by Bob Blanton
“Are there any other physical problems we need to deal with?”
“No,” Dareen whispered.
“Okay, now let’s talk about what we need to do next. You do know that what your husband did is a crime.”
Dareen nodded her head.
“Has this happened before?”
“Not like this.”
“What does that mean?” Dr. Sharmila asked.
“He’s never beaten me before.”
“But he has hit you.”
Dareen nodded her head.
“Why?”
Dareen shrugged, “If I don’t do something correctly, he slaps me.”
“That is not acceptable.”
“I know that is what your law says, but he says it is his duty to discipline me.”
Dr. Sharmila shook her head and sighed. “He is your husband, not your owner. If he is not happy with you, he can talk to you about it, discuss it to help both of you reach an acceptable agreement on expectations. Maybe he expects too much, or maybe you don’t understand how to do something. Hitting you is never an acceptable answer.”
“What can I do?”
“You can leave him if you want,” Dr. Sharmila said.
“But I can’t afford to live, I don’t make any money.”
“That is not a problem. We can get you into a different apartment. As long as you’re studying, you will be given an allowance; you’ll be asked to help out here in the clinic, which will be good for your education.”
“How can that be, who will pay for it?” Dareen was shocked at the thought that she would be taken care of until she finished her degree.
“You will.”
“But how, I told you that I don’t have any money?” Dareen asked, growing skeptical and confused. “Do you mean it’s a loan?”
“No, I mean that once you finish your education, you’ll work as a nurse. You’ll pay taxes that will fund the government; you’ll help the community, and that will pay back your education costs. If the government doesn’t help you get an education, you won’t be able to get a job and pay taxes. In the long run, the government comes out ahead.”
Dareen nodded her head slowly. “I think I understand, but what about my husband?”
“Do you want to try and work things out with him, or are you ready to just leave him?”
“He has hit me for the last time,” Dareen said. “I don’t want to see him again.”
“Okay,” Dr. Sharmila said. “I’ll have a woman come and take you to an apartment where you can rest. She’ll ask you for a list of the things in your apartment that are yours and that you want. Can you do that?”
“Of course,” Dareen said.
Dr. Sharmila pinged Marc and Kal and asked when they could come over and discuss a situation.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hello, Cers,” Dr. Sharmila said as Kal and Marc joined her in her office.
“Good day. How can we help you?” Marc asked.
“I had a patient this morning who had been beaten by her husband.”
“Crap,” Kal said. “Well, we knew sooner or later we’d start having issues more serious than someone getting drunk and stumbling down the sidewalk.”
“How did you handle it?” Marc asked.
“I took care of her injuries,” Dr. Sharmila said. “Then I asked her if she wanted to try to work things out with her husband. She said she doesn’t.”
“Okay, where is she?” Kal asked.
“I had Alia, from Kal’s team, take her to a new apartment to rest. She’s bought her a change of clothes and given her a debit card so she can eat. She’s a nursing student, so I’ve just put her in our training program.”
“That’s good,” Kal said. “Do you think she’ll change her mind?”
“I don’t think so, but I would suggest we check back with her tomorrow,” Dr. Sharmila said. “What should we do about the husband?”
“I’m going to arrest his ass,” Kal said. “If she wants to try and work things out with him, we’ll consider letting him stay. Otherwise, we’ll have a hearing, and if it comes out that what she says is true, he can either be deported or serve his time. What’s his name?”
“Her records show that her husband is Najib Maloof,” Dr. Sharmila read from the file; she also gave Kal the address.
“I’ll pick him up,” Kal said as he looked to Marc for confirmation.
Marc nodded his head. “Let me know when you have him.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Marc entered the security office. “Where is he?”
“He’s in interview room one,” Kal said.
“What’s he saying?”
“That it’s his right,” Kal said. “I just want to dump him off the edge of the city and see if he can swim fifteen miles to Rarotonga.”
“That doesn’t sound like standard police procedure,” Marc quipped.
“I’m just saying what I feel like doing,” Kal laughed. “How do you want to proceed?”
“Let’s see how he wants to proceed.”
Kal led Marc to interview room one, and they both entered. Najib Maloof was seated at the table. His left hand was handcuffed to the table. Despite that, he was leaning back in his seat, looking somewhat smug.
“Mr. Maloof, this is Marc McCormack, he’s the CEO of MacKenzie Discoveries and the appointed Mayor of Manuae and Delphi City.”
“What right do you have to hold me?” Mr. Maloof demanded.
“You’ve broken the law,” Marc said.
“What law?”
“You are suspected of beating your wife,” Marc said.
“What concern is it of yours what I do with my wife!”
“She is protected by our laws, and our laws prohibit the assault on any person; you were informed of this law and others when you came here.”
“She’s not a person, she’s my wife,” Maloof yelled. “I demand that you release me and return her to me. The Koran demands that I discipline her.”
“She is your wife, not your property,” Marc said. “That was also explained to you. I don’t care how you interpret or misinterpret the Koran; you were told that individual rights superseded any religious custom or law. Did you not understand that when you came here?”
“I do not care about your laws …”
“Well, that is a problem,” Marc interrupted. “You now need to decide if you wish to be prosecuted under our laws and if found guilty punished under our laws, or if you would prefer to leave and go back to the refugee camp where you came from.”
“You cannot do this to me. You cannot take the word of a woman over mine!”
“Yes, we can. We have quite a bit of evidence that you did, in fact, assault your wife. Your DNA was found in the injured area around her eye, and your fingerprints were found on the bruising on her arm where it was twisted until the elbow dislocated.”
“Then I will take my wife and leave,” Maloof said.
“You will leave,” Marc said. “Your wife has decided to stay.”
“She cannot stay!”
“She can. Under our law, she may divorce you by filing in the courts, and based on Islamic law, she can divorce you by Khulʿ. I believe she will be doing both. We have someone removing her things from your apartment now. In two hours, you’ll be allowed to go and claim anything there that is yours. If you still wish to leave, you’ll be flown back to Greece tomorrow.”
“You cannot do this.”
“Do you wish to stay and be subject to our laws?” Marc asked.
“No, I cannot live in a place where a woman is placed above a man.”
“Then we’ll send you back,” Marc said with disgust. He stood up and walked out of the room with Kal.
“Let’s make sure we add something in the school curriculum to clearly define the rights in a marriage,” Marc said. “Also, let’s beef up that part in the introduction training.”
“Got it,” Kal said.
Chapter 11
Board Meeting – June 24th
&
nbsp; “I call this meeting to order,” Marc said. “Blake, you’re up first.”
“The first Oryx should be ready for a test flight on Friday. Since I was the acting administrator and had to deal with all the headaches, I think I should get to be the test pilot,” Blake said. He gave Catie a look to see if she was going to object.
Catie gritted her teeth, she wanted to argue, but she didn’t want to look like a baby in front of her friends. And she knew her Uncle Blake was right. “Okay,” Catie sighed, “but I get to be your copilot.”
“That was easy,” Blake said under his breath. “If things go well, we’ll start lifting material for your space station next week.”
“It’s our space station,” Marc said. “What about the other two Oryxes?”
“The second will be ready in two weeks, the third, two weeks after that. We’ll have to wait for superconductor matrices before we can build any more of them.”
“Why can’t you build them and put the matrices in later?” Samantha asked.
“The matrices have to be integrated into the polysteel, so we have to start with them,” Blake explained. “Now for the city construction, quad four is mostly done, we'll start adding buildings now. I’m going to build quad one of section two first, so we can lengthen the runway. Then we'll add quad four, so we can expand along our northern edge. Catie has convinced me to add quad one of section three and quads one and two of section four to maximize our contiguous space so she can start her big park.”
“I like the idea of a big park,” Samantha said. “It will help attract higher-end talent.”
“Yes, but getting the Lynx approved will be a much bigger attraction. Fast to Paris, remember?” Marc said.
“I’m working on it; I think we have them convinced to approve it with an inspection of each plane. They really like the idea of a regular shuttle service between major airports and Auckland.”
“That requires that the other countries reciprocate.”
“Of course, but they will have the same motivation. If we agree to provide a Lynx to carry passengers between the various major airports, then they’ll see the potential to really boost their high-end tourism.”
“Greed is such a great motivator,” Blake said.
“Works for me,” Marc said. “How about our airport?”
“Barring any unforeseen difficulties, we should be starting it next week.”
“Great. Sam, how are you doing on the clinics?”
“Liz has figured out the dispenser design so nobody will be able to discover the nanites by stealing the serum. Now all we need to do is decide is where to open the clinics,” Samantha said. “My recommendation is Tijuana and the Bahamas for North and South America; Bosnia and Morocco for Europe and North Africa; Bangladesh for most of Asia; we'll handle clients from Southeast Asia and the South Pacific here or on Rarotonga.”
“Where should we start?”
“Rarotonga and Tijuana,” Samantha said. “Rarotonga since it’s the easiest, Tijuana since it addresses the most lucrative market.”
“Okay, what do you need?”
“We need a doctor to manage the clinic in Tijuana and a pricing plan.”
“I assume you can find a doctor,” Marc said. “As for the pricing plan, why don’t we leave the ‘discreet’ price at one million dollars, no public record of the treatment, and the treatment here in Delphi City. Then five hundred thousand for the others. As demand falls off, bring the price down. Fifty percent of the patients pay based on their ability to pay. You’ll have to figure out how to manage the list, but referrals from people who work for us should come first.”
“I can work with that. What about the press conference?”
“Oh, I’m sure someone besides me can handle that,” Marc said.
“I don’t see how. We can’t have Dr. Metra hold it; Dr. Sharmila really doesn’t have much to do with the treatment,” Samantha said. “Like it or not, you’re the face of MacKenzie Discoveries.”
“Okay, but we hold it here,” Marc said.
“Oh, the press will love that.”
“What have I done to deserve all this,” Marc said, shaking his head. “Fred, manufacturing?”
“Tata is pumping out trucks as fast as we can get fuel cells and batteries to them,” Fred said. “They have been adhering to our requirement that they produce the trucks in lower-income countries. We’re getting lots of pressure to license the technology to other manufacturers, both from the manufacturers and from the governments.”
“No surprise there. I think we sit tight on that for now,” Marc said. “I want to see what concessions we can get if we license it more widely, so letting the pressure build up will be good.”
“Okay, you’re the boss,” Fred said. “The car plant in Morocco is coming along nicely. I think they’ll start producing cars in four weeks.”
“Great. Kal, how’s our labor situation coming?”
“We have a host of issues to deal with as we bring in more refugees. How many more do you think we’ll need?”
“I think we should try to reach the ten thousand that Sam got the government to agree to. After that, we should focus on normal immigration and try to grow systemically.”
“Okay, we’re a little over halfway there. We do need to make changes. I’m sure everyone has heard about the problem Dr. Sharmila reported,” Kal said. “We’ve deported the husband, but it brings up the fact that we need to have a regular police force. Our guys are good for security, but we need some people who are better trained to deal with the public and situations like this. One of my guys’ first inclination would be to haul the jerk to the edge of the city and kick him off.”
“As I recall, that was your first inclination,” Marc said.
“Exactly my point. We should come up with a real police chief, and train people to handle things like that. We’ve got teenagers coming, so we’ll have some petty theft, public nuisance things that usually come with them. Bar fights are happening now. My guys handle them okay, but sometimes it’s hard to tell who started what after my guys go in and slap everyone around. Both sides of the fight generally team up and square off against them.”
“I agree, but how do we find the right person or team, any thoughts?” Marc asked.
“It’d be great to get a small-town police chief, but they’re not likely to want to move halfway across the world, or even the eighteen hundred miles from Auckland. We can use money, but then how long would they stay?” Liz said.
“We could train one of our guys, but I’m not sure they could dial it back enough,” Kal said.
“What about a few of the women we have here already? The women are actually already running the place anyway,” Liz said. “We could send them to New Zealand to be trained. The Kiwis use the British model of unarmed Bobbies, which would fit in nicely around here. We could select a few, send them to be trained, and then groom one of them to take the chief position. They would already be familiar with the problems in our refugee community.”
“Kal, could you do that?” Marc asked.
“I can try. I’ll ask Dr. Sharmila and Meg who the leaders in the community are; then I’ll get recommendations from them on who we should train.”
“Who’s Meg?” Catie asked.
“Margaret Hannaford,” Kal said. “She prefers Meg.”
“Sounds like you have a plan,” Marc said. “Liz, do you have anything?”
“Nothing of note. Our scientists are having a great time; they’re driving me crazy, but I’m managing.”
“Okay, then next up is our space station. Liz and I have finalized the design, and we’re ready to start once we have the lift capacity to get our material up there.”
“How are you going to go about building it?” Catie asked.
“We’ll extrude the hub’s shell, as suggested,” Marc said. “We’ll extrude the first shell, then when we do the second, we’ll just let it travel into the first as it is extruded. Then we’ll add the magnetic bearing between the inner
shell and the cap on the outer shell. That will allow the outer shell to rotate independently of the hub’s inner shell. Based on simulations, we’ll need to add a couple of arms to the axis of the inner hub and attach thrusters to stop it when it picks up rotational energy from the outer hub. We’ll extend the inner shell up through the magnetic bearing so we can attach the arms. Just the friction from the air in the space between the two shells eventually transmits energy to the inner hub. Also, as we move different masses around inside the hubs and anchor them to the shells, there can be changes where we’ll need independent adjustments between the two shells. We’ll have a big cargo door at the bottom so we will be able to take something the size of an Oryx through. As you know, we’ll eventually be manufacturing all of our jets up there.”
“We’ll put crew quarters along the hull of the outer wall. If we spin the hub up to three revs per minute, it will give them about four tenths-G so they won’t go completely nuts trying to live in microgravity,” Marc continued. “We might have to adjust that down once we see what it feels like.”
“What will you do with that space after the crew moves into the rings?” Blake asked.
“We’ll convert it to low-G labs and manufacturing space once we have the first ring in place. The inner shell will support our microgravity labs and manufacturing facilities. We’ll move the manufacturing of the superconductor matrices from the Oryxes right away. Then we’ll add the manufacturing of polysteel panels for the interior walls. Once we’ve got all that going, we’ll start on commercial products.”
“Which ring are you going to build first, inner or outer?” Samantha asked.
“The reality of the elevator shafts means we have to do them from inside to outside,” Marc said. “So, the inner one is first. We can spin it up to one-G until we get the last two rings finished. That’ll provide an adequate environment to house people as soon as possible. It’ll be a year before the outer ring is done.”
“We’ll need to start training people, and build the forms and plasma torches first,” Marc said.
