13 Degrees of Separation

by Hechtl, Chris

  “That we are,” Clio replied.

  “Clio,” Sparks said turning to her. “Can you spread the good cheer?”

  “That I will,” the AI responded and winked out.

  They talked about the planned test flight the next day. Harif was concerned but Mairi was relaxed. She waved off his concern but when she could still see it clouding his eyes she swatted him, thoroughly distracting him and her from any further worry. When play fight broke up they stared at each other until Sparks called to them. “Yeah, um, coming!” Mairi called, turning her head and then leaving in a rush.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Mairi was stopped on her way home later that evening. She'd tired and decided there had to be a quicker way home. She was good at navigation, so she picked one out. She wanted to shave five minutes off her commute. She tried a new short cut through a darkened passage and now it was going to cost her. Rough hands had her by the arm, she turned suddenly frightened. “What the hell? Let go of me!” she snarled. She kicked, her steel toed boots hammered at someone's shin. The man let go of her arm and howled, hopping on one leg.

  She turned, shrugging off another hand on her shoulder and then cutting into the attacker's space. Her knee came up, ramming home. The man howled, doubling over, hands to his crotch.

  “Kill the bitch! Slice her throat!” the first guy said. The second reached for her but she pirouetted out of his reach. Unfortunately she moved into the first's reach and he caught her again.

  “Clio! Someone!” she screamed, punching for all she was worth. She heard a whistle but her attention was fixed on the shiny knife the second man pulled from the back of his trousers. He held it out, black eyes gloating at her.

  “I'm going to cut this little bitch up. You want red meat or white?” he cackled, still doubling over. He backhanded her a few times, turning her fear into rage and a thirst for revenge. Her red glittering eyes caught his.

  “Oh feisty,” he growled, leering at her as she struggled. “We like feisty don't we Wilcks?”

  “Shut it man,” Wilkes replied, angry that the dumb idiot had used his name. There was no telling where a microphone was.

  “Shit man, no one around,” the second said, spreading his hands and looking around. “Just us. And we're going to party,” he gloated, leering once more. “You gotta pay the toll girly,” he said.

  Mairi felt a hand grab her hair and pull upward. “You're going to pay you blue haired bitch,” she winced as spittle hit her face. Her elbow rammed backwards, glancing off something, most likely a belt buckle.

  “That won't work twice pretty bitch,” the man laughed.

  “Well, lucky for her it doesn't have to,” a familiar voice growled. The man turned, looking over his shoulder. His eyes went wide just as the punch hit him in the kidneys. He grunted and let go of the girl, who shrugged out of her jacket enough to wrap it around her arm. She deflected the knife of the other attacker.

  The man however wasn't focused on her anymore, he was focused on the angry chimp tearing his partner apart. Mairi took advantage of his distraction, disarming him and then rabbit punching him in the balls again. He went down but she wasn't finished, a single blow to his throat made him drop to the deck, gasping.

  “This is Beta, I need back up and medics at this location,” Savo said, pulling plastic cuffs out of his pocket as he sat on the first perp. “You got that one kid?” he asked, brown eyes checking the girl.

  “Yeah,” she said, yanking the perp over onto his side and then his belly. The man gasped with one hand. She dug her knee into the small of his back, twisting his left hand up behind him into a hammer lock. “Thanks,” she said.

  “All part of the service kid. But next time...”

  “Yeah I know, stick to the lit corridors,” Mairi griped, rolling her eyes. She wiped sweat and spittle off her face and then spat on the guy she had pinned. “Stupid slike,” she snarled as running feet approached them. She turned to see additional security and a green uniform of a deputy showing up. “Never thought I'd be glad to see cops around,” she said, suddenly relaxing.

  “Scared?”

  “Hell no, pissed. Son of a bitch ripped my jacket!” she said, indicating the jacket nearby. Savo looked at it and chuffed a laugh.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Later Savo talked with her as she sat on a gurney. The paramedic who had been called in had treated her bruises and pronounced her sound. The deputy had taken her statement and Savo's and was already hustling people away. “Go on! Nothing to see here! All over with! Where were you when it went down? I'm looking for witness statements all of you get to be interviewed...” He waved his hands angrily shooing them along. People dispersed rapidly when he took his little black book out though.

  Savo told her gently it was a stupid thing to do. She resented it, resented being lectured like a child. Fury swelled up in her. She looked at him, trying to glare but saw the concern in his brown eyes. Her defiance slipped away and she ducked her head. After a moment she nodded. He sat next to her with a sigh and wrapped his arm around her. She was surprised, resented that touch but then felt the strength and silent support there. After a moment she leaned against him. He escorted her back to her quarters. “For my piece of mind if not yours!” he replied when she protested she was fine. She did like the idea of an escort, she was getting jumpy and didn't like that.

  “Yours?” she asked.

  “Yeah. You have any idea what the others would do to me if I let anything happen to you? And If I let you walk home after that Shari, Alice, and the other gals would have my hide! I'd never hear the end of it!”

  She laughed then, shaking her head. He smiled at her and then tipped his head in the indicated direction. She nodded and they were off.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  An hour after he made sure the girl was home safe Savo wound up in the bar for an impromptu meeting of the board. Everyone wanted to know what happened. “So Miss Jersey is okay?” Taylor asked when Savo finished laying out what happened.

  “Yeah,” Savo replied with a shrug. “A bit battered but she's okay. A good night's sleep and she'll be fine.”

  “Well, tomorrow she better bring her A game. That test flight will be watched by more than just us,” Clio replied. Savo turned to her. She shrugged. “We've got a lot riding on this flight.”

  “Oh?”

  “We've been having problems with the other corporations for some time. It is coming to a head now that we are becoming more independent.”

  “Really,” he said in exasperation. He sat back and took a swig of beer. Alice shook her head at him. He ignored her reproving look. “Do tell,” he asked, brown eyes staring at the AI.

  “Well, McDougall has cut us out of the iron market again.”

  “Great,” Taylor sighed. He shook his virtual head. They all knew that the corporations were conceited, that they each looked down on Yard Dogs with ill concealed contempt. Each had its own reason to try to buy assets the dogs desperately needed to grow and run their business. There were constant problems with them, they kept getting over or under bid for work. “We keep getting screwed both ways. The corporations are both sucking up all the assets, the good people and the work on the station. You'd think there would be enough to go around but we keep ending up hind tit. Sorry, maybe next week. This sucks!” Savo snarled, slapping his thigh in anger.

  “Yes. Yes it does,” Alice agreed.

  Clio frowned. “Well, the good news is Toni Zark of Zark Freight isn't interested in running us into the ground anymore. Or at least not this week. They are actively backing off and even deferring to our interests.” She laid out for them how the market had gone that day. It was nice hearing that even though McDougall had shut them out of the iron they needed, and Pete had picked up most of the chemicals for plastics, they'd gotten some tungsten and titanium. Not a lot, but enough for a bot.

  “This week,” Savo scoffed.

  “That is correct,” the AI responding, bowing slightly to the chimp. “Any
peace we can get, I'll gladly take.”

  “True,” Taylor replied. “What is she up to?”

  “I'm not sure. She could be over extended in her purchases or rethinking their practices. Or they could be saving their capital for a larger push down the road. Possibly in another quarter.”

  “Possible, but there is another possibility,” Alice mused. The group turned to her. “She could have a change of heart and interest. Zark is a shipping firm. If they are interested in more hulls especially space hulls...”

  Petunia suddenly smiled and chuffed. “That's right! The station and us! We're it! And the station would charge a fortune if they went to them!”

  “If they can even do anything,” Savo said, eying the three council members in their midst. “I'm guessing you three can't say anything because of the conflict of interest. It goes both ways.”

  Taylor sighed and nodded. Clio did as well. Rasha shrugged.

  “Right thought so,” Savo said, turning to the others. “But I'm betting what John said is holding true, they can't. So we're it. And Zark is finally catching on to that.”

  “Just losing them as an enemy would be nice,” Sari murmured.

  “I'd settle for that, but if we can bring them all the way over into our corner and have them as a steady customer so much the better.”

  “True.”

  “We've had another inquiry to sell off our solar panel maker,” Clio said, looking around the room.

  Taylor snorted. “Who this time?” he asked.

  Clio smiled. “Zap Electric, Water, and Gas. A utility company on the main continent. They apparently are interested in going green.”

  Shari looked thoughtful. “Actually, I heard a news story last week that said they were having trouble building power plants and transmission lines. Something about all the coal plants were running into opposition, and hydro-electric was out because it took too long to build and was damaging to the environment... and it blocked critical fish habitats. People have been making a stink about it all.”

  “Not here syndrome?” Taylor asked.

  “Probably. They also need a functional energy grid to balance demand. Right now they are incredibly inefficient and they've had a lot of brown outs when people turn their stuff on the moment the sun goes down.”

  “Solar panels won't work in the dark,” Howie chuckled, shaking his head.

  “No, but if say you put power lines in a sunny spot, then have transmission lines, you can power the area around them and the surplus can go into the grid to power areas that need energy. Load balancing,” Taylor explained.

  “Oh.”

  “And they don't need to take land away from farming if they do it right. They could put solar panels on buildings or over parking areas if they planned them right,” Rasha interjected, looking thoughtful.

  “They actually wanted to use fields in deserts near the equator,” Clio said almost apologetically.

  Rasha frowned. “Well, I suppose they could go that route, but it's limiting. It also means they need direct access to a nearby Major transmission line and a means to control the flow.”

  “Part of the problem with electrical energy on the ground right now is they can't store it. It's in the grid and if it's not used it heats the equipment up or is lost in other ways.”

  “Use it or lose it,” Savo muttered.

  “Exactly.”

  “So what? They need batteries too?”

  “Yeah, or some other system to store power. Or systems that are possible to maintain around the clock. There are, what a dozen fusion reactors around the planet?” Taylor asked, and then looked up to check the databases.

  “Roughly that,” Rasha said, putting a restraining hand on him. “All tied into the defensive network I'm betting. There are a few Major transmission lines that run from them to nearby cities and towns.”

  “But... hm... Yes. I see. Eternia is requesting solar as well. There is a bill going through the Antiguan congress right now. They Tribecca, and Zap are lobbying hard to get it. Eternia is the only city with a fusion reactor not tied to a defensive battery. Which means it's energy load is transferred directly to the grid. That explains why they want energy transmission lines from Eternia to other locations...”

  “Couldn't they beam the power? A microwave or something? Use a satellite network?” Rasha demanded, looking at her husband and then to Clio.

  Clio spread her hands apart. “They'd have to think of something like that first and no one apparently has.”

  “So, they could do that, build a solar field on the ground and bounce the energy... or they could build it in space and bounce it from there to the ground...”

  Savo looked up and grinned, no longer bored with the topic of conversation. “And in space they'd have sun all the time!”

  “Right. The question is, do they know this? Have they thought of it?”

  “No... but we can ask,” Alice said thoughtfully.

  “Or... or we can keep it to ourselves and create a sub branch later,” Petunia suggested. The others looked at her. She shrugged. “Scaffolding structure, solar panels, microwave beamers. We've got all of it, and it's not all that hard to keep it running. We'd have some micrometeorite problems but if we can figure something out there I bet.”

  “But to do it ourselves... that's a massive front end cost.”

  “So...” Taylor rubbed his virtual jaw. “So we could go in with Zap. We build and maintain the space platforms, they buy the ground receivers and handle the transmission lines on the ground. They provide the clients, we provide the power. We'd have to structure the agreement carefully though...” he said thoughtfully.

  Clio nodded. “I can subcontract a couple people to do that. I think we need to bring an attorney in on retainer though.”

  The others grumbled. Savo muttered something about lawyers and how they took the fun out of everything. Petunia nudged him, smiling slightly. He grunted. Finally they took a hand vote. The motion passed.

  “We'll contact Zap,” Alice said, nodding to Clio.

  “As soon as we have a formal counter proposal for them,” Clio responded. Alice nodded in return.

  Savo yawned, showing his canines. “Well, I'm off to bed. I want to get some shut eye before we all watch that flight in the morning. Something tells me our nappy time will soon be coming to an end,” he said, smiling to his wife as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

  “Probably snuggle boo,” she said, nuzzling him. He chuffed, but then glared at Ralph who had barked a laugh. Ralph shook his head chuckling.

  “Snuggle boo,” he teased, laughing again. Savo stuck his tongue out at him as Petunia guided him for the exit door.

  Chapter 5

  Mairi launched the newly restored Bitch early the next morning when traffic was light. She completed a test flight and then turned her attention to the nearest Atens asteroid. She had a plan and so far no one had twigged on it. “What do you think you're doing?” Alice asked over the radio.

  “My job,” Mairi replied, tapping in the coordinates and then checking her fuel. She had just enough to make it there and back. She couldn't push the whole rock back but she could get a ton if she managed it right.

  “Mairi! This was supposed to be a test flight!”

  “It is. But we need the rock,” Mairi said, typing in a command. She smiled and pressed enter. “Back for supper. Late supper,” she said as the thruster kicked. Any reply was lost to static as her position changed.

  “What is she doing?” Savo asked as Alice called him.

  “She's going after a rock!”

  “So? Isn't that what we wanted? What we hired her for?” Savo asked patiently.

  “Yes but...” Alice shrugged helplessly.

  “She'll be fine. That kid is a survivor, trust me. She'll get it done.”

  “What about a reserve? She used some of the fuel in the test flight?”

  “But she didn't go far did she? A what couple seconds of burn, shut down to check and then?”

&nbs
p; “And then she went for the joy ride!” Alice said throwing her hands up in the air.

  “Wanna bet she planned the test burn to be on course for the rock?” Savo asked, smiling slightly.

  Alice stared at him for a long moment and then turned, typing at the computer. After a moment she pulled up a map and then checked the log. She swore softly as she realized Savo was right. “Okay...”

  “Something is better than nothing. If she can get us a ton or two of supplies it's worth the fuel. I think she wants to make a down payment on all the parts we had to make for the bitch.”

  “What a name,” Alice said.

  “She didn't name it, but she'll live up to it if she has to. Tough kid, you've got to admire that. When she delivers the goods it'll be our turn.”

  “Maybe,” Alice said quietly.

  “We'll see. Have you been working on your speech?”

  Alice grimaced. She was a bar maid, she knew that. Pretending to be a sales rep was a bit out of her league, though she did like dressing up in the power suit. The first time she'd worn it Ralphi's eyes had almost popped out of his head. She smiled slightly. “I... it's different.”

  “Think of it as showing a patron a menu and explaining the options,” Savo replied. She cocked her head at that idea and then shrugged.

  “I'll give it a shot. I don't know if I'm cut out for this,” she murmured.

  “None of us have done it before. That's what makes it exciting,” Savo replied, brown eyes turning to view the blinking icon of the Tin Plated Bitch as she moved off to the rock. “Do we even know if that rock is claimed?”

  Alice's eyes went wide. She turned hastily and typed an inquiry to Clio. After a moment the AI responded, her avatar coming online in a 2D image on the wall screen. “To answer your question, no it isn't. Or at least not yet. Mairi asked me that very question this morning. She also asked for a beacon as well as a heads up to file the appropriate papers when it's planted,” she replied.

  “Damn that girl's on the ball!” Savo muttered in appreciation.

  “Seems that way. Give her enough time and room and she'll have us up and running,” Clio agreed. “She's definitely a go getter.”