A Sudden Departure (April Book 9)

by Mackey Chandler

  "The kids at school were sneaky," Karl said. "They'd time it to hit you so the teacher wasn't looking. Or the kid sitting behind you would smack you on the back of the head or jab you with his pencil where it couldn't be seen. If you hit back all the teacher saw was you hitting, never why. But when I explained they never believed or maybe didn't care. They'd never look at the video if we were where there was surveillance. When they called my mom in she just always told me to do what they said and not make trouble. She never ever said a word to make me think she believed me. I figured she thought the same as the teachers."

  "It doesn't matter what I believed," Madeline said, angrily. "If we got home and I said you were right at all it would just have encouraged you to do it again. There's a time to knuckle under and get through it, right or wrong. It doesn't matter if you were picked on or what I believed."

  "It mattered to me," Karl said, hurt.

  "Apparently there's some issues between you that were never aired or admitted," Heather said. "And we're entirely missing input from Karl senior. But I'm not a trained family counselor. I have neither the time nor resources to heal what has happened before. Bluntly, I have to do what's best for my people and community above what is best, or fair, for either of you.

  "Your mother contributes to Central, since I'm told she's quite good at her job. You, so far have been like all children, an investment in time and resources one hopes will pay off long term. That's looking pretty iffy, young man. You've been fed and housed, clothed and schooled. You aren't owned, but in consideration of those things most societies expect you to treat your parents with an extra measure of respect. There are some societies where you'd be put to death for raising your hand against a parent."

  Heather paused and let him think about that a bit. She consciously refrained from looking at her pistol laying naked on the table.

  "I won't banish your mother from my kingdom, which would effectively send her back to Earth. If I send you back to Armstrong you can assume they will send you to your father. I have no idea what his circumstances are back in North America. That would be the easiest course for me. If you want, you can request that. We'll have you escorted on a bus back to Armstrong.

  "The alternative, the only one I'm offering, is for you to be emancipated," Heather said.

  "What does that mean?" Karl asked.

  "You will be declared an adult. You get to do what you want, but you are totally responsible for your own actions. You have to work and follow the rules like everybody else. I'd add the burden of being on probation for a year because you assaulted your mother. Hit. . . get physical with anybody, fail to show up for work without cause, generally mess up in any way and you're gone. No trial or anything needed. You just get loaded on the bus to Armstrong."

  Karl was looking at her with his mouth hanging open.

  "Pick one," Heather demanded.

  "I can get hired by someone and work?" he asked.

  "You can get hired by anybody you can talk into it," Heather agreed. "But the reality is you have little to offer to an employer, so I will find something for you. Expect it to be scut work with low pay and long hours, but nobody goes hungry or lacks a place to sleep in Central."

  "Can I still study?" Karl asked.

  "Oddly I thought you were objecting to that," Heather said. "You can do anything you please, after hours if you aren't too tired. Tutoring costs money, you'll either have to pay for it or find somebody to offer you charity. I wouldn't encourage your mother to continue to subsidize you, but I won't forbid it. You might get your father to help you if he has the means."

  "I have no idea what his com code is or how to find out," Karl said.

  Heather looked funny at Madeline. She couldn't make herself meet Heather's gaze. There were definitely more complexities that weren't being shared with her.

  "I believe I can find that out for you," Heather promised.

  "Then I'll try it," Karl said. "Everybody tells me Earth is awful."

  "Very well. Deputy Arnold will take you to the singles and transients' barracks and introduce you to the administrator and get you a bunk. He'll also pick up your things and bring them to you. I'll see to it somebody finds you employment and comes for you tomorrow morning," Heather promised.

  She didn't expect any thanks, and Karl didn't surprise her with one.

  Chapter 9

  "What did you learn?" April asked, at supper the next day.

  "Not much. The flash of light was very white, with no spectral lines. There were definitely emissions outside the visible range. There was a faint pulse of x-rays. We also saw infrared, and I'd bet anything there was ultraviolet radiation. We just didn't have sensors for it. The radios registered a blip in the frequencies being used for data too. I suspect it doesn't cut off until very low frequencies. There's a disturbance there, but whatever mechanism is at, work it would be difficult to get anything to efficiently emit at a wavelength longer than the size of the disturbance. Just like a short antenna won't emit really long waves easily."

  "And the physical particles?" April asked Jeff. "You said there were some."

  "Electrons and probably protons. Not all that many. And no heavier nuclei or they would have lagged more. We didn't have anything to detect neutrons. The thing is, they may be decay products of other things. You'd probably have to be quite close to sample them directly, and I suspect there are tidal forces in that close that would be a hazard to machinery, or people for that matter."

  "Why tidal forces?" April wondered.

  "Mass distorts space. All of a sudden a bunch of it isn't there. I haven't done the math, just making assumptions on general principles," Jeff admitted.

  "So are we going to build one?" April asked.

  "Not. . . quickly," Jeff said, looking thoughtful.

  "Don't make me drag it out of you in little pieces," April demanded.

  "I have to think on it awhile, by myself. I absolutely don't want to talk to Weir and give him the opportunity to gain an insight, and do the same as I did, walk away with it unshared."

  April refrained from saying she'd kept him from sharing it. Maybe he didn't even remember clearly. When he was in that strange altered state who knew what registered when he was jolted out of it?

  "I see little benefit now to continue shooting off probes that can't return. Even one that is engineered slightly differently than Weir's. The way I see it, he's proved out the basic math. And building a robotic one that can return is difficult for all the reasons we discussed before. But if we build one it's going to be based on gravity as the co-force not a point charge. That means we need more material from my mum, and you know how dear that is. If I send it off I want it back."

  "A manned ship could refuel from ice or skim a gas giant's atmosphere," April speculated. "We know there are gas giants and big rocky planets. There's probably comets and maybe asteroids too.

  "If they don't emerge as a shower of particles instead of whole, and kill everybody," Jeff reminded her. "I couldn't even ask for volunteers willing to chance it."

  "Yeah, that would make this all pointless," April admitted.

  "I know it isn't in your nature, but try to be patient," Jeff pleaded. "I've always intended to build a starship someday, even if it had to be a sub-light one. If we wait, Weir and his partners may do some of the work for us. When we do build one it's going to be expensive. So the best thing we can really do right now is keep doing business and making money."

  "It would sure help if Earth wasn't such a mess," April complained. "We could sell them more stuff, although their prices might be higher if the economy was hot."

  "Be glad things aren't worse," Jeff told her. "They haven't had a real war this century, and the killer flu didn't come back as an annual variety. If we ever actually lost Earth I don't know if we'd make it. We might go extinct. There aren't that many of us off Earth yet, and we have quite a few food plants, but we lack the wide variety of things we'd need to Terraform a new planet.

  "Do you know? Heathe
r told me the other day she doesn't even have crabgrass in her plant library. We need all the weeds and a variety of small mammals and insects at least. I'd like things like skunks, and squirrels, and dessert mice. And if you have them you need coyotes and hawks. I know that much, and ecological systems aren't even a serious hobby to me.

  "We need a real expert who could build an ecology up in steps so it wouldn't crash. But who, able to do that, would hire on to run tunnel farms?" Jeff asked. "That's all we can offer right now outside theoretical work. Somebody who can do things like that will only be swayed so much by money. The work needs to be interesting too. Compared to the cost of amassing a biological library a starship will be cheap."

  "And here I was afraid you weren't looking far enough ahead," April said.

  * * *

  "Mo Paddington will have dinner with me," Heather told Amy. "he said 1900, but allow a little leeway on that. Don't get something ready to serve at 1900 that will be ruined if he doesn't show until 1930. He has a crew and can get sudden problems handed him when he's trying to walk out the door."

  "How should I set up?" Any asked.

  Heather looked at her oddly. "Like you would if I was eating alone. It's not like we have a formal dining room and you have three sets of china to choose among."

  Amy looked irritated with her. "Should I set you opposite each other, or at adjacent sides? Do you want wine glasses out or a hot beverage? Should I spend extra on something fancy for dessert? Do you want a centerpiece on the table? And we don't have fancy china but I at least have a choice between the usual paper napkins and nicer cloth. You can set the lighting and music as you wish."

  "This is a business meeting with one of my managers," Heather told her. "Did you somehow get the idea it was to be a romantic evening?"

  "I had hopes," Amy admitted. "You don't seem to do much for fun."

  "I'm. . . satisfied," Heather said without much conviction. "Besides, Mo is married, too old for me, and there isn't even the start of any spark there between us. I know Mo is friendly and relaxed around me but that's the extent of it.

  "I have a relationship with Jeff and April, as hard as it is to find time to get together with them. I really don't need the complication of others who would have to be less important to me than them. That's cruel to be involved with somebody who has to be second tier. They always figure it out and get hurt. Anyway, I'm busy, and what I'm doing is important."

  "Life is important," Amy said tight lipped, but turned away to do other things.

  Heather had to force herself not to continue the exchange and let her walk away. Heather already well knew that Amy was stubborn and opinionated on many issues. Arguing with her was unlikely to reach a mutually agreeable end. She wasn't sworn to Heather but in the end she was still domestic staff, and even if Heather wasn't full of herself, it seemed like there should be some divide there. She didn't think it befit a sovereign to bicker with the help.

  Still. . . she considered. Had she become an ascetic? Not in her pleasures like eating or dress. But socially? She kept Amy as much for companionship as utility. It was nice to have her at the breakfast table. If she had a cat or a ferret maybe she'd be happy with a maid coming in to clean and do the laundry while she was busy mid-day instead of Amy's full time help. But they had no pets yet.

  Everyone was so busy there wasn't any idle ruling class to do empty social things. She'd read some historical novels about wealthy society people. You had to wonder if it was honest history or totally fiction. Could people really spend most of their day driving around in a carriage to be seen, or calling on others or receiving them to visit? One novel set in Paris before the World War seemed downright creepy. How could all that not be mind numbingly boring after a few days? What a colossal waste of time to be driven to a friend's house without being able to call ahead and at least know they'd be home.

  Her day was filled with administrative detail. There simply weren't enough hands to do the work at Central. If she delegated large scale planning to anyone their current duties would suffer. Dakota came closest to being her aide, but Dakota herself made clear that she didn't want the burden of authority. She would implement what Heather decreed, but wanted direction.

  Should she start searching for a serious second in command? Someone who could be an heir to her sovereignty? It seemed like a difficult position to fill. What could she say to make it attractive? It was a position with no advancement possible unless your boss died. Then retaining it depended heavily on having the force of will to project your own authority. Others might well challenge your succession. Loyalty from those supporting the previous sovereign was in no way guaranteed. Indeed you might be a target while simply waiting to assume the mantle of power.

  Then there was also the danger that anyone suitable to the job might grow impatient and depose you. A lesson that Heather had taken to heart from history. The few she trusted fully had no desire to be the sovereign of Central. Jeff and April in particular were not only busy with their own projects at Home, but those endeavors were all necessary and supporting of Central. She didn't have to see them every day to feel her bond to them was still there and strong, but it would be nice not to go weeks at a time without seeing them.

  Could that be arranged? The burden seemed to be on them to come see her, so far. If they could be away for a few days and not have their businesses and projects collapse why couldn't she? She knew Jeff was smarter than her, in abstract things. April however was much more skilled in social things, and this seemed to be more that sort of a problem. She just had to think on how to ask April what to do without seeming needy or damaging her own dignity.

  That got tacked to the top of her TO DO list. The first four or five items on that list always seemed overwhelming in scope. For now, she had to decide which of the trials of fungal products should go ahead first, and how finished tunnels should be for width, paving and com wiring before they allowed autonomous delivery vehicles to use them. She hoped to have those two in the DONE file before she had dinner with Mo.

  * * *

  Amy set appetizers out for them and informed Heather the entrees were in the oven, dessert in the cooler, and she was headed out for the day. That was their custom when Heather had guests she didn't need to serve. There were no inappropriate coy looks or double entendres despite her earlier opinions.

  Mo was thoroughly relaxed with her. That had been a slow process to achieve. When he'd first come to the moon he'd been very restrained and hesitant to advance odd ideas. He'd added a lot of careful qualifying statements and disclaimers. Now, he spoke freely and wasn't shy to add absurd suggestions to his list of solutions as humor. Perhaps Amy mistook that for something more.

  Mo added fake cream to his coffee, an experimental product at the prototype stage. He closed his eyes when he sipped and tried to remember the taste of real cream exactly. He hadn't had any for about five years back before they left Earth. The memory was elusive. The closest he'd had recently was the little half and half packets the cafeteria on Home got occasionally, which weren't really the same at all as real cream. When he opened his eyes Heather was looking at him oddly.

  "No insult to your coffee," he hastened to add. "I'm not sure we have the flavor exactly right yet. I need to have a carton of ultrapasteurized sent up and do blind taste tests. On Earth we drank coffee with breakfast, but served it after supper, if at all, given how dear it had gotten. I've gotten used to having it all through supper too."

  "I'm not a coffee snob to give you a hard time. Put sugar in it for all I care. You can arrange a test if you want, but I suspect it's good enough. I don't use cream, but my guests who have used the sample didn't comment on it. They did however use it in a second cup, which I took for a pretty good endorsement," Heather said.

  "You're right. If people use it with no comment it's passed the memory test," Mo agreed.

  "Except a lot of us haven't had the real thing. I'm not sure I ever have," Heather admitted.

  "I suppose if you were accust
omed to the substitute then the real thing might taste off. When we have people around other stars they won't have any idea what the original Earth products tasted like," Heather said. "I've had people mention that some things like cheese or sourdough bread you can't just start making thousands of miles away. The cultures drift and change."

  Mo smiled big and chuckled. "I don't think we have to worry about that for awhile."

  Heather tried a light-hearted smile at that, with no success. Her eyes told the lie.

  His smile vanished. "My dear sweet girl, don't ever try to make your living playing poker."

  That did make her smile. And if he wanted to call her a girl that was fine too. It eased her mind that Amy hadn't seen something she'd missed.

  "Do you want to tell me something about it?" Mo asked when she said nothing.

  "I'm not sure I should," Heather admitted. "It's embarrassing."

  "How can it possibly be embarrassing? Is it Jeff again? Has he really got a star-drive? I know the man is smart, but I didn't think he was that deep of a theory guy," Mo said.

  "Just a moment, I'm going to get our plates," She took advantage of the delay to think on it.

  When she returned with the entree Heather asked, "May I have your word to keep it confidential, for now, if I tell you the bare outline?"

  "Upon my honor," Mo promised.

  "That sounds so old fashioned," Heather said. She was just delaying, still uncomfortable.

  Mo just tilted his head to acknowledge the truth of that.

  "You know we have some intelligence gathering capabilities?" Heather asked.

  "I've been made aware of that more than once. How could you run a sovereign state without it?"

  "Yeah, well Jeff rented a inter-orbital drone for us, and had an instrument pack put on it. There was a fellow up from Brazil who came to Home to do some tests. They had a custom drone built. Big bucks involved there," she added. "Jeff guessed where they'd go. When they launched our drone had a bit of a lead but was passed. The Brazilian's drone was very light and powered by three fusion reactors we now suspect were improved also. It took off for the Centauri system on a course that shielded it from easy Earth observation."