That was fine, her work was obviously paying off. People were either noting him to comment or find out who he was. He might not be anything like a celebrity, but as important as he'd become in Home business, she wanted him to be more recognizable. Seeing him in one context, like on the gossip boards, would lead to other interest. Some of it good, some not, but that couldn't be helped. He was smart. He could learn to deal with that too. Needed to learn to do so.
Jeff leaned close to her, head to head over the menu, and spoke low about what to order. They had drinks already because their server knew what to bring them. Jeff seemed aware how exposed they were here because he'd have never leaned close and spoke so quietly sequestered in a banquette along the wall. April gave him a little nuzzle, nothing obnoxious to do in public, but if she was going to put him on display she didn't want to encourage anyone else to be predacious. Her hand joined his on the menu also. He just smiled at her touch.
There was one stunning woman at the end table near the wing of the stage who was looking at him like he'd do just fine for appetizers, instead of the cocktail olive on a skewer she was making a great show of eating. April wanted to rip her heart out.
The man with her was older, but gene mod and not her father the way he was trying to hang over her. His manner was proprietary, but much more obvious than April's. He was hard to peg. He could be any flavor of Mediterranean or further to the east. She was older than April so she knew the woman wasn't a Home native. She didn't know everybody by sight now that there were so many, but this woman hadn't been around back when she did know everyone. She looked to be plain vanilla Anglo, nothing exotic, so likely North American. Her outfit didn't look European either.
Jeff looked distressed. "That woman near the edge of the stage is glaring at you like a maniac. I think I've seen lesser dentition on an enraged leopard." Jeff glanced at her again and then dropped his voice little further and leaned closer. "Her brows are furrowed and she looks angry, but that smile is friendly not hostile. The two halves of her face don't match. I think she caught me looking at her and turned in her chair and posed. And the man with her looks angry, but at her, not me," he said, confused.
"She's not aware I even exist, she's flirting with you outrageously," April informed him. "So obviously, that her companion is now upset. He's likely feeling cheated, because I can't believe her companionship is anything other than a commercial arrangement. About the only way she could snub him worse would be to get up and try to transfer to our table. Of course that would be a mistake, because at this point I might just shoot her dead halfway here."
Jeff laughed a little and stifled it. That scenario wasn't hard to envision at all. "You mean that look is supposed to be attractive?" he asked.
"Think on it," April invited him. "I'm sure you've seen advertising on the Earth channels where women displayed that same pose and facial expression to sell ground cars or body wash."
Jeff briefly started to turn his head back and then decided against looking again. He looked like he was going to say something and then got that 'somewhere else' look he got when thinking about something really hard. You could just see the process end when it all clicked into place and he came back to this world.
"OK, a lot of things add up better now," he decided. "Why middle aged men buy impractical sports cars, why some really stupid porn my friends couldn't explain works, and the entire plot of some videos suddenly make a lot more sense. She doesn't look attractive," Jeff asserted. "She looks more deranged."
"You have to be trained to see flirting as a signal," April assured him. "It's cultural not hard-wired. We grew up with much smaller groups of mixed age and gender. There were never enough of us to segregate ourselves in groups by age and gender. I'd bet she grew up in North America, attending a secondary school with a couple thousand students. The boys and girls had a long period of isolation in which they only socialized with their own gender. It was encouraged and expected to do so for modesty and to learn to display social norms. The transition at puberty then becomes awkward and you need these signal sets to be assured non-verbally that you are welcome and won't be rejected if you seek a relationship. You can't just ask, because being rejected is devastating.
"That's in western societies where you pick your own companions and mate. It's a little different than other cultures. The politics of equality have damaged that system some, but not destroyed it. It has made some reject ever becoming comfortable with the opposite sex or seeking marriage. Your father's culture arranges marriages so there isn't such a mess of social signals around dating. It's a game where they don't know the rules or how to play without being seen as awkward. The same with other Asians, though less than a couple generations back."
"Oh my God," Jeff suddenly realized. "It's another form of Earth Think."
"Yeah, I guess it is," April agreed. She wasn't about to argue against that. When it came to Earthies.
The singer on stage finished and their server returned to take their order. He wouldn't stand right in front of the stage and converse with them while she was performing, though he'd quietly serve them and fade back away. The couple at the other table also took the opportunity to leave after a very brief exchange of words. The man left looking grim before the singer was all the way off stage and there wasn't any prolonged goodbyes or a parting peck. The woman didn't look at him when he stood up and let him get well ahead before she followed. April was pretty sure their evening had come to an abrupt halt earlier than planned. She wouldn't let it ruin hers.
Normally April was very conservative in what she ordered. She had a minority interest in the club and they refused to present her a bill. She was aware at least one of the other co-owners wasn't so careful, but he had a much bigger stake too. She felt it was taking advantage of the other partners to order lavishly. Indeed she limited how often she came, especially on very busy nights where she might displace a paying customer. Tonight however she was putting on a show featuring Jeff so she ordered the elaborate and showy items for those taking video and reporting to the gossip sites. It was fun to give them an eyeful for a change.
When they returned home she had to restrain herself from going immediately online and searching to see if Jeff had been noticed, and commented upon. It was awkward doing so with her spex, and anyway, Jeff was too smart to let her get away with more than reading a short text before he figured out you were distracted and splitting your attention between him and your spex. April gave it up and decided it had to wait until tomorrow.
* * *
Jeff went off with Gunny the next day to catch an early opening for handball. Later times were reserved weeks ahead, and Jeff's vacation was spur of the moment. April was delighted to be able to look privately to see if her show had been effective.
A couple sites had a still pic of Jeff with a little commentary. Home had a lot of new people coming in so the writer felt it was necessary to explain who Jeff was. That was fine, that's exactly what April wanted, and the new people were a big part of why she wanted to put him out there on display.
There was a mention in What's Happening which April regarded as a much higher level publication than the common gossip sites and private blogs. The woman who posted social things regularly just did so as Clara, but April doubted that was her real name. There were only two Claras with com codes. One was a research scientist who April doubted had time or inclination to write a social column. The other wasn't a native English speaker who would never write as well or use the same word patterns the columnist favored.
A few of the gossip sites mentioned her first and then more as an afterthought that Jeff had upgraded his appearance. One just said he 'cleaned up nicely' which she wasn't sure how to take. Clara on the other hand mentioned him first and guessed correctly that April had taken him in hand. She even said his outfit was by Frank and Cindy, so she must have recognized their work and called to confirm it.
The search showed a lunar site mentioned them dining with supporting pix, and referenced them as fri
ends and peers of the Sovereign. It surprised April that Central now had a population big enough to support a news and social site. They only had a few hundred people. April was pretty sure they hadn't hit a thousand yet. Also it was eye opening to see they had some sort of stringer feeding them Home stories, to that site, even if it was an unpaid hobbyist. It was well written. Would they retain any interest in Home society when they grew bigger themselves? That would be interesting to think about. As far as she knew nobody had opened a private club or restaurant at Central. She'd ask Heather about it next time she could visit.
One gossip site didn't seem to have the usual tacky tone. It said Jeff's look was young and modern without being outlandish. It had a real com code to a Melisa, no last name given, to offer comments or contributions, so April decided to thank the writer. If it went well she'd share where Jeff had the clothing made and see if she could promote him any other way.
The screen opened on a young woman. She made an odd little motion of her head as if it surprised her to see someone. But if you answer a com signal it isn't any surprise to find someone there. There was something else odd but April couldn't put her finger on it...
"Hello Melisa. I'm April Lewis, I read your piece on Jeff Singh at Pertinent Personalities and want to say I was pleased with the overall positive tone. I'm not just Jeff's business partner but a friend, so thank you."
Melisa gave a small smile. "Good! Are you a regular reader?"
"Not really. I don't have the time to read anything social regularly, except maybe What's Happening," April admitted.
Melisa gave a little nod. "I really appreciate any tips and leads. I'm pretty busy with a job and do this as a hobby, but anytime you have something, feel free to leave it to voice mail."
This indifferent attitude wasn't something April expected, and gave her pause. Now Melisa sounded like she wanted to get rid of April. The other thing bothering her clicked finally too...The background behind Melisa looked flat. Even a plain bulkhead in residential cubic had some texture and usually some gradient of lighting or shadow. The woman had the camera set high too. You could barely see the top edge of her shoulder.
When April didn't say anything for a bit Melisa raised her eyebrows and tilted her head back a little.
"Did you have anything for me tonight?" It didn't quite fit the flow of the conversation, if you could call it that. Melisa was just questioning not really contributing. April had a sudden horrible suspicion and flash of anger, because she didn't like being taken for a fool.
"Pibit gerth tibble bin tat!" April said, spewing nonsense gibberish.
Melisa looked concerned – but it was a generic concern that seemed...odd. "I don't know what you mean. If that's a foreign language I don't know it."
"You're a damn AI. And you can tell your mistress I don't have any use for self important people who can't answer their own com, and think it's cute to see how long they can string people along with an Artificial Stupid. You think you are so damn smart and feel superior to fool a few pathetic people. Well I called as a friendly ally and I'm leaving disgusted with you. It's a fool who makes enemies when there is no need!" April stabbed the disconnect so hard she hurt her finger. In the old videos they slammed the telephone receiver down when they hung up mad. That seemed pretty therapeutic to her right now.
The terrible part was she couldn't vent about this. She didn't want Jeff to know she was actively doing PR for him, and Gunny had already heard her lecture about how insulting it was to have people try to pass off an AI on them. He didn't see what the big deal was, and had said so, referring to it as a 'pet peeve'. It was a deep principle to her. Banks, stores and schools might use an AI, but you knew that right when you logged on. That was the difference. They weren't tricksters.
Chapter 18
"We're going to finish, and test one landing pad, before we start on the others. It's not like you have a line of shuttles in orbit waiting to land," Li said.
"No indeed," Jeff agreed. "In fact we'll have to have Dionysus' Chariot test it. She's quite a bit lighter than the dedicated shuttles will be when finished. The first test flight we won't commit any heavy freight either. Just a couple submersibles and the new power plant. But the landing pads will have the same geometry, just not quite the full spread."
Li looked hard at Jeff but didn't say what was on his mind. "The gross loading isn't likely to be a problem. This is Earth and steel is cheap. We are not under the weight constraints of aeronautical engineering. We'll make the cover strong enough to handle multiples of the anticipated load. I'm just glad you got a gearless carrier. We don't have cranes to take down. There wouldn't be much we could use the scrap for either."
"Any problems with the crew understanding what we're trying to do?" Jeff asked. "It isn't like sailing from port to port. I'm sure you had to get new software routines to loiter around a set location out in the middle of the ocean. Have any issues come up about doing that?"
"Ships sometimes have to hold station waiting for a pilot or for docks to come open without anchoring. They can circle or do a racetrack or figure eight. A ship this big will take a long time to turn, moving just enough to have steerage. Once we have the entire drive conversion in place we'll have better thrusters to actually hold the ship oriented without steerage. I'm sure we'll develop certain routines to make landing easier and safer. We may travel with the wind for landing, which is just opposite of what aircraft carriers do."
"Will it be much faster with fusion power?" Jeff asked.
"Not unless you want to spend a fortune on new shafts and props," Li explained. "You'd be better off to add an auxiliary propulsion system. Even there, nothing is going to push this hull very fast. The power requirements go up exponentially, and the start point depends on the width to length ratio. The only way you can get fast boats is to get them up out of the water in plane. Ships like this don't do that. It's not strong enough no matter how much power you had. It would just break."
"Maybe some day...we can design a single landing pad vessel we can move somewhere quickly," Jeff speculated. "If we should need to drop near a particular area."
"Why am I hearing target instead of area?" Li asked.
"I have no idea," Jeff said, trying unsuccessfully to look innocent.
Li gave him a look that said his innocence was suspect, but moved on.
"The other thing that will need adjusted is leave for the crew. Normally a ship like this spends a week or two between ports. A bulk carrier takes five days to a week to load. The ships officers can get some leave, except the ones dealing with supervising the loading. Usually the ordinary seamen don't get off. They are hired from third world countries with lower wages and can't afford a lot of wealthier ports. The security issues have gotten worse all the time and they aren't welcome ashore most countries. There are too many concerns about terrorism and them disappearing into the population. The ship, too, is concerned that once ashore they will never show up again, and you'll have to rehire to replace them in a hurry. It's not uncommon for crew to stay aboard for a full year's contract now. In fact the purser will keep their passports locked in the ship's safe. We aren't interested in hiring crew like that."
"I had no idea their life was so restricted," Jeff said looking alarmed. "I want better quality people, even if it costs more. One horrible incident of theft or sabotage would completely negate any slight savings their lower wages might have afforded. We have political issues too. There are parties who might insert agents or pay crew to spy or cause serious damage."
"Yeah, you'll have to pay more," Li agreed. "We have the same problem on the Tobiuo. In most ports we have people constantly approaching us to hire on. It isn't just third world crew that we avoid. Since the economy went south we have all sorts of fellows who can't document their experience and will lie through their teeth to get aboard at our home port in Italy. You have unemployed young men from all over Europe there who find it easier to exist in the warmer climate. We worry that we could be three days out, have our thr
oats slit in the middle of the night, and the Tobiuo would have new owners."
Jeff felt with one hand under his chin, protectively. "You have some ideas on how to minimize the danger of that happening to us?"
"First of all you are drawing from a different talent pool on large commercial vessels. We tend to be approached by people who have served on private yachts and racers. We're depending on the previous master for a start. We're basically hiring all officers," Li explained. "Some of our positions will have to be named...creatively. We're going to be asking them to do work below their skill level. But given the lack of work to be had and the fact we can pay at or above their previous rates we should be able to fill the positions. The master was Australian and we are limiting our hires to them. Australia came out of the flu better than most and their economy has proved more resilient. We have a bigger pool of good talent that isn't desperate."
"Good, because I'd hate to have to deal with paying them in USNA dollars or EuroMarks. Those banking systems are increasingly hostile to us," Jeff said.
Li was amused. "Oh believe me, these fellows would gladly take their pay in Solars or in kind of Home goods. They'd worry about the conversion themselves and be glad of it. But Australian dollars are sound, we can write contracts in them and be sure it won't shift horribly in a few weeks. But we are going to need a few extra hands so we can give shore leave and have people to cover. The platform will stay out indefinitely so we need a regular schedule for leave. I'm thinking a week every quarter and more for long service."
"Perhaps you should look into how oil drilling platforms work things," Jeff suggested. "That seems closer to the model of what we're going to do."
"The middle administration, yeah, but the legal situation is completely different. A platform attached to the sea bed is under law of the nearest country even if outside the legal limit. We'll be a ship under way all the time. That has to have a different command structure," Li insisted. "You might also consider how you want the vessel renamed. I assume you do not wish to retain a Chinese name. You'll find some are still superstitious about that, but I doubt our Australians will care."
April 8: It's Always Something Page 24
