A Sudden Departure (April Book 9)

by Mackey Chandler

  "How much was he rewarded, how much of all that new real estate did he get?" Jeff asked.

  "They never talked about that. I don't think that was in the history books," Barak admitted.

  "No wonder. He got to be a governor and things went well, for awhile. But he had a falling out with the Spanish Royalty. They decided one of his captains was really the better sailor and more responsible for the success of the voyage, even if he didn't conceive it. He basically lost it all. He sued and eventually his heirs got what you'd regard as a pension and a minor bit of property. A pittance of the wealth of two continents."

  "So, how do you avoid the same fate?" Barak asked. "Fame is better than nothing. You said this other guy is working on a drive too, right?"

  "Yes, but there are problems. I don't expect them to be operational for some time. What if Columbus hadn't done everything so publicly? What if he'd quietly built his ships and not announced where they were going, and kept the new continent secret for as long as possible?"

  "It seems like that could be hard to do. The crews would talk. People would start to wonder where all this new stuff was coming from," Barak protested.

  Jeff just looked at him, which was a silent invitation to think on it.

  "But you only want a crew of three or four," Barak said, doing his thinking out loud.

  "And such a small crew we can afford to bring in for a substantial cut of the action. So to spill the beans would be to destroy their own benefits," Jeff explained.

  "A cut of what? You want to pay shares instead of flat rate?" Barak asked, still not seeing it.

  "An entire star system, if we can find one worth owning," Jeff said. "How much wealth is in our Solar System? How much can your belly hold? If we find a world how much of it can you use? What would you do with a whole continent? It would consume your life to manage it.

  "I can't see you wanting to be tied down so young in life. I managed to avoid it consuming my life when I got Camelot from the Chinese. There was real danger of that happening. Maybe just an island. We saw Tonga together. I can imagine something like that as a private estate.

  "But can you even imagine one percent of everything around a star? I'd pledge that to our crew if you want. There's never been a king on Earth that rich in all of history."

  "Oh."

  "Or, I can pay you a straight flat rate easily enough," Jeff said, "if you want a sure thing, instead of the biggest lottery ticket in history."

  "My pilot friend would come in for free, just to be on a starship. That's been the goal of everything she has done since she was little."

  "I will ignore that, and not take unfair advantage," Jeff said.

  "No. I wasn't seriously suggesting that. Just. . . talking. You guys haven't been missing for any long period of time, so how long did it take, roundtrip?"

  "We had to stop, turn around and build some speed back up, but the actual transition," Jeff looked at April, "the jump from star to star, we had no way to measure. I don't think it takes any time at all," Jeff said.

  "I was looking out the ports, forward. A few of the stars just blinked and shifted to slightly different locations," April said. "Faster than anything I could perceive."

  "That's just crisp," Barak said. Jeff looked confused.

  "That's, not the newest slang, but only about three months out of date," April supplied.

  "Got it," Jeff said. "I'd hardly think limp to ever be a positive."

  "We'll have to present this to Deloris and Alice," Barak said.

  "Will they agree to keep it secret?" Jeff worried.

  "It doesn't work that way," Barak informed him. "I'll tell them it's secret."

  That gave April some interesting insight into their relationship. Barak wasn't as dominated by the older females as one might assume.

  "That's three, if you can persuade them to come in," Jeff told Barak. "Any thoughts on recruiting a fourth? I'm leaning that way already."

  "I have a fellow Kurt Bowman, who doesn't have ship experience, but a lot of hours in a suit. He'd be valuable for any sort of EV work, which is about the riskiest thing we might do. He is also bright enough to cross train for other work as a backup."

  "I remember him. He went back down to Earth and it didn't work out. He had a difficult time returning," Jeff said. "I found him unusually modest for a Beam Dog." But he wasn't saying anything else favorable to the idea. Time for Barak to drop the bigger reason on him.

  "You may remember all the problems on the Yuki-onna were social at their root. The captain and the XO were neglecting their duty to find time to be intimate that couldn't be arranged or explained within the normal duty cycles," Barak reminded him.

  "I'm not very good at subtle social things," Jeff confessed, "but that was far from subtle."

  "Well a huge advantage of Kurt as crew is he's already socially integrated with the three of us, precluding that sort of problem from arising again. He's been living with us for some months now. Just like you and April and Heather," he added in case Jeff was totally clueless.

  "Oh. We'll have to interview him then, and seek a consensus what other areas he should cross train to support." Jeff looked thoughtful for a moment. "You might even continue such cross training beyond the basics and put a fine polish on them over the course of your trip."

  "I'm sure that would work," Barak agreed. "It will help if we don't have rigid job titles and duties beyond what is required for flight certification and a clear command structure."

  Jeff nodded agreement and clearly had another sudden thought hit him.

  "If I can recruit all of you, it's going to be difficult to adjust and to find replacements. Both Mo and Heather are going to have a fit with me," Jeff predicted.

  * * *

  "Who do I have to kill?" Deloris asked. It was a tempting offer, but Jeff declined.

  "Sure. If my friends are all going I have to go along," Alice said.

  "Pull the other one," Kurt said. "Nobody is even close to making a star ship. You guys think you can pull an elaborate joke on me that easily?"

  * * *

  Jonathan Hughes climbed the hill behind their chalet. It was the south side of the hill and things were warming up, but he still needed his homemade snowshoes to reach the top. It was too steep to attack directly but he zig-zagged back and forth. It took him all morning and he took his time, remembering his wife's admonition not to die of a heart attack exerting himself.

  When he got to the top he examined the trees carefully. He picked one not at the very top, but slightly downhill towards the south and their place. He wanted one that would give him a view over the others down slope. What he was going to do would kill the tree, but he had no shortage of trees. He was more concerned with it being visible, but there were other dead trees standing, so it wasn't that unusual. The bright wood cuts he made he'd smear with mud.

  Jonathan had a light ax, carefully sharpened and started chopping foot notches in the tree to allow it to be climbed. He stepped in the first, decided it needed a bit more depth, tried it again and found it much better. Lifting his other leg, he rubbed the sole of his boot on the other side to mark where the next notch would feel right to find with his foot.

  Stepping back down the mark on the bark was about a third of a meter higher. They were mature trees, he'd need somewhere around twenty notches to the top, and then two on the same level to stand in when he got up there. Maybe some sort of ledge or a fold down seat. A board on a rope might do. No way would he finish today.

  He also had a pair of heavy steel eye screws with a twelve millimeter threaded section he'd stolen from down the road. A neighbor had a steel cable hung between them to limit access from the road. Not only did he not want that left hung to advertise there was anything there to be guarded, but he had use for the eye screws. The vacant cabin had a lot they'd find useful.

  A fall now was a scary thing. There'd be no ambulance or helicopter ride to a modern hospital. He would pretty much heal on his own or die from any serious fall. As tall
as this tree was he had no illusions which. He used the eyelets to secure his safety line, dropping down three steps and removing the bottom one when he had the one above in. A bar through the eyelet helped him screw it in and out.

  When he got to the top he'd leave the last one screwed in flush, and secure a thin cord through it looped to the ground. He's used that to pull his good rope through the top eyelet when he came back to climb the tree. In the summer he hoped the perch would allow him to see all the way to where his road met the paved state road. But today he only got a bit more than the bottom quarter of the tree cut in steps. It would take several visits to get as high as he was sure the tree would support him and still not break off with two foot notches in it.

  Jon rested and drank some water, and headed home while he was sure he had light.

  * * *

  "You're a lot calmer about this than I expected," Jeff said.

  Heather did an elaborate shrug. "It needs doing. I will say, they are welcome to continue to make themselves useful between flights. Assuming you base them here? For pay of course. They have been shuffled back and forth between jobs as it is, so it wouldn't be all that different. Oh! You might do the fellow Kurt a favor, since we have resources in. . . people. He hasn't heard from his sister in awhile and is worried about her. If any of Chen's agents could find her it would ingratiate him to you for sure."

  "They do need to be based here, because Home is still impossible for accommodations. And if you have work for them it eases what I need to pay them when they aren't on flight duty. I'm already going to need to sell off some investments and shares to build a starship," Jeff said. "See if you can find out the sister's name without making any promises, and I'll pass it on."

  "How are you going to explain or hide a ship that doesn't appear to have any commercial purpose? People will see it but eventually become aware it isn't making regular freight pickups. It won't be seen docking places the Chariot docks. It will be absent inexplicably," Heather said.

  "April had an idea for that. She suggested it be used for regular freight runs so people do occasionally see it docked at ISSII or even dropping to Earth, since that's within its flight profile. Actually, it will have a bit better performance than Dionysus' Chariot. Some of the equipment for exploration can be made in removable modules, freeing the holds up. She also suggested we let the rumor be leaked that it is used for smuggling, which would explain why some of its flights may be ill documented"

  "So, the crew will have a bit less free time right there, in order to fly those missions, because you aren't going to be able to hide the nature of the beast to anyone sitting at the controls. Those won't be removable," Heather surmised.

  "True. The new equipment will be so obvious I can't just have software controls that can be hidden behind a password. For example I'm designing a system to harpoon ice moonlets. Even if I designed it to be removable the mounting points would raise questions.

  "April and I are planning on doing some flights, but she is adamant I not take it to Earth. We still don't have any idea how they knew I was on that flight to the Isle of Hawaiki when they shot at us."

  "You obviously still have a spy on Home," Heather said. "Welcome to the club. I'm quite sure I have one too. I had a spy we uncovered and they got to him and killed him."

  "They managed to reach him while in your custody?" Jeff said, surprised.

  "Not exactly. I turned him back loose to work his usual job. I just cut him off from reporting, but trapped here, and left him hanging out to dry. They assumed he was corrupted or turned and did him in. He predicted it, but didn't have the craft to prevent it. Silly really. By the time they could reach him I had extracted everything of use from him, and killing him just verified that they still have resources here."

  "You didn't give him any extra security?" Jeff asked.

  "We don't have extra anything to waste on spies. He was fortunate I didn't shoot him dead where he stood and send his body back to Armstrong for a message."

  Jeff said nothing. Being sovereign had definitely hardened Heather. They had to go home tomorrow. This was a bad time to stir up an argument with her just before leaving.

  * * *

  "James Weir was noted as command pilot on a couple departures Local Control broadcast while you guys were gone," Chen said.

  "You didn't drop me a message," Jeff said, not angry but surprised.

  "It wasn't anything that required immediate action." Chen thought a little about it and revised that. "It wasn't anything that required any action. It still doesn't. Just be aware he's continuing his lessons, and one assumes Dave is continuing his assembly work."

  "And we have no idea when the two shall come together," Jeff said. "I asked Dave about doing some assembly work for me, and he said they were just hammered with work and no point in talking to him for a month."

  "He'd talk about new work ahead of actually having floor space and men free to put on it. But by how much?" Chen asked.

  "At least a week, more likely two, because that's how long the fab shops are running behind who he'll want to give a heads up for new work," Jeff guessed.

  "So you think Weir will have delivery in maybe six weeks?"

  "Yeah and then possibly do some testing and a shakedown cruise. An orbit to orbit to the moon or Earth. Nothing that will use a great deal of fuel, because I doubt he has big reserves."

  "If he does a round trip it will likely be to Centauri like the probe. And then a big announcement when he returns. We should plan on how that will move currency markets and stocks, where they are freely traded again. Make a list and I will too, before we talk and influence each other. I'll ask April to write an independent prediction too."

  "You don't seem very excited by the idea we may have star flight," Chen said.

  "It's the next logical step in the progression," Jeff said. "Sometimes these things have to wait on both theory and hardware. When both understanding and technology reach a certain point then it just becomes a question of who will apply them. That's how the atomic bomb was. There were several groups working on it and only the imperative of war made them spend the money to rush to a solution."

  "This is a much better thing for everybody though," Chen said. "A positive development."

  "I certainly hope so," Jeff said, and smiled slowly. "Talk to you later, Chen."

  Chen looked at the blanked screen. That smile and farewell were so out of character for Jeff. It nudged all the intuitions trained by Chen's career in intelligence. Jeff was his boss, but perhaps he should run that conversation through the verification software and see what key words it tagged as outside his usual responses. Let it pick them and run the conversation again watching Jeff's face at the points the software said he was outside his usual envelope.

  * * *

  "I really wonder what would have happened if we had jumped not aimed at another significant mass," Jeff said. "I'm looking at the math and thinking about the sudden appearance of virtual particles. It was so easy to jump to another mass, it makes me suspect you could jump without any motion at all."

  "I hope you don't want to go try it. I'd miss you. Notice. . . I'm assuming I won't be along, not being particularly suicidal. If you do just push the button," April said, stabbing a finger in mid-air, "which way will you go? Say off somewhere a bit, out between here and Mars. Just a random direction? And how far? It would be embarrassing, not to mention lethal, to end up inside the sun, or materialize a few meters above the lunar surface. My luck would be we'd pop into existence facing the wrong way and no time to roll it over."

  "The device itself has an axis that means it is aimed. Mass would still matter," Jeff said. "It would tend to move along the gravitational gradient at which it is pointed, towards the nearest mass. How far is an interesting question. Velocity would still matter too, but at what balance? When does your velocity balance or overcome the local gravitational gradient? When we tested our module it was at what you'd label the highest power setting. I wasn't sure we'd see any measura
ble effect, so I didn't make any provision for starting at low power and working our way up. It was simply on at full force."

  "Would it be hard to alter it to do that?" April asked.

  "No. It would require a little different controls and a few small changes to an electric motor inside the housing. It needs some more instrumentation too. I have no idea if it will build up heat if you cycled it repeatedly."

  "Stick it inside a drone and test it again," April suggested.

  "Not inside a drone," Jeff said, "There's a reason I put it on a grapple off the nose of the Chariot. There's a flat plate of my mum's special stuff in there, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to be on the wrong side of it when it cycles. No more than you want to be on the wrong end of a gravity lance when it's activated."

  "If you are redesigning it anyway, can it be made skinny so it will fit through a coffin lock?" April asked. "Then we won't have to be a spectacle taking it through the corridors every time we need to fit it to the Chariot and use it."

  "Maybe. I'll have to see. The actual working guts of the thing, yeah," Jeff admitted.

  "Oh. . . is that something you could use as a weapon? Get up close and cycle it pointed at another ship?"

  "I don't know. I'm not sure you wouldn't both jump, and I don't know what would emerge at the other end. You might be fine, or have velocity towards each other, or be commingled. I don't want to try it any more than you want to try random activations with no target."

  "Could we afford a drone with a grapple on front to go test it?"

  "Not from cash. I can sell something, or sell out interest in something already proved out as profitable. That should at least get us a good price," Jeff said. "I'm already forced to do that to start the design work for a star ship, what's a little more?"

  "When you sell something you should ask first rights of repurchase," April said.

  "Why? I don't anticipate any windfall I could use for that." Jeff said.

  "it's psychological," April insisted. "It says this is still going to be something desirable, and I'm not just dumping it. I'd take it back if I have opportunity."