A Hop, Skip and a Jump (Family Law Book 4)

by Mackey Chandler

  "Indeed, I read my mail at my leisure. I am not its slave. I also run a search every three or four days with a filter to see who has sent me multiple messages on top of the other filters. If it's really important they will keep trying," Gordon assured her.

  "I never thought to do that. I read mine every day," Lee frowned and thought about it. "What if it's really important?"

  "What is that important?" Gordon asked. "Even if the Earthies declare war on us they can't get here in four days, and I doubt they'd politely send a drone ahead to inform us, more likely they would just appear in our skies uninvited."

  "That's kind of what I'm worried about. Read the letter, please," Lee asked, more politely.

  Gordon read it, and then by what his eyes did, Lee was pretty sure he went back to the top and read it through a second time.

  "I just don't get the same sense of urgency you do," Gordon insisted. "Yes, they are getting reorganized and recovering from the little rebellion they had. But it's a huge bureaucratic organization. I think you can expect them to decide what to do and actually implement it in months, not days. I wouldn't rush to leave without normal crew or provisioning. I don't have people on notice for short recall."

  Lee took a deep breath. "Whatever you consider a reasonable time," she allowed.

  "Are you sure you don't want to come along?" Gordon asked someone off camera.

  "I've had my fill of traveling for awhile," a familiar voice said.

  That was interesting. Gordon was with the Third Mother, and they appeared to be at an outside snack bar that was for between meals and for socializing. It used to be shaded by trees, but since they were all killed in the war they'd put up a sort of pavilion.

  "I'll ask them to try for a departure sometime on the third day from today," Gordon said. "It's a good exercise actually. I want see if there's anything important they can't have ready."

  "It's short notice for Sally," Lee worried. "I hope she doesn't have a bunch of bank business she needs to wrap up."

  "Sally would be the last person I'd worry about," Gordon said. "My impression was she is a very free spirit. I'd bet that if we called her at the bank right now and said we were on our way to pick her up she would walk out the door without as much as a toothbrush. She'd figure they will sell tooth brushes wherever she is going. I expect she has a house keeper, as old and busy as she is. She certainly could afford one."

  "I'm looking forward to knowing Sally better," Lee said. "I think it will be beneficial."

  "In what way?" Gordon asked.

  "She's the oldest naturally aged Human I know. If I understand how that has formed her thinking maybe it will help me understand the people who are even older from life extension."

  Gordon did that little combination head tilt and roll that was his gesture to concede a point. "Maybe it will, though one is a very small sample from which to draw conclusions."

  "Well it's all I've got," Lee pointed out. "I was just starting to see some differences in the Fargoers who had life extension, but that was mostly physical signs of aging. Don't you think there will be personality changes too?"

  "I'd actually hope so," Gordon said. "There's a pretty good fraction of the population that would benefit from an attitude adjustment. And then there's the other sorting factor."

  "What's that?" Lee asked, not missing that his expression shifted to amused.

  "If you are an unreformable fool, time will catch up to you and you'll die from doing something foolish. The surviving group should thus be improved."

  "I like that about you," Lee said. "You're always optimistic."

  * * *

  "A two day recall? Do they think we are military?" Captain Frost complained.

  "I had the distinct impression you thought we should be better than military. Not to mention this morning you were complaining about sitting on your butt with nothing to do," his XO Wong reminded him. Their relationship allowed such bluntness.

  "Yes, yes, but that's me. I don't have a life planet-side. I can be ready to boost for jump in two hours," Frost claimed. "I don't even unpack my ship kit. But some of my people will be at less than optimum readiness on a two day call-up," Frost said.

  "Hungover, dehydrated and sleep deprived," Wong said, "victims of too much fun to hear them tell it. I've never figured out how that's fun, but I seem to be in a minority that way. We won't have to fight our way out of the Derfhome system, so by the time we run to jump and enter another system they will be on the third round of sobriety pills and able to hold their eyes open for seconds at a time. At that stage I'm not sure they aren't more dangerous hungover than sober. Killing anything that makes the battle board flash at them and sound shrill alarms must seem the natural thing to do."

  "I'll never know," Frost admitted. "Too much to drink just makes me go to sleep, and when I wake up I feel fine."

  "I will keep your secret," Wong promised. "You must never brag on that to crew, because I can assure you it will cause any number of them to hate you deeply, especially if you are so unwise that you inform them of it in your normal cheery tone, while they are suffering."

  "Thank you XO. That's your job to advise me."

  * * *

  "This gravity altering material . . . what was it supposed to have been if it had been mixed properly?" Musical asked.

  "A high temperature superconductor," Born said. "It's the same elements, just in different proportions. It is a high temperature superconductor, though not nearly as good as what it was supposed to have been. If you are thinking of calculating the ratios of atoms in possible molecules, you should be aware a number of people have pursued that idea, and not found a single possible structure. In Human chemistry tech they count atoms in MOLES, which is related to what they call Avogadro's number if you want to do searches for their techniques."

  "I wasn't thinking of trying to reproduce the effect in a new material," Musical said, "but superconductors are hardly a new technology. They are often difficult to fabricate. What are the chances there may have been other gravitationally anomalous materials produced that were never of a size or shape to demonstrate odd gravitational behavior? Or even just never handled or tested in a way that would make those properties obvious?"

  "Yes," Born agreed, "but there are so many we probably couldn't check them all. Many would have been quickly discarded as failures. Some would have been simply steps along the way to a superior product, and nobody would have kept the old samples. It would cost a great deal to reproduce all those old materials that never panned out. That still leaves us hundreds of known materials to examine which are recent enough we might still get samples or they are available commercially."

  "Fine, let's do another search, but for a start filter it to those materials using the same elements as your gravity plate alloy, or if there aren't many of those, expand it to those using one additional ingredient," Musical suggested. "If nothing shows up, perhaps Miss Anderson will fund some recreation of older materials that closely meet the criteria. I have little doubt she would spend the money if we could show her a promising path forward."

  "I agree," Born said nodding enthusiastically, "but let's see what we can find using the spending authority we already have. If I may suggest, include New Japan in the search this time. I understand they have put more effort into superconductor research than the Earthies. Basic research on Earth has stagnated given the entrenchment of protected industries that new discoveries would only upset. I don't think New Japan followed that economic model."

  Both their pads beeped at the same time and they laughed before they looked.

  Born and Musical

  I'll be going to Earth in approximately three days to conduct some negotiations for the Mothers of Red Tree. Please carry on with your research, and don't make the extraordinary effort to report your results to me while I'm so far away from Derfhome. I have no set date to return, but I'll contact you when we come back in-system and get up-to-date.

  Lee Anderson

  "Do you want to mentio
n our new idea before she goes?" Born asked. "I'd rather not," he added quickly, so Musical would know where he stood.

  "No, I agree," Musical said. "Let's wait and only mention it if we get some positive results."

  * * *

  "We can lift Tuesday, the day after tomorrow," Gordon promised. "The normal crew all responded, and we shouldn't have to make any emergency substitutions. There aren't any maintenance issues, and fuel and consumables are replenished as a matter of course just in case we want to leave quickly like this.

  "I could have shaved a few hours off it by going with the base provisions always kept aboard, but I do know you appreciate a decent meal. Dried, canned, irradiated and frozen tends to get old fast."

  "Everybody will appreciate that," Lee agreed. "You made sure they had some decent ham and butter pecan ice cream?"

  "You know me too well," Gordon admitted.

  "Do you know if Sally has any favorites she'd appreciate us stocking?" Lee asked.

  "She took me to lunch at a place called Murphy's Coney Island BBQ and Authentic Korean Cuisine. I think she'll eat anything that doesn't eat her first," Gordon concluded. "Do you know what kimchi is?"

  "Sounds like a martial art," Lee decided.

  "No, but it could be weaponized. They make pickled cabbage, not with Earth peppers, but with Devil Horn peppers, and put it on hotdogs. I've had the strangest craving to go back and get them again," Gordon said.

  "Maybe they will sell it take away," Lee suggested. "I'd try some."

  "I didn't think of that. I'll call and see if they sell jars of it," Gordon decided.

  "Earth peppers are OK too," Lee allowed. "I understand they think they are hot. I bet the Sharp Claws will have the ingredients for Devil Horn soup. I hope so at least."

  "You are one of the few Humans I know who have eaten Devil Horns twice," Gordon said.

  "Fresh produce is nice, but are we full up on X-head missiles?" Lee asked.

  "Two in the tubes and four in the magazine," Gordon confirmed.

  Lee just nodded, satisfied.

  Now, why did she think of that?, Gordon wondered.

  * * *

  "I just got notice from Gordon that we'll lift Tuesday afternoon," Sally informed her colleague Goldilocks. "Let me show you my current business and hand over access to my files so you can handle them, or parcel them out if they're too much".

  The Bank of Derfhome was an odd institution by Earth standards. It operated in a very loose environment. There weren't a lot of regulations, but the possibility any indiscretion could be addressed by a simple decree from any number of clan Mothers with no appeal possible made them very conservative.

  Their clientele were mostly clans doing business as ranchers and agricultural producers, and a smaller number of individuals doing the same in trade zones or unclaimed areas. A very minor part of their business was from fishermen and artisans in the trade towns and the retail suppliers who serviced them.

  Farming wasn't as heavily mechanized and automated as Earth, and the fishing industry had no huge mother ships. In many ways the Derf economy and industry resembled that of Earth a hundred years ago. The clan system kept the economy fragmented and very conservative. There was a strong tendency to use equipment and systems until they were worn and had their investment repaid, rather than update to more efficient systems quickly, since the Mothers usually had a surplus of labor to their needs.

  "Here is my password," Sally told her. "Go to the folder Current Projects and it lists everything I'm working on at the moment. Each project has progress notes, and my take on the strengths and weaknesses of each deal, as well as what my hopes and intentions for the ultimate outcomes. If the personality of the customer is a concern there are notes on my appraisal of their conflicts or sensitive issues. I've cut down my work load quite a bit from say five years ago, so I'm not dumping all that much on you."

  "You have eight deals being negotiated?" Goldilocks said. "I'm only working six right now."

  "Yes, but you have a family and a life," Sally pointed out. "Work is my life right now. You can feel free to choose which to handle and spread the rest around."

  "I'm surprised. Most of these things, like customer profiles I just keep in my head."

  "I've been detailing everything like this for about a decade, Dear. When a Human gets past the eighty year mark, the chances that you that you won't wake up any morning really increase. I just couldn't take the chance I'd leave you a mess because I was too lazy to make a few notes."

  "That's remarkably kind," Goldilocks complimented her.

  "Everybody should do it," Sally said. "When I was younger I'd have said, 'You never know but you'll get run over by a bus.' Now the buses or taxis are so smart it would be hard to get one to run you over, even if you tried."

  "You make me think we should make this bank policy," Goldilocks said, thoughtfully.

  "Yes, but don't detail how thoroughly they must document things. Give possible examples to copy if they wish. But if you demand too much of people they don't see as immediately productive you'll get resistance and resentment," Sally said.

  "And when you come back?" Goldilocks asked.

  "Let's not worry about that until it happens," Sally said.

  * * *

  Heather and Jeff were cuddled in one corner of a big leather couch, real leather, an expensive perk of the royal household. Not from Earth, right next door, it was from a colony world where such things were dirt cheap. Their transport was cheap enough to not ruin the bargain, and they didn't have to worry about hidden spy devices, or worse. They probably wouldn't buy a couch assembled from Earth, just components they could inspect closely. If they x-rayed every section of frame and fastener, and treated the cushions and covering with electronic killing fields they might trust it. It was so much easier to buy from a small shop on an agricultural world outside Earth's political sphere.

  There was music playing and the wall showed an environmental video of a world they claimed, beyond the reach of most Human drives. It was the second living world they'd found off in the Beyond that would take a couple years to reach with a conventional jump drive. It was a world of scattered oases on two large dry continents, so it was named Oasis. The video showed a balloon tree shedding its fruit. It looked like it was releasing soap bubbles.

  The screen dinged and showed an icon in the corner. It wasn't intruding. They'd enjoyed the morning off to themselves to relax and enjoy each other's company uninterrupted. Heather had become much better about delegating duties and resisting the urge to micro-manage things around the clock. April wasn't there to share the morning, being off at the other living world they'd found, Haven. It was almost lunch time and the end of their morning or Heather wouldn't have set the screen back active.

  "New data dump," Heather mentioned to Jeff. "Can we look at the headers?"

  "It wouldn't ding if there wasn't some priority stuff. Look at it or you'll just fret."

  "Thank you," Heather said, but she just ordered it to scroll slowly and didn't leave him yet.

  The Threes' officers, agents, and spies were all were required to rate the importance and immediacy of their reports from one to ten. Anything less than a nine or ten could wait until after lunch, but they were getting an idea how busy their afternoon would be and a rough idea about what. One nine got sent to the System Bank, one merited a one word reply – "Yes."

  Jeff stopped the scroll because one was unrated. That stood out more than a ten. The header said: "Derfhome researchers submit new wave of data searches on changed topics."

  Jeff lifted an eyebrow. "Go ahead, I wonder about that too," Heather admitted. "Whoever wrote that header should get a bonus. It's quite succinct."

  "They aren't asking about quantum phenomena now," Jeff said surprised. "They've moved on to super conductors, and they are concentrating on Japan mostly."

  "Why would they do that?" Heather asked.

  "Well Japan has been a bit ahead of everybody on superconductors . . ." and he looked
off with that thousand meter stare he got sometimes, but it became more and more unhappy.

  Heather just waited. She knew it was counterproductive to pump him now.

  "And, my Mum's quantum fluid is superconducting." Jeff finished.

  "Is that unusual?" Heather asked.

  "More like inexplicable," Jeff said. "None of the current theories on superconductivity can adequately explain a liquid one. I'm just really upset about this."

  "Because they're getting too close with this line of thought?"

  "No! Upset with myself, because I should have thought to research this line of thought long ago. It seems obvious, in hindsight. I still have an advantage one way. It's a Derf and a Badger working for Lee. I'd bet they don't have any Japanese. English is exotic enough for them. They will only have easy access to papers translated to English, and the machine translations are still pretty horrible. My father gave me a huge gift in making me learn technical Japanese as a teen. I'll do the same sort of searches, but I can cast a wider net than they can," Jeff vowed.

  "You know . . ." Heather said slowly and thoughtfully, "I'd search New Japan too. They seem to be ahead of Old Japan in weapons tech. They might be ahead in superconductivity."

  Jeff looked alarmed anew at that. "I don't have anybody in New Japan to know if they are searching there too. I'm not even sure if Chen has any agents there. Do you have any way to find out if these two are requesting papers from New Japan?"

  "I don't. I don't think even April has any contacts there," Heather said. "The only thing you might do is check to see if they publish a general report on how many inquiries in various areas they receive. If there is a sudden peak of inquiries about superconductivity I think you would be safe to assume it's Lee's guys. You could get Chen to start infiltrating there, but it would be awhile before you get any useful results."

  "It's just impossible to have spies everywhere," Jeff said. "Even using April's method of only paying bonuses for information, but not keeping people on retainer. There are simply too many countries and too many planets to have agents everywhere. Intelligence is almost twenty percent of our expenses already."