All in Good Time

by Mackey Chandler

  “If however, we went to a completely different universe our friends back on Home might be upset we vanished like the Pedro Escobar,” Jeff speculated.

  “If there really are different universes I would think they would be ordered by similarity,” April said.

  “On what could you possibly base that?” Jeff asked.

  “Things should make sense,” April insisted. “If they don’t, there’s no point to anything. It wouldn’t even be worth trying to figure things out any better. Why would our universe make sense with rules that make things like this ship work among other universes that are chaotic and useless?”

  “I don’t know. I doubt I’ll ever get an overview to see either,” Jeff said. “I think you just invented a religion, that the universe must make some kind of sense as its basic tenet and if it doesn’t it’s our lack of understanding.

  “I find that strangely compelling,” Mackay said. “It’s too simple and undemanding to label a religion, but I think it makes a decent philosophy.”

  “Well, it has one step to go and I’ll find it compelling too,” Jeff said.

  “What’s that?” Mackay wondered.

  “April just had to say it was obvious. I have yet to see anything fail to verify once that has been declared.”

  “Not yet,” April said. “But I’m leaning that way.”

  Chapter 20

  “They changed Hringhorni’s thrusters for us,” Deloris said as she descended with a very light touch on the controls. “Actually, installed a second set in parallel. Eventually, they will update those on Dionysus’ Chariot too. When Jeff tried to land on Phobos with the Chariot the front and rear thrusters were not capable of being set to very small precise values. The side thrusters used to turn it were fine. Those are used to rotate the ship to take and hold a star shot and have to be very accurate. The original front and rear thrusters were meant for pushing the ship safely away from dock and maneuvering to grapple the nose. He had to fire them back and forth until he found two in sequence that didn’t quite match in the direction he wanted to go.”

  “I don’t think it would have occurred to me to use the variations between individual firings that way,” Laja admitted.

  “Oh I might have,” Deloris laughed, “about a month later maybe. Jeff saw the problem and solution as soon as his minimum breaking burn lifted him instead of just slowing him.”

  “What are we going to do here?” Laja asked.

  “Ceres was kind of a failure in the first round. We should have taken some bore samples and not left the tracked French mill. That’s what they call the atomic separator,” she added if Laja didn’t know. “The mill with legs got a fair yield of silver, but not enough to leave it in place. It was instructed to walk over to the other mill for pickup. The tracked one reported back after a week that it wasn’t getting any significant yields of metals. It’s not too bad for some things like sulfur, but you have to process so much material it can be found elsewhere easier. What it does have is lots and lots of carbon. It’s rich in both organic compounds and even substantial amounts of elemental carbon. Unfortunately, French mills are not efficient at processing feedstock with a super abundance of one element. That’s strike one. Ceres seems to be about twenty percent carbon on the surface.

  “Strike two is that it isn’t at all like regolith. It’s more like clay slush. It’s rather slick and soft in random patches. The tracks kept getting mired and the yield telemetry reported was crappy so they sent a radio command back to shut down until we could retrieve it. Mo or Jeff or somebody will have to design a machine with a hull like a sled that can slide over the surface and is purpose-built to separate carbon. That carbon is going to fill a lot of tunnels on the Moon once they do get it working. It will be cabbages and cucumbers in a couple of years.”

  “Is this confidential?” Laja asked. “My mother needs to know about this.

  “We don’t have a lot of rules about what is secret and not,” Deloris said. “Heather expects us to have some sense about what would be damaging to her and to our own employment if we discuss it publicly. It’s not like any of us have ties to Earthies or even speak with Earthies. My guess is she just hasn’t seen any reason to make announcements about what we are collecting yet. She’ll worry about that when it is actually in hand to sell and deliver. I’m sure she’ll be delighted to have your mom as a customer.

  “I’m setting down a hundred meters from the tracked mill. I’m afraid the exhaust plume may damage them any closer and Heather would not be amused. The plan is to take the legged one to Haumea. We are actually not mining Haumea but a much smaller body orbiting it. It’s not visible from Earth and if anybody argues Heather will say she’s claiming Haumea and associated bodies like its moons. Eventually, we’re going to have a harvester made just for Haumea to gather frozen nitrogen. Having a safe alternative to skimming Earth atmosphere just makes sense. Just like a carbon harvester for Ceres. We were going to put French mills on Eris and Makemake but brought them back unused. We’re still going to go back and refuel the claim radios, because Heather figures that much stuff will be valuable eventually, but not this trip.”

  “What did you do with the mills you brought back?” Laja asked her.

  “They got installed in lunar craters to process regolith. We may eventually haul some back out here if we can figure out where to put them. The Hringhorni has landing pads but they aren’t really suited for very small bodies. Jeff is promising to design a sort of spike or harpoon we can shoot into an ice ball or asteroid and then grapple on it. Barak is all for that because he doesn’t want to mount engines like we did before.”

  “Everybody agrees we don’t have enough experience or resources to try dealing with Titan. The Earthies would have a fit if we land on Europa because they have some insane idea we might contaminate it. Ganymede is a real possibility but again, such a well known major moon the Earthies may make it more trouble than it is worth. We’ll have to quietly land there sometime soon and do core samples and stuff to see if it is even worth arguing with the Earthies about mining it.”

  “It’s cheap to maintain our claims on what we tagged, and the longer we go without challenge the firmer our ownership. Barak thinks we will find stuff around other stars worth far more than here in the solar system. I personally feel it will be more efficient to go for really small bodies. Stuff small enough to push home or drag along in our jump field. We’re building an artificial moon around Mars and we can take them there and break them up and process them.”

  You can do that?” Laja asked, amazed.

  “Within limits,” Deloris said. “You can’t sit on the Moon and jump expecting to drag it along. April was actually worried about that at first.”

  “Excuse me for saying so,” Laja said, carefully, “but so far claiming and mining these minor planets sounds like it has been a bust.”

  “Yeah, but we’re learning a lot. We’ll apply that to what we find around other stars. We’ll have plans for all sorts of specialized mining machines. Just the carbon from Ceres will be a nice payday in a couple of years. We will make something even if our share is just pocket money for now,” Deloris said. “With life extension, we can afford to hope it will all work out in good time. Jeff promised us one percent. If we find one decent star system our fortunes will be made.”

  Laja’s mother had explained to her in detail why she was piling up tunnel boring debris rather than give it away for free fill. She’d actually paid attention to her mom’s economics lecture. She said nothing at Deloris’ revelation and managed to stifle a visible reaction. One percent of everything around any star would be more wealth than any Earth nation had ever controlled. At that scale, even a system of dry barren rocks was valuable given the newest tech to separate it element by element. She’d jump at any chance to get a similar deal.

  “There, I think I am down. Give it a second to make sure it doesn’t rebound.”

  “No bounce,” Barak said after a minute. “When we go out I’ll look and m
ake sure you didn’t push the pads under the surface. I’ll shovel them off if we have mud on top.”

  “Would that be bad?” Laja wondered.

  “A big glob stuck on a pad could throw our center of mass off,” Barak said, “and it could come loose at a very bad time and get flung who knows where? If you need to use the toilet, now is the time before we go out.”

  * * *

  Elaine sat at the table with her hands around a mug of herbal tea, looking out the window at the blowing snow. None of them had been out of the house for three days. The living room was shuttered and blocked off with a doubled over tarp so their world was shrunk to the kitchen and bathroom. The doors to the bedrooms were shut and the shutters closed in those rooms too so they were dark. They had the table pulled away from the corner and camp beds along two walls in the kitchen. They missed the privacy but trying to heat the entire ranch house in the depth of winter would use too much wood. Making sure they still had wood in the spring was an actual matter of survival.

  “When we lived in LA and I was a space nut I followed everything I could about the habitats and the Moon,” Eileen told Vic. “There are cameras all over Home and ISSII, not so much the Moon. I don’t think I am going to change my mind about emigrating, but I wish I had some idea what is going on out there.”

  “You can use the sat phone to read news articles,” Vic suggested. “Don’t forget you can get foreign access you couldn’t from local providers. I don’t mind spending a little bit. We have a base fee to cover even if we didn’t use it at all.”

  “Maybe I will then,” Eileen said. “The screen is way too small to look at any of the cams though. I wish I could show you where I want to live.”

  “Read the manual Cal sent us,” Vic said. “I think you can use it as a modem and cast the image to a bigger screen.”

  “We’d never charge a battery up enough to run the big computer on your desk. I see you have backup power for that, but it’s a huge battery,” Eileen objected. “It has to be dead flat by now and might not even take a charge. Our solar charger only gets a couple of hours of sun at the kitchen window and we need that for the phone and lights.”

  “Let me think on that,” Vic said. “I can be pretty handy if I put my mind to it.”

  Eileen whispered something in his ear and he laughed. Alice looked up and raised her eyebrows, but they both ignored her until she went back to her book.

  * * *

  Jeff rotated Dionysus’ Chariot so the twin globes of the Earth and Moon came back into view. From this angle, both were illuminated to the same side about half-way with the terminator directly facing them. Otis and Mackay in the back looking over the command seat didn’t say anything, but they were so far away the Earth and Moon looked tiny. Both could be seen through the circle of one’s thumb and forefinger held out at arm’s length and Otis lifted his arm and did that very thing. Neither of them ever expected to see them from so far away and it had an unexpected emotional impact.

  “We’ll appear in Low Earth Orbit retrograde, but actually below orbital velocity,” Jeff said. “We’ll brake a little harder and at a steeper angle due to the hold at Home, but nothing too uncomfortable. I’m not sure we can get Earth Traffic Control on the radio from here. We just have a standard twenty-five watt transceiver. I’ll call as soon as we are closer. We’ll be under the relay satellites so our exhaust won’t interfere. Get your arms back in a safe position and locked,” he reminded them.

  “Number two, please put your board in weapons mode and watch for any foolish actions by their dissenting traffic partners. You are weapons-free and I suggest you use orbital assets rather than onboard systems.”

  “How strongly do you wish me to respond?” April demanded.

  “If they simply paint us with targeting radar ignore it. I doubt either of them have beam weapons. If they launch on us remove the launch sites thoroughly. Suppress any defenses until you can lay a large weapon on them and not waste it. Lay the commands in all at once because I feel we can jump back out safely from as high as we’ll be passing them. I should have plenty of time to do so after you inform me you are done inputting commands and before any missile could climb to us.”

  “Aye,” April said. Her monitor expanded from ship controls to show the globe below them overlaid with icons of available rods and larger weapons. It made her momentarily uncomfortable to know their passengers could see the screen and even record it with their spex, but she suppressed that as unworthy. They were allies and dependable. Also, it wasn’t like they’d see the launch codes on the screen in the clear.

  Jeff didn’t warn them again like the first transition. Suddenly they were looking at the curved horizon of blue and clouds and black above. They immediately rolled over so the black disappeared and the Earth rolled past their viewports until the scene was reversed. There were a few patches showing coastlines and brown but nothing of recognizable outlines like a map. They immediately braked hard and started slowly rotating tail down.

  “Earth Control, Dionysus’ Chariot in descent for Macron Field, France. I know this is an unauthorized maneuver but they are expecting us and you can give them a courtesy traffic advisory if you would, please.”

  “Dionysus’ Chariot, the entire net is advised of you as traffic to be avoided, authorized or not. We’d give collision avoidance for a close passing asteroid too. We advise you the French DO would just hand you off to Macron approach direct as they only pass along shuttles that have an extended glide path. Call Macron 121.15 directly for a vertical approach.”

  “Thank you, Earth Control,” Jeff said tapping his screen. “We will contact Macron Control on approaching twenty-five kilometers altitude.”

  “We are past where either the Turks or Persians have sufficient lead time to launch on us,” April advised Jeff. “I doubt any of the Balkans care and we’ll briefly overfly Italy in the north but I’d seriously be surprised if they will object.”

  “Macron Control, this is Dionysus’ Chariot of Central Registry, Jeffery Singh master.” He diplomatically skipped their custom of identifying as an armed merchant. “We are on approach from suborbital insertion and will pass north of Sainte-Marie-la-Blanche in about five minutes. We will enter your controlled airspace from the east southeast about fifty kilometers out. May we have clearance and an assigned spot for vertical descent to your apron, please?”

  “Dionysus’ Chariot, please squawk seven nine five three. English ATIS is 127.12. You are cleared straight in vertical below ten kilometers. Your visual approach target is a standard X-circle at 49.052266 and 2.610043. Advise 125.32 you when you are in vertical descent. If you can, minimize your transonic approach please.”

  “April check ATIS and see if there is anything I should know. I’m altering our approach profile to go subsonic higher. I never think about that.”

  “Wind is from the northwest at 10 kph with no significant gusts. Cloud cover at two thousand meters. Well crap, it is raining,” April said. “I didn’t bring an umbrella.”

  * * *

  Barak and Laja didn’t go through a final suit check quite yet. Barak got in the equipment lockers and got some extra equipment.

  “The landing pad below our lock has fold-down panels on each side to give us a sort of deck off which we can work,” Barak explained. “Since it has more area it’s less likely it will be pushed below the surface. But I’m bringing the shovel along in case I need to clear the others.” The shovel looked decidedly fragile, but Laja assumed it was of high strength materials. The business end swiveled and locked to give you a choice of square or pointed blades.

  “If the smaller pads sank very far we’d know because we’d be tilted off the vertical.”

  “That’s true,” Barak agreed, “and if it was that soft Deloris would probably have moved us off to a different location for fear it would keep sinking.”

  “What are those?” Laja asked as he pulled out what looked like miniature canoes in a silvery metal. They were more like long skates than short
skis.

  Laja had some doubts about them but kept it to herself.

  “These are to let you slide across the soft spots and slick surface,” Barak said proudly. “They’re my own invention. They aren’t exactly snowshoes or skis and are rather specialized. As their inventor, I have named them sliders. Notice the texture on the bottom. They are like cross country skis or Moon boots and slide forward easily and resist slipping back when you push forward.”

  “You have poles too?” Laja asked.

  “Of course.” Barak reached in the back of the cabinet and produced them. “We have these too.” He produced a thruster harness similar to the old fashioned rig construction workers used to wear over their suits. It had over-the-shoulder straps and a belt with a single strap that passed between the legs. By adjusting both you could position the front and back nozzles on the belt close to your center of mass.

  “Notice that you can tilt the nozzles up so they push you down firmly into the surface. The gravity being so weak, that’s the only way you will get enough traction to push on anything. And in the horizontal mode at low power they can push you along. At least that’s my theory,” Barak said.

  “You realize if you get a few people stationed out here long term it isn’t going to be long at all before they are racing with these things?” Laja asked him.

  “That may be, but we don’t want to test that today,” Barak said firmly. “The French mill with tracks is only about forty meters away. The walker was further out but will come right up and all we have to do is hook it to the crane. Deloris set us down really close. So this shouldn’t be too hard. We have as much time as we need.”

  “Not us, I mean crazy people, teenage boys for sure will race on them,” Laja agreed. “The trick will be not to fly off at a tangent and orbit.” She gently flapped it away from her by the shoulder straps to stretch it out straight so she could wiggle into the thruster harness. “You know, these look kind of kinky,” she muttered.