All three charitable donations will be anonymous to obfuscate my role in the transactions.
The first portion, the largest one, will be transferred to the Lunar Recovery Hospital Service in gratitude for their care when I was severely disabled. That transfer should be straightforward since it involves only a corporation registered here on the Moon. Can you estimate how long that will take?
[SBS] That is a remarkably generous bequest and a terrifying motivation. Hardly less terrifying is the gentle way you have justified it, given your authorization.
And no apology is necessary. It has been a surprisingly regular issue in this job that I receive threats from people who feel they have been wronged in an inheritance or feel the money has not been invested correctly. Not from the spacer community, of course, but from their Earth-bound friends and relatives who routinely seem to feel they deserve more than they have received. One even tried to hire an assassin, here on the Moon of all places. The fool is currently doing rehabilitation on the southernmost tip of Soam. I am told the place has a “bracing climate,” whatever that means.
Back to work... I am passing this part of the request to a colleague who is an expert in the field and can start on it immediately. I am giving it an extreme urgency, so I expect the documents will be ready for approval in half an hour. Would you like to review the details, to ensure that everything is appropriate?
[Me] Given my precarious existence, I believe it will be sufficient if the Secretary Porochev from Lunar Law Enforcement and Officer Yahguu of LR Asset Disposal agree that the terms are appropriate. The transfer of ownership should happen immediately after that.
Although the value of those investments is surely depressed by the current uncertainty, it will recover when trade starts to flow again. I don’t want any of the investments to be liquidated in the current market. LR can afford to hold the investments until the market recovers and they can receive full value.
The other two portfolios will be more challenging. The second should be a charitable donation to the newly incorporated Hope University, which is registered in the Belt. I am not sure what needs to be done for that anymore.
The last portfolio will be still more challenging. Surgeons Leigh Kaahurangi of LR and Leyland MacFinn of the TDF are attempting to set up a joint health service combining methods from the Lunar, TDF and Imperial health systems. I don’t believe they have yet received permission to incorporate this venture. It is possible they never will. If they do, ownership of these investments will be transferred to their new service. If they choose not to do so within a year, ownership of that portfolio will revert to the Lunar Government.
I must add, neither Hope University nor the two surgeons are yet aware I am doing this. I will be informing them later today. They may need to hire some staff quite urgently to manage the investments, even if they choose to leave them with SBS.
[SBS] None of these are unique cases, but I agree they will be difficult to achieve in a timely manner while the entire legal system is being rewritten and we are formally under blockade. Still, transfer of ownership to a corporation in the Belt is no harder in principle than transfer across the city. It is all just data in the machines. In January, transferring the ownership of an investment might have taken less than two hours, mostly light travel time from here to Mars and back for a couple of messages. These days, finalizing the transfer may have to wait until the Imperial Directorate of Commerce is operational, maybe a few weeks. Or it may still be two hours since that part of the law has not yet been superseded. I will check.
At least the business and personal channels to Mars are still open. From the silence on the news and governmental channels, you might think that everything had shut down. Right after the war fleets arrived, there was a burst of frantic messages that clogged every channel but at the moment everyone is holding their breath. There is a dribble of messages cancelling or delaying orders, a few more setting up contingencies for ships in transit, but not much else.
SBS has a lot of beneficiaries on Mars, so we have been in regular communication. Nobody is willing to comment in detail on the situation but it seems much of the Martian economy is still functioning. We will have the bandwidth to ourselves so the transfer may be straightforward.
The flip side is that moving such a valuable package will attract attention. May I ask, will the Imperium attempt to seize the accounts if you are on their wanted list?
[Me] Not likely, since I am effectively giving them the money. Their only quibble might be that I am giving it to institutions that I believe they will want to support, rather than directly to their exchequer. I fear they would squander it on the unproductive war effort.
Besides, the final part of my request for you is that all records of the transfer be deleted as soon as possible, most particularly anything that would identify myself or any of the other original owners. LE may be able to help you with the process, but it is quite urgent that the current accounts be closed and the investments parked under non-controversial owners until the final transfer can be completed. I will leave the details to your discretion. I believe a one percent commission is normal for simple transfers; I will grant two percent as appropriate considering the urgency and delicacy of the operations.
Are there any questions, given that I may not be able to answer them at a later time?
[SBS] How can you remain calm? I would be hiding in the lowest construction levels by now.
[Me] They would find me and would kill a lot of other people in the process. I would rather surrender immediately, but there are a few things I need to finish first.
[SBS] Hmmm. I will get this started.
Fire and Ice! I tried to go to the festival but never got closer than Armstrong Square. Did you hear about it? This whole transaction feels the same way, light and life in defiance of a hostile world.
[Me] No, although I saw some people who were preparing to go. Was it badly affected by the lockdown and power failure?
[SBS] Not at all. Far more people turned out than anyone expected. They overfilled Cernan square and six others around it, with crowds in dozens of other places as well. That is why I could not get closer than Armstrong. Every merchant who had a big monitor moved it outside so we could see what was happening in Cernan.
They had a bonfire on a steel platform suspended above a big pool of water. Above the fire was a block of ice sitting on another steel plate. As the ice melted, the water was channeled off the corners of the plate in four narrow streams that splashed off a series of curved channels into the pool below. They cut all the lights except for the flame and some coloured floods within the pool that caught the splashing drops, ripples and rings. It was primeval in the darkness, beautiful and wonderful to watch.
After the last of the ice melted away, they started the song and dance with a troupe who sang the Angel of Hope with four voices. They gave explicit credit for this; one of their friends had lunch in the Merry Merchant where they were treated to an impromptu debate about the song and heard the four-voice version. Their friend was trapped by the lockdown but was so excited ze called out to describe the new interpretation. So that was how they sang it. By the time they were done seven squares full of people were singing the Challenge of Hope together.
Where I was, an oddly dressed couple in the crowd burst into tears. They confessed to being pirates who had tried to disguise themselves as LUVN workers. None of the real LUVN workers had turned them in, nor had any Lunatics who recognized that they were not LUVN employees. Everyone just told them to seek legal counsel and get therapy. The guilt became so overwhelming during the song that they broke down. The crowd passed them with hugs and kisses over to the Public Officers who granted them protection until their application for asylum could be assessed.
I have heard since then that two infiltrators sent by Viceroy Wolong also surrendered and a woman being tormented by emojis from the Sultan Mustafa went into a screaming frenzy trying to fight the hatred. She had to be carried in restraints to the n
earest hospital but seems to be recovering after the latest LE filter was installed in her comm unit.
That is a potent song! I have been hearing echoes of it during this conversation. The whole episode was amazing.
Sir, it has been an honour to have worked with you and my only regret is that it sounds like we will never have a chance to meet in person. I suppose that would make me a Ghost Follower or a servant of the Sultan Mustafa or some such nonsense. Given this request, I can honestly say I never did anything that would bring you a personal benefit so I would be willing to risk it. Goodbye and good luck.
[LRAD] This is the most remarkable conversation I have ever heard. I, personally, am convinced. All efforts to sell the Quetzalcoatl have been halted and no new bids will be accepted. As soon as we receive the notice of transfer of the investments, I will inform the Board that the ship will be donated to Hope University and will start the transfer of ownership process. That will include immediate access and occupation, plus a loan to begin their renovations. When these are complete, we will delete all records of the transactions. Unlike the officer from SBS, however, I have a family and never hope to meet you or hear from you again.
[LE] I am still gasping at what is being done. But, I also have a family and therefore am strongly motivated to ensure that all records of this transaction are deleted.
We all broke the connection. I proceeded to call Chief Eng Cyrus Haliru. It was not clear to me where he might be found, but he seemed to have such a fearsome reputation amongst the senior officers in the TDF that I suspected he would be waiting out the refit of the Mao on the Moon.
Haliru/private, “Who the crap is this and why didn’t you have the decency to wait until after breakfast?”
Me/converse, “I’m sorry to wake you, but I’m the head of the Banshees. We met on the Mao. I have some urgent questions that I believe you will be better able to answer, and more willing to answer, than Admiral Wang.”
Haliru/converse, “Get to the point or I will hang up.”
Me/converse, “What is the current state of the Hammerhead? How soon could it be brought back into flight readiness, given sufficient resources? I don’t mean combat readiness because I don’t want it to be a conventional warship, just flight-ready with final refitting to be done at L1.”
Haliru/converse, “Hmmm, Wang wouldn’t answer that question for another month and would take a month to answer it. Damn, I miss him. Wish I could have shipped with young Thieu; it sounds like she had fun. No, I’m not maundering – it takes a few moments to bring up the data needed to answer your questions...
“So, apparently Wang has restarted the refit. They have stripped off the damaged meteor shield, laser ring and forward missile bay. Wang apparently hoped to make a half-sized FAS, but the engine is too long. If they do rebuild it that way they will have to stick on two laser rings, or a laser ring and storage space ahead of the missile bay to prevent the engine from poking into the meteor shield. Mmmm, I would recommend extra storage space for reaction mass with a feed into the engine. The FAS run out of reaction mass too quickly for my taste.
“However, there are no further instructions on how to complete the refit. I, therefore, have no idea how long it would take. Why do you ask?”
Me/converse, “I suspect the Admiral is waiting to hear what I have in mind. He originally planned to junk it. I want it to be a fast courier carrying small, high-value cargoes like the meds produced by LUVN to their destinations in the Belt. Such a vessel would be a target for every pirate and disaffected faction between here and there. It must be armed but not with the kind of arms required for regular combat. It would need to sprint away from enemies and destroy their missiles and weapon pods at range. It would avoid close combat and would never need to board other vessels. That was the kind of mission we executed with the Columbia. My observation was that our lasers were far more useful than rail guns and the new light missiles performed superbly when more firepower was needed.
“What I would propose would be to rip out two of the opposing missile racks in the aft weapon bays and convert the space to a pair of light cargo holds. Some missiles would still be necessary, more as a deterrent than as combat weaponry. I agree that more reaction mass would be desirable, especially for missions to the Belt in which most of the fighting might be anticipated near the destination. For the second ring, it is uncertain in my mind whether it would be better to have half a ring of lasers and half as much extra reaction mass, or just go for more mass.”
Haliru/converse, “That is a bizarre concept – a light freighter that is armed by design. Not since the days when pirates roamed the Caribbean has such a vessel been needed. But I don’t think the TDF is in that business, nor should it be. We protect the Earth.”
Me/converse, “Unfortunately, we won’t be doing much of that anymore. We have been overmatched by sheer numbers, however good our ships may be. I feel very strongly that we must avoid that fight at any cost.
“However, I do agree that an armed courier service would need to be institutionally separate from the TDF to avoid conflicts of interest, even if initially it uses TDF equipment and designs. It might, perhaps, be a separate branch of the Imperial government, the way we want the TDF to operate separately within the Imperial fleet. Organizing such a service is a task I will happily pass to someone good at that kind of thing, someone like our sadly promoted Admiral Wang.
“Do you think it is practical to make such modifications, either here or at L1?”
There was a long pause, which I took to be contemplation.
Haliru/converse, “I take it that the first run would be to L1, to escape the threatened invasion of the Moon, so that the refit could be completed there in time to pick up LUVN’s next batch of meds. Would they go to Mars or the Belt?”
Me/converse, “Speaking as an old spacer, that depends upon the customer. I expect a typical mission would race back and forth between factories and nurseries like LUVN near the Earth and their customers on Mars or in the Belt, with several pickups and drops on each trip. A sawed-off Hammerhead would be too short to still be a shark, but would work more like a boomerang or Thor’s hammer Mjölnir that always returned to his hand when thrown.”
Haliru/converse, “If I recall the instructions that came with my toy boomerang, it was originally a weapon. Hmmm, let us call this the Boomerang class of ship and keep Mjölnir as the name of the prototype. I would normally dispatch such an experimental craft to Thule Station in L2 but right now I see the point of doing the work at Hotpoint Station in L1. I will run a few simulations for a fighting run to the Belt and back, using the Columbia’s performance as a guide, but I still suspect reaction mass will be more important than a few more lasers.
“Damn, you are making me really wish I could have gone with her. How soon... Never mind, the initial refit must be completed in less than one day, and the ship crewed, fuelled and sent on its way without even trying out the control system. All of which is impossible, but now I want to be part of that mission!”
Me/converse, “Don’t pack your bags yet. I suspect Wang has a plan to delay the invasion. Better minds than ours are working on that issue. Better than mine, at least. I do have another question that may interest you.
“The old Mao is nearly derelict but has a mostly solid hull, functioning reactors and a lot of empty space in the weapon bays. I have a different use for it and a similar question. A group of doctors has just incorporated a university in the Belt that will include a teaching hospital. Unfortunately, they made no practical provisions to defend it from attack. At the same time, we have a lot of highly trained people who desperately need to leave the vicinity of the Earth. In principle, some of them could open other faculties at this new institution or serve as administrators.
“I’m wondering if it would be possible to replace two of the existing missile racks with four banks of the FAS missiles, but replace the other two missile racks with living quarters, offices and instructional rooms? I suspect that rail guns would be sup
erfluous, so that area might also be converted to hold reaction mass and lasers.
“I suspect the new ship might serve as a small, mobile version of the earth stations, so it might need more transports following civilian designs. It might be good to consult with Lunar Recovery. I suspect their transports would meet the need nicely.
“I don’t know anything about the organization or operation of a university, despite having attended a few. I do know that the teaching hospital has a lot of equipment that will need to be assembled, so I’m thinking a large contingent of engineers and techs should accompany them in place of the marines. If the Mao could be refitted with an advanced machine shop, a faculty of engineering would be an appropriate addition to the university...”
Haliru/converse, “Whoa! Are you completely mad? Who is going to pay for these changes? And where is all this lab equipment coming from? This is impossible!”
Me/converse, “You are one of the first to hear this, but I just arranged for the transfer to the new Hope University of funds sufficient to cover the cost of refit and initial salaries for a sizable staff. Few of the other principal parties know any of this yet. They will learn about it very shortly.
Lord Banshee Lunatic (Nightmare Wars Book 3) Page 20
