to stand up and ask for what he wanted, to transfer to Mahina Actual. You persuaded him he could do it. Well done.”

  “Dead meat,” Cope vowed.

  Ben rose between his co-dads, stabbing the desk to pause replay. “Stop. Sit. Hear him out.” The micro warp co-inventors sank back to their perches to stew. Ben elected to remain standing, and resumed the video.

  “Cope, my dear son,” Nathan continued. “I know this is hard for you. But I’m here. The court gave me custody. This is a frugal choice. And the children and I agreed this was our best option. Well, except Frazzie, but she really does enjoy the goats. She’ll come around. I hope you will, too.”

  Cope worked a fist, clenching and un-clenching. Ben tried to take his hand and got swatted away.

  “And Ben,” Nathan concluded. He snarled his lip up, and glared into the viewer. Slowly he shook his head. “Your money arrived safely. Thank you for that.”

  “Screw you too, Dad,” Ben muttered.

  “Your appearances on the news,” Nathan resumed. Words failed him. “The light show was very pretty. Well, that was Cope and Teke’s doing. The children and I hope to hear from you soon! After you’ve had time to reflect. Love you!”

  “You son of a –!” Cope launched at Teke.

  “Wait!” Ben insisted, hands out to both combatants. “Computer, record response. ‘Thanks, Dad. You look great! Terrific job with the kids. Enjoy that apartment! Can’t thank you enough. Screw you, too. Love, Ben, and the adopted sons you like better.’ Computer, transcribe and send.”

  Ding dong, the computer acknowledged.

  “Teke,” Ben began. “You were right. But you could have told us, not Sock.”

  The younger man defended, “You’re both after me to get closer to him. I try, I talk to him honestly, I offer my perspective. But I disagree and Cope hits the roof. Look, he wanted to go to MA. I’m not urb, not settler. Truth is, Socrates is better off in the pretty city with the bunnies, and a class of smart kids. And like Nathan said, I live in Mahina Actual. I teach at the University. Remember? He won’t be alone there, once I’m back.”

  Ben held up a hand to halt the flow of words. He didn’t disagree with what Teke was saying. “Cope. I know this is hard –”

  “I worked my whole life to uplift settlers!” Cope hollered. “And my home town, Schuyler! I cannot live in Mahina Actual! Your father took my children away! And he knows damned well I would never have given my kids to the urbs.”

  “I get it,” Ben agreed. “And you’re right. Both of you. But so is Dad. Cope, the younger kids, they’re not like Nico. He was the first, the only settler, always breaking new ground. You were the trailblazing parent, teaching the creche staff how to deal with settlers. It’s not like that for Frazzie and Sock. If Sock has his heart set on the city, you got to let him go. Nico, too. Except for the phosphate mine, he lived in Mahina Actual until he was three. Frazz was better off in Schuyler, but she’ll land on her feet. They’re not part of your fight, Cope. They’ll never be settlers against urbs. They’re free to make the most of both worlds. That’s what we won for them.”

  The engineer clutched his own shoulders, curling in on himself.

  “I’m sorry,” Teke offered. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Cope. Maybe I should go.”

  Ben nodded without meeting his eye. When the door closed behind the physicist, he gathered Cope’s head onto his chest, wrapping his arms around him. “We won, Cope. We did it. We wanted the world to change.” And he held his desolate ex-husband as he was wracked by sobs, until he cried his way through.

  Cope always clung too tight to Socrates, Ben thought, as though the little boy was his teddy bear, the two of them against the world. And Sock adored him, of course. But he squirmed to be let free. Worried and methodical, Sock didn’t take after his three adventurous dads, least of all Cope.

  But Ben held his tongue on that score. Cope didn’t need a critique on his parenting today. “You’re a fantastic dad. They’re lucky to have you. Whenever they have you. Stay in space with me, Cope. See them less. Let them grow.”

  “Don’t have much choice,” Cope admitted in a gravelly voice.

  “Gee thanks.”

  “You know I didn’t mean it that way. I just miss them so much.”

  Ben snuggled him closer again, and kissed his brow. “We need to send them video before we run silent again.” They’d decided to go for it, continue further tests while they were out here. The lawyers advised they stay away from Mahina for now anyway. “We’ve only got a few hours. We need to get our heads on straight before we talk to the kids. I have a suggestion.”

  “Sex would be good!”

  “Exactly,” Ben encouraged. “Hard, no sentimental nonsense. Rip off our clothes and get busy. Then we tell each kid what they need to hear, Cope. Not what we need to say. That’s separate. We dump that on each other. Not them.” There, he’d managed to express it a little after all. “I can handle your hurt, your history, your anger, all of you. I’ll still love you. I’m in your weight class. They’re not. Especially not Sock.”

  Cope sighed, slow and shuddering. “You’re on.”

  Ben stuck his head out the office door first, to check the hallway. The coast was clear. They made it across to his bedroom in seconds.

  “Have fun!” Wilder called from the bridge as Ben closed the second door.

  “Wanker,” the lovers muttered in unison. They cracked up laughing.

  Finally nothing interrupted them. They released months of pent-up frustration in their best make-up sex ever, followed by a mountain of breakfast.

  Their relaxed and smiling videos to the kids came out fine. Then Proper vanished again from everyone’s sensors.

  91

  Ben watched as Kassidy injected his elbow with the last batch of nanites. With a sharp pinch, a cold pressure spread into his veins. She’d imprinted these Yang-Yangs specially for his genome. He lay in the antiseptic smell of the med bay for this special checkup. Cope clung to his other hand.

  “That’s the last of it,” Kassidy announced with a brave smile. “Maximum Yang-Yangs on board to repair
anything that ails you.”

  Eli, more cool at the monitor, tapped a final key. “You’re in perfect health, captain. You show traces of the peeper radiation,” that’s what Teke dubbed it, “consistent with everyone who’s worked on the remnants of the skiffs. But we’ve seen no ill effects from that. Long term, who knows.”

  The second skiff died far more calmly than the first, a couple weeks later. Its fuel tank ruptured, and its hull cracked, but nothing worse than that. The star drive, micro warp, instruments and monitor frog all survived intact. Teke and Cope’s adjustments, based on Elise’s diagnostics on metal fatigue, made for a far smoother ride of 2,000 km. The incredible light show was smaller, more focused. It didn’t touch Prosper, let alone do any harm.

  For that second controlled test, they’d carefully positioned a space buoy with transponder at the skiff’s warp destination. The expected result was something along the lines of a matter-antimatter explosion after warp, destroying their equipment. After that they’d planned to pack it in and return to MO to face the music.

  Instead, skiff and buoy transposed. The intact buoy appeared where the skiff used to be. And their instruments were fine. This left them with a high-end problem.

  A manned flight was feasible.

  “You can still back out, Ben,” Cope whispered now.

  Eli and Kassidy exchanged glances. “We’ll be outside,” Eli announced. “Give you a minute alone.” Kassidy squeezed Ben’s hand and smiled before following the botanist out.

  Ben stretched his arms to sit up on the gurney, a bit encumbered by Cope’s fierce grip on his hand. Cope sat lower on the examination stool, so he dropped a tender kiss on the engineer’s head. “My call in space, Mr. President.”

  Cope exploded upward to crush Ben in his arms, pressing cheek to cheek. “You come back to me. To us. Promise me,” he pleaded in Ben’s ear, then kissed him ferociously.

  Ben kissed him back fully for a moment, then pushed his face away with fingers splayed across Cope’s jaw the way he loved. Firmly, holding his lover’s eye, he insisted, “I’ll be back. Enough, Cope. You did your job. If this goes wrong, I absolutely forbid you to think it’s your fault.”

  “Of course it’s my fault!”

  Ben shot for sensitive understanding. Instead he laughed from the strain. “Thanks, buddy. I needed a joke!”

  Sheepishly, Cope released him, stepping back to give him room to hop off the bed. “Do me a favor, chief. From here, keep it light. Understood?”

  Cope swallowed, and nodded.

  “That was an order. If for one second you think, ‘this is my fault,’ your mind is drifting. Don’t go there. This is my choice. Can’t let you and Teke hog all the fun. I’ll be back.”

  “Aye, cap.”

  Ben searched his face. Cope remained sleeping in Ben’s cabin ever since that day they received Nathan’s bombshell. Since then, the captain insisted everyone work reasonable hours, and sleep well. Cope was in good shape emotionally. He’d do.

  As they exited into the cargo hold, Ben pointed to the head of the line, Teke and Elise at the base of the shuttle ladder. “Meet you there,” he told Cope lightly.

  The captain continued to the back of the sendoff gauntlet, anchored by young Sophie. The ex-house-slave – she didn’t call herself a paddy – raised her cupped hands. “If you kiss a frog, he’ll turn into a prince.”

  Ben smiled and leaned forward. The frog smelled of wet algae and mildew, their favorite habitat. “Young lady, I think you’ve already tested that frog. It’s a dud. And I’ve already got a prince of engineers.” He tousled her hair and continued to Quire.

  The gentle Buddha could have stood anywhere in this double line, but chose to keep the youth company. Ben traded Denali prayer-fingers and a bow with him. “Your next trip to Denali, I shall return home to stay.”

  “I shall be sorry to see you go, old friend,” Ben acknowledged, and touched his shoulder.

  He shook hands with Willow and Judge next. “Be good. Judge, just for you, I’ll top up the suit water. I’ll go sloshing all the way.”

  “Good man, cap!” Judge returned.

  “Captain, please,” Willow begged him. “Let me do this. It’s a job for the first mate, not the captain. You can trust me.”

  “I appreciate that,” Ben told her. “But I’m a qualified engineer, not just an officer. This one is mine.”

  Zan the hunter and sergeant Wilder waited beside them. “I trust the bridge to your capable hands. Don’t break my ship, wanker.”

  “Screw you too, cap,” Wilder returned happily, with a handshake. “No hell-rides. I’ll call for Lavelle if I need him. I’ll get Cope home safe to your kids.”

  Ben smiled. He believed the soldier on that one.

  Zan steepled his fingers. They exchanged head bows.

  Hunter offered a fulsome arm-hold and handshake. Eli topped that with a half-hug. Kassidy flung her arms around him and smeared purple lipstick on his mouth. “For luck!”

  Teke and Elise, anxious for the test conditions, couldn’t resist rehashing last-minute instructions. Ben cut them off by reeling each in turn for a hug. With Teke held close he whispered, “If I don’t make it…”

  “I’ll stand by Cope,” Teke vowed. “All of them.”

  Last, slouched against the ladder, came the love of his life. As Ben approached, the engineer stood straight and backed out of his way. Ben shook his head and hugged him again. Then he set his forehead against Cope’s. “I love you. All of you. Even the parts of you I don’t like. Always. This isn’t goodbye, chief.”

  “Come back,” Cope returned. “We have so much more to do together. Love you.”

  And with that, Ben let go and climbed the ladder. He shot them all another wave and beaming smile halfway up. Good enough, he thought. If I die, they’ll remember me well, and carry on.

  He paused at the last rung to give a final pat to Prosper, his lady love.

  And a frog leapt past his nose. He lurched back and nearly fell off the ladder, but grabbed the rail again in time. The crew laughed out loud. “Mr. Sophie!” the captain boomed. “Secure that frog!”

  “On it, cap!” she called back cheerfully.

  “Aborting sequence,” Ben announced over his channel. “This is a no-go, team. I’m going to depressurize the hold and take it from the top.” He breathed relief and blotted sweaty palms on the inside of his gauntlets. He flicked all the switches and buttons to return the shuttle to idle. If only his adrenal glands were so obedient.

  “No!” Teke objected over the tech channel. “You were doing great! Ben, you worked miracles damping those harmonics.”

  Elise argued, “No, Ben is right. On this pass we tested the hull, and tuned as best we can.”

  “Good call, Ben,” Cope agreed. “Teke, the shuttle hull is ten times older than the skiffs. Better made. But I never liked the idea of passing through a pocket catastrophe with a pressurized ship. Too many ways for that to go wrong.”

  “Then when will we try it pressurized?” Teke countered.

  “When I say so,” Cope told him. “And then Ben says so too.”

  Ben huffed a laugh, and sat back to breathe deep of his suit’s vinegar fumes. “Thrive Spaceways insists, Teke.”

  “Who made those crappy skiffs, anyway?” Teke complained.

  Sore subject. “Spaceways,” the captain muttered, so Cope wouldn’t have to. “We designed a prototype –”

  “Stop,” Cope demanded. “Kassidy, you’ll need to cut this. The legal position is that this low-cost skiff design belongs to Ring Ventures. But I did it as a work for hire. I’m free to extend it for a next generation. So are they. But I based ours on a hellbelly design, then rated it for an emergency one night stand, not four days. RV cut corners from there. These recent ones they built themselves, because I refuse to sell death traps. We agreed to pretend it never happened.”

  “The point,” Ben added, “is that this shuttle is 70 years old. The skiffs are tin cans, but younger. They scrap them at ag
e five. More durable shuttle, but the metal is aged.”

  He stretched and worked the kinks out of his neck. He released his straps, turned on his personal grav, and got out of the chair for some knee bends and leg lifts.

  Ben Acosta had never intended to pass his darling little shuttle through that fractal meat grinder with air inside. He and Cope were in perfect accord. That step would need a new hull, strength built to spec. Its maiden voyage would be unmanned.

  This trip didn’t need air. He sat back down and re-affixed his straps. “Depressurization complete,” he reported. In more ways than one. “Ready on the shuttle.”

  This run-up was the real test. He’d done all he could to optimize his chances – and that was a lot. Having a competent engineer on board to tweak things, they’d made far more progress in the past hour than they’d managed with the second skiff test. The ship’s vibrations were no longer a shuddering frightened thing that made Ben’s tummy queasy. Now the vessel still quivered, but as though in eagerness to frolic in the stars.

  His ex-husband, hopefully soon-to-be-husband-again, would hate that mushy sentiment and beg him to quantify it like a professional. But Ben was just that little bit more crazy romantic spacer than he ever was an engineer.

  “Ready on baseline readings,” Teke returned after minute.

  Eli came next. “Life support readings are go, Ben. Godspeed.”

  Fitting word, Ben allowed with a smile.

  “Smile at the camera, Ben!” Kassidy prompted predictably. He grinned directly at his kids. They weren’t watching now, but sometime. Like the crew, he could give them this gift if it all went wrong. They would know he went willingly, happily, bravely.

  The final call was Cope’s. “All systems go from here. Ready, Ben.”

  “Initiating warp drive on my mark, 3-2-1-now.” He flicked a switch and the star drive powered back up, its signature beautiful. He nursed its power up to 8 out of 10, the level Cope built into the micro warp. “Power steady at 8. Initiating micro warp now.”

  “Wow, Ben,” Teke said. “Vibrations are way lower. You were right to depressurize. Maybe in the first pressurized test –”