by Bob Blanton
“What kind of help?”
“This cartel has essentially taken over one of the states. They want us to help root them out. Part of their message to the cartels is that they need to start cleaning up their act.”
“How is taking out one cartel going to help?” Marc asked.
“Well, we’ve been helping them get ready. ADI and ANDI have traced a bunch of cartel money, around twenty billion dollars. They’re going to seize it right after we take care of the one,” Kal explained.
“How are they going to seize it? Will the banks cooperate?” Blake asked.
“We’re not planning to ask the banks. ADI has managed to get control of the accounts; she’s just going to move the money.”
“And just how did she do that?”
“Captain, it is amazing how careless people can be with their passwords,” ADI said. “Once I got control of their computers, it was easy to find the passwords.”
“And how did you get control of their computers?” Marc asked.
“I used a modified version of the virus we used against Russia.”
“Will the world ever be safe again?” Samantha asked.
“Yes,” ADI said. “You’ll need to use biometric passwords with encryption keys. They should be unbreakable, at least without the help of the owner.”
“They would be similar to what we have on our Comms,” Catie said. “They won’t unlock if you’re under stress unless you add a code after you register your fingerprint or face.”
“I feel better, I think,” Samantha said.
“So, why take out the one cartel?” Marc asked.
“The Mexican government is afraid of reprisals against the civilian population. They want to have control of the area before they seize the money,” Kal explained.
“That’s probably smart,” Samantha said.
“And they need your help?” Marc asked.
“They’re afraid of leaks. Our team can go in, infiltrate the communities, and take down the main players. It’s basically what we train for, so I don’t see a problem.”
“When are you planning to do this?”
“I’ve already sent in an advance team. Mostly women. Seems nobody takes notice when a few women start showing up in a town, especially if they act like they’re interested in making some money on the side.”
“Won’t they be surprised when those women start taking them down,” Blake said.
“Okay, makes sense. Go ahead,” Marc said. “As if you were waiting for my approval. Fred, anything to report from your end?”
“We’re making lots of money. Our airline president is demanding another eight airliners.”
“Do we have enough cash?”
“We will when Catie starts paying for her new StarMerchant.”
“What, I don’t get a deal?!” Catie yelped.
“Like the deal we got for the cabins?” Marc asked.
“Hey, you got a good deal. I would have charged thirty-five percent.”
“And I would have paid thirty,” Marc shot back. “But we can talk about business pricing later. Nikola, how are our scientists doing?”
“Nakahara-san is still trying to reverse engineer the quantum relays. No luck, and he’s still not very hopeful of a solution anytime soon.”
“Good,” Dr. Metra whispered.
“I heard that,” Marc said. “But I’m sure the Paraxeans will be happy to keep a corner of that market.”
“I’m sure they will,” Nikola said. “He’s still making improvements to the quantum cables. Leo and some friends are working on making an even smaller superconductor. They hope to be able to make our Comm chips with a production process instead of printing them on the molecular printer.”
“That would be nice,” Catie said. “Our Comms are expensive to make.”
“That would explain the price you gave us on them,” Marc said, getting in a jab despite his desire to keep the meeting on track. “Blake how are we doing on a welcoming party for our friends?”
“You mean your friends. We’re studying the situation, no clear plan. I am concerned about the course change they’ve just made.”
“What course change?” Catie asked.
“They just spent a huge amount of reaction mass to change their course about one pico-arcsecond. It’ll take them out away from the Artemis Prime by a bit. Doesn’t make sense why they would do it. We didn’t detect anything in their way,” Blake explained.
“Yes, that bothers me as well,” Marc said. “I assume you’re adding that to your scenarios?”
“We are. We’ll be getting the strategy class at the Academy to run simulations on it soon. Maybe one of those geniuses will come up with a reason,” Blake said.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Come on, it’s time for our golf lesson,” Yvette said.
“Why are we doing this, when will we have time to play golf?” Catie asked.
“We can practice here at the Academy; we’re on the edge, so we can set up a driving range. With your HUD you can practice putting in your room.”
“So, when would we play?”
“Anytime you’re on shore. All the big boys and girls play golf. Besides, right now, it’s about the lesson, not playing.”
“You’re a letch.”
“Ha, you just wait. Putting lessons are the best.”
“You two ready?” Miranda asked as she came into their room.
“I am, Alex is being difficult.”
“Come on, Alex, we don’t want to be late,” Miranda said.
“Alright, just for you,” Catie said. She put on her golf outfit and grabbed her golf shoes so they could head out.
◆ ◆ ◆
“How’s your driving going?” Victor asked.
“Getting better,” Miranda said. “We’ve managed to practice three days. We’re setting up a little driving range at the edge of the Academy, it overlooks the ocean.”
“That’s a good thing, wouldn’t want you breaking any windows. You need to make sure you keep coming here to practice in the stations. That’ll give you the feedback you need to get that swing burned into muscle memory.”
“Alex, are you still happy to play right-handed?”
“Yes, I’m getting better,” Catie said.
“Keep practicing.”
“We will; we probably should schedule another lesson with you,” Yvette said.
Victor just nodded. “I see you each got a putter.”
“Yes. The clerk helped us pick them out. He said we could exchange them if you didn’t like the ones he had chosen,” Yvette said.
“They look fine so far. Let’s see how they do when you use them.” Victor led them over to the practice green. “Now putting is all about consistency. Everything is exactly the same except the length of your backstroke.”
Catie and Miranda nodded; Yvette looked confused.
“You use the same grip that you use on any golf club. I recommend you relax your arms a bit, but the basics are much the same. Now line up over the ball, hip pointed toward the hole, rock your shoulder back, and drive through the stroke nice and easy.”
“But what if the hole is farther away?” Yvette asked.
“You increase your backswing.”
“How can that work? Just because you swing more, if everything is the same, why would the ball go farther?”
“Because when you increase your backswing, the club will be traveling faster when it hits the ball.”
“Oh, so you accelerate the club throughout the swing,” Catie said.
“Exactly.”
“Then why didn’t you say that?” Yvette asked.
“I thought I did,” Victor replied. “Now, let me work with each of you to establish your stroke.”
Yvette made Catie go first again. Catie had to admit that she liked it when Victor put his arms around her to guide her stroke. After a few putts, he helped Miranda out. It didn’t take him long to pronounce her putting stroke as ‘good to go’. Of course, Yvette had all kinds of
problems getting her stroke down.
“Relax your grip on the club,” Victor said.
“Oops,” Yvette let the club slip out of her hands at the end of the stroke. Catie and Miranda just shook their heads.
Victor wound up spending twice as much time with Yvette as he had with Catie and Miranda combined.
“Okay, I’ve got to go teach my next lesson. But before I go, let me get you set up on the green. There are sensors at each corner that will register with the ball and your HUD. Once you’re ready to really try some putting, they’ll show you the shot you should take. Once you get comfortable, turn the feature off. The holes are done like a pool table, the ball drops below and is returned to the dispenser. You can toss a bunch of balls out in different locations and just go from one to the other making a putt,” Victor explained.
“I also recommend you spend some time doing a bunch of lag shots. That will teach you to control the speed of the ball, the length of the putt,” Victor added. “Have fun.”
Yvette picked six balls and tossed them around the hole. Most of them landed in the five to six-foot range. She slowly went from one to the other, sinking each putt.
“You should be an actress,” Miranda said. “Come on, Alex, let’s try doing lag shots.”
Chapter 14
Excuse Me
“That’s four,” Yvette said as she looked back down from her HUD.
“Four?” Catie asked.
“Four messages from Gaspare today,” Yvette said.
“Is that bad?”
“Five is my limit. If a man has to send you five ‘I’m thinking of you’ messages a day, then he’s either too clingy or too insecure.”
“Isn’t that harsh?”
“Maybe, but there are lots of nice guys out there. Why should I put up with one that is constantly bothering me with inane messages?”
“I guess it would make you wonder why he’s got so much free time to be daydreaming about you,” Catie said.
“Yes, and even if he is, why doesn’t he have more self-respect than to keep texting me to remind me about it all the time?” Yvette asked.
◆ ◆ ◆
Catie met Braxton at Deogene’s for dinner. He had called to set up the date right after he got back from Delphi Station, but it took until this Friday for their schedules to match up.
“Hi, Braxton.”
“Hello, Alex. You should have let me pick you up. We could have walked over together, or taken a taxi.”
“It’s only five blocks from my dorm,” Catie said. “You can walk with me on the way back. Did you check in?”
“Yes, our table should be ready.” Braxton signaled the maître d' and they were quickly escorted to their table.
“Would you like to order something to drink?” the maître d' asked as he handed them the menus.
“Just a glass of water for now,” Catie said.
“I’ll have the same, and could we have the wine list?” Braxton asked.
“But of course,” the maître d' said, signaling to the waiter to bring water and the wine menu.
“We don’t need to order a bottle,” Catie said. “I’ll only have one glass.”
“Just one glass? Come on, relax a bit; you are off duty.”
“I always try to limit myself to one glass.”
“I’ll get a bottle anyway. You get a better selection that way.”
Catie perused the menu, even though she knew what she wanted already. Once Braxton had made up his mind, she set her menu down to alert the waiter that they were ready to order. Catie ordered the Pork Chops Barbados and Braxton ordered the Jamaican Jerk Chicken. Braxton decided on a Riesling to go with dinner.
The maître d' did a nice show of serving the wine and left the bottle in an ice bucket next to the table.
“To us!” Braxton offered as a toast.
“To summer break,” Catie responded.
“How is the smelter running?” Catie asked after the toast.
“It’s running just fine,” Braxton said. “We’re working on a new problem now.”
“What kind of problem?”
“We’re looking into the power distribution systems here on Earth. With the fusion reactors and solar power starting to dominate power generation, distribution is the next opportunity to improve efficiency. It’s amazing how much power is lost due to distribution costs. Plus, there is a lot of overcapacity because of lack of storage.”
“Lack of storage?”
“Yes, you either have to have a reservoir where you can pump water up, so you can generate electricity by reversing it, or you have to have overcapacity available to generate enough power for peak demand. Right now, natural gas powerplants are the favorite to meet peak demand.”
“I guess batteries are pretty expensive and bulky for mass energy storage.”
“Yes, the next most-used method is compressed air storage. They pump air into a cave under pressure, then run a turbine from it. We’re looking at the mercury towers they build on Artemis.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of those,” Catie said. Her father had designed the mercury towers, towers of power he’d called them. They pumped mercury up during the day and let it flow down and drive electric turbines at night.
“Sure. Well, they can store enough power in a mercury tower to handle the peak loading problem for a small town or city. We’re going to take a region of the U.S. and calculate how much they can save in dollars and carbon emission by switching over.”
◆ ◆ ◆
"Come on, have another glass of wine,” Braxton coaxed Catie after they both had finished their dinner. There was just over a glass left in the bottle.”
“No, one is my limit,” Catie said. “I told you not to order a bottle.”
“If you won’t help me, I’ll have to finish it off by myself.”
“It’s your head,” Catie said.
“My parents are in town tomorrow,” Braxton said. “This is my last chance to relax before they start in on me.”
“Start in on you?”
“Oh, I’ll have to show them the whole city. They’re staying the entire weekend, so we’ll have to try all the various attractions around the city. We’ll go up to Delphi Station on Sunday, so they can tell everyone they’ve been there. It’ll be a bore.”
“At least they care enough to come and visit you.”
“I guess.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“It was a nice dinner,” Catie said as she and Braxton paused outside of her dorm building.
“It was fun,” Braxton said. He pulled Catie into a hug and gave her a warm kiss. He had been a bit drunk when they left the restaurant, but the walk had been enough to sober him up.
“Have fun with your parents,” Catie said as she broke free of his hug.
“Night!”
◆ ◆ ◆
“How was your date?” Yvette asked when Catie entered their room.
“It was nice,” Catie said.
“What did you talk about?”
“He’s working on a power distribution problem at the university.”
“What else?”
“A bit about some of his other classes, his parents coming to town.”
“What about your space strategy class?”
“That didn’t come up.”
“I don’t know about this Braxton guy. He should have been asking all kinds of questions about you and hanging onto your every word.”
“I don’t like to talk about myself,” Catie said.
“That doesn’t matter.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Chief Griggs, how are the gravity drives doing?” Liz asked as she walked into the engine room.
“They’re doing well. You remember Spec-three Rhodes?” Commander Griggs asked nodding to the spacer who was working with her.
“Yes; how is your first space flight going, Specialist Rhodes?” Liz asked.
“It is amazing. These gravity drives are a wonder. The amount of power each of these drives consumes
could power a small city. The chief has been teaching me how to maintain the antimatter reactors,” Rhodes said.
“Yes, without them, we wouldn’t be able to jump this big of a ship, and it would take weeks to build up enough charge to do so,” Liz said. “So do you plan on testing for your rating on the antimatter reactor?”
“As soon as the chief says I’m ready. There is a lot to learn.”
“Carry on, Rhodes,” Commander Griggs said. “Captain, why don’t we go to my office?”
Commander Griggs poured a finger of scotch for them both, “So what brings you down here?”
“I’d like to talk about the crew staffing level,” Liz said. “Things were so crazy during the reload, that we never had a chance to go over some things.”
“Did you get a chance to catch up with Catie?”
“Just a day. Of course we chat on our Comms all the time.”
“So what do you want to ask?”
“Catie is pushing to start up a second ship,” Liz said. “I wondered if you had suggestions about crew staffing levels and rotations.”
“Are the ships going to be identical?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good. You want to keep the crews together as a unit, but you don’t want them to be switching ships and getting confused.”
“Makes sense.”
“If you run three crews in rotation, you can give every crew one trip off after every two trips. It’ll be more complex than that with the length of the trips varying, but you should be able to let everyone get a few weeks of shore leave after twenty to thirty weeks in space.”
“Oh, that’s a great suggestion. I could put up with that,” Liz said. “So we’re going to need to hire at least one more captain, are you interested?”
“Nope, I like being the chief engineer,” Commander Griggs said. “But I’ve got a couple of recommendations for you.”
“That would be nice. Catie and I don’t know that many people who have the right kinds of skills.”
“No problem, I’ll send their files to you right away.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, one more thing,” Commander Griggs said.
“Yes?”
“You do realize you’re over-crewed for a civilian cargo ship?”
“We are?”