Not With A Whimper: Preservers

by D. A. Boulter

  “Yes,” Matt agreed. “The readings aren’t even close to the calculated values.”

  “No one has attempted to move anything like Haida Gwaii into hyperspace. She’s big and hardly symmetrical. We weren’t supposed to attempt jump before we completed her.” Jaswinder took a swallow of orange juice. “What does Bill Tannon say about the higher orbit?”

  “The Tannons, Paxtons, and the rest of the Families agree. And we’re working as fast as we can to complete the outer shell.” Matt shifted in his chair, obviously wanting get up and moving. He glanced around before continuing. “The Families have made preparations for abandoning FTL-1.”

  “We sweated blood to get that station up and running in face of TPC antagonism,” Jaswinder protested. Matt said nothing. “But it looks so calm.”

  Matt turned his palms up. They rose together.

  “You had a vid-call from Earth, Jazz. An old friend noted that you entered the system, and wanted to send his regards.”

  “Old friend?” She couldn’t recall any old friends from Earth who might want to talk with her.

  “Colleague, then. You remember a Harold Preston?”

  Jaswinder smiled in fond remembrance. “You owe him, Matt. Without him, you’d never have gotten me.”

  Matt stopped abruptly. “You’ve never mentioned this before. If the Family owes him, we’ll have pay off that debt. Maybe even get him up here.”

  Matt’s reaction had Jaswinder looking up sharply. “You mean it?”

  “Of course. We Yrdens pay our debts. This one has waited for too long already. As for getting him up here, we don’t want anyone going down who doesn’t have to. So, if he’s amenable, we’ll bring him up to find out how we can repay him. At a minimum, I must thank him personally.”

  Jaswinder thought back. “He must be in his 70s by now.”

  “If he’s healthy enough to take a shuttle, I’ll arrange it. Talk to him. The calculations can wait an hour.” He kept pace with her.

  “Now?” Jaswinder wondered at his insistence. He’d been pushing her hard to work on an equation that might see Haida Gwaii jump unscathed to hyperspace, hardly giving her time to do anything else. Now he wanted her to take an hour to renew an acquaintance that had lasted only minutes?

  “Now,” he confirmed. “This is important – it’s the principle our Family is based on. I’ll walk you to the comm room.”

  And so he did. She took one of the privacy booths, and Matt inputted the return address of the call Preston had made. She brought forward the memory of the man, and his face appeared before her inner eyes.

  A much older-looking Preston appeared on the screen.

  “Professor Preston, good to see you,” Jaswinder said.

  Preston peered at the screen, where he saw her face. His face relaxed into a smile. “Ah, Professor Saroya. So good of you to call me. I didn’t expect it. Are you keeping in good health?”

  “Yes, Professor, the years have treated me well. And you?” Did he just want to talk pleasantries? Had his sharp mind dulled with age?

  “Pretty good, pretty good. Though the mind does wander from time to time. It’s a failing of old men. Why, just the other day I recalled our last visit. Tell me, do you recall it at all? I remember we talked, but the subject escapes me.”

  Jaswinder stiffened inside, but smiled into the vid. “I remember as if it were yesterday. You suggested that I take one of your courses.”

  Harold Preston beamed. “Of course, of course. It all comes back now. My advice still holds ... though I no longer teach. Perhaps my protégé could fit you into one of her classes. Her name is Helen White. You could sit up in the front row. She’d like that, I’m sure.”

  A whistle sounded in the background.

  “Oh, could you hold on a minute? My water’s ready for my tea.” He disappeared from view.

  Matt turned off the audio-out.

  “I think he’s senile,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Jaswinder shook her head, grey-streaked black hair flowing with the motion. “He’s sending me a message. That’s one sharp old man. You may be right, but I’ll bet my next year’s salary that he’s worried that someone may have access to the call. The course he recommended to me: ‘A Historical Look at the Future’. He believed that we could predict the future by looking at similarities in the past. He suggested it to me when he told me to hide my findings – I had planned about to announce them publicly – and to get off the planet. He figured that if people knew what I had discovered, they’d either try to kill or co-opt me.”

  Matt stared at her. “And that occurred during your last visit with him?”

  “My only visit. The only time I ever talked with him at all. We met just before a conference. Without his advice they’d have caught me. They almost did anyway. And if not for Johannes, they would have.” She looked to the screen. “He’s back.”

  Preston took a sip from a cup of steaming liquid. Matt turned the audio-out back on.

  “Ah, nothing like jasmine tea,” Preston said. “Now, where were we?”

  “You suggested that I take one of Helen White’s courses,” Jaswinder said.

  “I did? But you must have heard wrong. You take a history course? I’d think you’d have enough to occupy your time. No, no, I’m sure I said that Helen would love to talk with you because you’ve actually made history.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But it’s not important – no more important than any of our little talks.”

  So, they’d have to contact this Helen White.

  “Professor Preston, I recall you once mentioning that you wished you could go into space, just once in your life. Would you like to come up for a visit?” Now they’d see the true state of his mind.

  Preston’s eyes sharpened momentarily, and then became vacant as his gaze shifted upwards to something off-screen.

  “Ah, a fancy of my younger years. Yes, I believe I mentioned it in a few of our little talks. But the expense! No, no, I’m afraid I can’t afford it on my pension.” His eyes refocused on the screen, face relaxed in the contemplation. A little wistfulness crept into his voice. “To see the Earth from up there – like in the pictures and vids.” He sighed.

  Matt nudged her, and she pushed over to allow him to join her in the vid camera’s view.

  “Professor Preston, good to see you. I’m Captain Matt Yrden, head of the Yrden Family Line. It would please me no end if you would come up as a guest.” He waved off Preston’s shake of his head. “No, really, it’s no trouble. We have workers coming up here regularly, and we would just add one person to the roster. You’d have to be prepared for at least a two-week stay, I think. Perhaps even a month. After all, you’ll want to experience it without feeling rushed. So, feel free to bring all the things that might make you feel at home.”

  Preston gave a rather vacuous smile. “A vacation. I haven’t had a vacation in many years. Yes, I’d like that. My doctor says I’m fit as a fiddle ... though how fit a fiddle is, I don’t know. My mind just tends to wander a bit.”

  “I’ll have our Earthside representatives arrange everything, and get in contact with you. We’ll have someone accompany you each step of the way – both here and back.”

  Preston cocked his head to the side and looked up again. “Yes,” he said, speaking slowly, “that would be wonderful. A vacation. But it’s always nice to get back home again.” His attention shifted. “Oh, it’s almost time for my favourite afternoon vid program. Perhaps we can talk again later. I must go. Goodbye, Professor Saroya, Captain Yrden.”

  “Goodbye, Professor,” Jaswinder said, but doubted that her words reached him before he cut the connection.

  Matt turned to her. “I’m still not sure.”

  “He never spoke of wanting to go into space, Matt.”

  “Perhaps not, but your suggestion may have created that memory in him.” He waved off her objection. “It doesn’t matter. If he’s as healthy as he says, we’ll bring him up. At worst, we have a doddering fool on our hands for a time. I
’m sure we can find someone to entertain him.” He grinned suddenly. “We could always pawn him off on Bettina, and give him a ride out to Io Station and back.”

  Jaswinder laughed. “Yes, I’m sure with what you’ve given Bettina to do, she’d appreciate that no end.”

  * * *

  London, England

  Sunday 06 June

  Though Marie Kendell appreciated the invitation from Kiera, when she looked at the menu in the window, she wondered if she had the address correct. No way they could afford a place like this. She fondled her braid momentarily, wondering if her friend would show. Then she saw Kiera walking towards her. She answered the younger woman’s smile with one of her own.

  “It’s good to see you,” she said, as Kiera came near. “I’ve missed you at The Corsair.” She looked at Kiera’s clothes, and her eyebrows went up a bit. Those weren’t the second-hand fare that both of them usually wore.

  “I’ve missed you, too, Marie.” Kiera went into the hug. “But,” she whispered, “I don’t miss The Corsair at all. I’m so glad to be gone.”

  “Did you find another job? Geoffrey says that you didn’t even give notice, just sent a note.”

  “Let’s go in.”

  “Here?”

  “Here,” Kiera confirmed, and led the way into the small, but high-end restaurant. “Tremblay. Party of three,” she said to the hostess. “Mr Tremblay will be along shortly.”

  After being seated, Marie looked at the menu. She shook her head. “I can’t really afford this. I’ll just have a salad.”

  “Don’t worry, it’s on me; order whatever you want.” She waved the waitress over and named an impossibly expensive bottle of wine.

  That caused raised eyebrows, and more than a little shock. Surely, Kiera had no intention of trying to walk out on her bill? No, she would never do that to another server.

  “Sidney told me to order that vintage,” Kiera told her. “And he said to start without him if he got delayed.”

  “Who is this mystery man, this Sidney?”

  “You remember the customer you told me to be careful of – that last day?”

  “Of course.”

  “That’s the man. He took me out to the New Globe, then asked me to go home with him. I almost didn’t, but he was nothing but nice to me, caring, and not at all pushy. He even offered to get me a taxi home if I chose that.”

  The waitress arrived with the bottle, and poured for them both.

  “This is good,” Marie said. She took a moment to look around. Their ‘booth’ sat in a recessed little enclave. It had heavy curtains that one could draw across the opening giving them privacy, safe from the sight – and much of the sound – of any others in the place. Luxury that no one in their class could afford. Yet here they sat. She felt uncomfortable.

  “So, you went home with him?” Hardly a doubt there.

  “I did. It felt so good to be away from that ugly flat.”

  Marie grinned. “And your flatmates.”

  “Yes, and them. Even if only for a night.” She looked down, then up into Marie’s eyes, asking for understanding. Then she repeated, “Even if only for a night.”

  “I remember the feeling. Before I met Robert, I would have done the same.” She doubted she would have, but saw her friend’s need – and answered it.

  Kiera smiled wanly. “Thanks for that. You probably wouldn’t have. You’ve always been stronger.”

  Then Kiera sat up straighter. “But it didn’t last just the one night. The next day, Sidney asked me to move in.”

  Which only meant that he wanted what Kiera could provide – her body. And when he finished with it, she’d get tossed again – this time without a job to go back to.

  “And so you sent in your resignation, quit, and moved in. What did your flatmates say?”

  Kiera took a sip of the wine, and Marie followed suit. A very, very good wine.

  “I think they were as happy to see the end of me as I was to see the end of them. They already had someone anxious to take my place.”

  “And your resignation?”

  “Sidney didn’t want me working there.” At that Kiera smiled broadly.

  Yes, Marie knew the type. He wanted Kiera available at all times, not constrained by her schedule. Possibly, he even wanted to isolate her from her friends, from people she knew. A user, she would bet her life on it. But her friend would have to find that out for herself. Marie figured she would have to catch the younger woman when she fell, but she didn’t want to ruin the feeling that she obviously now had.

  She took another sip.

  “He has a whole flat! And an expensive one, at that.”

  Marie nodded. “He’s treating you well?”

  Kiera hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. The hesitation spoke volumes. But her words denied the hesitation and the momentary look on her face.

  “Yes, mostly.” She suddenly turned her head. “That’s him.”

  Marie looked over to see the expensively-dressed man talking to the hostess. He had a nice smile, but Marie didn’t trust it in the least. In his early forties, she judged. Still fit, but putting on a little extra weight. She didn’t have a problem with that. Robert carried a few extra pounds, himself. She did have a problem with the way he dismissed the hostess as only one of The Entitled might.

  “Listen, Marie,” Kiera whispered, an urgency in her tone. “I was tired, so tired that first night. But the way Sidney took to what he thought he saw told me something about the kind of woman he wanted. So, if I seem a little air-headed today, don’t give me away.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Really, I’m happy. I don’t have to work, and it feels so good to not be tired or worried all the time.” She looked up and smiled, some of the intelligence disappearing from her face. “Hi, Sidney. This is Marie. I told you about her.”

  CHAPTER 6

  London, England

  Friday 11 June

  Sidney Tremblay breathed a sigh of relief as the train carrying him and two of his new investigators came to a stop in London.

  “Thanks, Mr Tremblay,” the new agent, Peter Smythe, said as they disembarked. “You really know your stuff.”

  He shrugged as they headed for Customs. With their Euro-passes, they would have no trouble re-entering the UK. “As I told you in Theory, our goal is to get the job done. In this world with increasing nationalism, it pays us to not upset any authorities. The French gendarmes don’t like it if we harass their citizens – even when they break the law. So, we remain respectful of the law-breakers, remain reasonable at all times.”

  Smythe nodded. “I saw the difference in attitude of the officers after we made contact with the seeder. The way you approached her, never threatening, never disparaging, encouraging her to use our seeds – and giving her the gift-pack – dissolved all their initial hostility.”

  They walked through the tunnel to the customs area, and entered the line reserved for members of TPCs. The elite.

  “Exactly,” Sidney replied. “And next time – if there is a next time – that we deal with that particular force, we won’t get the same hostility at the start. And, if trouble arises, they’ll come in on our side.” He turned to the other trainee. “What do you think Hugh?”

  Hugh Braxton, about ten centimetres taller than Sidney, and carrying a good fifteen more kilos, frowned. “She broke the law, Mr Tremblay. The gendarmes have the duty to back us up. I think we should have made an example of Mme Lavale.”

  “I see.”

  Braxton would never fit in Tremblay’s division. But the Old Man had chosen him, and thus Tremblay decided to let this go.

  “Tell you what, Hugh,” he said amiably as he held out his pass to the customs agent, who ran it through his scanner. “When you go out on your own, you do as you see fit – and write up your reports in full, leaving nothing out. After a year we’ll compare the results of those who feel like you and those who feel as I do about technique. It should prove instructive.”

 
Hugh stared at him.

  “Give the man your pass,” Sidney said mildly. Hugh jerked, and handed the card over to Customs and Immigration.

  “Do you really mean that?” Hugh asked as the three of them headed for the Tube.

  “Of course I do. Everyone makes the job into something where he or she feels comfortable. I don’t expect you to become more Sidney Tremblays in all but name. You’re not handsome enough.”

  The two other men laughed at that.

  “But I do expect you all to do what’s best for Agri-Inc. And if we discover that one method works consistently better for Agri-Inc. than another, that’s the method that we’ll follow. And if your method works better, we’ll change the protocols for everyone.”

  Like hell they would. He’d keep a close eye on Braxton – and the other two who felt as Braxton did. And, when the complaints started coming in from the officers of the police forces they needed to cooperate with, he’d see the three of them fired – or at least moved into positions where they could do the least damage. Stupid bastards. He’d worked a couple of decades to achieve smooth relationships with everyone who could help them. He’d not see three oafs ruin all that.

  “Well, gentlemen, I’m for home. I’ll see you in the office tomorrow. Do write up your reports – no, not now. Take the evening off. I’ll want to see the reports tomorrow afternoon. Training’s done. Next time you’ll be on your own.”

  Sidney left them in the station, taking his train home, where Kiera waited for him. At least she’d better be waiting. With the two trainee agents along, he’d had no opportunity to take it easy on this latest trip. He’d want her as soon as he’d had a chance to relax with a drink.

  A fortuitous find, young Kiera. Life had made her ready for a man like him to take advantage of. He offered her things she could otherwise not obtain, and she showed her gratitude in every way that he wished her to. He chuckled to himself, attracting the attention of the man sitting across from him, who raised an eyebrow. He ignored it, but kept a better rein on himself.