A12 Who Can Own the Stars?

by Mackey Chandler

  April had given him the address of her real estate agent to his phone before he left the Moon. It took him a little bit to find it again because he was looking for Milly, then tried Millie, before he looked at the root online and searched for Mildred and Millicent. Mildred it was, even though he soon found she advertised her services as Milly in video ad she ran in “What’s Happening”.

  Jeff was hungry, but a lot of people offering professional services were only active on main shift and he wanted to get this done today, so he called first.

  “Good afternoon, I’m Jeff Singh. My associate April Lewis bought some cubic through you and recommended your services.”

  For some reason, she seemed amused.

  “I know who you are, Mr. Singh. I’m glad April was happy enough to refer people to me. What sort of property are you hoping to find?”

  “I’m hoping to sell a lunar property,” Jeff said. “I have no idea how to price it, so I’m hoping you can advise me on that or enlist someone who can.”

  “I’m not sure it would serve either of us for me to handle a lunar property,” Milly admitted. “I’m not familiar with them, I have only been to Armstrong one time briefly, and I suspect all my fees would be eaten up by the expense of actually traveling there if I had to do that instead of showing it virtually.”

  “Oh, I can see that,” Jeff decided after considering it. “Of course I can try to offset that by giving you a pass on any of the ships in which we partner. Or on Old Man Larkin’s line for that matter. Between the two of us that covers most of the Home-Central traffic. I could call and ask him to post you as a priority passenger on his line and you can walk on any shuttle he has scheduled without checking with me. He’ll just rob me, I mean, bill me later for it. I’d think you would want to go inspect the property first to make an assessment. Chances are you are going to sell it to somebody on Home or an Earthie. I’d be surprised if there’s a qualified buyer on the Moon. I asked my lady, Heather, if she’d care to sell it for me but she said she’s far too busy and to get someone else.”

  “Heather Anderson?” Milly asked.

  “Yes. We partner in so many things, I thought she might unload it for me. Actually, I have to credit her with the original idea to unload it,” Jeff remembered.

  “You asked the freaking Queen of the Moon to broker a real estate deal for you?”

  Jeff was a little taken aback at how loud she said that.

  “That’s what she does,” he said, defensively. “She’s been selling all those lunar estates,” he said with an inclusive wave that encompassed Central.

  “So it isn’t reselling one of her humongous properties?” Milly guessed.

  “No, no. It’s technically under her sovereignty and protection but she’s willing, more than willing, to waive that. You are familiar with Camelot, aren’t you?”

  “The Chinese place? I know of it but I’m not a gambler. If I were, I’d probably go to New Las Vegas. I’ve seen ads for Camelot. It showed all Chinese dealers and servers. Even most of the signage seemed to be in Chinese, as well as food and music. I think I’d stand out like a horse in church,” Milly said.

  “Indeed. That’s part of the problem. They have frustrated every attempt to dilute the Chinese influence. I’m afraid most of the non-Chinese workers I tried to bring in felt as out of place as you suspect you would.”

  “So, what sort of place do you have there?” Milly wondered. “Some sort of surface structure like most of Armstrong, or underground like your… lady Heather favors?”

  “Much of it is above ground but sheltered under plowed regolith. The power and environmental systems likewise, and huge executive offices because they had way too many administrators. The casino is like that and built modeled on the rover garage and maintenance building but bigger. However, the new cubic to support the casino such as the kitchen and all the guest accommodations are tunneled, because by the time they went in we could borrow tunneling machines from Central.”

  “I was asking what sort of apartment you keep. Are you saying you want to sell it all?” Milly asked.

  “I’m probably soft-headed, but I feel responsible for them. The Chinese certainly felt I was when the ceded the place to me. But I don’t wish to sell the resident’s homes to an uncertain landlord even though they have been nothing but a pain in the butt to me. No, I’d like to deed the private residences to those living in them, and sell everything else as a package deal. The community infrastructure and the casino as a business, plus all the incidentals, rovers, supplies, and parts on-site to maintain everything.”

  “OK, this looks to be a big enough deal to be worth a shuttle trip or two,” Milly said in a vast understatement. “I’m sure I’m going to want to bring an expert or two along for mechanical systems and other assets. For example, I have no idea what a rover is worth. It’s going to be complicated.”

  “It’s been complicated, every single day. I’m ready to simplify,” Jeff assured her.

  When Milly laughed at that Jeff looked a question at her.

  “It’s funny because that’s the classic line people say when they have a child or two leave home and figure they can get along with a smaller place. I’ll encourage them to do it quickly before the kids find out how hard it is out on their own and try to move back.”

  “Which reminds me. Cash buyers only. I’m not offering any financing,” Jeff said.

  “Are you sure? Your buyer will have the casino income to tap,” Milly reminded him.

  “I’m sure. I suggest you look in the ex-pat Chinese community for a buyer. It needs somebody comfortable in Mandarin. There are thousands of rich Chinese in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. I don’t suggest entertaining mainland Chinese buyers because of the history of the colony. Keeping control might be difficult. The residents already identify too closely with various mainland political movements.

  “No wonder you want out,” Milly said, starting to wise up.

  “Will you take it then?” Jeff asked.

  “Contingent on examining it and agreeing on a price, yes,” Milly said.

  “Then let’s talk more later,” Jeff requested. He was ready to go to supper and wind down for the day.”

  “Anytime. I’ll set your code for priority,” she promised.

  * * *

  “Dude, she doesn’t want to talk to you,” Gunny told Irwin at the outer door of the lock entry. The inner door was closed behind him.

  “I spoke without thinking,” Irwin admitted. “Will you speak for me?”

  Gunny’s eyebrows went up. He and Irwin knew each other but he didn’t owe him that big of a favor. That was asking a lot for him to intercede with his employer. Even if April wasn’t his only source of income now, it was still a very cushy gig.

  “I’ll speak later,” Gunny decided. “I’ve seen lots of feuds and arguments. It is very rarely useful to dredge up everything while feelings are still running high.”

  “That’s good,” Irwin said, accepting it. “I’m going to proceed with Joel as if we had never had any sort of rift.”

  “I don’t need to hear details,” Gunny said, holding up a forestalling hand. “Maybe later, if she wants to tell me too. Otherwise, it’s none of my business what you do.”

  “Thank you,” Irwin said and had the sense to leave.

  * * *

  “Eileen and I are happy with you,” Victor assured Alice. “I suspect you have been easier to bring in our house than a lot of adults might have been. But there is something we have as a secret. Something we do in the summer, that we just can’t keep doing without you knowing. We’re just not comfortable doing it again this summer unless you do a very adult thing and agree to keep this secret for us.

  “How can I decide without knowing what it is?” Alice asked.

  “I guess it has to be more your judgment about us than the secret,” Vic said. “Do you think it’s reasonable to keep household secrets?” He avoided saying family.

  Alice thought about it much longer tha
n Vic expected.

  “Have you trusted anybody else with this or is it just the three of us?”

  That question surprised Vic. It was perceptive and unexpected.

  “Our neighbor Arnold and Mr. Mast know parts of it,” Vic said. “You’d know more because you’d be invited to do some of it with us.”

  “They’re good people. If you aren’t scared for them to know, I’m in.”

  Vic nodded and Eileen looked rather intensely at Alice.

  “Most Sundays in good weather we go upstream on our property and pan for gold. We haven’t actually used it for anything but to make our wedding bands,” he said, holding his hand up to show his ring again.

  “The reason we keep it secret is in the outside world, in the parts still under North American law, it’s illegal to hold gold. If it became known we have gold and things return to normal at all the government will come to take it. The secondary reason is that people value it so much we might be inviting robbers to come to take it away from us.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Alice protested. “Yes, your ring is nice and I understand why you wear it. I still see lots of people at the festival wearing rings and a few of the ladies still wear earrings. But you can’t eat it. It isn’t valuable like a blanket or coat, or a gun. You’re scared to even let people know you have it. It seems like more trouble than it’s worth to me.”

  “It’ll likely seem even crazier to you if you watch us digging in the cold stream for it. It’s a lot of work and we can work all day and only get a little bit that you can put in the palm of your hand,” he said, holding a hand out to illustrate that.

  “Then why are you doing it,” Alice demanded.

  “Because it’s money. That’s why people have always kept it even if they made it into jewelry. That just allowed them to show it off when things were safe and they could flaunt it. It was money long before people started making paper money. It would take a lot of explaining how things work, and teaching you the history that you should know anyway, but paper money is too easy to make. Digital money when everybody was connected by computer and you could buy stuff with a credit card in any store is even easier to create. People just can’t resist making so much of it that it becomes common and loses its value.”

  “But you guys still have real money in the bank and bought stuff with it like your phone when you went to Nevada, right?”

  “Yes, I hear what you are trying to say. It doesn’t lose all its value at once. But if we go back a year from now it won’t buy as much as it did last time. It does that slowly all the time except sometimes all at once, and there’s no way to escape it. We can’t even earn that kind of money now and replenish what we spend, so eventually, it’s going to run out or not be able to buy much anyway.”

  Eileen spoke up. “Gold and other metals are what the spacers use for money. We still want to go out there and they won’t take Earth money for much of anything. If they do, they spend it right away before it drops in value. Money in Europe has dates printed on it and goes down in value every week.”

  “Wow, I never knew that. That’s crazy,” Alice admitted.

  “I had a man try to buy .22 cartridges from me with gold at the festival,” Vic said. I wouldn’t sell it because I’m not sure when we’ll ever be able to buy them again, maybe never. On the other hand, we have more gold here than we’ll ever dig out of the ground. I didn’t tell him why I declined the trade, but we know at least one other person is doing the same as us, mining for gold. We were going to offer you the chance to pan with us. You could keep whatever you find. Like I said, there is more than we can ever find. But if you don’t think it is worth the work to retrieve it you don’t have to.”

  “I’ll come to see how you do it,” Alice agreed. “I’m not entirely convinced yet. So, you can have stuff like your rings, but you can’t have it not made into anything? That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”

  “A lot of laws don’t make a lot of sense,” Vic said gruffly. “People are attached to things like their wedding ring that have a lot of sentimental value. People would argue with them over letting that be stolen where a bag of nuggets or a cast bar doesn’t have the same sentimental attachment for them. Sometimes, they have the sense to not pass a law they know will be generally ignored and resisted.”

  “If I work beside you and find some gold, can you make it into a ring for me? Is it very hard to do? Then I won’t have to worry about it being illegal.”

  Vic and Eileen looked at each other, dismayed they didn’t think of that.

  “It is a bit of work. I can do that, or teach you how to do it. We might do a deal where I make the ring for you in exchange for a little bit of the other gold you’ve found.”

  “That sounds better. I’ll go along and see how hard this is to do,” she agreed. She still didn’t see the privilege as being a big enough deal to say thank you.

  Later, when Vic was sure Alice wouldn’t hear, he asked Eileen. “Why did she ask who else knew? Did she think we were doing something criminal that we needed to hide from decent people?” He seemed hurt at her reluctance.

  “Honestly I wouldn’t be offended,” Eileen told him. “I expect her to have trust issues for a long time, and you are a criminal hoarding gold. Just by the old law that may never come back into force here. Not by local community standards, which is what she was really asking by wanting to know who else knew about it. She cares what Mr. Mast and Arnold think, not some faceless official off in Vancouver.”

  * * *

  Nathan DeWalt appeared on-screen calling Heather. It was the evening at Central, and she was pretty sure he knew that. She was surprised he didn’t wait until tomorrow to call her. He’d called mid-afternoon before.

  He looked like he could use a little sleep himself. He looked rumpled, and not only squinty-eyed, but he had an uncontrolled tick in the corner of his left eye.

  “Ma’am,” Nathan said, inclining his head in something more than a nod and less than a bow. That was more respect than she’d ever gotten from him before.

  “Mr. DeWalt. How may I help you?” She decided not to trifle with him. He looked on the ragged edge, and she didn’t want to nudge him off the precipice.

  “I have no requests,” he made clear immediately. “You’ve kept your bargains through me, and despite the fact you’ve made clear you despise my nation and its leaders I appreciate you’ve kept your word. I want you to know I may no longer be a spox for Mars. I’m not certain if I have a job or even a nation. Indeed, have in mind if I call you again it may be under duress. I’d be very careful accepting an invitation to return to Mars. There were contingencies to deal with persons on Earth who were a danger to us. Now, I would not be surprised to find myself dealt with.”

  It all came forth in a rush, pouring out of him heartfelt.

  “You are distressed and not expressing yourself as well as you might,” Heather said as gently as possible. “Why are you saying these things? What happened?”

  DeWalt blinked and stopped talking long enough to think.

  “I got a text message from a Provisional Committee, no actual names given, though I’d know anybody who could be on it. I was told to wait for instructions and do nothing until I get those instructions. I’m so screwed.”

  Heather nodded. He probably was. It was kind of sad and he was warning her not to get suckered into dropping a ship on Mars if he disappeared. She decided to be nice.

  “You’ve already broken your orders by calling me. I appreciate that. This is like what I deal with every week when I hold court,” Heather said. “People get themselves in the damnedest jams, and I have to break stalemates, console those in shock over a broken relationship, and occasionally give unredeemable people the boot. The only difference is that here I have the option to have them ejected from my domain or just shoot them where they stand. I can’t do that with you. Nevertheless, if you want my dispassionate advice as a third party over your sudden break with your masters, I will offer it. I d
on’t often do that when I can’t enforce it, but it’s up to you if you wish it.”

  “You would advise me?” DeWalt asked, astonished.

  “For free,” Heather offered. “You may be too stubborn to benefit from it, but what else do I have to do this evening before I go to bed? I’m somewhat less rattled and thinking clearer than you in my humble estimation. I’m not stupid. I govern a modest little kingdom in my spare time.”

  “You’re right, I have no idea what to do. Advise me please,” DeWalt requested.

  “Do you have access to funds and discretion to move them?”

  “Yes, I’m sole agent on Earth. I arrange banking transfers as instructed because some things must be done in person. But I don’t want to steal my government’s funds.”

  “That’s commendable. Unfortunately, it sounds like your government no longer exists. If it does exist at all, it may only be in your person and authority. Are you prepared to return home to Mars if recalled and accept whatever disposition of your office and person they decide to impose? You will of course have a lot less choice about how you are treated once you’ve returned to Mars.”

  “Tell me more,” Nathan said.

  “Having been through a few tight spots, one outright revolution, and a ringside seat to the same happening in Armstrong, I can predict what is happening there. They are too busy crawling under gunfire, blowing airlocks with charges and running down fleeing rovers to be thinking about their solitary representative on Earth.”

  Nathan nodded. “That seems likely.”

  “That isn’t going to last long. Then, their attention will turn to securing everything else, including you. I sincerely believe that if you weren’t part of this Provisional Committee from the start, they will want to replace you with their own man. If they don’t have anyone available on Earth to recruit, they are very poor conspirators indeed.

  “Your Martian power structure seems to be very Eurocentric. If I were you, I’d convert every euromark or other assets within your grasp to cash, and quietly relocate to somewhere with limited relations and extradition with the European Union. I understand Argentina is lovely this time of year. Many nice things can be said for some of the Asian venues too. You retained your old passport I hope?”