* * *
"I thought I'd never smell that again," Chen said when he emerged from his shower.
"We're having breakfast with the Santos," Huian informed him. "To share the special treat."
"Where did they find coffee?" he wondered.
"Mr. Hall at the bank gave it to us. I believe it was in appreciation of our business," Huian said. "I confess, he asked if there was anything else he could do when we finished our business, and I jokingly said. 'Not unless you could make the Earthies send up some coffee.' Never expecting he actually had any. I suspect he enjoyed shocking me with it. And he certainly did!"
"My goodness...The fellow has more connections than I imagined," Chen said.
"He is quite close with Jeff Singh and his partners. I'd suspect that is the source given his Earth connections, although Mr. Singh has never given you coffee."
"I'm sure Jeff Singh thinks he pays me enough I can buy my own coffee," Chen laughed heartily.
Huian just smiled happily along with him. He'd never before revealed to her that Jeff Singh was directly paying him, besides Tetsuo and his occasional work with the other security men. She was enjoying his new openness with her, and the surest way to kill it dead in its tracks would be to voice nagging petulance that he hadn't said something before.
Chapter 16
Li still had that stunned look of an Earthie plunged into Home culture. Jeff met him at the dock and gave him a tour. Just experiencing zero G for the first time is enough shock to the system in one day for most people. At least Li was smart enough to take his anti-nausea drugs.
Finding that most people, including Jeff, lived in much less room than his crew enjoyed on the Tobiuo was a shock. He knew spacer apartments were small, but he hadn't actually seen them before. Jeff slept on an air mattress which hung on the bulkhead during the day. Of course it was at a half G which was quite comfortable, but still...Also he had to bunk with Dr. Houghton, whom they had recovered recently. Li was used to having his own cabin on the Tobiuo.
Jeff took him down to the full G level and the main ring with Mitsubishi's offices, the com room, cafeteria and the high end businesses. The corridor looked more like an Earth mall if you didn't look up in the distance too carefully. There were screens and art to shield a lot of the disorienting perspective. At a full G he even found a little appetite, and Jeff took him to the cafeteria for a meal.
"You have more fresh greens and variety than we have on the Tobiuo," Li said, after reading the day's menu. "I didn't expect that."
"But very seldom fish," Jeff pointed out. "We're getting salad greens and some other things from the moon now. It's much cheaper to lift from there than Earth."
Jeff ordered grilled cheese, a favorite of his, and soup. Li decided breakfast was safest for him and got scrambled eggs and pancakes. He copied what Jeff did with his tray. The coffee wasn't very good, which was probably why Jeff got soy-milk.
"There are a couple young men in the corner there...they're bare chested," Li said, scandalized. "They'd be arrested in North America. Or in Australia and most of Europe too, for that matter."
"Yeah, that's a fad," Jeff said with a grimace. "I hate it, and hope it dies out soon. It's mostly guys in their early twenties and most of them are either body builders or have tattoos they want to show off."
"I guess I'm being narrow minded," Li decided. "We go French boat rules out alone on the ocean, and sometimes just wear trunks even in the harbor."
"Yeah, but you wouldn't dock, go into town, and go in a restaurant like that. They'll be painting themselves next," Jeff predicted, rolling his eyes.
"No, we wouldn't, and I have to admit seeing so many armed unnerves me too," Li admitted.
"Well, nobody has been offended enough to make an issue of it," Jeff said, with a shrug.
"How could they?"
"Oh, well if it bothered you enough you could demand they cover up or meet you in the north corridor," Jeff said.
"And what? Fight them?" Li asked.
"Not just brawl," Jeff said, "duel to settle it. Of course challenging them you'd be giving them the choice of weapons. That's no small thing."
Li looked up at Jeff to see if he was having fun with him, but Jeff was intent on dipping his grilled cheese in his soup. He didn't have the least trace of mischievous smile.
"How often has that happened?" Li demanded.
"We've had a number of people called out. I'm amazed really that we haven't had a duel actually carried out. Several have been declined and the person wouldn't satisfy the challenger's complaint, so the Assembly banished the challenged from Home. In a few other cases the person agreed to change their behavior or apologize. One woman from the moon withdrew her challenge, seeing it was going to be a loss no matter what she did."
"It seems like a rather binary thing to me," Li said puzzled. "Win or lose."
"No, she had a beef with a guy living here because of things he'd done on the moon. It didn't seem reasonable to me, or a lot of other people, but in her mind it was obviously clear cut. She challenged him and had him backed into a corner. He really had no other place to go from Home. He was much larger than her and he picked meter long hefty pipes as weapons. I really doubt she would have prevailed. But then our registrar of voters, Eduardo Muños, informed her that if she survived her first duel, she would be required to meet him the next day."
"And he was another one who out-matched her?" Li asked.
"Not at all. He is an older gentleman. At the time he hadn't received any life extension therapy. So he looked rather grandfatherly. She could have picked weapons to suit her lesser strength. The thing is, everybody likes Muños, and she was already aware public opinion was against her call. So if she'd killed Muños too she'd have really been a stink to everybody. You may have a right to call out anybody you wish, for any stupid reason, but that doesn't mean people have to accept it and like you. We don't have any public accommodation laws. I doubt anybody on Home would have sold her so much as a pair of footies, or hired her if she left Central. They'd have shunned her and left her stuck at Central for life and entirely at Heather's mercy. And it would really limit her usefulness to Heather too, not to be welcome here. It would have been a dead-end life."
"I can see why you don't say anything," Li decided, looking at the young fellows, and then deciding that staring at them wasn't politic either.
"It has had an enormous impact on public civility," Jeff agreed. "People are much more polite once they realize that rash words and a display of temper can put your life on the line. There was one case, early on after we weren't under USNA law any more. One of the fellows who had attended nudist camps on Earth decided since we weren't under their law any more he could go nude. One of the fellows with young daughters disabused him of that notion pretty quick. He decided he would agree to wear some clothing rather than meet the fellow to duel. You see we still have firm customs."
"I'll admit, I have mixed feelings about it," Li said, and went back to his breakfast, thinking hard.
"Are you uncomfortable being away from the Tobiuo?" Jeff wondered.
"Less than you might think. Tara is competent. It's the long range I'm uncertain about, not being away a few days. I wanted to see if I might find it agreeable to live here. Tara wants a chance to visit for the same reason. That leaves us wondering what would happen to the Tobiuo of course."
"Which is of interest to me," Jeff reminded Li.
"Perhaps less down the road than now. I have an idea that might make that true...sooner," Li said.
"I'd like to hear that," Jeff encouraged him.
"You realize things are slowing down right now on Earth?" Li asked.
"Economically," Jeff said, more specifically.
"Yes, well, shipping volumes are way down. When that happens there is always a surplus of ships that are either mothballed or scrapped. One can buy a hull sometimes for literally the scrap value of the metal. And some of the older ships have turbine-electric drives. They'd be easy to convert
to use your fusion generators and just leave the turbine in place for backup. They'd be a bear to remove anyway."
"That's an interesting idea, but we've decided against building more water landing shuttles like the Chariot. There seems to be a consolidation of space shuttles right now too. People are rushing to build small personal craft, not for commerce, but so they have the option of personal travel, even if the commercial services are cut back or go broke. We're looking for bigger shuttles to land on short runways or even vertically with smaller loads, but still much larger than we can build right now to land at sea. A big ship would take a lot more landings and cargo transfers before it would be worth taking it to a port."
"If you had shuttles like the Chariot doing it, yeah," Li agreed. "But a big old container ship or a tanker could let you land right on the deck. You could even have two, maybe three shuttles sitting on the deck at the same time. And you could land in much rougher seas than you can now."
"Oh...Are you interested in commanding a big ship like that for us?" Jeff asked.
"Me? No, I'm not qualified to handle a ship like that. And even with automation and some of the changes you'd make, it needs a bigger crew. But it doesn't really need to even put in to a dock on a regular basis. That's difficult with that big a ship, and you have to hire harbor pilots. It could just hold station one place and other smaller ships would stop and swap cargo with it."
"Is it possible to stay in one place that long? What about big storms?" Jeff wondered.
"Unless things got so bad down below that you didn't have decent weather forecasts you can move out of the way of developing storms. Even without them, you could see any significant cyclones from orbit. You wouldn't have track predictions, but you could view the charts of previous storms and predict their possible paths enough to at least miss the worst of them," Li said.
"How big are you talking? How long and what sort of volume?" Jeff wondered, getting interested.
"Three to four hundred meters long. Fifty or sixty meters across the beam. You can land on that can't you? And volume...I'd guess as much usable volume as two of your rings on this station. Maybe a bit more. Why do you ask that?" Li wondered.
"I'm thinking the high G outer level in the ring here is expensive. But just as there are things that can only be done in zero G, there are processes which are easier in gravity. We could process our own fuel right there at the ship to make it cheaper to run the shuttles. I wouldn't mind a small set up to mine deuterium. And we might grow some food, maybe put out some pens and do some fish farming as well. Then use that as filler freight to top off a load."
"Jeff, some of those midsized bulk carriers like they are scrapping have five huge holds. You could put an entire factory in one of them, or leave one open and flood it for a fish farm for that matter. Some ballast helps stabilize it anyway. If you reinforce the hold cover, the hatch, it should make a decent landing pad for your shuttle. How close can you set one down in a vertical landing?" Li asked.
"Within a meter if it isn't terribly gusty and shoving us around right at the end. It can touch down if you have just a couple seconds of no wind, or at least a steady wind. We'd need some sort of automated system to clamp on or chain it down," Jeff said, working on possible designs in his head already. "If it tips or slides sideways the pilot can hardly jam the throttle on and lift again if he's going to cook the crew chaining him down."
"No, the crew wouldn't appreciate that," Li said looking alarmed. "An aircar can switch rotor geometry and push itself into the deck to pin it down until it is secured. Some helicopters can, some can't. If you try too hard with a few, the rotors dip, and can even hit the tail boom. That gets messy. They generally drop a cable and get pulled down against their lift in really rough seas. Can a shuttle do anything to press itself into the deck?"
"It'll have attitude thrusters. Since we're purpose building them we can make the thrusters big enough to do that, and have an automated system to use them to keep it from tipping, up to a certain point. But the cable thing sounds promising. If we can yank it down within ten or fifteen seconds. The plasma exhaust tends to melt whatever it doesn't vaporize," Jeff said. "Even concrete."
Li had nothing to say to that. He could see all sorts of problems.
"How much do they want for a ship headed for the scrap heap?" Jeff asked.
"Well, since the price of scrap metal goes down when the economy takes a dive not much. You might buy a stripped out medium sized container ship for thirty or forty million USNA dollars. If you insist on getting it without the electronics and internal systems ripped out figure a couple more million. But you can get a better price by taking a flagged ship stranded at dock or one that can't be sold at sea. They won't usually tow one to sea to sell it if they can't power it up, and some countries have strict laws about breaking up ships that have been under their flag."
"What difference does that make?" Jeff asked.
"If you can buy it while it is in international waters then it can be driven ashore in a third world breakers yard. They'll remove the prop and drive it right up the beach. No dry dock needed. It's broken up where there are no labor safety laws or pesky environmental laws to reduce your profits. So it will sell for more since your expenses are lower and scrap yield will be better."
"And there's no shortage of sellers on those terms?" Jeff asked.
"That's how the majority are still broken up," Li assured him.
"I just detest how they do business on...down there," Jeff said.
That pause and switch amused Li. Jeff didn't have to spare his feelings on the matter.
* * *
"Oh my goodness!" April stopped and stared at the small notice posted under the daily menu and list of scheduled entertainment posted outside the Fox and Hare.
In order to maintain the atmosphere our guests demand, we now require shirts and shoes on all our guests. If in doubt, anything which might be mistaken for bathing attire is insufficient. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have made an effort to reach our door and find yourselves unable to proceed, we truly hope you will return at a later date suitably attired. – F&H
Li leaned over April and Jeff from behind reading it. "I take it that's new?" he asked.
"It certainly is," April said, horrified. "It's like down on the Slum Ball. I've seen the same sort of sign in Hawaii. Ruby has been talking about doing the same thing at the cafeteria. She's been working her nerve up to ask my dad, because she wants to be sure he'll back her up on it once she posts it. But that's sort of a semi-public area. Who goes shirtless to a nightclub?"
"A clod," Li agreed.
"You have slandered divots everywhere," Jeff said.
"I'm surprised you know the word," Li said amused. "Have you ever played golf?"
"Once, when I was about eleven years old. I did terribly," Jeff admitted.
Inside the maître d' Phillip Detweiler looked embarrassed.
"I heard you exclaiming over the notice," he said.
"They probably heard me on ISSII," April admitted.
"I'm sorry that was necessary," Phillip said. "I had to do that because I tried telling a few young gentleman quietly that it wasn't acceptable, but rather than accept a quiet word to spare them embarrassment they wanted to argue with me. In one case, loudly. I came near suggesting he needed a bullet between his eyes the next morning. But I realized he seemed to have had a few drinks before arriving, since we are out. I wonder where he's finding it? It might reflect poorly on the establishment to shoot potential customers."
"I bet the beam dogs made a still," Jeff guessed. "They have plenty of pipe and tubing."
"I'm new here," Li informed him. "Excuse me if this isn't considered a polite question, but have you ever challenged someone to a duel before? This resurrected custom...fascinates me. And it's twice the matter has come up my first day here."
"No, but then I haven't had a drunken lout shout in my face before," Phillip explained. "That's why we have the duel, so matters of honor and acceptabl
e civil behavior cannot be plowed under as secondary to cold law. I'm not a hireling. Like Miss Lewis I have an interest in the club. I won't put up with it or me being treated that way."
"Thank you, I don't blame you," Li said. Well, wasn't that a new twist? He thought. April is a part owner of a nightclub.
The place was very plain by the standards Li expected from dozen exotic ports. But things had gotten so bad in some of those ports he didn't want to go back. Those clubs might be closed, or a shadow of their former glory. The acts were surprisingly good, not small club level entertainment at all.
Before dinner, and between acts, no less than a half dozen people stopped at their table and said hello to either Jeff or April. Li also thought he saw a woman trying to take a pic of their table without being too obvious. One fellow in an odd suit with a buzz-cut started at seeing them, came over and addressed Jeff as 'My Lord'. Wasn't that interesting? The fellow said it dead straight, not like it was a joke, and he'd asked permission to send them dessert. Instead April had laughed, and admitted the club was 'her place', and she'd send him dessert, since the house wouldn't bill for anything sent to her table. The fellow wasn't offended. He went away smiling. There seemed to be a great deal he needed to learn not only about Home, but about Jeff and his friends. He didn't know them as well as he thought.
Then Li remembered when he and Tara had collected the kids to go back to the hotel from the outdoor market on Tonga. April had just bought some sort of floor mat, and the old rug dealer had called April 'princess'. Li frowned. He'd have to ask Tara about that.
The fact that there was no beer to be had didn't surprise him. He'd seen what they were loading on the Dionysus' Chariot, and they certainly didn't have room on the manifest for something that heavy and frivolous. It didn't escape his notice that April really wasn't presented with a check, just as she'd said, and he also noticed that after Jeff said he'd take Li to his office and get him squared away for the night, April said, "Fine, I'll see you in a little while." Li wondered what her place was like? Jeff was the eccentric sort who might not care about such things, but he couldn't imagine April being crammed in a literal closet, as seemed to be so common on Home.
They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7) Page 22
