by Bob Blanton
Reporter: “A follow-up. Why should the nation pick up the cost of health care for the richest corporation in the world?”
“We determined that it was fairer to our citizens and other companies if everyone had access to the same health care. MacKenzie Discoveries increased their tax payment to the nation to cover the cost. But now the health care we offer to all of our citizens is identical.”
Second Reporter: “So someone that is unemployed or who chooses not to work gets the same coverage as someone who works?”
“First, we have almost zero unemployment. Almost all of it can be attributed to new arrivals or people changing jobs. We are committed to finding a job for everyone. Second, we don’t think that something as critical to your well-being as health care should be dependent on your job. By offering everyone quality health care, we ensure a healthy population and a strong workforce for everyone.”
Second Reporter: “Why isn’t college education free?”
“All preschool, primary, and secondary education is free. We felt it is important that a university education be earned. A university is not a place to go just to experience life, but primarily a place where you go to gather the tools for a better life. Any student is able to enter the University of Delphi, earn their degree, and leave the university debt-free. All we ask of those who can’t or don’t wish to pay tuition is that they contribute fifteen hours a week in labor. Most of our students get jobs working for the very same companies that will hire them when they graduate.”
Third Reporter: “But how do the students have money to spend?”
“All of the students have access to free housing which includes a free meal plan. Of those who work, fifty percent of their wages go to the school and they get the other fifty percent to provide spending money for sundry items.”
Parent: “What do you have to say about the fact that my children are mostly taught by a computer?”
“Delphi City’s educators have spent thousands of hours studying the best way to educate our students. They’ve found that computer-based teaching that adapts to each student’s needs and allows the teacher to be a mentor produces the best results. Allowing teachers to spend time with the students that need individualized help the most while allowing other students to accelerate at their own pace works the best. Advanced students and teacher aides provide additional mentoring and assistance, making sure that any students that need additional help, get it. They have found it is more rewarding for the students as well as the teachers.”
A middle-aged woman approached the microphone. She looked around furtively before she finally sat down. “What do you say about the reports that your colony mission is a hoax? That it’s really a cover so you can get slave labor for your mining operations in the asteroid belt?”
Chief Nawal patted Prime Minister Nazeri on the arm, letting her know that she would take this one. “Mrs. Lewinsky, we sent you a message from your son.”
“I’m sure it was a fake. You have enough technology to fake a video, I’m sure he’s dead by now,” Mrs. Lewinsky said.
“Your son is perfectly healthy. If what you’re claiming were true, don’t you think we would have abducted you and sent you to the mines before now? You’ve been here for two weeks making this claim,” the chief replied.
“I . . . I think you’re afraid of the news media. I’ve already talked to them.”
“And we can fake the video from your son, but we couldn’t fake one from you saying you’d decided to go join him? I really wish you would go to our clinic so we could help you.”
“No way am I letting you people experiment on me!”
“I wish you would get some help,” Chief Nawal said as one of the attendants helped Mrs. Lewinsky up.
Another civilian approached the mike. “What do you say to the reports that you, Chief Nawal, are wanted for multiple murders in Lebanon. That you immigrated here just before the police caught you.” She was apparently emboldened by Mrs. Lewinsky and decided it was time for another conspiracy theory.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Chief Nawal whispered to the prime minister. “Ma’am, what is your name?”
“Phyllis McCoog.”
“Just a minute, please. . . .”
“Your information is ready,” ADI told the chief.
“Ma’am, what I say to your accusation is that it is easy to come up with a conspiracy theory about anyone. Have you ever heard the term six degrees of separation?”
“No!”
“Well, it’s a theory that claims that you can connect any two people through fewer than six other people. Here I’ll give you an example. In the few minutes since you gave me your name, I’ve connected you to six homicides.
“First, the murder of Janet Carter, she was dating your ex-boyfriend from high school. It was rumored that she stole him from you and you vowed to get even. She was killed five miles from where you lived at the time.
“Second, the murder of Jonathan Liesmann. He is the nephew of the man who owned the hardware store that sold the furnace to your great uncle. The furnace had a defect and your great uncle was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. Your penchant for getting even is well known.”
“That is absurd!” Mrs. McCoog yelled.
“Please let me finish. Third, the murder of Cicely Monroe. She was runner up to the queen of the state fair in 2012, a competition that you entered. You did not make it past the regionals. She was killed forty miles south of where you lived at that time. You were not at work on that day or the day after.
“Fourth, the murder of Jamal Richards. He was a caretaker in the home where your second-grade teacher’s mother was living. There was suspicion that her mother died of neglect. Mr. Richards was killed in a suspicious car accident two weeks later. It is well known how much you adored your second-grade teacher.
“Fifth, the murder of . . .” The chief stopped speaking as Mrs. McCoog stormed out of the room.
Another civilian approached the mic. “I don’t have a conspiracy theory to offer, but I do have a serious concern. I’d like to understand our prison system. I heard that that murderer, Ms. Randall, was seen walking around town free. By the way, my name is Harry Conrad.”
“I can understand your concern. Let me assure you that Ms. Randall wasn’t wandering around free. But she does travel to and from her job without an escort. We deem that she is unlikely to be a danger to the community. We have a tracker installed in her body that is impossible to remove without surgery. She also has a neural neutralizer installed that will immobilize her should a constable issue a command via their Comm. She is tracked as she goes to and from work and closely monitored via the security cameras along the way.”
“Why do you let her go to work like that?”
Prime Minister Nazeri leaned forward and tapped the chief’s arm indicating she would answer the question. “We in the Delphi Government feel that we should be spending our money on our law-abiding citizens, and minimizing what we spend on criminals. Therefore, we require prisoners to pay for their stay in our prison. Ms. Randall was allowed to find a job; I believe she is an assembler in one of our manufacturing plants. Right now, nobody trusts her enough to give her a job with more responsibility. She pays for the cost of her cell, her food, and the cost of the guards that are needed to manage the prison. She is the only one in the prison at this time. We do not think we should waste money on unnecessary security.”
“What would you do if you had someone more dangerous than her?”
“We are making arrangements to have the prison expanded so that we can create employment for that type of prisoner within the prison walls. But that creates expenses that we wish to avoid if possible. Ms. Randall is not allowed to make any detours on her trip to her job. She cannot stop to get a coffee or do any shopping. It’s straight there and straight back.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Wow, can you believe those conspiracy nutjobs?” Catie asked as the town hall meeting broke up. She and Liz had been watching th
e broadcast of the meeting on Delphi Station.
“Yes, and I love Chief Nawal’s answers. She must have been waiting to use that one about six degrees of separation. I wonder how she got all the information so quickly.”
“Ahem,” ADI interrupted. “I gave the chief ten murders that could be connected to Mrs. McCoog.”
“I should have known. How many can you connect to me?” Liz asked.
“Four hundred sixty-four.”
“What!”
“The war,” Catie said. “It’s easy to arrange for someone to get killed when you’re their commanding officer.”
“What about besides the war?”
“Both wars?” ADI asked, including the war with the Paraxeans.
“Forget I asked,” Liz said, not wanting to see if ADI would connect her to the death of the three men who’d raped her in Iraq.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hey, Barry, how are things going?” Catie asked when she met him at Bettie’s Burgers.
“Pretty good, especially now that we got to buy our condos,” Barry said. “I got a loan for the full value.”
“I heard. Smart move telling Kal. We didn’t think about how important it was to be able to own the condos.”
“That’s because you owned all of them,” Barry said. He made it sound like a joke.
“Probably, but it could be that we were just stupid.”
“Yep, my pappy always said, ‘assume it’s stupidity before you think it’s malice.’ Those words kept me out of a lot of fights. Helped me make some friends too.”
“That’s a good saying, I should probably remember it,” Catie said. “You wanted to ask me something?”
“Yeah. Kenyon told me you helped him start his restaurant. Raelyn’s mama and mine are wanting to open a restaurant that cooks real southern food.”
“I could help. But you just need to go and talk to the credit union. I’m sure they’ll loan you the money.”
“Kenyon said that, but he suggested I get a referral from you if you were willing.”
“Of course, I’m willing. If your mama can cook as well as you can load Russian tanks into an Oryx, then she’ll be a success.”
“Mama can cook better than that.” Barry smiled as he remembered loading up those Russian tanks. “Those Russians sure were confused when we told them we wanted their tanks. Whatever happened to them?”
“The Russians?”
“Yeah, I know what happened to the tanks.”
“We kept them in Ukraine in a prison camp until after the war. About half of them decided to stay in Ukraine.”
“Probably didn’t want to have to answer questions about how they lost those tanks. Too bad the Russians figured it out.”
“Yeah. It sounded kind of fun. I wish I could have been there.”
“Hey, it was your idea, a pretty good one too. But as I recall, you were captain of the Sakira during that time.”
“I guess I wouldn’t have traded that,” Catie said. “Anyway, how are your kids doing?”
“They’re settling in. It didn’t take no time before Raelyn decided she wanted to stay.”
“Are you two doing okay?”
“I think so, but it’ll take time. I was a real ass back then with the PTSD.”
“Well, you’re a great guy now. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Tell me if I should take Kal up on being an officer.”
“I’m not sure I can help there.”
“What do you think about me as an officer?”
“You’re a great sergeant. As an officer, you just need better table manners,” Catie said.
“I’ll remember you said that. But what else?”
“Are you taking classes?”
“Yes, Kal gave me a list of classes to start taking as soon as I joined up.”
“How do you like them?”
“They’re okay.”
“So you don’t hate them.”
“Naw. Sometimes they’re boring but not always.”
“Then you’d probably do okay as an officer. It’s being willing to do that kind of work that makes the difference. All that planning and logistics. As a sergeant, your plans deal with more immediate needs. Having to read a bunch of charts and schedule things a few years out kind of makes the difference.”
“Anything else?”
“You’d make more money.”
“I figured that. Officers always make more than enlisted.”
“That’s not true,” Catie said. “I’m sure you’re making more than an ensign.”
“Really?”
“Let’s check.” Catie brought up the pay tables in her HUD. “See, you’re making more than an ensign unless they have over eight years of service. And unless they’re ex-enlisted, an ensign with eight years of service needs to find another career.”
“I’d say. How much more would I make?”
“One thousand a month.”
“Auroras?!”
“No, U.S. dollars. I figured you were better calibrated to dollars than auroras.”
“So what about after I get promoted to second lieutenant?”
“You pick up another thousand,” Catie said.
“That’s about the same as if I make gunnery sergeant.”
“Looks that way. Delphi forces holds enlisted pay at about seventy percent of officer’s two grades below, so an E3 makes 70% of an O1. It starts to diverge once you reach the E7 and O5. If you go for it, with your years in service, you’ll be making more money than most of the officers you’re working with.”
“Hey, I could win some good bets with that. Guys always forget about that years-of-service thing, especially hot-shot officers.”
“Right. Anything else I can do for you?”
“Could you take my kids and brothers up to Delphi Station for a tour?”
“Sure!”
“Could you wear a crown for my daughter? She’s really impressed with you being a princess.”
“Not a chance!”
Chapter 6
Jump Gates
“Hi, Uncle Blake,” Catie said as Blake entered her condo. She’d buzzed him in when his Comm registered with the door.
“Hi. How’s it coming?”
“You mean the jump points?”
“Yes,” Blake said as he slid down to the floor next to Catie, who was sprawled out on her stomach, leaning on her elbows as she worked on whatever her HUD was projecting. Blake leaned against the wall.
“I should have known you’d be by after I asked you a question about them.”
“Why’s that?”
“Sheik Dahmani told me that if you let the camel’s nose into your tent, you will wake up sleeping with him.”
“How’s that apply here?”
“He said it applies in business as well as camping. He was telling me why he was so secretive about his businesses. As soon as anyone knows your business, they decide they should be involved.”
“I see, so you’re saying I’m a camel?”
“If the nose fits.”
“Okay, you’re right, I want to be involved in these jump points. There are some strategic considerations I want to make sure you’re considering and I think it’ll be easier if we go over them first.”
“Sure, what are you thinking about?”
“First, explain again how they work?” Blake asked.
“Well, basically when you open a wormhole, it is opened along the vector you’re targeting at the distance you set. When it opens, it jumps to the closest and lowest gravity spot in the area; it will bend around other gravity wells a little, but it really wants to go in a straight line. The lowest gravity spot is usually defined by the surrounding stars and the system’s planets. But if there is a jump probe in the system and it has a wormhole open or it is creating a zero-gravity point, then the wormhole jumps there. If you then open another wormhole into that system, they’ll merge. It works best to target the wormhole to the system that has one open. Basically, they cascade fro
m one end to the other. If you move the control to the system without a wormhole and open one from there to the system that has one open, you can continue the cascade and have the most control.”
“How big does the wormhole have to be for this to work?”
“Our tests showed that they could be as small as you want. So we could make the probes smaller, but then they wouldn’t be able to open a wormhole big enough for them to go through. I haven’t decided which is best.”
“So we can spend more and make the probes mobile, or we can save money and resources, but then we’d have to send a probe that can open a wormhole to their system if we want to move them. We wouldn’t be able to have them just jump to a neighboring system,” Blake mused.
“Right, but why would we want to do that anyway? Once they’re in place, why would we want to move them?”
“What if someone showed up in the system? We might want to jump the probe to another system to protect it.”
“Sure, that would be easy, but wouldn’t we see the ship coming for months if not years?”
“Based on what we know, maybe. Starships are pretty small compared to the volume of space that they’d be in while they were approaching the planet. Besides, there might be some cloaking technology that we don’t know about.”
“I guess if you want to be cautious, then having them able to jump makes sense; you never know when Klingons might show up.”
“Very funny. Now, what about the destination point?”
“You mean where you actually want to jump to?”
“Yes.”
“Well, once the wormhole is established, the starting point can power it up to whatever size its jumpdrives can manage.”
“So your StarMerchant could open up a wormhole big enough to come through.”
“Right.”
“But what if we want to send the Victory to one of these systems?”
“That would work fine. You’d have to power the wormhole from the end with our jump ships to send her there or to retrieve her.”
“Would the same thing would be true if we allowed the Paraxeans to use the jump points?”
