CHILDERS_Absurd Proposals

by Richard F. Weyand

  The second day, the tent team continued putting up tents, while more work crews and colonists were brought down. One team started building some permanent buildings in the second cleared space from materials in the containers, basically building kits. The hospital was first for this crew, then bunkhouses. The other team was in the other cleared space, assembling chicken houses and coops from materials in the containers. There was another crew there raising a large barn, also from a kit.

  The third day, the tent city continued to grow, the container farm continued to grow, the barn was completed, the hospital was in place, and bunkhouses were underway. The doctors and their nurses, together with a small work crew, started setting up the hospital from a container of supplies set down behind the building. The shuttles brought the chickens down on the third day, tranquilized as the cattle had been. They had put that container down right next to the chicken coops, and crews were pulling chickens out and giving them the antagonist as fast as they could handle them. Meanwhile, additional chicken houses and coops were being built.

  Everybody pitched in to the best of their abilities. Some were stronger than others, some were smarter than others, all had different skills. They sorted themselves out pretty naturally as tasks came up that needed doing.

  It didn't surprise anyone Mark Lieber, the former police captain from Dorf, proved adept at being the assistant leader of a team under one of the CSF chiefs. On the second day, he had his own team. On the third, he had three teams working under him.

  There was one young fellow who, on the first day, simply refused to work. Commander David Johnson was called over.

  "You aren't going to work?" Johnson asked the young man, maybe seventeen years old, who was sitting on the ground watching everyone else work.

  "I don't want to work, I'm not going to work, and you can't make me," he said.

  Johnson looked at the teen, who set his jaw and glared back at him. One such wasn't that much dead weight. The problem was he might set an example for others. Johnson decided to set an example of his own.

  "Yes, you're probably right." Johnson said, at which point he drew his sidearm and shot the teen through the head.

  They threw his body in the cesspit before the outhouse block was placed, so it wouldn't attract predators.

  They had no more problems with people deciding they weren't going to work.

  Even bringing containers down in blocks of sixteen, twenty-four hours a day, it took almost two weeks for the twelve big cargo shuttles to unload all three freighters. The container farm to the south had taken on impressive proportions as fifteen thousand containers had been brought down, and only a couple of hundred had been opened yet. When they were done, the twelve cargo shuttles and six small personnel shuttles from the three freighters were left behind to handle moving containers out of the container farm and to move people about. Empty containers could also be loaded with other things that needed to be moved, and then moved by the shuttles.

  As colonists were brought down, the new arrivals were mixed in with the experienced to multiply the number of work teams, and the pace of building increased. All six large personnel shuttles from the liners were also left with the colony. The shuttles of the Roman Chrzanowski were used to lift the last of the freighter and liner pilots off the planet to their ships.

  The CSF captain and his staff overseeing the start of the colony were working from lists and charts prepared on Jablonka months before. As they learned, they sent feedback and suggested changes back to the Colony Division on Jablonka using the courier drone relay that was initiated from Jablonka the day they arrived.

  The new colony was a bustle of activity when the colony ships and freighters headed out of the system, leaving only the Roman Chrzanowski and an emergency courier drone behind.

  Ramping Up, Settling Down

  It was raining in Jablonka, so Jan took the underground passage from the NOC to the Colony Division headquarters. It was on the other side of the NOC from the Navy Mall, across the road that ran around the buildings of the Navy Mall. It was a wide, well-lighted passage, with moving sidewalks in both directions along the sides. Jan chose instead to walk down the center of the passage.

  She arrived at Admiral Joshi's office in time for their meeting, and was announced and shown in.

  "Hello, Admiral," Jan said.

  "Welcome, Ma'am. This is the first time you've been here, isn't it?"

  "Yes. I thought we could meet over here and save you some time. You're busier than I am at the moment."

  "Well, we are busy, Ma'am, no doubt about it. When you said something about 'a hundred balls in the air at once,' I think you seriously underestimated."

  Jan laughed.

  "What's your status then? You have how many colony squadrons active currently?"

  "Sixteen, Ma'am. There's twelve out right now, two loading up, and we just took delivery of two more squadrons from Earth."

  "So it's really getting into high gear now. How many colonies are there now?"

  "Including the ones we just sent out? Twenty-four, Ma'am" Joshi said.

  "Wow. I guess I haven't been keeping up with the numbers."

  "They're doing a turn every two and a half months, so it was four squadrons the first round, and eight the next, and twelve this time. And Earth will deliver another six squadrons before it's all over. Then we'll be doing eighteen colonies every two and a half months. Call it ninety a year."

  "That's incredible," Jan said.

  "Don't forget, Ma'am, that's only half the numbers. Earth is doing the same."

  "A hundred and eighty a year?"

  "All told, yes, though that number will come down a bit as the distances increase," Joshi said. "We're only settling the 'for sure' planets, so they're getting farther out. And it's all they can do to do the site surveys fast enough now. Luckily, the tighter acceptance criteria on the drone data are getting us a good hit rate on the on-site surveys. It's about three in four now. And we have more site survey crews out at once because new cruiser destroyers keep coming in from the yards."

  "How far out is the farthest now?"

  "In the current round going out? About seven hundred light-years. The survey ships are out to about a thousand light-years now. Of course, as the radius increases, the volume goes up by the square, so the distance increase is starting to slow down."

  "Have you had any more problems picking up colonists on the Outer Colonies?" Jan asked.

  "We haven't, Ma'am. Your little demonstration on Stadt was sufficient to get everyone in line. Earth did, though. When they showed up in Guernsey with drones along, just like us, some admiral of a light cruiser division decided their drones weren't the same as ours and tried to make a name for himself. He did. It's on a plaque. After that, they haven't had any more problems either."

  "What about picking people up on Earth?"

  "We thought they would be hard to find, Ma'am, VR addiction and all," Joshi said. "But as people go out, they're not out of touch. They mail back on the mail system. Giving free personal mail to the colonies was a smart move. So people hear about these things, direct from their friends, and the VR starts seeming kind of stale compared to the lives their friends are living. Our applications from Earth are growing faster than we and Earth can ship them out."

  "How are the first colonies doing? It's about time to bring the work crews back, isn't it?"

  "Yes, Ma'am. Another couple of weeks. They're doing fine. We made some mistakes, but not big ones. We haven't had to send resupply or anything. For instance, the cows exceeded our estimates of their survival rates, being drugged for the trip and all, but the chickens' survival rates were lower than we thought. It meant it's taking them a while to come up to speed on eggs and meat, but they're getting there. And we adjusted the numbers in later colonies."

  It was Sunday, a day of rest for the work crews and colonists after six solid days of labor. The colony was coming along great, though. They would have everybody buttoned up in some sort of durable housing
before the weather closed in for the winter, which wasn't as harsh on Horizon as it was on Earth, for example, because the axial tilt wasn't as large. They could probably keep building through much of it.

  Gonzalez and Gunderson had spent the day with Senior Chief Marjorie Sikorsky and Chief Patricia Mahoney, just enjoying the day off. They took a picnic over to the creek north of the barns. The creek flowed out of the woodland and across the prairie to the river. They sat in a copse of trees along the creek, and listened to the native birds sing.

  Now the sun was setting into the trees bounding the river valley to the west. Scudding clouds in the sky started taking on an orange tint as it sank.

  Mahoney and Gunderson watched the sunset as well, about fifty yards away.

  "Boy, it sure is pretty, Ashok," Sikorsky said.

  "You know we gotta leave in a couple weeks," Gonzalez said.

  "I know." Sikorsky sighed. "I'm gonna miss it though."

  "You know, Marge, I been thinkin'. You got your eighteen in, don't you?"

  "Yeah. With the two-year colony sweetener."

  "Well, with the two-year sweetener, I just hit my twenty-four. I mean, I upped early, so I'm only thirty-eight. But I got full retirement coming."

  They sat silent for a while.

  Wait for it. Don't rush him, Sikorsky thought.

  "I mean, we could stay here," Gonzalez said.

  "Why, Senior Chief Gonzalez, are you proposing marriage to me?"

  Gonzalez chuckled.

  "Yeah, Marge. I guess I am. Whaddya think?"

  "I think 'Marge Gonzalez' sounds pretty good, actually."

  "Great. Done deal."

  They continued to sit watching the sunset, but now they were holding hands.

  It was twilight when Gunderson and Mahoney came walking over to join them for the walk back to the town of New Dreams.

  "Hey, guys, guess what! Charlie proposed to me. We're staying on Horizon," Mahoney said.

  Marge jumped up from where she was seated on the ground and hugged her friend.

  "Oh, Patty, that's wonderful."

  Gonzalez shook his friend's hand enthusiastically and clapped him on the shoulder.

  "Congratulations, Charlie, you old scoundrel," Gonzalez said.

  Charlie reddened and muttered, "Thanks."

  "Not to step on your news, Patty, but I have some news, too. Ashok and I are getting married as well. We're staying, too."

  Mahoney shrieked and threw her arms around her friend again. Gunderson punched Gonzalez in the arm.

  Sikorsky and Mahoney walked in front babbling to each other all the way back to town, while Gunderson and Gonzalez followed behind.

  "Charlie, whaddya say we start a farm together? The four of us. You know, animals and kids runnin' around and all that shit? A lot easier with two couples than one by themselves."

  "Sure, Ashok. Sounds good. Depending on what Patty says. You know."

  Gonzalez laughed.

  Life was good.

  A Second Absurd Proposal

  Jan and Durand were having one of their monthly meetings. Bill was also there as Durand's chief of staff.

  "Everything's been so quiet lately in these meetings, Jake," Jan said.

  "We have overwhelming technological superiority over our rivals in the Outer Colonies, and we have powerful friends in the form of Earth as an ally. What's not to like?" Durand asked.

  "So you aren't picking up on someone trying to ruin the party?"

  "Not at the moment, Jan. It's not that we're not trying, mind, but the Outer Colonies are keeping their heads down trying not to anger us while they frantically try to duplicate our technology. Or steal it. And Earth under President Turner is a partner in truth, a rarity in foreign relations."

  Durand looked at her for a long minute.

  "Why are alarm bells going off in my head?"

  "Because you know me so well. Things are so quiet, it seems like a good time to stir things up," Jan said.

  "Oh, God, here we go. What have you got this time?"

  "This."

  Jan handed over an outline for GMD, including the rules for selecting board members.

  "Galactic Mail & Defense Corporation?" Durand asked.

  "Go ahead. Read it all."

  Durand read through the two-page document.

  "You're kidding, right?" Durand asked.

  "Not at all. We have to do something. Between us and Earth, we'll soon be founding colonies at the rate of almost four a week. And right now we're on the hook for their defense, with nothing coming in to fund it. And they're vulnerable as hell, and will be for decades. At the same time, we can't have the Commonwealth police all of human space. The Outer Colonies would perceive it as occupation, and they'd be right. But if it's an independent corporation, and they're equal shareholders...."

  Jan shrugged.

  "So you turn the defense of the Commonwealth over to a corporation?" Durand asked.

  "We can still maintain our Navy and whatever else we want, but, if this setup works, over time we wouldn't need to. Nobody would."

  "How does it not morph into a government? Or worse, an empire?"

  "That's the sixty-four-thousand credit question. That's what I need you to analyze for me. You've got all these computer models and analysts and stuff. Put 'em to work on it. See what they say."

  "I should just refuse," Durand said.

  "Yeah, but you won't. It'll bother you until you do it, because you want to know as much as I do."

  Durand looked at the paper again. He read it carefully, while Jan sat and watched. She caught Bill's eye, and she winked at him, and he tried not to smile. Eventually Durand looked back up at her.

  "You're right, I do want to know," Durand said. "Because it's going to come up. We're going to have to do something if those colonies are going to be free planets. They're wide open if we don't cover them, and, as you say, it will be that way for decades. At least. At the same time, membership in the Commonwealth wouldn't work for them. It was set up for established planets, and the rules are all wrong for small colonies. The financial obligations alone would cripple them. So it's an open question what we do about it. I've had some people thinking about it, but nobody's come up with anything like this. It's just way outside the box."

  "Thanks." Jan smiled.

  Durand looked back and forth between Jan and Bill.

  "So what part did you have in this?" Durand asked Bill.

  "None I'm willing to admit to," Bill said.

  "Like I figured."

  Durand stared at the paper, eyes unfocused. After a couple of minutes, he looked up at Jan.

  "A corporation? And every planet gets a share?" Durand asked.

  "Yes. A non-transferable share. No selling their citizens' birthright."

  "And it pays dividends."

  "Yes," Jan said.

  "You realize what you've done here. Defense using the drones is so cheap, the mail and shipping charges are going to be way more funding than this thing needs to fulfill its charter. So it'll be spinning off dividends from the start. Those dividend payments won't make much difference to established planets, but that income stream is going to make a huge difference to those small colonies. It's ongoing funding as they grow, allowing them to buy any number of things they can't build. To invest in their futures."

  "Of course, I realize it. It's part of the whole setup."

  "Yet you've disguised it by giving every planet an equal share, even though the fees are all going to be paid by the big economies. At the same time, none of the planetary governments is going to turn down what looks to them like free money."

  Durand looked down at the document, back to Jan.

  "It's really very clever," Durand said. "It solves a whole bunch of problems at once, including the non-obvious problems, and in a non-obvious way, and seemingly has carrots built in for everybody. Assuming it works, of course."

  "Of course. That's the question I need you to answer for me."

  "Before you go to
Desai and Turner with it."

  "Yes. Exactly," Jan said.

  Durand chuckled.

  "OK, we'll get started on it."

  "Thanks, Jake. Oh, and this –"

  Durand held up his hand to stop her.

  "Is another secret request. Yes, I know."

  There was no need for a long engagement. Ashok Gonzalez and Marjorie Sikorsky, and Charles Gunderson and Patricia Mahoney, got married in a double ceremony the next Sunday. Admiral Nunes, as their commanding officer, came down from the Roman Chrzanowski to officiate. All four wore their dress uniforms, probably for the last time, as they had all put in for retirement-in-place. The brides both wore temporarily re-purposed bed sheets for their trains.

  Just about everybody was there, it being Sunday afternoon and not a work day. The newly elected government, under Mayor Mark Lieber, had authorized a double ration of alcoholic beverages for the event. Everybody had a great time.

  That evening, they honeymooned in two unoccupied patient rooms in the tiny hospital.

  "Ashok, you can't just send mail to the CNO."

  "Why not, Charlie? It's not the CNO anyway. It's Jan Childers."

  "Same thing."

  "No, it ain't."

  Jan opened the mail message when it came in.

  FROM: ASHOK GONZALEZ, SCPO, CSF

  TO: JAN CHILDERS

  SUBJECT: THANK YOU

  Thanks, Jan. For everything.

  Ashok Gonzalez, SCPO, CSF (retired)

  Marjorie Sikorsky Gonzalez, SCPO, CSF (retired)

  Charles Gunderson, CPO, CSF (retired)

  Patricia Mahoney Gunderson, CPO, CSF (retired)

  Attached was a picture of the two happy couples, with a rear admiral between them, and what must have been all twenty thousand colonists behind them, cheering.

  Jan sat at her desk, looking at that picture, and had a good cry.