April 3: The Middle of Nowhere

by Mackey Chandler

  The Middle of Nowhere

  Mackey Chandler

  Third book in the April series.

  Sequel to "Down to Earth"

  Editing services by Leo Champion

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  The Last Part - Other Kindle Books by Mackey Chandler

  Chapter 1

  April was tired and depressed. Her trip down to Earth had been such a failure. She hadn't rescued the two lieutenants who had asked her to help them get to Home. She'd spent a great deal of Eddie's money, but if it made war less likely, as he was hoping, she didn't see how. She had certainly tweaked the giant's nose as far as irritating North America. But she couldn't see that had really improved anything about the USNA ignoring their treaty obligations with Home. Eddie's fortune was still at risk if whoever replaced President Wiggen wanted war with Home and there wasn't a single candidate who wanted peace with Home. It was just a question of how long each favored waiting to start up hostilities again.

  About the only thing she could claim to have accomplished for sure, was Preston Harrison was not going to ride the Patriot Party ticket to the USNA Presidency. He'd tried to arrest her and she'd shot him dead for his trouble. Her Earth hosts, the Santos, intimated that might not have been the best PR move of all time. But the fool swore to her face he'd kill her family and nation as his first official act. What did he expect?

  Whatever their private plans and opinions, April doubted other candidates would make such a public threat if they ever intended to stand under an open sky again. If they did she'd be happy to put a smoking crater where any of them showed themselves. Harrison had certainly underestimated how difficult one young girl could be to drag off under arrest.

  Things were sort of a mess. Her Earth hosts didn’t feel safe going back to their home and instead were sailing away to do her job and rescue the men she'd intended to extract. Her bodyguard was sitting in the other shuttle couch beside her, apparently betrayed by his own government, the same as the lieutenants, mixed up in politics that didn't concern him. Assigned to her by Wiggen it was true, but because she'd asked for him she felt responsible.

  She had to sort out the businesses she'd inherited from her brother. She wasn't even sure what all of them were and if he'd left anybody in charge running them. There was the real possibility some people would blame her for precipitating his apparent traitorous theft of the armed merchant Home Boy and the destruction of it in Lunar orbit while collaborating with the USNA.

  Since she'd walked away from her interest in their courier business and left her share to him she certainly had not expected him to leave anything to her. She had bluntly made clear she didn't approve of his business practices and had separated herself before going down to Earth. So why had he left everything to her? Why not their parents or her grandfather? A friend even, if he had one. Was it guilt?

  Just about everyone she could think of had a good reason to chew her out or blame her for things ending in such a muddled mess. She wasn't looking forward to facing the music.

  This was a freight shuttle, so it would dock at the north end. They wouldn't go to the passenger dockage for two people. Not unless they were high end VIPs and VIPs didn't ride freight shuttles. To switch docks was another hour for the flight crew, a couple hundred bucks of propellant for maneuvering jets and an expensive hour on the shuttle airframe to move it. The north end was industrial and lacked carpet and bright colors and shops. There would be an unlocked com pad at the airlock with a camera and touch pad for crew. Jon might not even send security all the way up to the north hub for one person, knowing both crew and she would direct them to check in.

  "I don't know much about Home," Gunny spoke up from the other couch. "I mean I know about you, because I read your folder. That told me a little bit about Home, but otherwise I only know what I've seen on the news and we know how reliable that is. Are there any customs I should be aware of to avoid offending people?"

  "I've been thinking about my own problems so much I didn't stop and think about what you need in practical terms," April admitted. "I have a bad habit of assuming everybody knows what I do and probably more. Look, I'm not sure who I'll get you placed with. I have to look at the companies my brother left me. One of them may need you," she assured him.

  "Believe it or not we've got an actual employment agency running from before I came down. How about if you stay on as my bodyguard for a month? You hang out with me and I'll try to explain things as they come up. You can read the recordings of the public meetings when Home was formed. Especially the few before the war will explain how we voted to break off with North America, not what the press reported. You can meet people and get a feel for how things work. I have to go around and smooth things out with a whole lot of people. Don't be surprised if some of them are angry with me. I didn't get the basic things I intended to done on Earth and blew a bundle trying. But I don't think anybody will be angry enough to hurt me. Guarding me shouldn't be hazardous."

  "How much are you paying and where would I stay?"

  "Say, a seventy a month plus basic cafeteria access and your air and water fees. The Holiday Inn is really too expensive for a month. Let me see if the company still lets transients rent out space in the company barracks."

  "Seventy?"

  "Yeah, thousand dollars, USNA, unless you insist on EuroMarks."

  "That seems, generous," he said. So generous he was somewhat dubious.

  "It won't after your first two hundred dollar t-shirt or you need to buy a cheap lunch off station and the best you can find is a forty-five dollar thin cheeseburger, ten dollar fries and a fifteen buck beer with a ten buck tip. It's gotten worse since so much lift capacity was lost in the war."

  "I see," Gunny said, slightly stunned at those numbers.

  "If we hadn't had the devaluation back the year before I was born think what it would be."

  "That's of course easy for me to remember. My paycheck was suddenly one tenth what it was the month before. The prices didn't all instantly adjust either. I kept a bunch of clean uncirculated greenback notes figuring they would be worth more as collectibles in my lifetime rather than turn them in. I'm pleased I'm on the plus side of that deal already."

  "But if they were in your house or a bank box you might never recover them."

  "No, no. They're out in the piney woods. You have to dig down as far as my arm will reach under a big old pine tree where you have to crawl under the branches. You get down there and you find a screw out cap. Then the stuff is on a line hanging down at the end of a three meter plastic pipe. There's old money, some newer money, a few gold coins and a spare pistol. I'm sure I'll be able to recover it someday. I have the GPS coordinates memorized."

  "That kind of caching things is hard to do on an orbital habitat."

  "Not at all. I can hide stuff on a ship or an aircraft. That's one way I can earn my keep. I will teach you how to cache stuff so others don't find it while I'm working for you. Perhaps there are a few other tricks an old man can teach you if you want," he sounded amuse
d again.

  April was still processing the original question. "Gunny, we don't have many customs different from North America, after all most of us are recently from North America even if we were ignoring a lot of the stupider regulations. The reasons we separated aren't about everyday living for the most part. I can't think of anything important, but I'm sure we'll run into little things as you get settled in. But we do have a lot less laws," she emphasized.

  "Don't assume anything you see is illegal by ground side standards. You can use your judgment to let your minor child alone in your apartment, or let them go to the cafeteria unsupervised. They can be in public in short sleeves or even shorts. Marijuana and tobacco are legal to own and use, but it is against regulations to pollute the air or have an open flame in public spaces. And you can own and carry any crazy sort of weapon you want."

  "Burn in thirty seconds," announced their pilot. After a very short burn there were a couple minor taps on the attitude jets and the lurch of the grapples pulled them the final couple centimeters flush to the station with a >clunk<.

  The second officer passed through and opened the airlock hatches. The pilot waited at the hatch of the flight deck for them to exit before she'd leave her vessel. There was the slight pressure change when it opened and they had to swallow and force a yawn to get their ears to feel right. Neither had any carry-on to deal with. April motioned Gunny ahead. He'd never been in zero G and she wanted to be behind him to watch and help him. He was so big he sort of blocked the view, which is why she was to the outer door before she saw it was the tunnel for the south end passenger docks.

  She grabbed the edge of the flange. "Why aren't we up at the freight docks?" she asked their copilot. "You didn't have to dock here for us."

  "We were told using the north docks would create a problem. It isn't big enough to handle a crowd meeting the shuttle," she explained.

  Just then Gunny reached the end of the tube. It did have a line for newbies to go hand over hand. April heard a loud swell of voices. She hurried after him without another word to the crewwoman. Where the tunnel opened up there was Jon manning the entry station himself and here, outside spin where they restricted access, were her parents and Jeff and Heather, Ruby and Easy, Eddie, Doris, her Grandpa Happy and a couple of Jon's off duty people as well as a half dozen of the militia guys.

  Looking through the entry bearing opening to spin there were folks packed elbow to elbow around the rail looking down through the short tunnel at them, turning slowly and there was a banner tied on the rail that said, "Welcome Home April". It was so long you had to watch it make a full turn to read it all. The noise level indicated there were quite a few folks out of sight on the spin side of the opening behind the ones at the rail.

  For a wonder somebody had bothered to clean up the graffiti along the hairline crack that marked the seal and rotating and zero G sections. The last time April was here an elaborate ocean liner on the spin side had been cruising around and around on a circular sea drawn on the non-rotating end. There would be something new up in a week at the most. When she was younger someone had done a Model T going past an old fashioned town.

  She looked up and most of them waved at her. What else could she do without looking stuck-up? She waved back. Then a dozen people all tried to hug her at once and she was squished. Somebody had her left hand and gently squeezed it. She couldn't even see who it was so she just squeezed back.

  She folded her other arm over her sore ribs, worried she'd get bumped but people were careful though they still reached to touch her hand or shoulder.

  Gunny had been signing in at the entry com before she'd looked up and waved. It didn't look like she was going to get a chance to log in. She was more or less swept along by both hands and elbows as the mass of friends and family all took off for the rim of the bearing like a bird flock. Somebody kindly grabbed her by the belt in back and pulled her over to the rail as they approached it.

  She gave the rail a token touch but there was no need to swing over it. More hands grabbed her patting back or arm or shoulder, whatever they could reach, urging her along and a succession of people most of whom she at least knew by sight hugged her.

  The astonishing thing was the tone of the brief greetings spoken softly in her ears as she was passed along. "Good job, good job, welcome back." – "You scared us. Damn Earthies." – "Hated to see you on the slumball, but thanks for going." – "'bout time you came Home dammit."

  She had home and a bed in mind, but ended up at the cafeteria, carried along in a human tide. A hand fell on her shoulder and a male voice asked what she wanted? "Coffee please," she told the fellow, giving the hand a touch. Wasn't he from maintenance? She wasn't sure.

  The coffee when it came had whisky in it. Pretty good whisky by the smooth taste. She didn't object. Music started up low enough to allow conversation and people started dancing on the other end of the room. The chairs all scooted down and one with a stunned looking Gunny was inserted next to her.

  Somebody reached past and slid a plate unasked in front of April and then Gunny. They had a nice petite steak and fresh rolls and butter. It didn't take long before a cold shrimp plate and sweet potato chips and fruit salad got passed down the table to them.

  Gunny had a glass of amber fluid, the same as hers minus the coffee. "I've never seen so many civilians with weapons," he said in shock, "and all of them pissed off at you just like you warned me," he said straight faced over the noise. "I'm moving. People want to talk to you and I'm just in the way." He moved down to the end of the table but opposite so he could see her.

  The chairs next to April kept changing owners. Eddie took too long talking to her and somebody grabbed his chair back and dragged him off into the crowd. The next chair was just slid down and it was her mom.

  "I am so glad to see you," April turned and hugged her as best she could sitting down. "I thought I'd just come home and get Dad to settle my hired man Gunny in and I could go to bed and sleep a shift. Do they still sell transient bunking down in the Animal House?"

  "He's your bodyguard isn't he?" her mom asked.

  "Yeah, but I just have him on a thirty day contract. I imagine I'll find him a slot somewhere else. I don't really need him here," she insisted. "He's sort of another rescue. He got caught up in the politics for guarding me and they wanted to arrest him."

  "You should keep him close, not all the way across the station. We boxed all Bob's stuff up for you and gave away his clothing to charity, but the cubic is still partitioned off and there is still a bed in there. Why don't you stick him in there for now?" her Mom offered.

  "Wouldn't that make you feel weird, having somebody in Bob's room?"

  "I'm not going to make it a shrine. Some folks leave everything like it was as if maybe the person will walk back in some day if they keep it the same. I'm sad, but that's just sick. I'm not in denial, Honey. I just haven't got around to hiring out the remodeling to tear it out. Go ahead and use it. Even a hot bunk with a small locker is around two hundred-fifty a day in company housing. No reason to throw that away. Besides, if you have a bodyguard, use him for now. The same people who would hurt you down on Earth might infiltrate somebody here."

  "Okay Mom, thanks." April had worried. She always felt her Mom favored Bob, just like she was sure she and her Dad were closer. But if she didn't seem any warmer, she didn't seem any cooler either. That was a relief.

  When Bob had gotten so selfish and driven he'd tried to take advantage of their parents. Her Dad had firmly resisted. April wasn't sure if her Mom could have denied him without her Dad to quietly point out what was reasonable and not. She worried she'd be blamed for Bob's actions, but so far nobody was looking daggers at her.

  "I'm whipped. This is nice, but I need to get home and get some sleep."

  "Collect your man then and we'll go home. These folks are all charged up and out of sync with your day by almost twelve hours. Let them party on and you can talk to them when you aren't sleep deprived," her mom urged.

/>   April gave Gunny a 'come on' jerk of the head and he excused himself. It was Mr. Muños next to him. That was a good choice to find out a lot about Home in short order. But he had to be tired too. He could speak to him another day.

  Chapter 2

  The next morning when she got up it felt strange to be in her own room. Somehow it made her feel about eight years old. She showered and dressed and when she went out Gunny was sitting watching the recording of the second assembly of Home. "You been up long?" she asked.

  "Hours and hours. It's been boring and I thought I'd go mad waiting."

  "Just got up, huh?"

  "Yeah, I did see your mom before she took off. She explained something you should know. Part of the reason everybody was in such a jolly mood when we arrived. Last night when we were in Tonga, the Patriot Party made a big move and tried to pull a coup on Wiggen. They let them carry it out far enough to really nail down who were talkers and who seriously intended to overthrow the government. There were about seven hundred arrested and about three hundred killed. The Patriot Party is pretty much gutted. Word was getting out while we were on our way up in the shuttle. Most folks here figure you precipitated it with Harrison."

  "Does that change anything for you?"

  "Not for the better! They were willing to allow me to be arrested if it helped them flush out all the bad guys. Never mind the danger to me or to you. That terminates my service. I gave them years of loyal service and they'll use me like that? I'm done."

  "I don't blame you, but wouldn't it be smart to leave as gently as possible? You know they screwed you and you're angry, but if you can leave and still get your retirement, sell your house and feel free to go down there again openly… Well, I've heard living well is the best vengeance. If things get back to normal and I can call Wiggen, I might even be able to put in a good word for you."

  "Amazing advice from a young lady who ends her disputes by orbital bombardment."

  "How about if we go get some breakfast? I think much better on a full belly," April said, ignoring the accusation.