Another Word for Magic

by Mackey Chandler

  “You should tell me what you consider a suitable reward for your service,” Lee told April, looking over at her.

  Jeff was about to suggest something similar himself, but the way Lee pointedly spoke to April and cut him right out of having any interest or say in it made him swallow it. He was glad he hesitated trying to make sure his request was short and bullet-proof before he spoke up. He now suspected Lee would have slapped him down and asked how and when it became any concern of his?

  “I’d consider it a better than even trade if you explain how this drive works,” April said.

  Oh, bless you, thank you, thank you, Jeff thought in the back seat.

  “It’s derivative of the jump drive, so I already owe that to you,” Lee told her. “You should pick a nice section of land for an estate or some mining rights,” she insisted.

  “Thank you. That’s very generous of you,” April said.

  Chapter 19

  Dakota came in looking upset. When they were both working through mundane paperwork it was unusual for her to get up from her com console and interrupt Heather. She usually just stacked messages in their order of importance for Heather to work through as she saw fit. Even an emergency would just get tagged as such with red lettering at the head of the list if not life or death. Years ago, Dakota had been something of a drama queen and Heather had welcomed her slow conversion to a calmer demeanor.

  “The Gammans have gone nuts!” Dakota proclaimed.

  “All of them?” Heather asked. Gamma had the smallest population of the three habitats and the highest proportion of recent Earthie emigrants. However, a general psychosis seemed unlikely unless somebody put drugs in the water supply.

  “Franklin Abel just declared he is annexing the middle latitudes of Mars between your territory and Jeff’s. Is that nuts enough for you?” Dakota asked.

  Heather blinked slowly, trying to assimilate why he would do that.

  “This is the same fellow who tried to call their assembly to complain we kidnapped him and ruined his business when we saved their butts?”

  “I sincerely doubt they have two Franklin Abels,” Dakota retorted. “He has a net presence on Gamma and posts heavily every day about their removal to Mars, the evils of the Martian government, and what he regards as the European conspiracy to prop up the Martian regime. He hints darkly that they have no word back from Home and Beta so there is no proof they are even where we claim they are. He preaches that we’ve destroyed their businesses but Central is still sitting pretty as he puts it, unaffected.”

  “Preaches?” Heather repeated.

  “You’d understand if you watch one of his posts. He sounds like a very strident preacher giving his congregation a good talking to because he’s terribly disappointed in them.”

  “Do we have archives of Gamman net traffic since they were moved?” Heather asked.

  “Sure, memory is cheap. It just gets recorded with the speed of light lag now.”

  “Compose a sample of his posts,” Heather ordered. “No more than a half-hour long. I’ll look at those before I make any decision.”

  Heather looked back at her screen, the matter dismissed from her mind for the moment. She had plenty of other matters that needed her attention and was too disciplined to let one distract her from giving each her full thoughtful consideration.

  Dakota froze for a second, well aware she was dismissed. She hadn’t realized she was asking for a judgment. She thought of saying that and it sounded stupid even to her. Heather would ask why she brought it up if she didn’t want it fixed. She looked over at Gunny sitting reading a book and found him staring her in the eye perfectly poker-faced. He knew she’d set something in motion but wasn’t giving any clue if he approved or not. She left before Heather noticed her unnatural pause and asked if there was something else.

  * * *

  “Home control this is the experimental vehicle Twool, Lee Anderson commanding. We are out of Derfhome port. Requesting entry to your control volume and short-term docking to pick up a couple of passengers.”

  “We have no active traffic for twelve minutes Twool. You don’t appear on our registry. Do you wish to start an account for docking fees or pay cash?”

  “This is April Lewis, Spox for the Sovereign of Central. Add Lee Anderson to the Central sovereign account for any vessel she is commanding.”

  “Recorded. Please use port five on the north spindle flashing blue. I have a note twenty minutes old that your passengers are waiting at the north hub. I will advise them to proceed to hatch number five for pickup.”

  “That’s nice of you. Thanks. Oh, my goodness. Look at the size of the Out o’ My Way,” Lee said. “How do you dock something like that? The docking grapples will pull the spindle over to it instead of pulling it down tight to the spindle.”

  “Very carefully,” April said. “You use a flexible tunnel and the ship keeps station actively the whole time it is attached. They’ll undock and transfer cargo directly to a shuttle. One little bump and they’d have a thousand solar bill for busting the spindle.”

  “Don’t talk to me for a minute,” Lee said. “I’ve never docked this tiny thing and I’m paranoid enough about that to dock in slow mode and watch carefully in case I need to manually abort.”

  “Roger that,” Jeff agreed and shut up.

  “Perfect,” April said after the grapples gripped with a clunk.

  “Alonso is really good, and the docking collar is a standard design with published specs. I’m sure he just paid the license fee and gave the fabricator a file. Still, he had to integrate it into the design and wire it up correctly. His regular fab shop has likely made them before but I don’t think he has ever built anything with one before.” Lee said.

  “He doesn’t build spaceships?” Jeff asked.

  “He does now,” Lee said with a big smile. “His usual work is to build one-of-a-kind sports planes.”

  “That is impressive,” Jeff allowed.

  “My ears popped. Our pressure is matched,” Lee said, swallowing. “Let’s open up before they start beating on the hatch.”

  Lee swung up the deck plate that let them walk over the belly lock door when the car was parked on the ground. She locked it in place and checked the pressure gauges and indicators carefully – with extra care because they weren’t wearing suits. There was no test hole with cock and wire so she bumped the lock hatch button briefly making it open a crack in the middle. There was no violent airflow, so she held it down a little longer until it opened about a quarter meter.

  The docking collar indicators were painted green on the end and retracted flush to the ring when the grapples were fully engaged. All six were properly flush. The station hatch was a scant millimeter away to minimize air loss. Lee flipped the long lever over that unlocked the station hatch from their side.

  The second officer of the Out o’ My Way, Jack Souza, was standing with his toe in a take hold and the two Earth envoys beside him. The lady was copying his foothold but he had a hand on the man’s waistband indicating he needed some help. Souza’s eyes were looking past them in their lock but shifted back to them pretty quickly because there wasn’t anything to see. All three had their heads pointed the same as Lee but opposite of Jeff and April. The Earthies quickly looked uneasy dealing with somebody upside-down to their experience. They couldn’t read facial expressions that way.

  “Jack,” April said nodding. “Lee Anderson, Master of Twool, and our ride today. Jack Souza, Second Officer of Out o’ My Way.”

  “Mr. Souza,” Lee said.

  “Ma’am,” Jack said and inclined his head.

  April turned her attention to the Earthies.

  “I’m April Lewis and this is Jeff Singh. We are peers and Voices of the Sovereign of Central. We came along to introduce you to our friend and ally, Lee Anderson. She heads the Exploration Society Protection Registry.”

  That gave Lee a little jolt. She had to control herself not to suck a deep breath. They had never referred to her as
a friend. She sternly reminded herself that didn’t mean the same thing with them it did with her Badger friend, Talker. She allowed that to reach her face and Sousa noted and looked concerned at the change.

  Lee got her face under control and nodded at them.

  “I’m Jean Navarre, representing France and my associate is Kamala Naidu for India,” he said. “We have credentials if you’d like to examine them, but Heather Anderson didn’t bother past ascertaining we were actually associated with our governments.”

  “Maybe later,” Lee said. “Not because I suspect you are some strange multinational diplomatic conspiracy. I’m just curious about what forms they follow. Why don’t we go ahead and board and let Mr. Souza get back to his ship?”

  “Thank you. If you are done with me then?” His eyes checked April and Jeff too.

  “Unless you’d like a receipt for them,” April quipped.

  That hit his funny bone. “I should take it for a novelty, my Lady.” He left smiling.

  “I tell you what,” Jeff said after it was fumbling and awkward getting the French fellow through the hatch. “Just fold your arms across your chest with your hands tucked in and cross your ankles. Pretend you are a statue and I can handle you much easier that way than trying to explain what to do.”

  That worked marvelously.

  The ladies hung back and Lee caught Kamala looking amused.

  Jeff put Jean in the front seat and strapped him in. That made sense rather than needing to get Kamala past him later. He looked around and stared at the planet overhead through the big bubble canopy. It was a fantastic view.

  “Get the deck plate secured over the docking collar, would you Jeff?” Lee requested.

  “Are we taking this to a shuttle?” Jean wondered, looking over at Lee strapping in.

  “This is my lander and my auxiliary to my diplomatic courier the Kurofune.”

  Jean looked seriously dubious but said nothing.

  “Docking port is secure,” Jeff called from the rear.

  “Home control, Twool has concluded her pickup and is ready to depart. Uploading flight plan. Are we clear to depart your control volume?”

  “Twool, hold five minutes please, for a departure. Ma’am, my computer is alerting me your flight profile is unusual. Are you aware and do you need to hold to review and amend?”

  “No, thanks for your caution. This is an experimental vehicle capable of the filed plan. May I ask if you are sharing traffic control with Derfhome station?”

  “Derfhome station is acting as the planetary traffic control and we forward all departures to them. They only advise us if there is a conflict, but it is still necessary to contact Derfhome control for a station-to-station transfer.”

  “Thank you, Home control.”

  “Our traffic is clear and you are released. Be careful out there.”

  “Always Home, thank you.”

  There was a muffled clunk and they were undocked.

  “These double seats are kind of nice,” Jeff said.

  “You behave back there!” Lee said a little louder than necessary.

  There was giggling but Lee couldn’t tell if it was April or the Indian lady.

  Nobody talked much with such a view. Lee made a call after a bit and asked Strangelove to have Alonso and his men pick the Twool up at the hotel. That was in Derf, too, and she didn’t bother to translate.

  “Derfhome air traffic, Lee Anderson commanding Twool. We are turning on our transponder that reads Alonso Air and descending from station-controlled space to normal flight status over Derfhome City. We intend a vertical landing at the Old Hotel. Please advise us if you are conflicting traffic.

  “Well clear but sweet Mothers’ mercies, what are you flying girl?”

  “My auxiliary to the diplomatic courier Kurofune. Talk to Alonso and maybe he’ll build one for you. The Derf is an artist.”

  “That he is but I’m hoping to one day be able to afford one of his two-seaters.”

  “Fortune Freight, departing the port south if you are through chatting,” a voice said.

  “Clear of you too. Apologies for the chatter,” the other flier said.

  All that was in Derf so her new passengers didn’t follow it. Jeff and April followed the translation on their spex but said nothing.

  “The Derf don’t conduct air operations in English?” the Frenchman asked.

  “No, I know that is irregular but there is no governing body,” Lee explained. “The Mothers would have to declare a law to establish it and few clans have any air traffic in and out. Few of the early fliers spoke English so they use their language. It’s worse than you think. They don’t have controllers. They just follow what Humans would consider visual flight rules and informally advise each other where they are on approach or when ready to take off. We did just get admonished for being too chatty on the radio, however.”

  “Then traffic must be very light,” Jean concluded.

  “It is and it’s a race whether it will be English controlled or AI that can handle multiple languages by the time it is congested enough for this not to work.”

  Details of the city were coming into focus as they descended.

  “The roads…” Jean said.

  “Yes?”

  “None of them are straight.” he objected.

  In the back, Jeff just laughed.

  * * *

  “I am irritated,” Heather announced.

  Dakota was regretting she’d said anything.

  “I need a ship. But they are all terribly busy and have backlogs of action or tired crews already asked to do too much. I can’t effectively inquire of the Gammans with a radio lag. It even ruins the flow of a conversation using a jump drone to relay messages.”

  “If you have a pilot, the Hringhorni left the Remora off to help transport Home and has not been back to reattach her,” Dakota reminded her.

  “I should have learned to fly her myself,” Heather said.

  “Well unless you intend to learn this afternoon, you better get a pilot,” Dakota said.

  “Who is available?” Heather asked her, but she was putting the list up on the screen even as she asked.

  “Your brother just got in from Oasis and is off duty while his ship loads for his return trip,” Dakota pointed out. “He hasn’t flown the Remora but my understanding is there isn’t all that much difference between them.”

  “The jump controls are the same,” Heather said. “Docking should be easier. Tell Barak to confirm the Remora is ready to lift and have his butt sitting in her hot to lift in an hour.”

  “Since I precipitated this may I ask what is happening?” Dakota asked. “What are you intending to do about this Franklin Abel?”

  “I viewed the samples you provided of his net postings,” Heather said. “The man is a demagogue. He only has a couple of hundred people who follow him and comment on his posts. Those are his hardcore fans if you will, but the numbers show a lot more lurk to see what he is doing. People have taken over countries from much smaller starts. Having a core like that gives him a tool to intimidate others. Especially because I don’t see any organized opposition. I intend to ask Gamman security why he has such influence. He’s said a lot of untruthful things about their rescue and Central. I intend to call him on it.”

  It was easy to forget Gunny was there until he spoke.

  “If you mean you will call him out please don’t endanger yourself. I trust your judgment if he’s a danger to Central. Just give me the nod and I’ll take care of it for you.”

  “Who said you are even coming along?” Heather asked.

  “You accepted me here,” Gunny said. “Are you telling me it’s safer at Gamma? If you think that, you need to wait a day to give yourself time to chill and think about it, because your emotions are making you stupid.”

  Heather glared at him but didn’t say he was wrong.

  “You can come, but I do not intend to call the man out,” Heather said

  “Great,” Gunny said mar
king his book and closing it. “Tell me if you change your mind.”

  * * *

  The Hotel had a lovely apron between the street and the front doors laid in square granite pavers. As soon as they came to rest the doorman opened the hotel entry and four Derf came out. Lee exited the vehicle last and was consulting with three of the Derf while one attached himself to Jeff like a shadow.

  Jean turned around and looked at the car from the outside for the first time. It was hovering off the pavement silently with no exhaust or spinning propellers. Kamala was admiring the Twool too but Jean was bold enough to go push on the side of the car. It yielded slightly for a couple of centimeters and then pushed back far harder than he could resist to its original position.

  When Lee turned away the three Derf climbed in the car. Jean thought the entry hatches were generous, but now he saw why. They were snug for Derf.

  “OK, tell me how the Devil it works.” He seemed a little angry about it.

  “It’s magic,” Lee assured him.

  That made Jean’s face cloud up even more.

  “That’s an advertising slogan, not an explanation. They use it for meaningless adjective-fillers like the magic of cheese!”

  Kamala had her hand over her mouth. It hid the smile but not the laughter.

  “Oh Jean, can you really explain most of the things we use, like how a starship jumps or a pad does calculations? It is magic to us.”

  “Yes, but although I am not a physicist, neither am I a primitive to disrespect,” Jean objected. “It offends me even more, that my veracity software says she believes that tripe better than halfway. I’m not asking for drawings and specs, just a general statement like – It’s antigravity.”

  “Or an incantation to repeat?” Kamala teased him.

  “I do not want to make you my enemy,” Lee said. “I’ll tell you one small secret that you didn’t earn. We don’t have the damnedest clue how it works.”

  Jean looked incredulous.

  “How can that be?”

  “Do you think that when Ogg brought fire back to the cave from a lightning strike he needed a detailed concept of chemistry and oxidation before he could use it to stay warm? Well, our Ogg found some stuff that lets aircars float,” Lee said. “Since we don’t understand it, I’m not going to lie and make up some technical sounding nonsense. It would just be another word for magic.”