Another Word for Magic

by Mackey Chandler

  “Sweet, we don’t need to hog all the glory. We’ll welcome some help.” Gordon agreed. “I’m also willing to take over the station if it can be done surgically and not turn it into a bloodbath and wreck it beyond a few forced locks and hatches.”

  “Lee already mentioned you both agreed not to conduct a bombardment,” Jeff said. “I’m in favor of that. If they have any orbital capable interceptors would you have any objection to removing those?”

  “No, though I doubt they do. What I don’t want to do is damage their water supply or power generation. If we do that, we can’t replace them easily. It would require new equipment from either New Japan or Fargone that might not be compatible with Earth systems. The delay would mean the small urban core already built would be unusable for long enough you’d have to evacuate the residential areas to the countryside. A lot of the facilities like sewage processing and fabricating shops were built with decentralized power. But if the workers can’t go home to power and water they won’t stay there working and the economy will collapse. If you remove one critical system the rest of the infrastructure becomes useless. If you do a clumsy job of it and hurt civilians you’ve created an opposition group and resistance who hate you.”

  “What are your immediate needs to be ready to leave?” Jeff asked.

  “With all the influx of Homies, we’re having trouble getting enough non-perishable food. We’ve added some freezer capacity to both ships and are buying fresh items to freeze but there isn’t any commercial capacity to process frozen in place. The Derf have never been big on freezing. We’ve set up in rented space and hired people to package and label to our specs and flash freeze it to lift to orbit. It’s slow.”

  “Would you be satisfied with shelf-stable canned items?” April asked.

  “Sure, and not too picky about the available menus as long as it isn’t the sort of survival stuff deliberately nasty so nobody wants to eat it. They do that to keep it safe from pilferage,” Gordon said. “The sort of rations they call prison bars.”

  “Let me check something,” April said. She looked at the ceiling like people do to put a blank field behind their spex.

  “Eileen? April here, Sweetie. How much of your food have you released to the market to moderate prices? Yeah? That much? No, that’s fine. We wanted you to moderate it not crash it. Since the boarding rush for the Out o’ My Way is over, how long do you think it would take to transport a quarter of the remainder to Derfhome station? OK, hang on while I put that to Gordon.”

  April looked back down and regarded Gordon.

  “I can give you twenty cubic meters of mixed shelf-stable food delivered to the port tomorrow. All high quality and safe to transport up to six g. It would be twelve commercial shuttle loads of about twenty-two and a half tons total. You can of course use your ship’s shuttles too. If you don’t mind putting the hours on them. That would work out to approximately forty thousand human meal equivalents with ship supplied water, less for Derf depending on your crew mix. Would that be helpful?”

  Gordon blinked a couple of times - which was a strong reaction for him.

  “That would solve my problem entirely and allow us to use the stores we already have as occasional special meals to maintain morale.”

  April nodded and went back to her spex.

  “OK, do it, Eileen. Have the port hold it to board for Gordon or his documented representatives. Thank you,” April said into her spex, finished.

  “We didn’t ask Sally what her people budgeted for stores,” Gordon said. “I was leaving that in her hands. I do know the Mothers sent some things along for crew they supplied.”

  April waved that away with a flip of her hand. “It’s a gift. We had it put aside in case we needed it. Now we do. What else do you need?”

  “Very little,” Gordon admitted. “We decided to only take twenty of Strangelove’s troopers. I don’t doubt Garrett would allow him as many as he wants to use but we aren’t going to do a ground invasion any more than we wish to conduct a planetary bombardment. We only have twenty sets of lunar armor for Derf. I’m not complaining about that. I very much appreciate that you delivered after promising them your first trip here without me even needing to remind you.”

  “Nineteen and me,” Strangelove interjected. “I will be there for Jeff.”

  Jeff nodded and Gordon acknowledged that. “That’s plenty for any kind of action I can imagine. I’d use them to seize the station control room or to guard Lee on the ground. I do think she should have some Human guards mixed in for the sake of appearances.”

  “Do you have any Humans you want to take as guards?” Jeff asked Lee.

  “No, the ones I’d have picked are all off with the fleet.”

  “May I ask an old friend in the business if he’d fill the assignment?” Jeff suggested.

  “Have at it. Make sure he knows it could be long-term and away.”

  Lee thought about it. “I can, however, sweeten the pot by offering land grants for their service.”

  “That’s nice, let me inquire,” Jeff said. He let them hear the call just like April had.

  “Otis, I have a possible assignment. It could be months long. Personal protection for Lee Anderson, our new ally, who is Voice for the Mothers of Red Tree and head of the new registration for explorers as well as the creator of the Little Fleet.

  “Yes, yes, daughter of that Gordon. He’s sitting right here giving me the hairy eyeball.

  “Well, the silly ducks cut off her payments. Cut off Gordon, too, for that matter. Since she had a contract with them on a class A planet and they defaulted, she’s going to repossess it.

  “Indeed, that will involve removing the North American installed administration. It’s officially a Claims Commission overseer but you know that is a legal fiction. My understanding is the Commission has pretty much fallen apart without North America. We just had reps from Earth governments here asking about using her registry.

  “You’d be working with a squad of Red Tree soldiers. Twenty of their best who might see some military action besides guarding Lee. They are kitted out for combat.

  “I didn’t mean to imply that was beyond your abilities, but no, you won’t get to play with nukes. If it all goes well, there will damn well be no looting and burning. Though you should get some nice tracts of land as bonus pay.

  “Would I joke about real estate? Really? Are a couple of your mates free to go too?

  “That would be fine. I’ll tell her. No weight limit on personal gear, intoxicants are your business as long as you know when you are off duty. I expect the Derf will be heavy on breaching charges and other boomies if you want to go light.

  “That’s not light. I doubt they have any armor, and I’d deal with that from orbit.

  “I love you too, but my name is not Man. I’m sure you have two days to pack, and it wouldn’t hurt to be sober. We’ve got fast transport and you might arrive hungover.”

  He looked at Lee and rolled his eyes. “Otis Duggan will bring along Eric Brockman and Christian Mackay. He has some other associates, but they are tied up working on Derfhome already. I’ll vouch for all of them being first-class security operators.”

  “Did he mention a rate?” Lee worried.

  “He said a solar a week plus support, but if you are cut off from your Commission payments, they are willing to negotiate for all payment in land. I’d go for that,” Jeff advised.

  “You better believe it. I’ll have a lot more land than solars,” Lee said. “Sally has a clerk well trained on our registration processes who we’ll install after we’ve secured the planet. She is authorized to make land grants to the locals to pad out their current contracts and keep them on board to continue developing the planet.”

  “I was thinking as I talked to Otis,” Jeff said. “If the Sharp Claws and Retribution have to stay at Providence very long, we can take jump drives to them as soon as Heather has a batch for you. They’d have to use them on their nose grapple temporarily, but that works fine. Y
ou can fit them permanently back at Derfhome after your campaign.”

  “Yes, my drive on the Kurofune will still have to be mounted that way when we go. All the components are fabbed but we haven’t cut her open and installed them yet.”

  She paused and frowned.

  “Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Lee worried. “Do we have the crew available to do this on the time scale we’re discussing?” she asked Sally.

  “I’d have spoken up and cut you off from wasting everybody’s time if we didn’t,” Sally assured her. “We’re oversubscribed. The Mothers could support the whole action if they had to. They’ve been training sufficient crew to rotate them from ship to Keep. Instead, we’re getting their most experienced Spacers, some hands from the Little Fleet who didn’t go back out and are growing restless, and a long list of Fargoers who would be happy to sign up.”

  “Any Hin?” Lee asked hopefully.

  “I’m not sure there is even a Hin on the planet,” Sally said. “If you want Hin in your crews you may have to send a recruiter there and seek them.”

  “I may - not for Providence, but for the next time I go out,” Lee said.

  That produced an indulgent smile from Gordon.

  “I’m aware,” Gordon said with a grave nod. “But depending on economic circumstances and the way your ship tech changes after working with the Centralists I’m not sure you will need or want a huge support fleet. I think it may be more of a hobby the next time you venture forth. You’ve already located more assets than your race can use in a hundred years.”

  “You underestimate how fast we’ll gobble those up,” Lee insisted. “The population balance is going to shift from Earth to Spacers, and their numbers won’t fall off because they’ll mostly use Life Extension. There’s still a big shortage of livable real estate.”

  Sally surprised them with her assertiveness. She raised a forestalling finger and spoke.

  “I think both of you are partially correct. The directors of the bank work very hard to model the future, and we’ve had some quiet successes we don’t trumpet to the world. Our consensus is there will be a vast improvement in habitats out among the brown dwarf systems you found. The mining stations you plan to put there to work those deposits will become so comfortable that the second and third generations born to the stations will wonder why anyone yearned for an open sky and the huge waste of oceans. The cubic of artificial environments will be so cheap with the abundance of materials to make them that we can have room for parks and model eco-systems so people don’t feel confined. We expect personal living space to increase six-or seven-fold.”

  “We have a park at Central that was an impossible dream for years,” April said.

  “Then what about the planetary property like we’re going to take back?” Lee demanded.

  “That’s simply going to be very high-end property for the rich,” Sally said. “I’d like to have one of those properties you are awarding on Providence. I think they will be prized like the fancy penthouse apartments in the big Earth cities back when they were safe and clean. I think the standard for the most desirable will be to have enough land that you can’t see your neighbor’s home.”

  “We don’t speak of our worlds much,” Jeff revealed. “But they are very low population, and that’s already pretty much the standard for properties there.”

  Sally just smiled, unsurprised.

  “I’ll make sure you have that Providence home,” Lee promised Sally. “You’ve certainly earned it, and I suspect you will all over again in the future.”

  “Do we know enough to set a departure time?” Jeff asked.

  Lee looked at Gordon and then Sally, thinking.

  “Everybody is on Derfhome City time. I propose we wrap up loading between local sunrise and noon three days from now. How far off Derf time is their landing city?” She looked at Gordon, knowing he’d have that datum from his planning.

  “We’ll arrive about two hours before their local noon if we get away at noon. The Providence day is a little longer and they use an Earth-style twenty-four-hour day.”

  “So, our first day there will be stretched a bit. That’s fine. I expect we will stand off and observe and communicate the first day. I suspect from our last visit they will be slow to respond and will try to obfuscate. If there is a USNA warship still there it may run like the last time we visited. We’ll deal with it as Gordon mentioned and allow a little time for that lesson to sink in. They seem to require an amazing amount of time to come to any consensus and decision. If we push them to answer us too fast, I think it just increases the odds they will do something stupid.” Lee looked around to invite comments.

  Gordon nodded his agreement.

  “Everybody on the crew list is on twenty-hour recall,” Sally said.

  “That’s a plan then. Is there any other business?” Lee asked.

  “Yeah,” Gordon said lifting his mug. “I need another hot chocolate.”

  * * *

  The commercial attaché cum CIA liaison for the North American embassy was enjoying a glass of wine and small plates at a favorite sidewalk café a pleasant walk from the embassy. He had a rather pretty, new employee in communications and data support and her boss with him. They were telling her all the places in Paris she should see while she was on the posting and both were sending zero signals to her of any personal interest. North America was so deep in a strongly prudish social cycle that one wrong word could destroy your career. It was much safer to fraternize with the locals who thought the North Americans outlawing of short-sleeved shirts and their obsession with fastening the collar button even without a tie was ridiculous.

  A gentleman with wrap-around spex set mirrored stopped outside the ornate handrail separating the tables from the public sidewalk and turned to them. That face covering was considered the height of rudeness in North America or France.

  “Johnathan Wilde?” He got no response but a hostile glare. Apparently, the question was perfunctory, meant to confirm he wasn’t confusing Johnathan with someone else. His head turned towards Wilde’s companions even though you couldn’t see his eyes. “Tell them this was for Jean Navarre.”

  He lifted a handgun, in no particular hurry, and shot Johnathan through the forehead. The report was a dull >PHUT< that barely covered the noise of the round’s impact and the action didn’t cycle to add mechanical noise. It didn’t even make people at other tables turn. Johnathan’s head jerked back slightly then rolled forward. His balance ruined, he tipped slowly forward, face to the table. The man turned and walked away at a normal pace blending into the crowd before he reached the next street.

  The two Americans looked at each other too shocked to speak and uncertain what to do.

  “Should we just leave?” the new employee suggested.

  “There are cameras everywhere. That would just delay the inevitable questioning.”

  “Then what are you going to do?” she demanded of her new boss.

  “I’m going to ask the waiter to have the manager summon the police, and finish my wine,” he added on reflection. She might have regarded that as callous if his hand hadn’t been shaking so.

  * * *

  Dionysus’ Chariot with the Retribution in its jump field materialized in the outer system of Providence simultaneously with Hringhorni bringing along the Sharp Claws, and Kurofune on its own. After releasing the Sharp Claws, Gordon directed the Hringhorni to jump within a light hour of Providence and conduct a preliminary surveillance where he could direct his jump drones precisely.

  The jump drone from Hringhorni materialized ten light seconds from Providence and scanned the vicinity of the planet with radar, making no effort to be subtle and offering no ID. It jumped across to the other side of the planet and repeated its scan before returning with its information to the Hringhorni.

  Jeff sent the drone back to speak to the station and to explain it was an unmanned automated probe of the Central jump ship Hringhorni that would relay their response out-system.
It requested a current system scan and information on the last known disposition of North American ships in the system.

  The station shocked them by complying without hesitation.

  Not only did they give the current scan but a snapshot of the last three days.

  The traffic controller, Ed Polonis, informed them that a week ago the USNA destroyer Syracuse made a hot transit of the system looking for the frigate Bolton which was assigned to maintain a USNA presence at Providence station.

  The Bolton, however, had already left upon receiving word from a relay jump drone that all the major ships at their forward base had been disabled by Central ships. Only minor vessels were spared for evacuation back to Earth. The Syracuse warned them the Centralist ships did not have to run to jump and had drones of similar ability. They requested any transiting USNA ships be informed of that.

  The Bolton jumped out before their tour was due to end but not on an Earth vector so they were not taking the opportunity to return to Earth. They were headed to Survey System 1824, which had no habitation or development. That was likely a move to hide their ultimate destination.

  The station master’s scan, Ed provided them, reported that there were no other armed ships in the system to their knowledge and that they didn’t have the means or intention to offer any resistance to armed vessels. After being abandoned by their USNA support and seeing other USNA warships pass in apparent flight, they were open to inspection and welcome to dock without any fees.

  “Wow, they really are scared for a station master to volunteer free dockage,” Jeff said to his crew. “I’m relaying that out to Gordon and Lee to see what they say. I’m also jumping in to three light seconds to have a conversation with the station. I don’t believe with the Bolton gone I’m in any danger of being attacked faster than I can jump out.”

  “Tell them thank you for the offer, perhaps later,” Gordon replied. “Lee says we pay for everything we get at this point until we formally change the agreements and have new contracts. For my part, you can tell them we will cautiously survey the system and planet because we’ve seen ambushes prepared in other systems. No need to tell them how, in case nobody here is bright enough to figure it out on their own. You may assure them no hostile action is planned as long as we’re not fired upon.”