Friends in the Stars

by Mackey Chandler

  Still, she did get to see her island. It was subtly different than the valley Gordon had helped her claim. It was drier and warmer, even though surrounded by ocean. The survey team assured her the far side of the island was wetter than this side. They did confirm there were no dinos. Native or not she was prepared to remove them entirely if they had found that any had managed to get to the island.

  The survey crew had far fewer requests for supplies than she would have expected. As Mike predicted, they were happy to have a phone to contact her next time she made orbit, but nobody suggested they be told how to use it to contact the Mothers back home. Sending a data chip and looking for another contact in a year to year and a half was just fine with them. They all seemed very content with their work and the level of their support. She decided this was another area it wasn’t wise to push to change.

  The third flight to the island delivered the last of the supplies and Lee took it back to the main town with a spaceport which was unimaginatively called Providence Landing. She had all the data chips for the Mothers and a bunch of messages for friends and relatives. While on Providence she opened a bank account so they didn’t have to pay cash for their docking fees at the station. She’d need it someday anyway when she returned and wanted to build a home on the island.

  * * *

  “It’s interesting,” Sam Burnstein told his partner Bill King. “I’m looking at their public car service records and they have taken the Foys to the Capital Provisions several times. They spent quite a bit of time there. Much longer than you’d expect for them to make arrangements to provision their embassy. The embassy isn’t even finished yet. It seems early to do that and I’d expect Red Tree clan will be sending a house manager and support people to order supplies and do that sort of thing for them anyhow.”

  “Have they filed public contracts?” Bill asked.

  “No nothing at all. They may be aware all contracts are a matter of public record and have taken steps to see their business with them is kept private,” Sam guessed.

  “Yet they never drive themselves and take the car services everywhere,” Bill said.

  “Car service. Once they found one they liked they always call them now. They’re new to Derfhome and the way they do things,” Sam said. “Maybe they don’t know the security for things like the car service records is pretty much wide open.”

  Bill smiled. “Good, good, how convenient for you. See where else they visited after the provisions people. We need a chart generated with running updates for the big screen. We want their visits to Lee Anderson and various businesses. No reason not to include where they visit restaurants and their bank. If we can find common points where they meet others or a pattern of alternating visits with others, we can figure out what the devil they are doing. You need a network chart and a Venn to compare.”

  “I think I need to visit the provisions company too,” Sam said. “I just need a reason.”

  “Go ahead,” Bill invited. “Buy something. Or investigate buying something for a fictitious client. We haven’t scratched the usual sort of budget we run. Buy a few tons of Graham crackers or something. I always liked them as a kid.”

  “Anderson’s Derf father uses the car services too when he comes to town. I’ll run a chart on him, and anybody else I can think of that touches their lives,” Sam decided.

  “Do you want the snots from the State Department charted too? I can’t imagine they are in cahoots with either the Foys or Red Tree,” Sam said.

  “Sure, go ahead. It isn’t that much work once you automate it. It will be interesting to see if they figure out Ms. Harvac and her lackey are some sort of government agents.” But he said it Haaa’vuc with a soft drawn-out ‘a’ New England-style.

  * * *

  “Is that your rent-a-cop out front?” Lee asked. “She nodded politely and knew my name. I thought you decided nobody had the independence to be of any value?”

  “That’s a freebie from the local administration to keep the angry mobs off our dock,” Gordon informed her. “Surely you saw them milling around somewhere between the shuttle docks and here shouting slogans and brandishing torches and pitchforks?”

  “Who would be angry with you?” Lee demanded. “I know a few ships delayed docking when we came in-system, but that was because they were treating you like an invader. I think any sensible ship’s captain would understand that.”

  “The Claims Commission Administrator is unhappy with me, so I imagine he expects others to share his vision. I do see how others go along with him from this. The young lady out front is his official planetary police, not hired commercial security, and she knows it is all ridiculous theater, but there she has stood for three days and today so far. She gets paid and told me there were worse assignments.”

  “It’s Earth Think,” Lee blurted out, and then was embarrassed. “Sorry, I’ve been around the Foys too much and am picking up their attitudes and slogans.”

  “I can’t say they’d be wrong on this,” Gordon said. “It is after all run by an Earth Agency under Earth nation treaties. How could it not display ‘Earth Think’?”

  “I wasn’t careful enough,” Lee suddenly decided. “I could have ended up in jail again. I wasn’t thinking how everything here is Earth oriented. I bet one of the first things they did was build a jail for people like me.”

  “The memory of what happened the last time they jailed you under their laws may be fresh enough in mind to deter them,” Gordon suggested, “especially with me sitting here overhead with nuclear weapons.”

  “Oh… the guard outside is for their protection, so no nut case comes around and pisses you off,” Lee suddenly realized.

  “That’s probably a pretty accurate analysis,” Gordon agreed.

  “Well, let’s go home and stop making them nervous,” Lee said.

  “Tell Local Control we’re on count to leave. Be gracious and ask if our proposed departure conflicts with any local traffic. Just kill them with kindness, and I’ll tell the nice young lady out front on the dock and suit frequency that we are sealing our dock access and dropping utilities so there is nothing more for her to guard,” Gordon said.

  “Let me use the head and throw this crap in my bunk locker and I’m on it,” Lee said.

  Gordon gave his assent since he was back in Ship Master mode.

  * * *

  “The bees are definitely finding some nectar analog out there in the wild,” Pamela told Kirk. “There are some imported Earth plants, but I doubt there are enough in range to support our bees with no help from native plants. Fortunately, simple sugars are common to most biological systems. I don’t know if they are finding anything to substitute for pollen yet. I inquired of some exo-biologists before we left, but nobody could tell me any details of what Derf plants use for pollen. That is, they knew there was a similar germ form, but no idea what its composition might be. We could afford to continue to support them that way if we have to, given the local price of honey.

  “Can you tell the new honey from the old to get a sample soon?” Kirk asked.

  “Yes, I have one frame with a blank foundation put in when we thawed the hive. They are building comb on it and that will have all local honey. I want to get a sample of that before we start trying to talk business with the locals,” Pamela said.

  “Makes sense to me,” Kirk agreed. He really appreciated Pamela was saying ‘we’ more instead of I and you… He didn’t feel she was as adversarial as at the beginning. When he smiled at her she smiled back now instead of looking suspicious.

  “My work is going good too,” Kirk said. “I’m seeing more connections and details. The Foys not only have personal properties at the storage place on our side of the ridge but they rented an adjoining space and are getting regular deliveries there. There aren’t any public contracts attached to it, so I’m still trying to figure it out.”

  * * *

  Lee had a message marked urgent from Born and Musical when she returned. She read her messages inbound to D
erfhome Station and informed them when she would be home so they could conference face to face. She didn’t want to discuss this on com.

  It was two days before they docked and she took the next commercial shuttle home with Gordon, and he took off for Red Tree. Whether that was for business or pleasure, he didn’t care to share with Lee. She stayed in Derfhome, not only to see Born and Musical, but also to continue to work with Sally on the new registry.

  Lee invited her researchers to her hotel, where she was sure she could receive them with some privacy. Even given the differences between species she got much more information from a face to face meeting. She could read the emotional content better than off a screen.

  Besides gross body language, a Badger’s whiskers and a Derf’s ears made little motions in response to the other speaker’s statements that you could miss switching back and forth between camera feeds. Listening to their story there was a lot of bristling whiskers and twitching ears to be seen. They were disturbed and had good reason. Lee agreed their take on the earthquake was probably correct, but she felt she had to mention the other possibility.

  “It could be coincidence,” Lee said.

  “It could be, but I don’t want to run the machine again to prove a correlation given the risk level of doing so,” Born said. “This was fairly far up the scale for Derfhome earthquakes. We don’t want to set a new record. Of course, we have only been measuring them for the last few hundred years, but there are subjective reports of their strength and how much damage they did for a couple of thousand years.”

  “No, I wasn’t trying to minimize the danger to get you to run it again,” Lee said. “At least not here. We can find a safe way to go forward with the testing. We’re going to need a remote area and portable equipment. We need to find out how far this effect propagates. It may be necessary to lift a machine to orbit to test.”

  “Musical intimated we were lucky the first time the line was pointed off into the sky that we didn’t hit a passing aircraft or Derfhome station,” Born admitted.

  “Yes, we were lucky nothing of that magnitude happened,” Lee agreed, “but I have to check the news sites for that day and a couple after to make sure we didn’t kill somebody with the earthquake. It was an accident. If we busted somebody’s lawn ornament or knocked their booze off a shelf I’m not too concerned about that, but if we really hurt somebody I need to make as much compensation as possible.”

  She furrowed her brow in thought. “I need to check the Earth web for unnatural earthquakes too.”

  “People know earthquakes happen,” Born said. “You don’t expect to be compensated for it any more than a windstorm. You use approved designs for your building and make other provision for these things if you are a responsible adult. Also, you didn’t make this happen, it was Musical and me running the machine, or just me who actually pressed the switch if it comes down to exactly placing blame. You are most generous to say ‘we’ and accept responsibility for our actions. I won’t hold you to that. I can assure you with some certainty that none of the Mothers, yours or other clans, would declare their law to recognize such a broad liability.”

  “I know that,” Lee said. “Humans view the matter differently. I was raised disconnected from Human society but I still share some of those feelings. I suppose I picked it up from things my parents said rather than direct instruction.

  “In most Human law if you set an event in motion you are responsible even if the harm wasn’t at your hand directly. If a group robs a bank and someone is killed they will all be charged with murder, even the getaway driver waiting outside.”

  “That seems like a terrible idea that would smother innovation,” Born said. “Who would tame fire if the clan held him responsible for any who got burnt? Who would learn to build a bridge if bridge-building was halted if one ever fell down? Would you charge the people who sold the materials for the bridge that fell down? There has to be a limit to that or pretty soon you are charging those who failed to halt it from being built.”

  “I know, I know. I’ve been studying Human history like an outsider,” Lee said. “I think much of recent Human history is a rebellion against that way of thinking. From what I can see the current forms of Human politics and their use of corporations are intended to remove individual responsibility. If anything, I think they have gone too far the other way, so nobody can be identified or held responsible for anything.”

  “I had thought someday to visit Earth,” Born said, “but you are talking me out of it.”

  “Visit Fargone or the Earth’s Moon if you have to get that close, but honestly I will never go to Earth again. My experience was most unpleasant.”

  Born nodded. “I am advised, but on the machine, what is your will? What do you want to do now?” Musical was content to let Born talk but was nodding agreement too.

  “I’ll find a safe spot to do more testing and arrange transport to take our equipment there. I guess I’ll buy something. You both have other work and duties, I’ll see to it your time isn’t wasted going to the test site, so your bosses don’t get unhappy with you.”

  “That’s more of a problem for Born than me,” Musical said. “I can say with some confidence Talker would detach me from any responsibility at the embassy to help you. I don’t think you realize how deeply you are in his favor. He calls you friend and that isn’t something a Badger does lightly.”

  “And I don’t want to impose on friendship,” Lee said. “But thank you for advising me. If the project should start to harm your status at the university tell me,” Lee demanded of Born.

  “I will. I have a relationship now with Leader Bacon which allows me to speak in blunt terms and he feels free to respond the same way. So, an enhanced status is actually one of the biggest benefits I’ve enjoyed from working with you on this project. He heads a third of the colleges in the university and I doubt he knew me by name before.”

  “Good, I’ll let you know when I have a safe test site,” Lee promised. “You said your machine displayed this behavior well below its top rotational speed. Rather than transport such a big piece of machinery, why don’t you see if you can build a smaller version with a lower speed capacity? That will give you something to do right now.”

  A glance went between the two. “We can do that,” Musical agreed.

  “Fine, then let’s have lunch,” Lee said, and signaled for it to be served.

  “Did you have an interesting trip to Providence?” Born inquired politely.

  “Yes, but let me tell you about how it went, and you’ll see why I advise against visiting Earth. Those who are familiar with the culture speak about Earth Think. It definitely was in evidence when we had to deal with the Providence authorities.”

  Chapter 13

  “Ah-ha!” Sam exclaimed, exultant.

  “You found my secret stash with the good bourbon?” Bill asked.

  “I found where the Foys are stashing the stuff they are buying in secret,” Sam said. “They have actually rented storage space not very far away, on the back side of our ridge from a new company that just built there.”

  “Does that mean you won’t be going to Capital Provisions and if I want to dip Graham crackers in milk, I better buy my own?” Bill asked.

  “On the contrary, I want to know what they could possibly be buying in such large quantity that they can’t even keep it in their new big embassy. I’ll propose some business to them and see if I can get a tour of their plant. Now how to do the same with the storage company? They’ll tend to have better security than most Derf businesses. They are going to be responsible for other’s goods and no telling how valuable some of it might be.”

  “Rent a storage room or locker,” Bill said. “You can use it to store my crackers after bringing me a sample box or two. That will get you in the gate and maybe even in a common corridor or building. You do remember how to pick a lock?”

  “I may be a little rusty,” Sam admitted, “but I really don’t expect the local variety is going to be v
ery challenging.”

  * * *

  “I think we can do this ourselves,” Born insisted.

  “Maybe you can do it yourself, and I’ll help where I can,” Musical said. “I’m not a machinist and not a design engineer. I shouldn’t have welded up that frame for you. Now you want me to do stuff totally out of my depth.”

  “You only need a design engineer if you want an elegant design. A pro can give you a plan for a device that is as light and thin as possible because he knows all the details about material strengths and stress concentrations. He’ll make sure you don’t spend a single dollar more than needed for your just-strong-enough design. But we can do the same thing for our centrifuge you did for an angle iron frame – build it ten times as strong as you need and don’t worry about pretty.”

  “Tell me more,” Musical said, worried. “I’m not sure how to apply that design philosophy to something doing sixteen hundred turns a second. It’s dangerous.”

  “You already have a robust design. Use the same commercial bearing one size smaller with a smaller disc and the shaft hollow all the way through since it worked OK for the top half already. Make a smaller enclosure for all of it with a slightly thinner wall because we won’t spin as heavy a disk any faster. It’ll end up about half the weight.”

  “And job it out cash to local shops without the engineers again?” Musical asked.

  “Absolutely, and none of the shops should see the whole thing,” Born said.

  “Ok, but we drop Lee a text with pix so she knows what we are doing,” Musical said.

  “Sure, but beware she doesn’t send us a complete machine shop,” Born joked.

  * * *

  “I’m Bernard Lloyd of Benson and Lloyd,” Sam lied with practiced ease. He’d also had his lingering traces of a conscience chemically removed, so it would take a very sophisticated veracity program to detect anything was amiss. That was something only the largest Earth nations used sparingly in their intelligence services. He presented his card to the receptionist/secretary at Capital Provisions.