Another Word for Magic

by Mackey Chandler

  “He might have sold it that way and panicked when he heard the outer wall breached,” Jeff speculated. “When you jury-rig something like that, it can’t be too hard to initiate.”

  Werner sighed. “And I wouldn’t discount Glasser being stupid enough to make it some kind of dead man's switch that the jolt of our charge could set off.”

  “Doesn’t matter now does it?” April asked, watching the core of the building burn out.

  “If you have an empty commercial building, a storefront, or even a free-standing residence in the city, I need to set a clerk up to negotiate new contracts and leases. We’ll drop her off tomorrow. You can provide security for her. We’ll send small arms, since it seems most of them on the planet just burnt up. I expect things will be settled down by then. I will see that she has funds to allow payrolls to be made. That wasn’t something I knew we’d need when we arrived but we can print checks and hand them out. The important thing is we know they will be honored when they are referenced in data swaps to Derfhome. I’ll use my personal account number and see to it they are good,” Lee promised.

  “What do you need me to do?” Werner asked her.

  “Make all these people believe that’s going to happen and get them to go back to work. You successfully moved these people working behind you to act. Keep doing what has worked for you. Sound confident and if the people run veracity software on you, don’t say anything you doubt yourself. I will back up what you need if you have to make promises. If you can do that, you are a miracle worker. If their confidence can be restored, the rest of it will be easy. We need to convince them to switch over and run their accounts in dollars Ceres. I think we may introduce solars too,” she said, looking at Jeff. “That’s a jump too far at first but they’ve heard of Ceres banking just like Earth people know the Swiss are bankers, even if they don’t personally use them.”

  “What do you want to call it? Don’t you have any guidelines on what sort of system you’d find acceptable?” Werner asked.

  “It’s a city-sized government right now. It can change with the population. It can be a council or a city manager or an Assembly of the entire population like Home does. Talk to your peers and see what they want. Can’t you do something better than that?” Lee asked pointing at the burning building.

  “I certainly hope so. It seems a low bar. I’ll see what we can do,” he promised.

  “I have to go do a bunch of things to make this work myself. I’ll be back as soon as I can find a person or two to act as my Voice to oversee the moral direction of the planet.”

  “As distinct from legal directions?” Werner asked.

  “Yes. Endlessly expanding laws has never worked. They will have the power to tell a city council or a city manager that their law is oppressive, selfish, or stifling business. That it is simply wrong rather than illegal. I’m going to write them out some guiding principles they will share with you, but I’m still learning, and I won’t be shy to change and expand them.

  “We’re not going to allow the foolishness of laws against short sleeves or brass buttons. Neither will there be detailed ordinances about how many centimeters high the letters can be on a merchant’s sign or endless licensing of professions to stifle business and drive up fees. We’re not going to endlessly aggravate people with that nonsense.

  “I’m not fond of planets but we’ll see if it isn’t possible to make one that isn’t hell to live on. You can argue with my Voices or persuade them, but they will have the final say or I’ll be back and tear the whole thing down and start over a third time,” she warned him.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Werner agreed.

  “Come on,” Lee told her people turning to the aircar. “I have a lot to do.”

  Chapter 25

  “I would like to ease my burden on you,” Lee said in the aircar.

  “You can’t mean Strangelove, and you haven’t asked your security to do anything but stand and look menacing, so do you mean me or Jeff? April asked.

  “Yes. You both spoke up and pledged your fortunes and even that of your sovereign. I’m honored but don’t want to be in your debt. It makes me uncomfortable.”

  “I’ll tell you a deep dark secret,” Jeff said. He looked over at Otis and his gang. “You don’t gossip about this.” Otis gave him a nod.

  “Heather has been running machines separating regolith into its constituent elements for years now. She has so much gold and platinum separated the trick is to moderate their release so she doesn’t collapse their value. We have similar, improved machines operating on other airless satellites of our private star systems. We call them French mills. The tech works better in that environment than on planetary surfaces with weather. We’re catching up on mining silver and copper and have as much stuff like tin and gallium as we need. However, we could let you have all the monetary metals you need and never worry about being paid back.”

  “Then it isn’t money anymore,” Lee figured out immediately.

  “It stopped being money for you, too, as soon as you got faster star drives,” Jeff said. “I know you found tremendous sources of metals around the brown dwarfs. Their scarcity is only limited now by the transport to bring them back. All I can suggest is that it is in your self-interest to not flood the economy with so much metal it loses value. It’s a huge advantage not to destroy its value as money for everyone else. You still have purchasing power for Fargone, New Japan, the Badgers, and even Earth, if you can deal with the non-crazies.”

  “Well, I was about to ask you to lend me a freighter, or whatever you use for a mining ship, to go get some of that metal so I don’t have to take yours,” Lee revealed. “We saw one of your mining sites along the route of the Little Fleet so I know you have the equipment. But the question now is if you trust me not to mess everything up.”

  “If it makes you feel better, that can be arranged. Our bank can offer you coining services too if you want them,” Jeff offered. “There’s no point in trying to inhibit you now. It would only work for a few years anyway. The benefit of salvaging Providence has a narrow time window. It’s better to accomplish that right now and benefit many people rather than worrying about a little inflation.”

  “I’m horrified to realize the collapse of the Commission probably left a bunch of other worlds and stations in a similar mess,” April said.

  “I know and you have a rescue complex,” Jeff said, “but it’s plenty for all of us to bite off just to keep Providence from having a complete collapse of civilization.”

  April silently nodded to acknowledge that, but it bothered her.

  “I believe I can regulate myself to not fund every whim that occurs,” Lee said. “I’d welcome your help and examples of how you are regulating yourselves.”

  “All right. We’ll ask Heather to make you the loan of a mining ship and crew. I imagine you’ll switch Providence to a solar standard faster than you thought. We should be making payroll in coin inside a month,” Jeff predicted.

  “Real coins?” Lee asked.

  “If people want it. They will usually be happy with an account balance on the local net and a card, if they just see others occasionally ask for the coin and they know it’s redeemable. People do ask for them as wedding and birthday gifts.

  “What are you going to replace it with when it stops working?” Lee worried.

  “I don’t know,” Jeff admitted. “I’ll thank you not to charge me with being responsible for replacing it. I’m open to good suggestions from anyone. There is a positive side to it if it frees us to build things with what works best instead of what is cheap enough to use. Gold may not be expensive, but it will still be beautiful and malleable. It’s corrosion-resistant and reflective in the infrared. Why would you use anything else for electrical contacts?”

  “And it removes the incentive for the criminally inclined to steal it,” April added. “Can you imagine trying to string silver wire for power distribution? You’d replace it weekly.”

  “You probably get all the platinu
m group metals, don’t you?” Lee asked.

  “Yes, and things like the rare earth metals and thorium and uranium in quantities past any use for them at present,” Jeff said. “It will be a major adjustment for design engineers.”

  “I appreciate your support and helping me save Providence,” Lee said, “not just for me. Look at what a mess the Commission made of it for the people living here. They were descending into chaos.”

  “Like you told Werner, whatever he cobbles together has to be better than Glasser sitting on his butt while everything fell apart. They should be back tending crops before they lose this year’s harvest, and you can have new com gear and stuff here in a month I bet.

  “But all that about your Voices overseeing the government is on you to make work. I hope it works out. You are brave to try it, but after my own bad experience governing Camelot, it sounds like you are stretching beyond being a sovereign and trying for goddess. People are ornery and selfish. They will resist you in ways that will amaze you. You can’t believe the stupid things people bring to Heather’s court over and over.”

  “I understand,” Lee said. “No offense taken. We’ll see if I can make it work.”

  “Everybody needs a hobby,” April cracked wise in a snippy voice.

  In the back, Otis started giggling. It was contagious. Even Strangelove joined in, and everyone in the Twool roared with laughter as they rose to catch the Kurofune in orbit.

  The End

  The Last Part: Books and Links by Mackey Chandler

  April (first in series)

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0077EOE2C

  April is an exceptional young lady and something of a snoop. She finds herself involved with intrigues that stretch her abilities after a chance run-in with a spy. There is a terrible danger she and her friends and family will lose the only home she has ever known in orbit and be forced to live on the slum ball below. It's more than a teen should have to deal with. Fortunately, she has a lot of smart friends and allies. It's a good thing because things get very rough and dicey.

  Family Law (first in series)

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006GQSZVS

  Who is family? Who should decide? Should it be a matter of law? Could an alien adopt a Human?

  Of course, if the alien in question can fly starships and is the size and temperament of a mature Grizzly bear one needs a certain delicacy in trying to tell him no…

  Link to a full list of current releases on Amazon:

  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004RZUOS2

  Mac's Writing Blog:

  http://www.mackeychandler.com