Katie Kincaid Candidate: Katie Kincaid One

by Andrew van Aardvark

  “That feels like letting the bad guys win,” Katie said.

  “The enemy not only gets a vote sometimes, sometimes they get more of one than you do,” Sam said. “Only the young and inexperienced think they can fight, and if their cause is good, always win in the end. It simply isn’t so. Consider this acquiring experience.”

  “Next you’ll be saying ‘growing up’,” Katie muttered. “No Academy this year likely means no Academy period. If someone is working against me for some reason why would they stop now? What happened to ‘when on desperate ground, fight’?”

  Sam sighed. “There’s wisdom in Sun Tzu, just like there is in many old writings that have survived the test of time,” he said, “but they’re not complete blueprints that can always be followed without interpretation. First, consider whether your situation is truly desperate. Are you truly certain you can’t choose different, more attainable goals? Are you certain patiently waiting and rebuilding isn’t your best option? One unfortunate accident in a dangerous industrial setting is not a sustained to the death enemy attack.”

  Katie’s face twisted. She didn’t want to argue, but it was evident she wasn’t buying it.

  “Sun Tzu also advocated making many calculations in the temple before embarking on a campaign,” Sam said. “He held it was foolish to fight when the odds were heavily stacked against you.”

  “I’m not sure I have the choices you think I do,” Katie said. “If I want to go to the Academy, and I do, I can’t let the chance to go this year pass. As for going to war, it seems to me like the bad guys already have. Only I haven’t been fighting back. Maybe it’s time I did.”

  Sam didn’t sigh. It’d have been too much like acquiescence. “I think you understand what I think,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Katie said, “and I appreciate you’re not trying to make my decisions for me. I’m going to think over what you said, I promise. Right now, I think I better go and tell my parents what’s happened.”

  “You’ve waited?”

  “Yeah, I was really hoping it wouldn’t look as bad if I waited a bit.”

  Sam nodded. Katie wasn’t much for empty words.

  “I’ll talk to them,” she said. “Then I’ll think about it all really hard. Okay?”

  “All I can ask,” he said.

  “Great. Later,” she replied. With that, she turned and marched out. A little straighter and more certain in her movements, but a lot more determined and even more grim.

  Sam wondered what he’d achieved.

  12: Katie's Desperate

  Katie’s mother answered Katie’s call with her professional negotiation smile. That smile was quite a nice smile, pleasant and warm, and although not precisely fake, didn’t truly reflect her mother’s rather cold analytical and very pragmatic nature. Very pragmatic about everything except her father. It was not a smile her mother used with Katie. Not anytime before.

  Katie knew beyond any doubt she was now in deep trouble. She should have got her head out of her butt and called earlier to preempt the news of events from reaching her parents before she could put her own spin on them. However difficult that would have been and however little she’d felt like doing it, that’s what she should have done.

  “Hi, Mom, how’s it going?” she chirped.

  “Katie, kindly cut the BS,” her mother replied.

  “Yes, Mother, I have some bad news,” Katie said.

  “Indeed,” her mother said, glancing off to the side at something, “wait a second while I get your father on the line.”

  “Won’t that mean waking him up?”

  “Yes.”

  Yeah, she was in deep, deep trouble.

  It didn’t long for her father’s bleary face to appear in a box on her screen. “Hi, love,” he said.

  “Hi, Dad.”

  “Good,” her mother said. “Now, Katie, explain.”

  “Well you know how Commander Tretyak wasn’t willing to endorse my application to the Academy without my doing something to prove myself, right? We’ve not got the best reputation with him, you know?”

  “Yes, dear, I’m aware our frictions with the good Commander adversely affected your plans for your future. Sorry about that. I’m also aware he had assigned you some extra work, including a stint on an industrial processing line where you almost got killed. A piece of news you neglected to inform us about. We had to hear about it from the Cromwells.”

  “Sorry, Mom, I didn’t want to worry you. I wasn’t harmed and nobody could have expected it. It was the first serious accident reported in years.”

  “Yes, we’re well aware of the processing line’s deficiencies regards the reporting of safety incidents. We also understand a man was crushed standing in the place where you were supposed to be. That’s not what you’re calling about though, is it?”

  “You know how Commander Tretyak wrangled me a place on a Space Force patrol, right?”

  “It required our permission, dear,” her mother replied. “A heads up since you seem determined on venturing out into the wider world. Most of it is much more formal than the Belt. No matter how pro forma asking for something non-routine ought to be, people appreciate actually being asked. In high society back on Earth, which you’d have to have dealt with if you’d gone to the Academy, they have little rituals for how to do it. Rituals you’re supposed to have absorbed as a child if you’re the right sort of people. Also have them for giving thanks once the favor is done.”

  Great, a lesson on etiquette from her mother. Only maybe she really needed it. She didn’t like how her mother assumed going to the Academy was now off the table. She took a breath and thought before she spoke. “Yes, mother,” she answered, “I was inconsiderate and took you and Dad for granted. I’m sorry.”

  “Good. Apology accepted,” her mother replied. Her father just nodded in his little inset screen. “It sounded like something you’d enjoy a great deal. We also thought it’d help keep you out of trouble.” She paused to sigh. “In fact, we thought it was a kind of peace offering from the Commander. What happened?”

  “Right off the Captain ambushed me with a grilling on safety rules, ship layout, and operations. You know me, comes to memorizing technical stuff, I’m a child prodigy.”

  “Yes, dear, I used to find it cute as well as useful,” her mother said. Her expression softened. She’d been proud of Katie’s ability.

  “So, now I think he thought he could make it look like I’d be a safety hazard if they took me on the patrol,” Katie said.

  “They didn’t have long to react, did they?” her mother asked.

  “Commander dreamed it up and put the orders together in less than a day, I think,” Katie said. “It was a great idea.”

  “For you and him, a lot to ask of the crew even if they didn’t have anything to hide.”

  “Right off I noticed some bits of bark about.”

  “Bark?”

  “Yeah, bark like off the outside of trees. Sub-Lieutenant said another crew member did wood working, but not to talk about it. Seemed odd,” Katie answered.

  “There was wood?”

  “Little tree trunks, maybe a meter long with all the bark still on them, filling several containers back in the cargo hold,” Katie said. “I snuck a look.”

  “I’ve warned you about being nosy,” her mother said. “Some things we’re all better off not knowing.” Her father grimaced. Katie took after her father in believing in the truth, and nothing but the truth was an unadulterated good. Her mother was more of a “The truth? You can’t handle the truth.” sort.

  “Yes, Mom,” Katie replied. “Anyhow, I saw them swap it for some other cargo containers over the ship’s system when they thought I was asleep. Later snuck back again and found new containers that were full of Star Rat tech.”

  Her mother frowned. “This wasn’t just a suspicion based on a misunderstanding then?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “When did you decide to alert the Commander?”

  “Wel
l, I decided right away, but I waited until we docked to send the message.”

  “It never occurred to you he might be in on it?”

  “I don’t think he would have sent me on the patrol or Captain Anderson would have tried to spike it if that was the case.”

  “And it didn’t occur to you that if the whole crew was in on it, it must be part of a large well organized operation?”

  “Didn’t think it through that far.”

  “So you haven’t realized that it was naïve of you to think they wouldn’t realize you’d figure out what was happening and anticipate your trying to rat them out?”

  Katie blushed. She was certainly gaining experience in being embarrassed. “No, ma’am.”

  “Can I also assume it didn’t occur to you that if you successfully revealed evidence of smuggling, there’d be a big stink? That that stink would stick to everyone concerned. Stick to you. Stick to the Commander. And last, but not least, stick to your family?”

  “I didn’t think it was relevant, ma’am.”

  “Not relevant? We have to live here, young lady,” her mother said, biting off the words precisely. Katie had never seen her so angry. “I don’t believe we ever had to tell you that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy were all pretty fictions. You figured that much out on your own. You couldn’t also manage to figure out that people don’t always want the truth brought to the surface? Especially if that truth puts them in a bad light. Maybe lands them in jail? It never occurred to you that there might be a lot of people who’d want to discredit you and bury your very inconvenient and dangerous truth? I thought you were supposed to be smart, Katie?”

  “It was the right thing to do,” Katie asserted with as much determination as she could muster.

  “Regardless of the consequences?” her mother asked. “Your being able to see yourself as a knight in shining spotless armor was more important to you than going to the Academy? More important than your reputation? More important than the Commander’s? More important than the careers of the crew who did nothing that actually hurt anyone? And lastly, more important than your family’s ability to make a living here?”

  “I didn’t do it to look good,” Katie replied quietly. She was hurt. “We can’t know what the consequences will be.”

  “Katie,” her mother said with exasperation. “I’m sorry. Maybe we expected too much of you. We certainly thought you’d have longer to grow up, but you need to do it now. Okay, let’s say I believe you there’s a big smuggling ring operating. Who’s in on it? How high does it go?”

  Katie blinked. Her mother had jumped from one point to another without finishing. She never did that. She’d said she’d been doomed to go into finance before running off with father, but Katie had always thought she’d been destined to be a lawyer. She’d always been that relentless, that rigorous. “Whatever is up, Commander Tretyak is not in on it,” she replied, repeating a point she’d made already herself. “Don’t think Chief Dingle is. He was too interested in getting to the bottom of what happened on the line. Don’t know about anyone else. Kind of suspect Mr. Boucher of being involved, but no real proof.”

  Her mother frowned. Katie had no doubt she wanted to know where Katie’s suspicions of Guy Boucher originated, but also wanted to stay on track. Katie now regretted all the rabbit holes she’d led her Mom down as a mischievous, overly clever youngster. After a long pause her mother spoke, “You’re going to suggest that this smuggling ring isn’t that entrenched and we just need to wait for it and all will be sunshine and roses again, aren’t you?”

  Guilty as charged. Hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle. “They’ve got to be running scared if they’re picking on little girls,” Katie replied. “Sooner or later whatever is happening is going to be unearthed. Who’s the stink going to stick to then? Better to be on the side of the angels in the long run.”

  Her mother stared at her. Katie knew she was supposed to be discomforted. She knew she was supposed to show she understood she’d stepped in it. She wasn’t backing down. “Katie,” her mother said in the end. “You know, dear, that I was being groomed to be an investment banker back on Earth?” She shivered.

  Katie supposed she wasn’t the only one who felt emotional about the plans her family had had for her. Odd to think of her mother as a young woman. “Yes, ma’am,” she answered, “not that you ever talked about it much.”

  “It would have been a living hell for me,” her mother said. “You see, I do have some sympathy for your feelings. That’s not the point though. The point is that it means risk assessment and management. You understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Katie replied. “You’re saying you learned how to pick your battles. You learned to understand when to take a chance and when to pass.” It occurred to Katie her mother was a more interesting person than she’d realized.

  “Exactly dear,” her mother said. “Along with exciting little details like the time value of money. Believe me when I tell you serious investors spend a lot of time worrying about things like long-term fundamentals versus short term market irrationality.”

  “Yes, Mother,” Katie replied. “I believe you.” She wondered where this was going. Some sort of rambling metaphor to make a point?

  “We had a saying; ‘the market can be irrational longer than you can stay liquid’. Also ‘that in the long run we’re all dead’. Don’t tell me about the long run, if we don’t make it through the short run, the long run doesn’t matter.”

  Wow, she’d never realized her mother was this hard headed and cynical. Logically, Katie guessed she had a point. Only it didn’t help Katie’s cause. “Long run, Mom,” she answered, trying to sound reasonable to offset the bluntness of her words, “I don’t think I want to stay in the Belt for the rest of my life. I’m going to be eighteen in only a little over two years and I’ll be able to do what I want.”

  “Fine, dear,” her mother retorted, “but it works both ways.” Her father’s face in its little insert was looking distressed. “We’d rather leave the Dawn Threader to you in good time, but if we have to mortgage it to hire outside crew, so be it.”

  Katie hadn’t realized that was the choice involved. She’d thought they could afford crew out of operating revenue, especially with the increased efficiency they would allow. Not the time for that debate. “Yes, ma’am,” she said.

  “What you have to understand is that if that it doesn’t work out for you in the wider world you may not have a place to come back to,” her mother said. “Same if you go to the Academy and don’t make it through. Be careful what you want.”

  Katie took a deep breath. “I understand, Mom,” she replied. “I may not know as much about risk as you do, but I’m not completely clueless. I have to start making my own choices sooner or later.”

  Her mother shook her head in resignation. “You understand we would have preferred later,” she asked almost plaintively. Her father nodded in agreement.

  “Yeah. Yes. I’m sorry,” Katie replied. Her eyes stung. Katie really was sorry. Why did it have to be so hard?

  “Very well, dear, we’ll ignore the Social Service demands we should keep a tighter leash on you. You can have more rope,” her mother said. “Please, pretty please, do not use it to hang yourself. Okay?” Her father made a praying gesture by way of silently making the same plead.

  “I’ll do my very best, Mother. I promise.”

  “We love you, but we’re very tired, and there’s nothing more useful to say,” her mother said. “I think this talk is at an end.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “See you on the other side, love,” her father said.

  With that, the connection was broken from the other side.

  Katie had got what she wanted.

  It felt hollow.

  * * *

  Calvin was meeting Katie after his family supper. Calvin had been let out of clean up duties for it. His family was happy he wasn’t spending yet more of his limited allowance in Bob Burger�
��s. His family were also happy he was meeting the girl somewhere closer to home where they could keep an eye on the pair.

  That closer place being the large kid’s play park in the residential gravity ring his family occupied a good part of. He was sitting on a bench with a good view of a brightly covered play structure waiting for Katie. Earlier in the day the bench would have been in use by young mothers watching their broods running about and screeching. Now the area was quiet except for the odd older body relaxing after dinner.

  Calvin was hoping to convince Katie that her proclivity for tackling problems head on wasn’t the appropriate approach for her current difficulties. That trying harder wasn’t the right approach right now.

  Katie needed to understand that doubling down wasn’t the answer to every losing bet. That that was a strategy that only worked if you had infinitely deep pockets. And that nobody had infinitely deep pockets.

  Katie needed to understand that accepting your losses once you were too far down, and walking away wasn’t shameful, that it was merely prudent. Everyone had limits, and you needed to accept them.

  Here she came. Not as bursting with extra energy as usual, which was sad. Determined though. Katie spotted him noticing her and gave him a big grin. It was good to see.

  “Hi there. Sit,” he said, patting a place beside him on the bench.

  “Hi,” she said, sitting down. “This is a lot nicer than the dorms.”

  “Dorms are temporary. Families live here,” he answered. “Some for generations now. You still have a room here if you want it, you know?” His parents wouldn’t be overjoyed about honoring that commitment now, but they would.