Another Word for Magic

by Mackey Chandler

  “I can speak without security concerns?” Walter had to double-check.

  “We’re going all-in allying with her,” Heather said, pushing with both hands like a poker player betting every chip in his pile. “Hopefully, our philosophies and goals will continue to be compatible. If it goes bad that’s on me not you. Speak freely.”

  Somewhere along the cart ride back, she fell out of the plural majestic mode.

  “I really want to work on this for you, but the project Bill and Martin are working on seems just as important as this one. We’ve made some progress already and I think we have a good shot at finally making a reliable working quantum radar.”

  “Hot damn,” Lee said.

  “Indeed. If I may beat my own drum a little, I think I can help motivate them. Bill is a little rigid in his thinking and has trouble regarding Martin as his equal. But when the direction comes through me, he accepts it better. They seem to find me useful as a rubber ducky too. Could I possibly come back regularly to help and review their progress? Then return to Derfhome? I keep hearing we never have enough ships, and that they’re busy dealing with the North Americans. But maybe when that slows down? The idea of working on an alien world appeals to me all on its own as a worthwhile experience.”

  “From that then, I take it you have no problem working as a team of equals?” Lee asked.

  “None at all,” Walter said. “I hate supervising others. If they need supervision, that tells you right from the start that they have issues or limitations. I’m not a babysitter.”

  “You’d be working with two aliens of different species,” Lee revealed.

  “Sweet. I’ve never done that.”

  “As you suggested, as we wind down searching for North American assets there will be more ships available,” Heather said. “We have six in-system again already. I’ve started a ship on a circuit of the habs just like there was when they were conveniently close. They are going from Home to Beta and then Gamma before returning here. They are making two circuits for free and then we’ll try it as a paid route. There is no reason they can’t alternate going the opposite way, Home to Beta and Beta to Home, when they make their paid rounds. That would make it easier for you to return every third or fourth week without a wasted day at Fargone.”

  “That takes care of all my objections,” Walter said.

  “Why did you drop mentioning Gamma?” Jeff asked her.

  “We had a problem with a fellow trying to annex the remaining Martian Republic territory. The man was a demagogue and would have levered it into a personal takeover of Gamma. Security at Gamma was useless to maintain order and nobody had called an Assembly to continue the sort of government the habs had in common.

  “This would never have happened on Home, but Gamma has very different demographics. There was never the sorting Home went through being built with Mitsubishi demanding psychological profiling and restrictive background tests. To live on Gamma, you just needed a lot of money. Turns out, that isn’t a very good filter for finding people you want as neighbors.

  “I went there and intervened. I’m still not sure they will remain worth having as allies, or if I’ll want to promote travel and business there or cut them off. I’m not even sure if we will relocate them if they ask it.”

  “How did you stop him?” April wondered.

  “When he informed me that I had no way to stop him I shot him dead.”

  That got a couple of heartbeats of dead silence and they all dropped that discussion.

  “Why don’t you take Dr. Houghton back with you now, before you move to repossess Providence dear?” Heather suggested. “I’ll have Dakota make sure he has priority access to the regular transport service once it is established.”

  “April has volunteered to stand system watch for me when we do get back to Providence. I’d appreciate it if you allowed her to come to do that for me once I get the Retribution and Sharp Claws all provisioned and ready to go. I have my banker, Sally, getting our crew ready to go already. The Mothers are supplying crew too, for shares.”

  “Nonsense. Take April and Jeff back with you. It just emboldens the Earthies if you don’t respond to them breaching your contract. If you let it go a few months, they think it is normalized and you are the aggressor to take it back.”

  “The Mothers’ ships don’t have the new drives and we haven’t started making them. Jeff proposed we let you make them for us,” Lee said, “since we’re going all-in as you put it. I believe I’ll agree to that for now. It will be quicker for sure. They’ll have to go the slow way to Providence this time, and we’ll retrofit them later.”

  “We’re not that slow off the mark. We are in a hurry to make them for ourselves. We need to replace our loss of years of carefully hoarded material in jump drones. So, there will be no big delay in supplying you. The Chariot and Hringhorni are still at Derfhome, correct?” Heather inquired.

  “Yes, to move Home if the Mothers decide against allowing them to stay. We didn’t want to be seen as pushing them to reach a final decision,” April said. “Also, we figured the people on Home would find their presence reassuring until they see it is safe. They did just have somebody try to kill them all. And our crews don’t mind the liberty on a planet.”

  “You can use them to drag the Mothers’ ships along to Providence and both stand watch over opposite ends of the system,” Heather said. “They should drop off the Mothers’ vessels near the planet so they see the extra Central vessels assisting you. Perhaps that will encourage them to be reasonable about yielding the planet to your governance.”

  “That’s generous of you. Thank you,” Lee said.

  “I will defer a ride on that magic carpet for another day,” Heather decided. “Can you pack a bag and be gone in say – a half-hour?” she asked Walter.

  “I can but I can’t clear out my apartment that fast.”

  “You are spending time back here periodically. You need a civilized place to stay, not bachelor barracks. You’ll keep your place and have whatever Lee informs me you need to live decently on Derfhome.”

  “I can contribute to that,” Lee volunteered.

  “If it makes you feel better, dear.”

  Walter stood up looking a little stunned.

  “I’ll go pack. Is there anything I’ll miss on Derfhome? Do you have coffee?”

  “We’re growing our own now,” Lee said. “Earth liquor is expensive and shoes are hit or miss. But you have free passage on Heather’s ship so you can have them send anything you miss in just a few weeks.”

  “You can carry stuff to trade on the side if you want,” Heather allowed with a wave. “Just don’t try to take advantage of me and expect me to haul bulk metals or bulldozers. Go pack and meet them back at the Twool,” she commanded.

  He went.

  “Do try not to make too big a mess of it at Providence,” Heather begged. “Our reputations are going to be linked now. You’ll have the Butcher of Jiuquan hanging over their heads on system watch. They should be properly terrified if you let it be known Jeff is there in support of you without needing to do an actual demo.”

  “Why do they call him that?” Lee asked her.

  “Because Butcher of the Yangtze River Valley doesn’t fall off the tongue as easily.”

  “Gordon already made me promise there would be no planetary bombardment,” Lee said. “Come to that, what would I have to do to ruin the reputation of anyone called the Butcher of Jiuquan?”

  Heather looked amused.

  “Don’t take it as a contest. It would be rather silly to bombard anything you are trying to repossess, wouldn’t it? You go too. I’m sure we’ll have lots of little details to iron out later, but go take care of your business. I’m going to finish this drink and take the rest of the day off,” she announced.

  Chapter 22

  “Come conference with me when we get to Derfhome and I can call Sally and Gordon, would you please?” Lee requested of Jeff and April.

  “What is the agenda?”
April demanded. “I like meetings to stay on point.”

  “To see how Sally is doing mustering a crew and letting Gordon know you will move the Sharp Claws and Retribution for us,” Lee said. “What else do we need to discuss?”

  “What is your strategy?” Jeff demanded. “I know it may not last five minutes, but it is nice to have a plan even if it doesn’t survive contact with the enemy.”

  “I’m interested in beyond that,” April said. “Once you kick the Commission-cum-North American administrator out of office, how are you going to run the place?”

  “I asked Gordon to be the fleet commander. He’s the strategist. We can ask him how he intends to take control of the planet. I’m not sure I want to RUN the place. I was hoping to suggest the population there decide how they want to be governed in civil matters by referendum. Like the Mothers allow the trade towns autonomy. As long as they meet their new contracts, I wouldn’t interfere in local affairs.”

  April and Jeff just exchanged a lingering glance at each other silently.

  “Does that look mean I’m an idiot and you don’t want to say it out loud?” Lee asked.

  “It’s so complicated I don’t know where to start,” April admitted. “Will you make overriding law on demand like the Mothers or Heather? Or will you issue a basic form of law to start and demand it be expanded case by case? How often would you hold court to do that? If you allow them to keep North American law, you get all the mess of corporations and the juvenile laws that saw you locked up. European or Asian legal systems all have similar horrid tenets you will find repugnant. I can’t see how you can embrace any of those legal systems and not have people assume they will serve the cultural assumptions that created them.”

  “I’m surprised the Mothers didn’t have any suggestions when we discussed it,” Lee said.

  “You can go simple. Are you familiar with the Ten Commandments?” Jeff asked.

  “It sounds like something I’ve heard of before but I can’t remember,” Lee admitted.

  “Look it up. It will be in the web fraction. I’m not suggesting it word for word but you could make a secular version. Call it Lee’s Twenty Principles or something like that.”

  “People are too evil to follow broad direction and not push back,” Lee said after she examined it on her pad and thought about it briefly.

  “Yes, that’s always been the problem,” Jeff agreed. “People demand all kinds of exemptions and want infinitely detailed rules. If you say, don’t murder, they want thousands of pages detailing what is criminal and what is justified homicide. They want it pinned down - what is a reasonable fear for life and limb to warrant a lethal response. Is a person vowing they are going to kill you out loud sufficient or must you wait until they draw a weapon? Maybe they are an idiot with a training gun or a marker and so you should wait and let them take the first shot! Common sense is not at all common, and you can find lots of ridiculous demands embedded in all the legal systems.”

  “So, you would banish all legacy legal systems?” Lee asked.

  “I think you have to,” Jeff agreed. “If you give them any recognition at all they will use them against you. You may be sure there is nowhere on Earth, not just North America, that will grant you standing or equal treatment.”

  “That’s what Gordon was trying to say,” Lee realized.

  “Tell her what you went through with Camelot,” April demanded.

  “I’ll try to condense it,” Jeff said and was silent a moment composing.

  “I got stuck with the Chinese lunar colony after we banned armed ships past L1. It seemed an obligation by all international standards to administer it as conquered territory. The problem was that it was a show colony, created for propaganda. It wasn’t self-sustaining and it was full of party functionaries. These political hacks felt just about any honest work was for peasants and beneath them. Worse, they falsely swore to Heather and then resisted and disrespected my administrator.”

  “You didn’t just evict all of them?” Lee asked.

  “I should have. It seemed like that would be abusive at the time. I unloaded it later as a package deal, and the new owners did fire everyone and trapped them into selling the properties I’d granted them cheap. So, all my efforts to be decent about it came to naught. A few of them didn’t deserve that. The ones who did real work like maintain the buildings and rovers. The party officials and show workers not so much.”

  Lee looked grim. “I’m sincerely trying to learn from your mistakes. I’m not going to allow any pure administrators to stay on the planet. Maybe somebody who works in support services like IT or satellite communications but not just a straw boss for North America via the Claims Commission. If they try to declare a sudden desire to go native and become a colonist, I’m not buying it. Having my onsite administrator sounds good too.”

  “No security people either. They may have cute euphemisms for them,” April warned.

  “OK, their muscle. That makes sense. They could be trouble later,” Lee agreed.

  “How are you going to return them to Earth?” Jeff asked.

  “I’ll need you to drag the Retribution to Earth for me. Is that a problem?” Lee asked

  “No, not at all,” Jeff assured her. “Taking a bunch of North American bureaucrats and thugs inside the Hringhorni would have been the problem. Even opening the hold to vacuum might never get the smell out.”

  “I’ll drop you at the hotel,” Lee promised after parking the Kurofune in orbit nearby, not docked to Derfhome station. “Meet me in my suite later?”

  “It’s past supper down there. How about the morning?”

  “That works too,” Lee agreed.

  “Walter?” Lee asked. He’d been quiet since boarding except for a few quiet exclamations when they lifted silently.

  “Yes?”

  “I’m going to take you to meet your fellow researchers. When you are done talking shop with them, have them show you how to call a car to bring you back to my hotel. I’m usually able to get people a room but if I can’t, I’ll put you up in my own suite. Check with the desk when you come in. We’ll have you set up with a place within a couple of days. Are you OK with being pretty much on your own right away? I have lots of other things to do. If you need to eat and don’t want to venture out there’s a restaurant in the hotel.”

  “I’ll be just fine. It’ll be an adventure,” Walter assured her.

  Walter got on so well with her people she wondered if he’d even be back today. They were hunched together over a disassembled thruster and so intent on it they barely acknowledged her leaving. She hoped they’d remember to eat.

  * * *

  “You’re not the boss of me anymore,” Sam called out to Bill.

  “Like you hadn’t made an art form of insubordination even before we decided to conspire not to go back home,” Bill King scoffed.

  “Yeah, thanks, but it is official now,” Sam said. “We are directed to shut down all operations, destroy all codes and records, and exit as we are able via a commercial carrier with whatever liquid assets may be recovered. The agency informs us they can no longer maintain contact in the area of assignment to resupply or direct us.”

  “Like the occasional USNA dollars were worth more than walking around money to buy a coffee when we are in town,” Bill said. “Truth is, they probably have little use for what we were sending them. So, why should they pay to keep collecting it?”

  “Should I tell them to go pound sand, that we quit?” Sam asked.

  “No, no, no, no… You have this intemperate streak in you,” Bill said. “We’re already subsidizing our assignment from our own funds given the cost of drone relay messages. If you want to waste a little money for one last good-bye, you want to give the desk jockey who is handling our assignment reason to pigeon-hole our file so it disappears into oblivion as it gets more and more dated. Ideally, it will scroll off the active files and become an obscure item on some inactive backup that will never be called up and examined. If you are ru
de and insubordinate with him, you might provoke them into classifying us as rogues, or worst of all, initiating some plan to extract us, if he sees we don’t want to follow the directive.”

  “OK, you are better than me at layering it on thick and deep. Tell me what to say.”

  “Confirm their bias that we are serving in a Spacer hell hole at personal risk and sacrifice. Say the arrival of Home here has precipitated an episode of historic hyper-

  inflation and political instability. Humans and foreigners are viewed with distrust and we will hunker down and keep a low profile. We will shut down operations as instructed but that leaving our secure location is both impractical and hazardous now. We’ll quietly continue our cover business for our personal survival until such a time as local conditions allow a safe exit by whatever indirect routing becomes available within our means.”

  “Wow, I’m getting all choked up,” Sam said, “thinking about those brave agents caught up in distant chaos but valianly hanging on underground, to keep their secret safe.”

  * * *

  “Do you think she is lying?” the head of Indian Intelligence asked his second.

  “You know better,” he said bluntly. “You just don’t want to believe.”

  “Tell me why.”

  “It’s too detailed. You couldn’t break her and install such a complex set of false memories given a year to work on her. She remembers some statements verbatim and doesn’t change the wording at all when she repeats them. If it was a lie, it would be a believable lie. You don’t impart an unbelievable fantasy. It’s not even useful as misdirection. She has no sort of resistance to veracity testing and scores solidly that she believes her story. Instead, we have all sorts of things we don’t want to believe and find insulting and improbable, if not impossible. The worst of which is their statement to her they just don’t care about the things she’d tell us.”

  “And the French fellow was a substitute. He was a good match but not their man,”

  “Are you going to tell them?”

  The head of the agency sighed.