“Oh, I don’t know,” Lee said. “They may wonder how we get anything done fighting gravity all day long. None of them are going to trip over their own tentacles and hit their head on the floor. They may wonder that we ever risk climbing a tree much less take off into the air. Look how long we persisted in doing that when it was obvious the transition back to the ground was often more abrupt than we wished.”
That got a lot of laughter but several phones pinged, clicked, and whistled. Some looked to check theirs from some sort of silent alarm. It broke the conversation and the ones not distracted returned to eating and waited, wondering what matter could be to touch so many of them at the same moment.”
“The ore freighter Out o’ My Way converted to passenger transport has entered the system and jumped a messenger drone ahead to give notice and request docking on Home,” April announced, raising her voice to read the message. “They intend to offer free transport to all the other dispersed habs or worlds if anyone cares to move or repatriate. Limited transport of personal possessions will be included up to four tons. The Way will make a layover of at least a day at each world and do a second free circuit before offering the same service as a paid routing. They’re laying over at least a day so you can finish your dinner before you make a mad dash for the shuttles,” April added.
“I suspect the majority of their passengers stayed up on Home, “Ben said.
“I’m sure that’s why their lay-overs are subject to change,” Eileen said. “Heather is reasonable and if her captain flew off to meet an arbitrary schedule, she’d have him on the carpet asking what he was thinking?”
Most of them there knew that carpet was literal, so they could picture the poor fellow standing on it making an explanation for his sovereign. Still, several of them were taking the time to do something on their pads or in their spex. Probably sending messages to friends or checking for private messages carried on the Way even if they weren’t intent on reserving shuttle space back to Home.
April moved over by Lee and didn’t whisper but addressed her quietly.
“My Lady Heather wishes me to inform you there are two Earthie envoys on the vessel who are intent on meeting you and discussing the possibility of joining your new Claims Registry. These two happen to be from India and France, but they seem to credibly have a wider coalition of nations they are representing.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Lee said visibly flustered. “What a bad time for them to show up when everything is booked up and the arrival of the Way will probably make it worse. I’ve so little experience dealing with diplomatic stuff. It doesn’t feel right to offer them rooms in my suite. What should I do with them?”
April was relieved. She was scared Lee would revert to denying she had the authority to deal with governmental envoys.
“I’d ask the hotel if they can put your guests in rooms. Make sure they know it is a day-rate rental. I believe they have their fill of long-term leases.”
Lee nodded and bent to her pad. It wasn’t long before she looked greatly relieved.
“The timing was perfect,” Lee said. “The desk informed me they had several cancelations as soon as the Way announced their arrival. They were happy to reserve two single rooms for the Earthies.”
“Now all you have to worry about is getting them down,” April said. “It may take a day for the rush to abate and shuttle seats to be open. Once the Way is gone the shuttles will catch up on anyone waiting to drop pretty quickly.”
Lee smiled far wider than anything April had said could explain.
“I think I have that covered, but I have to make another call. Would you call the Earthies and tell them you will arrange to provide them transport and will be back in contact soon?
Then inexplicably, when April agreed, Lee didn’t call but went across the room to Strangelove.
“Did your guys take my aircar to the safe house and has Alonso given them any instruction?” Lee inquired.
“It’s still at his hangar and he’s giving them lessons but he indicated it will take several days to complete them to his satisfaction. I wouldn’t second guess him on such a critical safety matter,” he warned.
“I wouldn’t think of it but I do have a sudden need to use it,” Lee said.
“So, ask him. He doesn’t think the moon keeps going around without your permission.”
“Alonso?” Lee asked. “Are we talking about the same guy? He barely acknowledges I might be trainable to be the village idiot.”
“Which is much better than he treats me,” Strangelove assured her. “He speaks to me carefully with little words. You see him reviewing them to see they can’t be misconstrued.”
“That’s not right. For crying out loud! You administer nuclear weapons. You have all kinds of tough guys who jump when you say FROG! He shouldn’t treat you like that.”
Strangelove looked around alarmed to see if anybody was watching when Lee raised her voice. He made a soft little restraining gesture with a true hand.
“Don’t say anything, please. He does come to trust people with time. There are so many fools in the world I can’t fault his caution. His trade by its nature is a matter of life and death and you have to make allowances for the mentality of great artists.”
“Artist?” Lee objected. “You feed it a file and the smart paint does paisley or tartan plaid if you have no taste. What are you talking about?”
“How many people do you think could make such a radical aircar that works so well the first time? It not only works well, it’s pretty. Most designers have to go through five or six generations of a device to get it that refined, picking up details from other smart people to get a mature design. If you don’t realize that then you don’t deserve such a splendid product. It should go in a museum when it is retired.”
“I did gush on it a little when I accepted it,” Lee admitted. “I was worried later I might have given him a big head. You really like it, huh?”
“I want one. Not exactly like yours, but with a powered canopy, a pair of 40mm autocannons, and a seriously armored belly-pan. Not my property, I’ll never be that rich, but for the service of the Mothers.”
“I tell you what, when we get things sorted out and I have some income flowing in again we’ll see if he’ll build one for you,” Lee promised.
“That would be marvelous,” Strangelove said, and refrained from begging.
“I’ll ask if he’d do me the enormous favor if ferrying it in for me and taking a car back home. Bearing in mind what you said about artistic temperament.”
Strangelove nodded. “I bet he will. You’re his only current customer that can afford to keep him playing with such neat toys.”
“I’ll find out,” Lee said punching in Alonso’s contact and glaring at the pad.
“Missy you don’t want to look angry,” Strangelove quickly told her. “Look distressed and hopeful. You want to melt his heart not frighten him.”
Lee looked surprised but tried to soften her face. It was good advice.
“Well, you’re right,” Lee said. “He cracked all offended, and asked if I wanted him to pick up a pizza on the way, but he said he’d fly it in and park it in front of the Hotel. I sweetened the deal by telling him he could skip the pizza because we have a buffet spread and he’s welcome to come up and hit it. He said he’ll use the flight to continue training your guys.”
“Oh, I’m hoping to take Jeff too. Please don’t give him a hard time. There’s no room in the car for you.”
Strangelove sighed. “Of course, you are. And you have Alonso and two of my soldiers coming to raid the buffet? Excuse me while I warn the kitchen.” He looked grim. “I’m calling my boys and telling them to be on their best behavior too.”
“Oh yeah, this is such a refined crowd,” Lee said. “Just throw a blanket over anybody too full and wasted to move and I’ll try not to trip over them when I come back.”
Strangelove looked around the room, considering.
“They may learn to declare the re
volution and start committing mayhem with this bunch. Do hurry back.”
But he was talking to her back. She walked away calling to April.
“Would you care to go with me to pick up the Earth envoys?” Lee asked.
April had that wary look on her face, like Lee might be setting her up for a joke.
“You want us to leave our own party early? Do you have a shuttle or some way to cut the line on one? I know you have the Kurofune, but it’s not a lander, even if it kind of looks like one. I can’t imagine you could build one and keep it secret.”
She didn’t say from us, but it hung there in the silence unsaid.
“Once everybody has eaten it’s all down-hill. Half of them won’t know you are gone. Strangelove will take care of stragglers. This is my new auxiliary vessel, but it’s not a conventional shuttle. There’s room for Jeff too if you’ll share a Derf-sized seat. It only has four seats and I don’t think we should ask the Earthies to do that. It’s pretty cozy.”
“Jeff,” April called. “Lee has a proposal.”
* * *
“Bill, Bill! Come here. They just landed that crazy aircar in front of the Old Hotel.”
“Did you hack their security cams? Bill asked frowning at the screen.
“No need. They make all the external cams freely available to the guests and public.”
That thing is freaky,” Bill said.
“Tell me about it,” Sam said. “I’m dreaming I’m in a science fiction movie.”
Three Derf climbed out of the car, the last one palming the security screen to lock up.
“That’s a lot of meat for an aircar to lift,” Bill said.
“Four ton? Closer to five maybe. Those are big guys,” Sam decided.
“You’re recording, aren’t you?”
“Of course. It’ll be… where we agreed,” Sam said.
“You’re getting paranoid. I like that. No need to repeat it out loud when we haven’t swept the place today.”
“Aren’t you interested enough to watch?” Sam asked.
“Sure, but I want to go get my coffee and top it off. I’m just checking that you can give me an instant replay if anything happens.”
* * *
“Thank you for bringing my car,” Lee said.
“You had me when you said free food,” Alonso admitted.
“We might be a couple of hours. Put a car on my tab if you want when you go home.”
“Thank you, but I imagine you’ll want me to take it back. I’m just going to go with Strangelove’s men to their facility. It’s close. They can put me up and when you return, I won’t have to run all the way across town. I’ll just take it back there tonight. We’ll do another training run with them in the morning to return it to the hangar.”
“Did you leave it parked the way I asked?” Lee asked him.
Alonso smirked. “Yes, you’re a terrible showoff.”
“Thank you,” Lee said, totally unrepentant.
“I feel weird deserting my own party and worse, nobody seemed to notice we were leaving,” Jeff said in the elevator.
“Maybe that’s a sign you planned it well if you can leave and it doesn’t fall apart.”
“I think you are just trying to make me feel better,” Jeff told Lee.
When they walked out the front door Jeff was distracted by the odd stare the doorman gave him. He didn’t understand what had the Derf upset until he turned his head back and looked at the aircar. It was floating there with the bottoms of the pods four or five centimeters off the pavement. He didn’t say anything. That was made easier by the fact he was having trouble breathing.
Jeff walked around the vehicle slowly until he came back to them but stopped and waved a hand through the gap below the rear pod. April just stood and watched.
“OK, what holds it up?” he finally asked.
“Magic,” Lee assured him gravely.
“Any sufficiently advanced tech…” April partially quoted.
“I guess we’re there,” Jeff admitted.
He walked around it again.
“The flames are a nice touch.”
Thank you,” Lee said. “They were a custom on highly modified ground cars some years ago. I haven’t had time but I intend to animate them.”
“And this is orbit capable?”
“We’ll find out. I’ve had it over thirty thousand meters and transonic. If it did that OK it should be good to go,” Lee said.
“Let’s do it before I talk myself out of it,” Jeff said.
Lee palmed the lock and led them in.
“One of you can ride up front if you want now,” Lee offered. “Only the back seats double up. Or one each any other combo.”
“Let April have shotgun,” Jeff volunteered.
“I, uh, don’t have any weapons aboard,” Lee said.
“That means to sit beside the driver. It’s an old expression. As old as flames,” Jeff said.
“Older,” April insisted. “I think it goes back to stagecoach guards.”
“That would make sense,” Jeff agreed.
“If you pull the board towards you it will lock in place. The release is on the left bottom corner so you can push it away,” Lee told April.
When April had it in place and Jeff confirmed he was secure, Lee announced she was doing a vertical lift on the informal Derf radio net. Nobody was in conflict with her departure path so she grasped the stick and lifted away briskly.
“That’s downright eerie,” Jeff said from the back.
Lee said nothing. She wanted Jeff impressed deeply enough he wouldn’t think to look down on her techs or their contribution in the future. That seemed to be going well.
“I hope you know that’s not going to hack it when there are a couple of hundred aircraft of mixed kinds all stacked up needing to avoid each other,” Jeff said.
“I imagine it will have to be run by a central program for the region just like the city ground car net,” Lee said. “With a little luck, I’ll be off planet before it’s so crowded.”
“You have some navigation now?” Jeff asked from the back.
“The same software I run in my ship,” Lee assured him. “It has very limited radar. It only has a couple of hundred kilometers range. That’s sufficient for ranging to dock at my ship or a station. But we have a very good astronomical model with precise orbital periods that can predict positions out a few hundred years.”
“Do you have our jump data program running on top of it?” Jeff asked.
There was some dead air time as Lee considered that.
“I have not contemplated making the Twool a superluminal vessel.”
“Why not? It would be handy as hell. If you break the Kurofune or get it shot up somewhere it could get you home or at least someplace safe as a lifeboat. We have a jump capable lifeboat for the Chariot.”
“It will be a while before we have production set up for jump drives,” Lee said. “Mine is the only one in existence and it was hand-built. Born and Musical didn’t start looking into what sort of facility we need to make lots of them until the prototype worked. They haven’t reported back to me on that yet.”
“We might be able to help there,” Jeff suggested.
“When we do start producing them, I thought the armed Red Tree ships should get them first and then likely some of the Little Fleet. This car is experimental too. I expect my guys will quickly make improvements on the thrusters that drive it.”
“Is that why you didn’t put them in the Kurofune first?” April asked her.
“Yes, I didn’t want to do a major revision I’d be tearing out in six months. Besides that, I’ve wanted another aircar now for quite some time.”
“When did you own one before?” Jeff asked confused.
“We carried an aircar in the shuttle for the High Hopes.”
“A lot of Explorers don’t even carry a planetary lander much less one that can carry an aircar. You guys were well equipped.”
“My people weren’t i
nterested in claiming a few mining sites or a fueling station hoping it would be along the route to somebody else’s big find. They didn’t have crew wanting to be cashed out after every claim and plowed what they did find back into stuff like the lander for when they did hit the big claim.”
“Did it make any difference?” Jeff wondered. “If they found an obvious living world their claim would have been as valid with an orbital survey.”
“You never worked with the Claims Commission,” Lee said. “If you do that, they spend a couple of billion dollars to send a big corporate explorer out with at least two big landers to survey the system and the world. That comes right off the top of your royalties and the survey crew gets a cut of the claim too if they have to pay to prove it out. You don’t get to make personal land claims from orbit or any of the claims on biologicals.
“We came back with proof it was a class A world with specific claims for food plants and potential biologicals that just had to be tested. My island that I’m sharing with the Mothers is near as big as Madagascar and the drainage basin I claim where my folks died is similar to the Columbia river basin in the USNA.
“When they sent an expedition fleet back to start developing Providence, they were so confident it would fully prove out that they took a core space station along with them grappled to one of the ships.”
“I didn’t understand the details of how that worked,” Jeff admitted.
“It tripled our payout in the first five years,” Lee said. “Most living worlds have been found by corporate ships and the crew gets a percentage of the corporation’s fifteen percent. That’s split maybe fifty ways with the command and specialty crew getting a higher cut. Gordon and I split the whole thing a third for him and two thirds for me.”
“And they’ve cut you off now,” Jeff said. It wasn’t a question unless she took it that way.
“Be assured we are continuing to plan to repossess Providence. The logistics of it will take some time and we will give you some notice when we intend to move. I still very much want to take April up on her offer to stand system watch against any Earthie incursions while we settle matters on the planet.” Lee stopped and considered what that offer was worth and that April hadn’t asked anything. She doubted Jeff would have done that.
Another Word for Magic Page 29