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

by Mackey Chandler

  "I don't think you have to whisper," Lee told her, "but you probably shouldn't speak at all once they start doing business. I'm not going to," Lee added, lest she think it was just because she was little. Happily, she nodded agreement.

  Gordon managed to fit on the bench. He often opted for the floor over Human furniture. It was like a church pew with no back. Gordon could sit on it but overhang at the back a bit. It was obviously well made since it didn't sag or groan. He put his lower legs out in front of him, ankles crossed, cute little short boots on display. His heavy middle arms he wrapped around so his clawed hands went clear to the sides. His thinner arms and true hands rested on top of the ledge the middle arms made.

  Priya tugged at a claw, which was conveniently at her head level, worrying at it insistently. She could get three fingers fully around the inside curve.

  Gordon ignored it for awhile, then lifted his upper arm and looked under it at her. He spread the claw set she was tugging at and framed her entire head in it rocking his wrist like he was slashing at her and growled low like a motor car starting. Priya squealed in delight and pushed it away. Her mom looked like she wanted to die of embarrassment, but the woman waiting on the opposite bench paled and looked like she might run for the door and forget all about her case.

  "You're good with kids," Shashi allowed.

  "At her age they love to be scared, as long as it isn't too scary," Gordon said. "Also, I can substitute for a pony pretty well, play card games, and serve as a climbing wall."

  "The perfect nanny," Shashi said. "When can you start?"

  "Alas, I'm still raising this one," Gordon said, tilting his head back at Lee.

  When Shashi looked confused Gordon said, "I should have said, back when we were doing introductions, Lee is my daughter."

  "Well of course, silly me, I see the family resemblance now," Shashi said, contrite.

  * * *

  There were two more waiting by the time Dakota came out. She was dressed bright like a Fargoer, which surprised Lee. Shashi explained on the way over that Dakota would come out and speak first before Heather. She didn't look Amerindian, which Lee expected from the name. Very modestly she said nothing about herself. She somehow managed to look so intense it was almost fierce, even without frowning. She walked to the small carpet and faced them.

  "Court is in session this eleventh day of June, 2197. The sovereign of Central will hear your petitions and complaints. Be aware these proceeding are all posted to the public net. If you are not sure if you should be bringing a matter before the Sovereign let me encourage you to examine previous courts to see how matters are handled and explore her thinking.

  "While the Sovereign will arbitrate matters if both parties agree, matters that touch on her justice are decided with no appeal possible. This is a court of life and death, and you ask justice at the risk of your life this day. Subjects are strongly urged to settle minor matters between themselves. Outsiders must consent to her justice to be heard here, but may also be expelled if they reject her justice within her domain.

  "Court has come to be held every Sunday of late due to necessity, so if you wish to wait and reconsider matters before presenting a case it is a short wait. A case may not be withdrawn once started. Our custom is to hear the cases in the order of entry. Attempts at line jumping will severely prejudice your case," Dakota said, with a scary smile.

  "Court will be closed when the last case is heard, and late comers barred." She didn't speak from notes, and Lee suspected there was no set formal script. It certainly wasn't legalese or flowery formal language. When she was done Dakota retreated and stood behind the table.

  Heather looked exactly like the few photos Lee found on the net. She wore no crown and looked like any office worker headed to work. When she sat at the table she laid a laser pistol on the right, angled toward the wall, and a pad on the left, which she tapped to activate something.

  "Step forward to be heard," Heather said, pointing at the carpet.

  The young woman who had an angry scowl stomped forward. It took real attitude for a fifty kilogram young woman to stomp in lunar gravity, but she managed. The young man who was waiting on the opposite bench went forward too, but stood to the side and behind her.

  "I wish my Lady to arbitrate a dispute between myself and my boyfriend," she announced.

  "I remember those sworn to me. I'm not your Lady," Heather informed her. "You have a name? Is that your boyfriend lurking behind you?"

  "I'm Helen Rewold, and I work in accounting for the road system. That's Hank Randazzo, and yes we've been living together near two years. I wish to end the relationship and am unhappy with the terms of doing so that he will accept."

  "Do you wish me to arbitrate this matter Mr. Randazzo?" Heather asked.

  "I do not. We shouldn't be wasting your time. I only came to see to my interests in this case if it escalated beyond an arbitration request. I didn't think it wise to allow Helen to speak without any contrary view available if there are questions raised."

  Heather looked back at Helen. "Arbitration is voluntary. He declines. Unless you want to present a criminal case I have nothing to offer you. Do you have a complaint? Has he refused to let you leave? Now is your chance to run, if he has been keeping you locked in the bathroom. Has he refused to allow you to remove your possessions? I can send security to allow you to recover your clothing or family heirlooms. Things bought jointly, without any contract, you will have to come to an agreement like reasonable adults. If you aren't reasonable adults consider this training towards that desirable goal."

  Helen was momentarily speechless, because she hadn't rehearsed any response to this unexpected turn of events.

  Hank lifted an index finger to draw Heather's eye. When he had it he asked permission to speak. She just nodded.

  "I do not wish arbitration, but I believe I'd like to present a case for justice. The matter is too minor to put before you, but here I am though I'd rather not be, so I may as well present it now and have the matter resolved rather than be back in a week if security will not act on it."

  "Speak," Heather commanded.

  "I wish, please, to have Miss Rewold removed as she is in trespass. I've given her verbal notice and she hasn't complied. Indeed, she changed the access codes yesterday and I had to prove my identity to the house computer to override and get back in my own apartment. I took a change of clothing and went to the Jamison's Bed and Breakfast because I didn't wish to call security late in the day, and Helen already told me she was going to speak to you this morning. I didn't want to be seen as trying to bypass your justice. I'd simply like her and her things gone. If she wants some furniture or cooking pots that's a small price to have peace again. I just ask she take nothing from my family, like my books, that I had before her."

  "You are charged with trespass," Heather informed Helen. "Do you wish to contest it?"

  "He was happy to have me move in!" she objected. "It's closer to my work and he doesn't have hardly anything to pack. He can move much easier than me. It's not like he owns it."

  "You are proposing he should remove from the apartment he occupied prior to meeting you, and allowing you to share occupancy?" Heather asked, a little amazed. She got a shrewd look then and asked, "Have you been splitting the rent? Do you have payment records showing you effectively became joint tenants? Or do you have a place of your own you've maintained while living with him?"

  When she didn't answer Hank did. "She was living with Jim Crossman, who works in the cabbage mines, but we started dating and she asked to switch over. Jim was kind enough to hire a cart and help her move, because she had a ton of stuff. Before Jim, I have no idea where she lived."

  Helen started to object. "I was . . ." Heather cut her off with a slash of her hand. "It doesn't matter. Like arbitration, switching occupancy requires agreement from both parties. That is lacking here so his agreement with housing stands. I'm sure I'm not hearing the real root of this problem, but neither does that matter. Do I need to s
end security to load your things on a cart? If I do I'm going to charge you for both the cart and their time. Or will you vacate peacefully at my order?"

  "How soon?" Helen asked, deflated.

  "Today," Heather said, "Both storage and other apartments are available. There is no reason to delay." She regarded the sulky look and angry silence and thought. "I must warn you. If you create a mess, trash the place while leaving, I would deal with that quite harshly."

  "I'll go," Helen said. "Just for your information, the bastard took my sister out to lunch."

  "Well, I can't accept that as a criminal complaint. I'm curious however, given the level of your anger. Is that a euphemism for slept with her?" Heather asked her.

  "No, but with him it was sure to follow."

  Hank smiled like he'd been complimented instead of insulted.

  "Then this case is resolved. I hope you realize this little soap opera is now a matter of public record. In a few years you may regret its entertainment value. People do search them before committing to contracts with others.

  "Mr. Randazzo!" Heather said before he turned away. "I hope you will think on the fact that your friend Mr. Crossman was so helpful and happy in aiding her to move out. It might be a pattern of behavior you'll see again in life and want to recognize."

  "You're both dismissed," she said. Neither left looking very happy.

  Heather looked directly at Lee. "I believe you are the primary for this group?"

  Lee stood but didn't go to the carpet.

  "We wish to have a discussion with you as a principal party. We are neither petitioners nor seek arbitration. If we have complaints they are above the purview of this court, on matters of state. So I believe they should be confidential and not a matter of public record. We seek a private audience when you've disposed of local justice."

  "We grant that. We will speak with you privately in our quarters. There will be peers and friends present who have leave to advise us. Do you wish to wait there or observe here?"

  The change of form to the formal pluralis majestatis instead of the intimate way she spoke to her subjects put Lee off a little. She had to blink twice before answering.

  "I look forward to meeting your peers and friends, but I fear it would be awkward because we'd be making idle chit-chat and avoiding anything of substance until you join us. I'd just as soon stay and see how you dispense justice a bit more," Lee chose.

  "That makes you next, Larry," Heather said to the fellow in the dirty suit liner.

  "I wish to make a complaint against my supervisor's boss on a matter of safety," Larry said.

  "Have you spoken to the man about it?" Heather asked him.

  "I was ordered directly not to by my immediate supervisor, Paulson. He said he'd told the man the same thing, it wasn't well received, and not to bring it up again because the matter was closed."

  "Safety is always relative," Heather said, carefully. "Can you define to what degree this impacts safety? Is the matter too technical for me to evaluate?" Heather asked. "Or can you explain it in layman's terms?"

  "It's a hazard to life. It could result in the loss of a ship. And it's unacceptable because it is entirely preventable. The only cost is to replace defective software that should have never been accepted and paid for. You know electronics so I can explain it easily."

  "Loss of a ship," had Lee's full attention. She wanted to hear this.

  "I haven't kept up with everything in the field, but run it past me," Heather invited.

  "It's not complicated. The newest upgrade of ship operating software performs a periodic check between the running computer and the two back-ups," Larry explained. "It poses a set of problems to the one running, then saves the answers and does the same thing to the other two in turn. The next time it varies the order of testing leaving a different computer running at the end so it does load sharing. Each one over a period of time performs a similar number of operations and has about the same time on its operating clock."

  Heather nodded, wondering when he was going to make his point.

  Larry looked disappointed she didn't see the problem.

  "Beyond a few very early failures electronics tend to fail after so many operations or hours. Any one may last longer or shorter, but they do graph out as a bump if not a spike," Larry said, drawing a graph in the air with his finger. "If you carefully distribute the time share on three computers they may indeed last longer, but if say, they have a defect that surfaces after five thousand hours, you may find yourself in the ass end of nowhere with a dead computer and two backups that have forty nine hundred and fifty hours on the clock."

  "Oh, crap. I can see it." Heather said. "The old software didn't do that?"

  "No, and for a reason, whoever wrote the old version understood failure modes. I'd have never noticed, but I was looking back through the logs at systems reports and every time I hit the key the number in the right corner of the screen kept changing back and forth, because a different computer was reporting.

  "And this warning was rejected, why?" Heather asked.

  "You'll have to ask them. I was informed I'm not qualified to judge this. The thing is, I won't sign off on a ship that carries that software version. I sort of expect to be fired for insubordination tomorrow if I refuse."

  "This update is how old?" Heather asked.

  "A couple weeks old. Mind you, I'm not saying we'll have ships falling out of the sky right and left because of this. We don't put cheap stuff in ships, but if a ship has three computers carrying the same defective component it could happen. It's worse in a new ship that has computers all built in the same narrow time frame so they share production runs of the same components. The risk is actually worse briefly if a new unknown defect is there that shows up quickly. It not, it might take a few years, or it might never happen. But why take the risk?" Larry asked.

  "Dakota, get me three unrelated experts on this sort of system and software by noon tomorrow. Larry, we'll have a determination before tomorrow is done. You may be called back to testify. I will inform you if your concern is supported or if not a decent explanation why not. I will not see anyone punished for insisting on a review of anything they consider a life threatening defect, even if they are wrong. If you still don't agree you don't have to continue with ships. We have plenty of other important work. If you are correct and it's a danger then it's my problem with which to deal. Does that satisfy you?"

  "Entirely, thank you." He gave a little nod and left.

  "And we come to the last couple," Heather said. She seemed happy about the last part.

  They had been earnestly talking, heads together, while Larry presented his case. The man stood but didn't come forward. "We decided to see if we can resolve this without bothering you. Thank you for being willing to listen," he said. His companion just nodded and they fled.

  "And sometimes you can clear your desk that easily," Heather said, sweeping a hand at the empty bench. "Come back with us and we'll get much more comfortable."

  "I understand the benches being hard and no back to lean on. But why do you sit on a hard wooden chair with no cushion?" Lee asked.

  "Honey," Heather said. "I'm the last one in the room you want to get too comfortable, and start enjoying being here."

  Chapter 24

  Heather's residence wasn't a grand palace. Jeff and his engineer Mo had prevailed upon her to accept something about three times as big as she originally requested. She reluctantly saw all their reasons made sense. When they tunneled down to a depth at which it was a shirt sleeve comfortable temperature any expansion was likely to be horizontal. That meant if she didn't make it big enough at the start it would be very inconvenient to expand later. She might end up needing to move everything out to the expanding edge of their warrens. That would take her away from the center of government activity and the classic court to which they wanted to give her direct access.

  She seemed happy with the compromises now after living there some decades. Heather had insisted they cut h
er cubic at a higher depth, running about four degrees cooler than the the temperature range others were saying was ideal. In her opinion all the human activity would generate waste heat and create thermal pollution. It was up three tenths of a degree in forty five years, so it looked like she was right. A few people said that in a couple centuries they would be installing heat pipes to the higher levels to cool the current level.

  The plans and drawings they showed her neglected to show that they left quite a buffer between her residence and surrounding excavations, both horizontally and vertically. That was her engineer's hedge against need in the far future, and isolation for security. Like her court, Heather insisted the large open spaces in her residence be capable of being closed off to create more intimate, normal scale spaces when there was no need to impress anyone.

  Those panels and screens were all retracted and hidden away now. There were so many people in her home today it was crowded while wide open. There was ample seating and a place set up for drinks both alcoholic and not. There was a buffet table being set up although it didn't have food yet. There were cut flowers several places around the room, an extravagance that impressed Lee. She zeroed in on the coffee and picked a thermal mug so she could linger over it.

  The main room had a dropped center with sculpted tiers and dramatic lighted art dipping from the ceiling. The bottom level had a stone table centered on it, with fossil sea shells in it, polished to glass smooth surface. Most of the guests were keeping to the second and third higher tiers. Heather took the corner of a sofa facing the table when she might have had a massive chair that was more like a throne. Lee was going to take a second tier seat opposite her, but Heather looked right at her, and touched the arm of the matching sofa butted right up against hers. So she took the invitation. Gordon sat beside her.

  Ha-bob-bob-brie stood right behind her, but sideways, back to Heather.

  "Bodyguard?" Heather asked, glancing up at him, and lifting an eyebrow. He was tall and thin so he did rather tower above them when they were seated.