Secrets in the Stars (Family Law)

by Mackey Chandler

  The Bill just nodded agreement, not as eloquent yet with words as gestures.

  Lee had been instructed how to conduct an interrogation by frontal assault with big questions that couldn't be tip-toed around. Even Gordon looked a bit taken aback. There was no chit-chat and getting to know each other. Seemingly no interest in doing business either.

  "OK, you're all good with each other, the Derf have a treaty and are at peace with North America again, you've come to file claims with the Commission. You could have sent an unarmed ship in to do that without needing my intervention. I'm happy to meet the fellow who whipped North America's butt. Home did back when we rebelled, you know. I suspect they'll forget you did so almost as fast as they did with us." April played one handed with her chin, thoughtful. "Is there something we can actually do for you besides a pleasant meet and greet and offer you lunch?"

  Lee looked at Gordon, and he didn't seem disposed to speak like she hoped. She sure was on the spot up here with April, those shrewd hazel eyes regarding her patiently.

  "We want the truth," Lee said, making April look alarmed for the first time. But she didn't interrupt or try to turn it away with a joke. Instead she leaned back, body language saying she'd listen.

  "Gordon and I have claims that have paid us very well. We're both rich from them. The Badgers and Bills we've brought along intend to negotiate to use the same Claims system now that our borders are in contact. We hoped for that to remove possible conflict. They have even ceded a cone of space towards us as off limits besides our direct line of our flight to them. They represent a few other species back home too.

  "They're peaceful. Despite what Talker said about squabbling, they mixed and traded with unarmed ships until recently. Now they are plagued with a newly met race that raids on them and disrupts their trade and exploration. That's another reason they are here. To get weapons to defend their ships.

  "We were in last hour count to leave and a Fargoer captain dumped the information on us we may not be allowed enter the Solar System armed. We don't have any unarmed ships to send anymore, April. We'd have had to stop and strip something bare. But the big thing is Captain Roosevelt destroyed our understanding of the entire balance of power and political stability of the system and the Claims Commission we've been advocating. We'd never heard of the L1 limit for armed Earth ships, or them needing clearance to cross the system to jump.

  "Oh, Captain Roosevelt and several other Fargoer ships were at Derfhome because the North Americans sent a warship to perch on Derfhome station. We think it is intimidation, so what you said about them forgetting they were whipped is right on the money.

  "How can we still advocate the Badgers and Bills joining our claims scheme? We have huge claims ourselves. How can we submit them and lose control of them if the system is a sham and you and your Lunar friends are the real hidden powers of the Solar System? I'm pretty sure we still don't have the full picture, and this is the first time our new allies have heard any of this," Lee said waving a hand at them.

  "Captain Roosevelt intimated Fargone has agreements with you he wouldn't detail. We didn't feel like telling our new friend's spox that maybe we had no idea what we were talking about and queering the whole deal. Do we need a deal with you like the Fargoers? Do the Badgers and Bills? What the hell is going on? And to complicate things we find out you live way too long."

  That last made April smile.

  "Oh, and incidentally, we found traces of another race that builds tremendous big spaceships similar to the one following us around and we had to blow one of them to hell and gone. So be aware we might have an entire new civilization pissed at us too. I think that covers the big stuff," Lee said.

  Talker muttered a long stream of something definitely not English and covered his eyes with both hands. His snout sticking out was half open in dismay, tongue sticking out a little.

  "I bet that doesn't translate as 'Oh, goody'," April guessed.

  "It's more – 'Screaming little gods of the Hot Mamas' – but not an expression of joy, no," Lee said.

  "You got some of their tongue too? Interesting. This... may take a while. Gabriel, bring the court benches over here so we can allow them to sit. Talker looks like he needs to sit anyway. Call cook and tell her we need lots of coffee and a light luncheon buffet. Ask and endeavor not to poison our guests. Oh, then fetch me my unsigned hard copy of "The History of Home and the Lunar Powers – Illustrated" by Paddington."

  * * *

  April got up and paced the edge of her platform, while her guests were served coffee, seated on plain backless benches pulled up close. The Bill, Singer, abstaining. The benches were wood, expensive and rare. Lee noticed they had one wide enough for Derf.

  When Gabriel returned with her book she handed it off to Lee right away, casually informing her it was a gift, and surprised them again by sitting on the edge of her platform with her own coffee, abandoning the chair so far back to loom over her guests much closer. Lee, uncomfortable standing, sat beside her. There was no objection it broke protocol.

  "Where to start?" April said aloud. For them to know it wasn't simple, Lee was sure.

  "We are not any hidden power running the Solar System. Maybe in the absolute sense we could destroy the Earth nations if we wished, but that is very clumsy tool. If we were monsters we might have done that several times. You can't remove them with violence, down to a level where we have the numbers to replace them, and not severely damage the mother planet. It's a wonderful treasure of a complex planet.

  "At most we can influence them on occasion, by picking very important events. There is no way we can manage their overall activities. Expressing a occasional veto over some adventure of which we strongly disapproved is about all we can manage."

  "Could you give us an example?" Lee asked.

  "Sure. We made it clear we would not accept mining the outer system of a star that had sentients, not even an aboriginal species who displayed no interest or progress towards a technological civilization. It's theft. We privately told them we would blockade such a system and not let anybody in if they tried it. You simply can't push them like that too often or they'll get tired of it and make war on you, and it works best if there are those in their own population supporting the idea too.

  "In the early days, up to the L1 declaration, we were just trying to retain our new independence and keep them from re-subjugating us. Then some damned fool with religious motivations noticed that we scum, defiling the heavens, had the highest percentage of people with life extension therapy. He crafted a virus to kill people with the modifications. It worked too well. Almost all the modified people on Earth died if they didn't make it to space. All the people who had the funds to buy it in the first place. The smart people, innovators, leaders and just plain pushy, which is an underrated ability.

  "Losing a third of their population, and the best of them, they've never came back to be as big a threat to us again. It is interesting that the genes for all but the most extreme forms of intelligence are common enough we saw a recovery forming in three generations.

  "The Earthies don't like us. They didn't when I was a girl and it has been reinforced each generation until it is as set as any of the old ethnic conflicts. Lots of people on Earth still blame us for the epidemic. But they blame us for everything from extreme weather to the high price of luxury goods.

  "We hoped to limit them and contain them before they burst forth upon the stars with all their longstanding problems. Mainly we were working on getting there first, and then we imagined we'd dictate an exclusion zone like L1. We hadn't even met any aliens yet at that point and already were worried about the Earth powers finding them and making war on them and exploiting them, since that's how they treat each other, and tried to treat us.

  "Then the Brazilians invented the jump drive," April said, and sighed.

  "You didn't have it yet?" Gordon said, looking surprised.

  "No, worse they didn't keep it secret either. Everybody had the theory in less than
two years, even if they didn't have the infrastructure to build it yet. There was no doubt at all they would all war with us if we tried to keep them bottled up inside L1. They could have sacrificed ninety percent of their population and still outnumbered everyone off Earth a thousand to one.

  "We still have hopes Humanity will grow up, learn to be better, before we run into somebody or something that won't put up with any nonsense and tries to exterminate us. An outside race might not have our sentimentality. Of course they might make Earth Humans extinct too.”

  "But not Space Humans?" Lee asked.

  "We have a few colonies, deep as you are fond of saying," April revealed. "We would be a lot tougher to make extinct too. The race is fairly safe now I think."

  "Did you start the Claims Commission system?" Talker asked.

  "No! They had the sense to do that, which gives me hope they can eventually reform other things if given the time." April pause and added, "And good examples. They need the resources and this funnels them to Earth without robbing the discoverers completely. We're happy to see a controlled situation instead of the waste of piracy and conflict there’d be in every direction if there was no Commission."

  "Then I bet your colonies are not on the Claims roster," Lee decided.

  "Of course not," April agreed. "We hold them entire, not just a cut of the action."

  "Do your ships jump out from rest instead of running to jump?" Gordon asked.

  "That is something we can discuss when you are a citizen of Home, or sworn to the Sovereign of Central," April offered.

  "But not the Lunar Republic, and you'd take a Derf?" Gordon wondered.

  "The Republic is a buffer with Earth that we protect. We'll take any person who can support himself, learn our customs sufficiently that somebody doesn't call him out for being an ass, leading to banishment or death, and volunteer to pay his taxes," April counted off on her fingers.

  "I have a selfish interest in living as long as possible," Talker admitted, hesitant to speak. "You suggest your ships are secret with Gordon. Is this life extension therapy secret too? On what terms is it available? Perhaps doled out to limited numbers? I can see where if the increase is very great it might destroy a civilization with over population."

  "Most of the authorities on the planet below would agree with you, " April told him.

  Lee wondered if Talker could tell from April's sardonic expression that it was an old wound.

  "Nothing about life extension therapy is secret, here or in the Republic. I surprised you could contain yourself that long before asking about it. You have to be functionally insane not to want it. At least to me – rejecting it is just slow suicide. You can easily buy treatment on Home, or on Fargone if you are a citizen. That's one of our quiet agreements with them.

  "How much of the technology applies to your species is the immediate question. Most of it works at the molecular level. As far as I know this is the first time Derf have been told the truth about the matter too. But be prepared to spend some serious money on research. With top notch guys from both species working on it. We can offer help through quiet agreements like Fargone has, if you seem reasonable partners.

  "On Earth, it's different. Only a few small countries failed to ban all genetic modifications. You might be able to get something done in Switzerland. But if you did you could never leave the country. The information is censored. If you try to look anything up you are denounced as a conspiracy theorist. If you tried to gather information as a health professional you'd be discredited professionally and removed from practice.

  "All you will find easily, in public data, are historic accounts of horrible errors where genetic modification created new disease, or effects like mental illness. Some of them are true, which makes it harder to advocate. The old texts at colleges are restricted for 'public safety'. Get the picture?"

  "But, surely there are people who figure it out. How can you get millions of people to all accept a shorter life, and really believe in it as a good thing?" Lee objected.

  "Billions," April corrected. "There are a few who get around the censoring, and figure it out. A few even make it off Earth and get treatment. A couple hundred a year. Very rich people who fake their deaths to protect their kids from retribution and public shame. Their private plane vanishes over the ocean, or they die skiing or something and it's a closed casket funeral. The average person on Earth never has funds to fly on an airplane, much less lift to orbit and have enough wealth to start over. The average person believes the government stories that life extension therapy drives you crazy, gives you cancer, and leaves you at risk of dying horribly from the flu. It's also a useful lie for them to explain why all the spacers are crazy.

  "Behind all of this is the firm belief that if life extension ever became common they'd run out of resources and the economy would collapse into a great die-off in a generation. Some think behavior would change with longer life. But they're honestly afraid to find out if their models are accurate or not. The economy already dips between discoveries as it is."

  "They are that incapable of questioning, of skepticism?" Lee asked, dismayed.

  "If you are raised immersed in deceit, it takes a good mind and a strong will to break free. They do have control down to a mature science unfortunately." April looked thoughtful and played with her chin again, obviously a favorite mannerism.

  "In historically recent times they have forced other official opinions on the herd you would find just as lacking in credibility. For near a century they dumped rat poison in the public water supply to promote a reduction in dental caries. People just drank it up. They promoted the idea men and women are not any different and any differences in physical strength or mental talents should be ignored as a matter of law. They indoctrinated small children in that in the public schools. It hasn't worked yet, but most of them still pretend.

  "The official government advice on health matters and nutrition may have killed as many as their wars. They've crashed the economy again and again with overspending, so often nobody of any intelligence is surprised any more. They just revalue the money, or come out with a new issue under a new name if it's beyond revaluing, and start the cycle over again. The abuse the public will absorb is astonishing," April said.

  "In our system if somebody mismanages resources that badly his relatives will assassinate him to save the heritage of the estate," Talker said.

  "Pretty much the same with Derf. If the Mothers go that bad they get the ax," Thor said, with a graphic slash of his hand.

  "We haven't messed up bad enough to have that happen here, yet. It's all your Lady this, and your Lordship that, here at Central, but if we went bonkers and said that all our subjects would hence forth be vegetarians or some such stupidity, I have no doubt we wouldn't live to see the morning. These damn Loonies are an ornery bunch," April informed them. "Why don't we break and have a bite? I'm a little hollow already."

  Gordon was quick to second that.

  * * *

  April led them back to the first alcove along the entry hall where it was bright now, and a table was set. There were two buffet tables, one for the Humans and Derf, the other for the Badger and Bill.

  "Gordon's people gave us the latest list of safe foods," April said. "Come back in ten years and we can have a real feast, but I'm afraid we're somewhat limited today."

  "It doesn't appear we'll starve," Talker allowed. "I see some things I've never tried."

  There were prawn kabobs with onion but no pepper. Peppers were inconsistent. One pepper would test fine and another provoked an allergic reaction. Pineapple was a definite no, but they threaded slices of plantain and apricot halves on the skewers. There was a seasoned mix that looked like Syrian rice, but turned out to be barley based. Parsley was safe, so there was a tabbouleh salad, but no tomatoes in it as that was another food that was a problem sometimes, especially raw. There was a cold salad of cucumbers and olives and onions with no tomatoes again. Olive oil was safe, as was peanut oil, but others were
to die for.

  Talking about food gave them a break from the other talk that was getting overwhelming.

  "This is very nice," Talker said after a bit. "What I really want to know is, how is this coffee so different? I already despaired that I am addicted to the coffee the fleet brought, but now I find this is even better. Meaning no disrespect to my other hosts' tastes, but this doesn't even need sweetened. I'm afraid star-goods are going to be the ruin of my fortune back home."

  "Back when we set the L1 limit with the Earthies we had to suffer a bit of an embargo from them," April remembered. "Nobody starved for their basic calories every day, but the variety suffered. We were spoiled a bit too, because it cost so much to lift food to orbit, and then a bit more to get it to L2, that there was little reason to try to save pennies getting the cheaper grades. Why lift hamburger instead of filet mignon if the difference is only three or four percent after lift costs?

  "Those few months that we ate a lot of pancakes and rice dishes, and worst of all, missed real bean coffee, motivated us to take charge of our own supply. In fact people expected the market to return to what it had been before the conflict was over. It never did. A lot of the new production we pioneered here at Central, and as the Republic grew it added a lot of production too. That coffee is locally grown. One of our fellows bought the green berries from some of the best suppliers and found which would adapt to our tunnels. He also researched what years of production were regarded as exceptional and studied the weather patterns for those years.

  "What you are drinking is a genetic mix of five sources, raised on dwarfed bushes that produce almost three times what open air Earth cultivation produces. The pressure and moisture and lighting are all varied to mimic the conditions that produced superior coffee before. If you wish to try to cultivate them at home I'll have the head gardener give you a sample of viable berries and instructions. It's not like we can ever carry enough between the stars to make a huge market."