by Ginger Booth
“Cope, shake a leg,” Teke insisted.
“We’ll catch up,” Cope replied. “Take Nico with you. Ben, watch him.”
The captain nodded. He didn’t pause in getting his gear slotted. He made sure Nico did likewise.
Teke opted to argue. “This reception is for me. And my son. Hero’s return.”
Zan growled, “Man died, Teke. For your ego.” Their hunter crewman slammed the physicist into the wall.
“Zan!” Ben barked. “Move on.” Ben stared him down until Zan pushed through into the showers.
They should have taken a bio lock tank between Prosper and the dome. Waterfalls offered. Sass and the Thrive contingent agreed to whatever the city thought was best. But no, Teke insisted he be ‘treated like a competent adult.’ He was rusty at living Denali-style, but fully trained. So the Prosper crew took the hard way.
Except local wildlife control had degraded since last they visited the city by the glorious river falls. Cope and Ben hadn’t bargained for this kind of terror run. Sass and Abel hadn’t left their ship yet, the Thrive. But they’d beat Cope by half an hour by the time he made it through the multi-step decontamination process.
Ben pushed Teke through the door to face Zan, but tarried a moment himself. “Cope, you can only go forward here.”
“I know,” Cope agreed. “He’ll be OK. Just need the world to go quiet for a minute.”
Ben nodded. “He’s staying on Mahina. While we go to Sanctuary and Cantons.”
Cope tipped his head and hugged Sock tighter. “Children aren’t forever, Ben.” All too soon his youngest would be a mouthy teenager, and never sit on his lap again.
“Our lives are in space,” the captain countered. “Nico and I need you. Thrive Spaceways needs you. Sock needs a safe place to go to school.” With that, he left Cope and Sock alone.
“Everyone’s mad at me.” Sock’s reedy voice shook on the edge of tears. “I’m sorry, Daddy!”
“Hush, sweet one,” Cope crooned. “I’m not mad at you. Dad Teke just wants to show you off. He’s proud of you.”
He wasn’t convinced by his words either. But finally, with the two of them alone, he helped the boy strip out of the strange outfit. They sorted their things into the cleaning holes. They drank deep from the fountain, slightly orange with a tang of iron.
“I’m going to shave my head,” Cope volunteered. “Gets us through the steps faster.”
Sock rubbed his hair unhappily. If Cope wasn’t mistaken, the child already sported ocher patches of bakkra, the tell-tale color of fear. Better get him into the showers quick.
“It’s cooler in here,” Sock murmured, as they passed into their first of several scrub-downs.
And it was. Cope was amazed. Despite clouds of steam clogging the next stage, the temperature was cooler than he remembered even in winter, an almost comfortable 85 Fahrenheit – below 30 Celsius.
“Daddy, I don’t like Denali. Dad Ben was right. I should’ve stayed home.”
The boy quietly wept while Cope shaved his head bald. It was less hassle than shampooing three times with tar soap to kill the rego bakkra. The engineer consoled himself that at least the child didn’t ask why Uncle Zan killed the other hunter. Mercy killing, Cope hoped.
2
Five weeks before this trip to Denali, at Mahina Orbital, Cope invited, “Let’s start simple. Name the new ship.”
The original crew of Thrive sat reunited in Prosper’s dining room. They arrived yesterday from the planet Sanctuary, eight light years away. The exception was onetime starlet Kassidy Yang, who held the fort on this end at MO. He called them here to talk business before they headed down to the moon and scattered.
Business-wise, they were now the principals of Thrive the ship, Thrive Inc. the conglomerate, and Thrive Spaceways, Cope and Ben’s shipping and spaceship upgrade company. Kassidy added Yang&Yang Nanoceuticals, makers of the leading self-healing and anti-aging nanites, dubbed Yang-Yangs.
“Less ‘Thrive’,” Kassidy critiqued.
“Not at all!” Abel Greer argued, president of Thrive Inc. Not long ago, Spaceways was a subsidiary of his company. Abel footed the bill for fuel and cargo when Prosper left in a tearing hurry for Sanctuary to save the original Thrive. “After all we’ve done for Mahina, ‘Thrive’ is a power word. I say the entire fleet should be named ‘Thrive’ plus. Thrive One, Thrive Prosper, Thrive whatever for the new one.”
Captain Ben Acosta of Prosper, co-owner of Thrive Spaceways, stood to the display and transcribed these suggestions as Thrive One, Prosper Thrive, and XXX Thrive. “My ship is Prosper. Sass flies Thrive.”
“Hear, hear,” Captain Sass Collier of Thrive concurred.
Ben continued, “But why naming the ship is first on our agenda, I don’t know.”
“The MO docks demand it,” Sass explained. She flew Unnamed into dock yesterday. “I promised we’d correct the paperwork before we leave. They want a company name, registry, and home port. Currently Unnamed belongs to ‘Thrive,’ unspecified, and unknown.”
Ben chuckled. “So what’s the plan for the new ship, Cope? Sell it? Piggybank Thrive.” He added the suggestion to the brainstorming list, along with Sanctuary Thrive.
They’d accepted Unnamed from a grateful world for liberation from their out-of-control artificial intelligence, the AI Shiva. This was the same model as Prosper and Thrive. In exchange for another new ship, they promised to return to Sanctuary and provide warp transit for a courier to visit the world Cantons, previously unknown to Aloha space.
Cope unveiled the rest of his agenda:
Business model
Warp gateway
Return Sanctuary, Cantons
Who goes?
When?
Stay at Cantons and wait?
“Denali,” Abel commented.
Ben added Denali Thrive to his burgeoning list. “Shouldn’t we start with Mahina and Aloha? Maybe even Pono and Sagamore before we need Denali. That’s quite a fleet.”
He added these suggestions to the list, their home moon, the other colonized moon Sagamore, the gas giant Pono they orbited, and the star system Aloha. All were closer than the hothouse planet Denali at the far side of Aloha’s Goldilocks zone of liquid water. Mahina held liquid water, anyway. Sagamore was too cold, and Pono too hot. Even Mahina required decades of terraforming to support liquid water on its tidally locked Pono face. The star side still froze solid during its 3.5 day night.
“Not what I meant,” Abel clarified. “For Cantons, you need another cargo, plus fuel. So first I contact Aurora and we pop over to Denali. She’d pay big.” He added for Ben’s benefit, “That’s part of the piggy bank, how to turn Unnamed into cash.”
Ben added Cash Thrive to the naming contenders.
Cope grinned at him. “You’re having entirely too much fun.” He stepped out from the screen for a better angle to view his husband’s side. “Gateway Thrive. To outfit as a warp gateway for ships and cargo.” Including ‘popping’ to Denali, a voyage that once took them 18 grueling months, and nearly cost their lives.
“And passengers,” Abel suggested. “Merchant Thrive for the name.”
Cope pursed his lips. He hadn’t considered passengers. “Does Mahina get a say in this?”
“No,” Ben stated categorically. “They never kept the Saggies out.”
Cope rocked his head so-so. “They tried.”
“Friendship Thrive,” Sass offered. “Abel, can Aurora pay for a trip home?” This had been the sticking point for over a dozen years now. The Denali envoy Aurora failed to make it worth anyone’s while.
“But what does it cost us?” Jules reasoned, Abel’s wife. “Some fuel, a few days.”
Cope shook his head. “Have we forgotten bakkra? The depth of that gravity well? Risking life and limb?”
“One day transit,” Teke pointed out, annoyed. The physicist hadn’t been on the original crew. At age 17, he stowed away for Thrive’s trip home from Denali. Since then he developed the scientific framework that permitted
them to return in days instead of a year and a half round trip.
Probably, Cope quibbled. “That’s what this meeting is about. We have our new warp gateway. A spare ship. We can get from Mahina, to Denali, to Sanctuary, to Cantons, in days.” That was three star systems! “Now that we’ve proven the tech, how do I turn this into a business model? How much do we charge Aurora? And what does she pay us with?”
“Stuff, crawling with bakkra,” Ben quipped beside him. “Bakkra Thrive.”
Cope smirked, but had to agree. “That factors into the pricing. We need to decontaminate anything shipped from Denali. And anything they want to ship out costs big in fuel to lift it to orbit.”
Their staff botanist Eli quibbled, “We don’t know that bakkra would survive Pono space. Arkship Thrive, Ben.”
“Apprenticeship. Comradeship,” Ben added.
Kassidy played along. “Showmanship. Internship. Brinkmanship.”
“Enough with the ships,” Cope growled. “Abel, back up. Why do we visit Denali, to return to Sanctuary, before going to Cantons? This operation is getting extreme.”
Teke cut in before Abel could answer. “I want to go home. Show my homeworld to my son. Take Quire and the others home if they want to go. Maybe stay myself for a while. Then you’d be sure to come back.”
Cope met his partner’s eyes. They’d invented their new instantaneous warp gateway together. They created a son together, too, Socrates. That was romance-free, and raising the boy was usually hands-off on Teke’s part.
The Denali gazed back defiant.
“Really? That’s why you did it, Teke?” The physicist discovered one of the greatest inventions in human history. The warp gate could change everything. If he wanted to use it for a trip home to Denali, Cope felt honor-bound.
“It’s why I thought about it,” Teke admitted. “Wouldn’t it be nice to visit Denali again, if it wasn’t such a big honking deal to go? If everyone could enjoy yam noodles with ginger and turmeric, and proper sarongs. Eventually one thought led to another.”
Abel quipped, “I’m not sure yam noodles would cover the shipping cost.”
“I absolutely need authentic yam noodles,” Ben insisted. “For a proper Aloha three-world ramen bowl.” He added Ramen Thrive to the list. “Motivational,” he quipped to his husband.
Maybe Cope’s ice-breaker exercise was too silly. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. Where was I? “Profitable journey. New bread and butter business for Spaceways. For one ship, anyway.”
He hesitated and thought that through. Would he really want Ben to go to Cantons without a second gateway ship to come get him if he were in trouble? He needed two, at least. Further, if Cope went along with Ben on the same ship, Prosper, who exactly would he entrust with his proprietary gate technology? Sass and Clay he would trust absolutely, but would they want to stay behind or go to Cantons?
“Sass, are you staying near Mahina?”
Sass sat up eagerly. “If you’re offering one-day transit to Denali, I’m with you! In fact, are there any other ship captains trading in the rings these days?” She was the first. But she’d been gone eleven years now.
“Two more,” Ben offered. “Gorky, and your old pirate pal Lavelle.”
“How’s he doing?”
Cope flicked a video clip on the big screen of Captain Pierre Lavelle officiating at his re-wedding with Ben last month. The dashing pirate’s black hair now shone steel grey, his mischievous grin pushing smile wrinkles. He had nanites now, just set them older than the standard age 25, as Cope did himself. “Good man.”
“No longer a pirate,” Sass mused. “We’re in for a world of shock when we reach Mahina, aren’t we?” Her partner Clay squeezed her hand in solidarity.
“Yes and no,” Cope allowed softly. “Three steps forward, two steps back. Schuyler is unrecognizable. Sixty thousand people now.”
Abel got back to business. “Let me talk to Aurora for you. And Lavelle and Gorky, why not. Though you shouldn’t take both. Is this the shakedown cruise for Merchant Thrive?”
Cope spread a hand to invite Sass. “We got two captains qualified to break in that ship. But you have your own ship.”
She looked to Clay. He shook his head, and pointed to Abel. On the way home from Sanctuary, Clay served aboard Thrive – Thrive One – as first officer. But Abel served as acting captain. “Need to think about it,” Sass hedged.
“All of this,” Cope agreed, with a wave at his agenda. “Just want you all to think about it. Cantons is a long trip. Longer if we add Denali. Longer still if we stay while the Sanctuary folk check the place out. Abel, you’re on board?”
Abel cocked an incredulous eyebrow. “Cope, you suck at business. I’ll set up the trip to Denali.”
“And develop the cargo manifest for Cantons,” Jules added. “I’m in, too.”
Abel suggested, “Honey, one of us should stay here.”
“No sirree, bub.” Everyone stared at Jules. She shrugged, unrepentant. “The risk was over the top on our last trip to Denali. Boredom and terror. But Abel, if you want real commerce between worlds, we gotta tame the risk. Multiple ships. Backup. And above all, product selection.”
Cope traded glances with Ben. He had mixed feelings about bringing the Greers. Abel and Jules were wizards at business. But they’d always win bigger than Cope. Ben quirked a sad smile of understanding. You want the best, you pay them.
Cope nodded. “Welcome aboard, then. Eli?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” the botanist assured him. “I want to revive Earth species throughout the human worlds. You’re going my way.”
Clay Rocha, Sass’s partner and first mate, volunteered, “I bet Zelda and Porter are game for Denali. I don’t recommend Husna Zales.” These were the science trio Thrive brought along to Sanctuary. Husna was senior, but hardly a team player.
“Good to know,” Cope acknowledged, making a note of it. “And you, Clay? Sass?”
Sass nodded slowly. “I can tame Unnamed Thrive for you. See how Denali and Mahina have changed. We’re committed to see Sanctuary situated?” She looked to Clay for confirmation.
“Thank you,” Cope whispered, emotion stealing his voice.
Sass shook her head. “You saved our butts on Sanctuary. We owe you. We’ll see this through. Whatever you need.”
Ben quipped, “Even if you have to take orders from me?”
“That’ll take some getting used to,” Sass conceded with a smile.
“We’ll make it work,” Cope assured her. “Kassidy, old pal?”
“You just try and leave me behind!” Kassidy assured him. “I regretted every minute you were gone. Eli, you’re right. Yang-Yang doesn’t need me.”
She stayed at MO to set up Yang&Yang headquarters out of fang’s reach of the musical chairs government down on the moon. But Kassidy’s heart didn’t lie in facilities planning. Her usual job was marketing for a product that sold itself.
Eli and Sass traded high-fives with her.
“Excellent! One ship or three?” Cope asked the room. “To Denali.”
Sass mused, “Any chance I could earn one of your new warp gateways for Thrive?”
Cope and Teke shared a glance, and slowly shook their heads. “Closely held. For now.”
“Revisit after Cantons,” Abel suggested. “Cope, what’s your pick for Unnamed?”
Cope turned to survey the list. “I wanted for a gateway, for commerce. Friendship is how we roll. Ben?”
“I’m hearing Merchant Thrive,” Cope’s husband and lead captain replied judiciously, reviewing the brainstorming list. “I like Gateway, except Prosper is our gateway at the moment.”
“Merchant Thrive it is,” Cope confirmed with a smile. “Meet again in a week? Call me anytime as you get prepared.”
“When are we headed out for Denali?” Sass asked.
Abel replied before Cope could. “Let’s set that as a goal for our next meeting. Have a better idea of when Denali, and when Sanctuary and Cantons. Cope, give me a few
days to work on Aurora and get together a first pass at the cargo wish list.”
“And say hi to the kids,” his wife Jules noted.
“Oh, yeah.” Abel grinned at her.
Cope didn’t answer many of his questions in this meeting. He hadn’t intended to visit Denali before the Sanctuary-Cantons odyssey. But staying in the Aloha system for a Merchant shakedown cruise made sense. They needed the cash. He feared he’d opened the door for Abel to acquire a controlling interest in his company again. But the full Thrive team together again was sure to make for a bigger splash than he and Ben could manage on their own, and a safer one.
It was a start.
And like Jules said, the home front needed attention.
3
“Educational malpractice, you see,” Scholar Hugo Silva attempted to explain, several days later at the Schuyler creche on Mahina. “They’re fifteen but, um, not very bright.”
His son Jens scowled at him. His twin – genetically his half-sister – looked near tears. Minka soothed herself by stepping to face a nice blank bit of wall in the cozy office of cheerful prints. Hugo himself sat on one of two guest stools, red polka-dot mushrooms. He should ask why Mahina was so fond of mushroom furniture. Copeland sat by his side as local translator, while Jules Greer hung by the door.
The creche’s middle school psychologist, Tori Aiken, held up a hand to suggest the awkward dad Hugo stop speaking. Cope advised Hugo that she was an ‘urb’ raised in the privileged city of Mahina Actual. She looked 25, but could be anywhere between 35 and 65 in age.
Tori smiled kindly. “Hugo, I’m an avid fan of Kassidy Yang. She streamed a half-hour special on the, um, ‘educational malpractice’ on your homeworld.” She pointed delicately to his daughter, nose to the wall. “What is Minka doing?”
“When they misbehaved, or got angry, the AI compelled them to face the wall for a time-out,” Hugo explained. “Then the nanites released endorphins to cheer them up.”
Tori’s eyes nearly crossed. But she kept her professional smile in place. “And how long did this go on?”
