April 6: And What Goes Around

by Mackey Chandler

  Proposals to return aspirin to the prescription drug list by regulation in the USNA were defeated by a bill run through both House and Senate in record time before the regulation could take effect.

  An artificial fiber with microscopic barbs that mimicked the felting behavior of wool and displayed the same insulating characteristics was being marketed as NuWool by a German company. It was totally unattractive to moths and other insects. Besides being about one tenth the cost of the natural fiber it could be made significantly stronger and permanently colored. The cost of clothing made with it was expected to go down considerably, but the price of lamb and mutton to increase as a consequence. April was pretty sure she'd never tasted mutton.

  China continued to export little nuclear fuel due to internal conflict and the higher safety standards imposed before their civil war. Legacy fission systems declined everywhere as fusion generating systems improved and decentralized generation reduced distribution complexity. England had not suffered a significant power outage in three years.

  Hans Holderman, 23 years old, won the World Championship of Magic: The Gathering. He collected a purse of Fifty Million EuroMarks and other prizes, retired to Switzerland, and entered a luxury rehabilitation facility for the treatment of game addictions.

  April flicked down through more headlines. Unrest in Kenya again, and Korea and Sri Lanka. A container ship missing in the Indian Ocean, soccer riots, a new treatment for a tropical disease, a breeding pair of extinct rhinoceros birthed from elephants using frozen gametes. The European Union banned natural leather in sports balls and decreased the size of bananas which could be sold legally.

  What did any of it mean? Why was most of this even considered news? She frowned at a sudden suspicion. Maybe it was really entertainment disguised as news to avoid dealing with the real thing. It seemed beyond integrating to usefulness. Perhaps the intelligence snippets Chen and Eddie sent her through Jeff would be more useful. She flopped the pad on her stomach again though, and looked out the port first, weary of focusing so long on the screen for such little return.

  The sun was much closer to the moon, the crescent of bright moon narrower, but the Earth still hadn't made its appearance from behind the other edge of the moon. At least not the bright part. It was busy up by the new ring. Shift change was near and there were guys from both shifts present. April picked the pad back up and changed to the files Jeff's intelligence people sent along. It wasn't their primary mission. But they'd been told to look for items of economic interest and pass them along.

  T.R. in North America, she didn't really know who that was, said that quite a few grocery stores were now not just limiting the number of sale items you could buy but putting signage on the shelf to limit the number of regular items in stock one could buy. He noted this was something he saw while doing his own grocery shopping. If you took too many items to the checkout the computer refused them.

  Chen's contacts in China informed him black market doctors were becoming very common in all of Asia. The official systems were backlogged to the point appointments were too far out to do you any good. By the time you could see a doctor you were either well on your own or dead. Unless of course you had political pull or the funds to bribe your way up the list. The breakdown in government meant many doctors turned to this when they weren't paid. Since government snoops were good at finding unregistered businesses from observing walk in traffic most illicit docs did house calls only.

  Trade items widely recognized as black market currencies shifted with scarcity. A piece of old 14 gauge wire a quarter meter long was a common item called a 'twist' acceptable in trade. People wore them as a bracelet to a flea market or grey market to signal they would trade without cash. That was better not to say out loud. It court it was almost an admission of intent to commit tax fraud.

  A common soft drink container full of rice as a trade item was popular in Japan. It was an easy standard way to sell by volume and approximate weight. One man took to spraying contact adhesive inside the bottle and filling it with rice. Then he poured out the loose rice in the middle and filled it with wood chips and sand. However, he went to a market that wasn't distant enough and was recognized. Worse he had one of the fake bottles on him. The crowd was not amused. He survived however.

  Liquid laundry detergent in the smaller sizes continued to be a staple of barter in North America, particularly in the large cities. It was stolen so often some stores kept it behind the counter.

  At the very bottom of the economic system returnable beer bottles were still used in parts of Africa and the Philippines. The bottles had stable recognized values far from the larger towns.

  This was more interesting than the usual news channels. It spoke to the official currency not serving its function. That and chronic shortages. She had to talk to Jeff about making Solars in fractional denominations. If people were hungry enough for money they could trust they might give a premium for money from outside their government's control. There were more reports but she was ready for supper.

  * * *

  April met Jeff for supper. That was one way to make sure he ate. Sometimes she worried about him. He'd always been thin, but he'd get involved in a project and visibly lose weight until the work was done. He was always slow to gain it back. On the other hand his dad was the same way and it hadn't seemed to hurt him yet.

  She'd asked Jeff what his dad was doing and was told it was proprietary company work he couldn't discuss with his son. April could understand the need for security, but could not imagine putting rules ahead of her relationship with Jeff. She trusted him absolutely not to make improper use of information. It was hard for her to understand how his own father wouldn't feel the same way. In her mind rules were never perfect and there always had to be exceptions.

  April followed Jeff in line, observing what he got, and added an extra small plate of high calorie items for him on her tray. When they sat he went to fill their mugs and she put it on his side. He didn't argue when he returned. In fact he speared one of her gift appetizers first thing and ate it, which made her feel better.

  "How are the Chinese in Camelot adjusting to having a ruler instead of a People's Republic?" April asked him.

  "I retained one fellow who was an administrator. It was more of an adjustment for him than the other workers. He was used to having goals imposed on him, sometimes all the way from Earth, by people who had never been to the moon. When I wanted to just sit and chat and get a sense of what was possible he was all flustered. He might have thought it was a trick at first. In the end I had to caution him not to set impossible goals for himself, that I didn't expect that. When we brought in Annette to be the crown representative on site I think he was shocked again. It wasn't customary to have a female, at least such a young one in such a responsible position. No matter what their revolutionary philosophy claims."

  "What do you think of Annette? I got to meet her mom, Dakota, but I haven't met her. I haven't even had reason to do a video call with her. You must think she can handle it or you wouldn't be back to Home."

  "She would have begged off if she could. She felt she wasn't experienced enough. I'd rather she be that way than full of herself and ready to make changes right and left. But she's smart and she has been around Heather enough to have a good idea what Heather's mind would be on things. I predict she will be a professor if Heather eventually has the university for which she set aside land. Heather gave her a good bit of advice and she seemed to take it to heart. I don't want to leave her there too long. I think she'll grow weary of it and resentful if we force her to stay more than a year or so. She's still young enough a year is a long time. But fleeing Armstrong with her family is the sort of thing that makes you grow up in a hurry."

  "Just like us," April pointed out.

  "Yes, similar," Jeff agreed. "She was in an even smaller community but more limited too. Armstrong didn't have the foreign workers and visitors we got here and the lunar colonies didn't visit back and forth and do business like
we did with the other habitats. They rarely had anyone that wasn't a USNA citizen, and they really hid how tightly they would be controlled until they got there. They didn't send people back to Earth for having kids, but it wasn't encouraged either. They probably would have shipped them back if somebody hadn't latched onto the kids as propaganda props. She was forced to make nice-nice for the videographer quite a bit growing up and wasn't sure this job wasn't more of the same. Which she regarded as foolishness. They usually made her do hops in the low gravity and other tricks for the camera that were pretty silly. I was told the kids learned to keep a low profile and avoid the Director because he didn't like them."

  "I take it he had none of his own?" April asked.

  "No, and he wasn't married," Jeff said. "Which I was told was another reason he might have been on the moon. You need to be married to advance past a certain point in the USNA military or bureaucracy, and he was a lifelong bachelor. The Armstrong Directorship wasn't considered a position that was on the track for advancement, rather it was a dead end."

  "Well that Director is dead, so they don't have to worry about him anymore. And his successor is living on Home now. I'm not sure at all who is running Armstrong these days," April said.

  "His name is John Rewold, but I've never talked to him," Jeff said. "In fact I don't think Heather has ever spoken to him directly. Last time she mentioned him she said his secretary blew her off a couple times when she called so she gave up and just sends an e-mail to his office if she needs to tell him something."

  "I can understand why he'd be uncomfortable," April admitted. "Given the history."

  "I can understand why he'd be afraid," Jeff said. "Given the history."

  Jeff pretty much cleaned off his plate which April found reassuring.

  Chapter 2

  Annette used to like rice. It had been an occasion treat and change of pace in their diet when she was growing up in Armstrong, the North American moon base. When her family escaped Armstrong and established residence in Central it became even rarer. In Camelot it was the main source of calories. They still had a huge stockpile of it from the Chinese. Like the peasants at home the administrators of the Chinese base, she still couldn't pronounce its old name properly, had always ordered a little more than they used and stockpiled the rest.

  Even in the upper classes hoarding was a deeper cultural instinct of the Chinese than they would ever admit. Of course now it would stretch a lot further because the majority of the residents had elected to return to China. There had only been a dozen who chose to stay and that had removed so many absolutely essential people another dozen had been sent with Annette to keep the base open. Four from Central and six recruited easily from Armstrong and sworn to Heather.

  It had been four months now since the new Chinese government had decided a lunar base was impossible to keep if they could not take armed ships past L1 and ceded it to Jeff Singh. The other Earth powers had not seen that as an obstruction to keeping a lunar presence, but the Chinese government had enough other troubles at home right now without needing the negative cash flow of a base that didn't really return anything but propaganda value. The prestige of scientific achievement and demonstrating it to the rest of the world was less important while there were still doubts about who was going to rule their homeland.

  Back in China there were not only recurrent pockets of trouble from those who did not favor a new regime, or at least not this one, but every minority region on the edges of their empire saw it as an opportunity to secede. Neighboring states saw it as a chance to seize a little territory while their giant neighbor had bigger problems. That would at least be a buffer against China's habit of nibbling at their border when it did get its house in order. The chaos of civil war meant the most important business in China right now was suddenly back to what it had been for millennia, producing the same rice she was so tired of already. It was suddenly much less abundant at home and more important again than a new com pad, electric scooter or exports to the other Earth nations.

  Annette had also grown quickly used to the spaciousness of living under the surface of the moon at Central instead of in prefabricated domes and huts like at Armstrong. If anything the structures and amenities the Chinese enjoyed were inferior to what the North Americans enjoyed. Her mom had assured her it wouldn't be long before they tunneled deep enough for the walls not to need layers of foam and radiant insulation. The rock itself would naturally be at a shirt-sleeves comfortable temperature just a few kilometers deeper. She'd had no idea at the time that she wouldn't see that happening because she was away administering Queen Heather's new territory.

  When she protested she didn't have the experience to be an executive her mom, Dakota, and Queen Heather had kindly but firmly pointed out that she was only a year and a few weeks younger than Heather. They also were very candid in explaining that her inexperience made her the best of several choices to send because they needed the experienced people at Central.

  The handful they were sending along with her had specific technical jobs that would fully engage them and no time for administrative tasks on the side. It was sort of bizarre that being less qualified made her more available when there was a shortage of experienced people but she hadn't been able to think of a reasonable argument against it, sitting there with the queen and her mom. It still seemed a conflict in her mind but they owed everything to Queen Heather and she couldn't turn her down when obviously she needed somebody to do the job.

  The advice Heather had given her worked better than she ever imagined. Heather had pointed out that her own experience was limited. She had considerable talent and ability with electronic design, and her association with Jeff Singh had taught her a lot about nanoelectronic fabrication, but she had no formal training in governance. Annette had always enjoyed history and read much more of it than was strictly necessary for her education. She still had a backlog of it to read on her pad if she ever got a few hours free.

  She had never considered before, as Heather had explained, that many of history's rulers didn't have the luxury of training for the job. Many of them were focused on removing the previous regime and not all of them had any grand vision of what they would put in place of it if they won. Sometimes they were good at fighting but so unprepared to rule once they won that they did a worse job than the tyrants they threw out. The worst of them didn't know when to stop fighting since that was their only real talent.

  Heather said that there was seldom anything that needed an immediate decision. If it didn't involve plugging an air leak, taking cover or shooting back, it could probably wait a few hours. If it was that immediate people usually did what was obviously needed without requiring coaching anyway. If she wasn't sure what to do she could solicit opinions from the locals. Chances were somebody would have an idea what to do. The trick then being that the best choice wasn't always what the majority wanted to do. But an outsider had an edge there in not automatically wanting to do what had always been done, or what came easily to their culture. They had chosen to stay after China abdicated and had no reasonable expectation the new law of Heather's kingdom would resemble Chinese law so she wasn't constrained that way. She could also tell folks she wanted to take time to ponder it and most would take that for wisdom rather than indecisiveness if she projected the proper demeanor. At worst she could use the delay to call Heather and ask what to do, but she was warned not let it be a daily habit.

  The key point Heather made was that Annette was acting with Heather's authority. Nothing she did should undermine that authority. "You are my voice and hand in that place. Act it," Heather ordered. She took her own weapon belt off and hung it on Annette's hip. "You only keep what you can hold," she demonstrated with a clutched fist. "You have the authority and mandate to act for me. Demand respect as if it is me standing there. I will not second guess you or recall you easily. It's not an easy task I'm sending you on. I'm sending you as much for your personality as intelligence or any experience," she confided. "Everybody tells me
you are even tempered and can admit it when you do make a mistake. I've come to value kind and calm over even being smart in people. Smart is wasted on some folks."

  "I'll get another from Jeff," Heather said, when Annette objected to the extravagant gift.

  Annette had taken Heather's warning about calling her to heart, calling her mom instead Heather a couple times for advice. She'd only called Heather once when a couple had decided to separate. Effectively to divorce, although they didn't have case law or decree to deal with it then. They did now. The vehemence of their anger and the irrational accusations of both parties left her doubting she could produce a good judgment. Heather had counseled her that she probably wasn't going to make both of them happy. "If either of them is satisfied by your justice you've probably just found the reasonable one," Heather speculated. It seemed to amuse her.

  She'd found out quickly neither were open to any agreement and their hatred was creating problems for the entire community. Her settlement was first of all a written decree of divorce. It was the first official document of which she had made and signed hard copies to distribute instead of electronic communications or word of mouth. The couple could also not come to any agreement about their property. She had to instruct them to make a list of everything they owned, minus personal clothing, or any items that were family heirlooms, and bring it back to her. She conducted these proceedings in an open court with video saved to the system so anybody could see how her justice worked. When they first returned a list she had refused it. They had listed such things as a tea service piece by piece. They hadn't known yet how she intended to use the list and why that would never work. She patiently explained that things which were not useful divided had to be listed as a set. The everyday plates and silverware or cookware for example could be divided and still be useful to each of them, but something with heavily aesthetic value like a tea service had to remain together.