Chapter 3

The young Derf who showed them to their room seemed excited to meet new Humans. She fairly babbled about their Human doctor and the fact her principal duty was being her assistant. She introduced herself as Pasteur following the custom of assuming a short name for Humans that honored someone they admired. Jeff was kind enough to not inquire if she realized her namesake was a male. He just introduced April to the medic very formally, assuming she already knew Lee. She pointed out the obvious features of their room even knowing Lee had stayed there many times. They just attributed it to her age, enthusiasm, and being an obvious fan of things Human.

“I hope you don’t mind sharing a room,” Lee said. “Derf would never think to break us up into two rooms much less three. That sort of privacy just isn’t part of their social structure. Working groups are almost like family with Humans, and family is much looser, with child care shared and rotated among many relatives to expose cubs to different people and their activities. That’s how most of their primary education works. You don’t get specialized education until you are apprenticed out to someone.”

“So, their homeschooling is village schooled instead of parent schooled?” April asked.

“Yes, but when I stayed with my cousin in Michigan, they traded tutoring with other people much like the Derf. Some of them didn’t have children and did it unpaid, just because they enjoyed it. Negative tax people have a lot of time on their hands. My cousin certainly didn’t have any extra cash money to pay them for it.”

“I’m surprised North America lets them home school in any form,” April said.

“They had to be registered to public school, but the authorities long ago gave up trying to see if students sat in front of the screen and watched classes. The homeschooled are usually far enough ahead that they just take the state tests and do fine. Not that it matters, they pretty much pass you on to the next class if you take the test at all. It’s considered several kinds of cultural bias and discrimination to say any answers are wrong. Some of the negative tax people have been illiterate for three or four generations.”

“What a waste,” Jeff said. “The Derf don’t go for that sort of foolishness I bet.”

“Not the same way,” Lee said, “but Gordon would have been a barrel maker. That’s what they decided he was going to be apprenticed to do. So, they waste plenty of talent too.”

Lee’s criticism made Jeff get a thoughtful face and silently look around the room.

“You’re that sure we aren’t under surveillance?” he asked.

“It wouldn’t occur to them to even buy the equipment,” Lee assured him. “The mindset just isn’t there. They are right out front and expect if they give an order it will be followed as law. There isn’t any history of conspiracy and skullduggery. If there is going to be dissent the males express it rather directly, with the axe, not a campaign of whispering to form a coup. Besides, I’d tell the Mothers that to their face if they brought it up and wanted to discuss it.”

“I suppose there is a lot to be said for directness,” Jeff allowed. “I’d have found that much easier to deal with when I first met Heather and April. Now, they have me so trained to look for Human dissembling that I forget some people are still direct and uncomplicated.”

April and Jeff both had their phones vibrate as they had them muted to not make a spectacle for the Derf. A quick look confirmed what they expected, Home was in the system and the commander in charge of the move, Deloris, wanted instructions.

April told Jeff to take the call with a flip of her hand.

“We have permission to orbit, Deloris,” Jeff said. “That may not be permanent. We are still negotiating with the Mothers. I suggest you park Home trailing at the same level and equatorial orbit as Derfhome station but within line of sight. Not behind the curve of the planet. I know that isn’t going to happen quickly, but you might advise their traffic control that’s what you intend in a few days.”

“Over,” he added, knowing he was talking to a jump drone. That would tell it he was done and it would jump back to the outer system and play the recording for Deloris.

There was a pause until it returned.

“Yeah, I don’t have very precise orbital elements on the bodies of this system. I’ll see if I can get them when I talk to traffic control. It’s going to take a bit of celestial pool to make a chasing approach at the correct velocity. We’re going to have to fit a sleep period in so we’re fresh on our final approach. I’ll jump a drone in every few hours to check for messages until we get in talking range,” Deloris promised. “Oh, and expect several orbital shuttles to go to Derfhome station as soon as we announce we are in our final orbit and not going to do any more jumps. They are pestering me to know when that will be already. The explorer Snoopy undocked and departed for Fargone as soon as we jumped in. Also, expect a flood of messages when Home is close enough to tie into the local com system. Besides all the people who want to be doing business an hour after arriving there are about a dozen seriously peeved with Heather and with you since you are her peer and available to yell at. Over.”

“Any particular complaint? Has anyone challenged me to a duel? Over.”

“No formal challenge, yet. A few feel they were kidnapped. They were removed from proximity to Central and other markets ruining their business. A couple of them had family or friends on the other habitats or the Moon and were separated. They feel an Assembly should have been called and everyone given time to decide what to do and leave for other places if they wished. Wouldn’t that have been nice? Jon Davis and Robert Lewis barely had time to get everybody docked before we grabbed them and jumped out. Once it was announced what was happening nobody wanted to pilot a shuttle away anyway. You couldn’t buy passage at any price. The other habs each had one shuttle go to Central but that was it. Oh, and we couldn’t position your zero g housing to bring with Home, so we made sure everybody was evacuated to Home and did a one jump drag to toss it into a solar orbit between Earth and Mars. That’s all we had time to do. Over.”

“You save people from being shredded to hamburger and they still complain,” Jeff said. “I’d gladly put them back in front of the North American’s flying gravel pile if I could, but we have yet to build a time machine. We already knew we’d have to transport people to sort it out after the fact. That wasn’t hard to figure out at all. Thanks for putting the auxiliary housing where it can be recovered. I’d just written it off. Carry on, Deloris. Singh out,” he ended the call.

“She got the hardest one to move,” April said. “With the extra ring Home is delicate and you can’t change its velocity much with thrusters. It would take forever to do so.”

“Perhaps you should mount a lot of little thrusters all over it to distribute the force,” Lee suggested. “This is twice now that you’ve had to move it.”

She thought about it a little more. “If you keep moving it, if say, you decide to take it along the route to the Badger’s world and the brown dwarf stars, you could mount its own synced jump drives.”

“My goodness, you think big, Girl,” Jeff said. He didn’t want to remind her he had limited quantum material. His stepmother had moved her production to one of their safe worlds but still kept the facility small enough to be under her close personal control. He had to make decisions about creating another jump ship or equipping one they already had with a gravity lance. Jump drones were a necessity now, once they found how important they were for defense and communications. When Jeff found out how many drones were lost fighting North America he’d be horrified. Large fusion weapons were also worth building, but if you used them, the quantum fluid in them was lost forever. He was very anxious that the current war was going to use up a lot of their stocks of fluid.

It deeply bothered Jeff that he couldn’t solve the black box problem its production presented. He was starting to think his mother imported things she didn’t need, just to throw him off, or might depend on some trace ingredient she could carry in a pocket. Suddenly, Lee’s researchers finding a solution to their material shortage seemed more likely their salvation than a risk.

“Thank you. I don’t think Home masses any more than some of the alien ships we’ve seen. It’s just different because it spins instead of using gravity tech for the decks.” And is probably obsolete and will be seen as dated soon, Jeff thought for the first time but didn’t say out loud. It gave him a pang of distress to think that possible.

“There is however a matter of security. We haven’t shared the details of our drive with our Home allies. The details of it are only known to a handful of people. Not even to all of Heather’s peers. I’d have to be certain any drives attached to move Home were very secure.”

“Then all your fast ships are Central flagged?” Lee asked. “Somehow that detail never got explained to me.”

Jeff shrugged. “Perhaps because we just take it for granted. To my knowledge, there are six Home registered vessels, all explorers, with the same sort of drives the Earthies use. Only two were present in the Solar System when we performed our Bug Out of the habs. One was docked to Home and one in orbit around the Moon. The others are all out exploring. The superluminal vessel Snoopy undocked from Home and departed on a Fargone vector after Home entered the Derfhome system.”

“On your business?” Lee asked.

“No. It’s a privately owned explorer. Where it goes and to what purpose is none of my business,” Jeff insisted. “That there are any Home flagged private explorers says a lot about how much wealth resides in Home. Last I looked, there are only thirty-some explorers owned by Earth governments, universities, or huge corporations.”

“Well, that’s going to be a complication,” Lee said.

“Why so?” Jeff asked her.

“I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for the Claims Commission to cancel my claims and Gordon’s claims. We’ve had our bank on Ceres forward everything on deposit to Fargone and here. Any new royalty payments are automatically forwarded now. I just didn’t realize there are other non-Earth claimants. You can bet they will be excluded by the Claims Commission too.

“That’s their problem to deal with,” Jeff said. “We don’t speak for them.”

“I suspect they can speak for themselves,” Lee said. “This Snoopy that’s headed to Fargone, does it have any claims registered?”

Jeff tapped a string of inquiries in his pad. “No living world, but it has a decent number of mining sites, fuel rights in good locations, and one water world. Since it is out of Home, it is a partnership of six people. You can safely assume they are all billionaires in any Earth currency. That’s pretty common now.”

“Would they have followed all the rules the Earthies do?” Lee asked.

“Sure, they’d have to qualify to use the Commission,” Jeff said, “which is just another reason Central flagged vessels don’t register finds with the Commission.”

“Then what do you want to bet they are headed to Fargone to buy the latest weapons to replace the very limited sort they were allowed to carry as registered explorers?” Lee asked.

“That seems likely,” Jeff admitted. “That’s just one more unintended consequence the Earthies may have neglected to take into account.

“There are only the six ships,” Jeff reminded her, “but if they cut them off, they can act against North America or other commission members. They may seek reprisals for their losses or conduct attacks in retribution.” He stopped, with an astonished look on his face.

“What?” Lee demanded. “You might as well have yelled Eureka!”

“Back, during our war of rebellion, the Assembly authorized blanket letters of marque and reprisal for all Home vessels while we were at war with North America. There was never any reason to rescind that law. One would assume they retain force since the treaty was broken by the North Americans. I doubt the Assembly is in a mood to do so now, and even if the ship captains decide it applies to any registered members of the Claims Commission, I also doubt they would make any move to reprove them.”

“Oh great. We may have pirates now,” Lee said. And if they poach other nations’ vessels, they may set all the other Earthies against us, not just North America.”

“No indeed. Privateers,” Jeff insisted. “It’s a very different thing. Just ask Gordon.”

* * *

Lloyd was prepared for rage when he reported the loss of Huma Bhabha and the Improbable. Not at him. He knew Heather wasn’t an empty-headed despot who would shoot the bearer of bad news. He deeply feared for North America, however. Instead, her reaction was barely visible. Heather’s nostrils flared as she took a long deep breath and her lips narrowed in a thin angry line. Somehow that still managed to send a chill up Lloyd’s back. He had to suppress the urge to lift a hand and smooth the hair standing up on the back of his neck.

“Dakota, post a note to all ship owners and pilots. Effective immediately, you need not risk yourselves to leave smaller vessels for USNA to evacuate. This is due to the loss of a Central vessel to an elaborate ambush. Do not pursue fleeing ships to turn them back. They may lead you into a trap using X-heads as a minefield. Destroy them at the furthest possible range. If you come upon other Central forces in the field inform them of this order.”

“I’m on it,” Dakota said and left the room.

“Mr. Maddox, do you require rest or supplies before I give you another assignment?” Heather asked.

“No, Ma’am. I’m mid-day in my sleep cycle and was assured on landing that my ship is being fueled and serviced. I haven’t made a dent in onboard stores. I expended a munition and was told I’d have a new one in the rack when I returned. I’m ready to do whatever you command.”

“There are still a few small USNA ships in Earth orbit that April couldn’t ID. Military supply vessels, a couple of frigates, and even a few jump capable cutters. April got most of them. Disable them all and challenge any about which you are uncertain to identify themselves or have their drive spaces destroyed. They are well warned about what we are doing and our tactics now, so be that much more cautious. If you get no response, and can’t identify them visually, disable them. Your computer will have the profiles and last known orbit of all USNA vessels we have identified. If you have any doubts about their response disable them. If you accidentally damage the vessel of another nation, I won’t see you held personally liable. Do you need anything?”

“This is going to be a short, intense campaign. Do you have somebody who is not a pilot but familiar with flight operations and weapons systems to sit second to me? I can concentrate on flying then and they can talk and run the drones and missiles for me,” Lloyd requested.

“I have a jump apprentice if you are willing to further her training,” Heather offered.

“That’s fine, and thank you,” Lloyd said.

Heather’s eyes flickered briefly in her spex. “Ms. Orlov, would you consent to sit the weapons board for Lloyd Maddox on Lloyd’s Lady?”

After a pause, she added. “Whenever you can get to the field and join him. I suggest you take a couple of changes of suit liners.”

“She’ll be there,” Heather told him.

“Are we going to remove North American vessels that haven’t lifted?” Lloyd asked.

“Leave that to me,” Heather told him. “I intend to remove North American spaceports, the supporting infrastructure for space operations, and the production of most aerospace materials. I’m done playing softball with them.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I’ll try to beat Ms. Orlov to my ship if you are done with me.”

“Quite done. I’m sorry to send you right back out when you’ve had such a shocking experience,” Heather said.

“It’s war,” Lloyd said. “I expect it to be gut-wrenching and ugly.”

“Yes, and I suspect the North Americans may think it is mostly over. They haven’t had time to get reports from their furthest bases or any of their smaller vessels bringing refugees home. They are about to find out it’s just starting and I’m no longer in a mood to even entertain a surrender. They have a history of serial surrender and proving false to it. This time we simply remove their ability to support a space industry. I regret we ever allowed them to regain it after the Home revolution. I’m going to make it clear to them that in the future we will bombard any space facilities they try to rebuild without notice. North America is permanently out of the space business.”

Lloyd nodded his understanding of that and exited quickly. Heather was going to be very busy.

* * *

“To the various Earth news services, from the Sovereign of Central: The USNA, after orchestrating an attack on the trio of Home habitats before their stated deadline, has abused my efforts to minimize casualties in removing North American military presence in the heavens. The USNA base at Survey System 4803 not only refused to surrender but destroyed a Central vessel in a cunning ambush. The base was destroyed and my orders currently propagating to all our forces are to stop offering quarter to any USNA forces. The effort to leave freighters or minor warships to evacuate surrendering personnel is rescinded. North America is put on notice to vacate any space-related facilities immediately as they are subject to immediate destruction.”

* * *

The Humans were all glad to be called back to dinner. They all had modified metabolisms that increased their appetites. They were early because just a few Derf were drifting in to populate the Great Hall. The Mothers seemed in a good mood so they must not have received any bad news since they’d gone to their rooms.

“Have you received any new communications yet from your Home people?” the First Mother inquired.

“Just that they arrived, and will take a couple of days to refine their information about the objects and motions in the Derfhome system,” Jeff said. “It will take some time to plan their solutions to attain an accurate orbit trailing Derfhome station. The ability to change the vector of Home with conventional drives is very limited. They can do so to perfectly match orbits, but at such a low acceleration the inhabitants won’t even feel it.

“Despite the fact we were sorely pressed for time, I’ve been warned that there are people who have a grievance with my sovereign for whisking them away. They will likely express it to me as her peer in residence when they arrive within easy com range. I’m not sure they are aware April and the Foys are here to yell at. Under the circumstances, I don’t think I’ll reveal that to them. I remarked to my friends that you save people from being shredded to hamburger and still they are ungrateful. Let them yell at me or challenge me so the others can deal undistracted.”

“Do you mean a challenge at arms such as Derf do to establish law?” the Second asked.

“Yes, though we have different customs,” Jeff said. “I’ve survived one duel. I heard how your Champion William reduced the willingness of others to call him out. I intend to do something similar if some hothead insists on meeting me.”

“Beat them to a pulp without using the cutting edge?” the Third Mother inquired.

“Indeed, no. If challenged I have the choice of weapons. I’ve given it some thought, and if called out I will specify pillows.”

“Perhaps I don’t have the full usage of that English word. Soft headrests for sleeping?” the Third Mother asked. “How can that be lethal?”

“You simply hold it firmly over their face until they smother,” Jeff said.

The Mothers didn’t look at each other to share the horror of imagining how slow that would be, with the supporters of the challenge obligated to watch without interfering. Jeff seemed confident he’d be the survivor of such a test. One wondered if he’d planned some sort of tactics. It was a long silent pause before the Third Mother could bring herself to speak again.

“We’ve noticed gratitude is not an automatic Human response. But be warned various Derf can also neglect it to an amazing degree.”

“I’m glad one of our races isn’t virtuous at a saintly level,” Lee said. “If one was, the other would never be able to put up with them. We both need to be similar to get along.”

“Or even too dissimilar in the level we are defective,” Jeff said, amused at himself. “However, I want to say we discussed other consequences that should be summarized for you, but I’m tired of talking. If April would explain it for you?” he proposed.

April explained there was a handful of slower Home registered explorers and that they had long-standing rights to letters of marque and reprisal. That one had already left Home for Fargone and their supposition why. She explained the likelihood the Earth Claims Commission would cut off Lee’s royalty payments and those of the other off-Earth explorers.

“You’ve been expecting to be cut off?” the Second Mother asked Lee.

“I was shocked they didn’t do it back when they refused to register our claims in the deep beyond,” Lee said. “I can’t imagine they haven’t done so now with the resumption of hostilities, and word just hasn’t reached us yet. When we visited Providence, our reception was chilly. If we go again, I expect to be treated as a hostile vessel.”

The Mothers looked up and down the table at each other, the Second Mother in the middle pivoting her head back and forth to read the interaction between the First and Third Mothers. No word was spoken but they visibly came to a consensus with the First and Second Mothers giving the Third a nod to speak that they’d picked up from Humans.

“To clarify, do you think they will just cut off your royalty payments or would they repudiate the entire claim so your system rights and land claims would be voided too?”

Lee looked thoughtful. “To hold title to lands is so basic it didn’t occur to me they would try to invalidate them. But I’d like to ask Jeff and April what they think.”

“I’m afraid if they deny any one aspect of your claims, they will all be obligated to deny all of your claims,” Jeff said. “To accept one would give you a legal weapon to show they are all valid. There’s an underlying fact that overrides any legal nitpicking. They are simply too greedy to do it by half measures.”

“If they do that, then our holding on Providence will be invalidated too, because Lee will be deemed ineligible to have passed them to us,” the Third Mother reasoned.

“Is that going to put us at war with North America again?” Lee asked.

The First Mother held up a single taloned digit. “No need to get ahead of ourselves with suppositions. Even if they contest with you, we can wait for that to play out before we have any need to protect our derivative rights.”

“That puts it on me to defend our ownership,” Lee said.

“Indeed, it does, but I suspect you would do so for yourself in any case. I expect with a much gentler hand than we would feel obligated to apply,” the First Mother said. The hand with which she illustrated a slapping application was not a true hand but a middle one with claws extended.

“I’m not sure I have the means,” Lee worried. “Most of my crews signed up to explore, not as mercenaries. I’d have to recruit with honesty about what they were signing on to do. Right now, a good chunk of the Exploration Society is off with Thor in the Deep and I have a greatly diminished pool from which to recruit.”

“If it helps, we will put the Sharp Claws and the Retribution at your service along with any Red Tree crew who wish to volunteer for shares,” the First Mum offered.

“Shares of what?” Lee asked. “We’re not going exploring.”

“Why the loot,” the First Mother explained. “When clans warred, we kept the whole thing. If you have to take your planet back why would you limit yourself to what little they already granted you? Your limits on what you were able to claim were based on the Claims Commission shouldering the burden of defending it for you. If they void the contract and you have to assume that burden now you should be much better compensated.”

Lee was momentarily shocked silent.

Jeff cleared his throat loudly and waved a much less threatening digit than the Mother.

“We have several thousand Homies arriving in orbit. Any number of them are suddenly unemployed, many with military experience. None of them are restrained from acting on behalf of another government. Indeed, they are capable of declaring war and acting on their own behalf if they wish. I have. Also, several fine security firms on Home have experience working together as a team and are well equipped. We can recommend them as we’ve hired them ourselves with good results.”

“I’m not sure how many people live on Providence now,” Lee said. “It must be a couple of thousand to service the basic systems they have in place like the port, satellite com, and a space station. It would be hard to raise anything near that big of a counter-force, equip them, and transport them.”

“No need,” April assured her. “Most of the population are there to get as far away from Earth as they can. As long as you make clear you don’t intend to throw the genuine colonists out, or diminish their holdings, very few will concern themselves with protecting their Earthie administration. For that matter, make it clear you will provide expanded opportunities for land and reduce the fees for providing the services already in place. After all, you are seizing the infrastructure and don’t need to recover any investment. They may very well throw the scoundrels out before you can land and do it yourself.”

“Also, there are plenty of Homies with administrative experience if you do have to replace some of the basic oversight of things like the Port and communications systems. All Earthie bureaucracies tend to be top-heavy so you aren’t going to need that many. Even some who are minor government officials may ask to defect and work for you, if the alternative is returning to Earth,” Jeff said.

“OK, you’ve convinced me. The Mothers are willing to kick in the use of two warships. Are you willing to sit an overwatch on the system for a couple of days while we find and remove the Earthie administration and send them home? Just to keep any surprise North American presence from suddenly appearing in our sky.”

“I doubt they will have the assets free or the ability to communicate with them effectively,” April said. “Heather is making life difficult for them right now. I will however, sit high guard for you.”

“Do you have to ask Heather?” Lee asked.

“I have considerable authority to act for her,” April said. “In this case, I find it a logical extension of our protection of Derfhome. The Red Tree Mothers have extended territory there and it is in our mutual interest to maintain control of it.”

“Then I’ll start assembling the means to do this,” Lee agreed, “but I want to wait to move on it. The North Americans pretty much tell the Commission what tune to dance to, but I’d rather force them to kick us out rather than anticipate them. It just looks better.”

The first Mother smiled and nodded her agreement. A wave of her hand signaled that their dinner that was delayed a few minutes while they discussed business could be served.

* * *

After sweets and coffee, the Mothers inquired what Lee and her guests intended next.

"If things were much calmer, I’d love to take them to see the first contact site and march them up for a day at the old fort. Someday, I’d like to ask you to show them the old armor and weapons, but my researchers are asking for a meeting, my bank wants me to come in, and the Foys are begging a meeting with Jeff and April. I’m afraid we need to leave those pleasures for another time. We will walk out in the morning to the mail road, so we don’t make everything come to a halt again because everybody wants to gawk at an aircar.”

“You don’t have to, if it robs you of a morning,” the First Mother granted.

“It will be good for us,” Lee insisted. “Exercise isn’t just a weird Human fetish. It has health benefits which even life extension doesn’t fully replace.”

“You know, when airplanes were a new thing on Earth, people did the same thing. If they heard one passing, they would run outside to see it,” Jeff said.

“Maybe if they upgrade your older model aircars to be quieter it won’t be as interesting to people,” April speculated.

“They just need to be so common nobody thinks anything of them,” Jeff argued.

“Even if they are quieter, that sounds terribly invasive,” the Second Mother said. “We might as well pave a highway right to the Keep door to have them landing all the time.”

Lee didn’t say anything. Even more so because the Third Mother who was the most progressive of them had a thoughtful look. Lee wasn’t sure that sounded so bad to her.

* * *

Heather had a lot on her mind planning the removal of North America as a space capable nation. A demotion in rank that would leave it behind others they disdained as second or third world nations. A good dozen countries built a nominal space capacity to qualify for the Claims Commission subsidies that were much better than the payment shares to non-space nations. The last thing she was anticipating was Dakota rushing in with urgent messages from Mars.

“I know you don’t have time for this, but the Martians are complaining the Folks on Gamma are ignoring their traffic directives from Phobos, and they are requesting access to shuttle service because they didn’t have a lander of any kind docked to them when they were snatched away to Mars. The Gammans are complaining about pretty much the same things, but from their perspective.”

Heather blinked, not sure what to say to what she saw as conflicting thoughts.

“It would seem to me if the Gammans are requesting services of the Martians it would be the course of wisdom to try to get along in such matters as traffic control. Fighting them with the left hand while supplicating them with the right hand is folly. Who died and appointed me sovereign over either? Central is enough trouble to govern.”

“Undoubtedly, that’s pretty much how the Martians see it,” Dakota agreed, “but they are viewing it from their cultural perspective, which is that everything is run from a central authority. The idea there are private factions free to express opposing interests on Gamma is going to be a hard sell. I have my doubts about whether they’ll even believe such a thing is possible. It certainly would never be tolerated on Mars.”

“Why do they even want to go down to that pest hole? The Martians are hanging on by their fingertips as far as environmental security. They don’t produce anything in excess to trade with the Gammans. I’m not sure how the Martians would pay for anything if they expect the Martians to buy from them. I haven’t checked, but Gamma had no superluminal vessels working from that hab, and maybe a half dozen orbit to orbit shuttles. They can sit and stew for a little bit until I get this other stuff sorted out. Nobody is going to starve or run out of air in a week or two. They have fab shops. They could build a decent lander in a couple of weeks. This is a fake emergency. They should be discussing where they want to go not settling in like they are going to stay there forever.”

“I’d ask why you parked them there if you didn’t expect them to interact with the planet. I guess they don’t trust you not to abandon them now that you have stranded them there,” Dakota said. “They are asking the Martians to lift water for them. They want to drop where there are surface sources of water and recover them for the hab.”

“If that was viable or efficient the Martians would be doing it for themselves,” Heather said. “You get very little payload and waste most of it as reaction mass. The maintenance on the shuttles soon outweighs the benefit of the water you can transport compared to extracting it locally. It isn’t going to be all that far in the future that the Martians will need to rebuild and refurbish those shuttles. Habs have always orbited around some body. I guess we thought that’s just how things were done. Maybe that was a mistake. Nobody has ever put a habitat in Solar orbit all on its own. Even if it was, they should both be trying to find a path of cooperation.”

Dakota looked even more unhappy. “Worse, I don’t think there is anywhere in the equatorial band where you can get water without digging and mining it. They either have to set up a facility or land on the sections you and Jeff own.”

“OK, I do have to nip that in the bud,” Heather said.

“Do you? Couldn’t you just sell them the water?” Dakota suggested.

“They still need a way to get to it, and they aren’t displaying much patience or the good sense to call and ask how I can help. I suspect if I don’t make them feel secure, they will use what they have on hand in the way of orbital shuttles to invade Phobos to control access to the surface. That will complicate our already bad relationship with Earth. Just like Martians see Gammans as a whole, Earthies think Spacers are a monolithic group. Other Earth nations who were neutral or even favorable to us will condemn all Spacers if the Gammans invade Mars. I can see the giant font headlines now. Mars Invaded!” Heather said.

The two women stared at each other silently, thinking hard.

“It’s a temporary solution, but here’s what I’ll do. Send a message to Gamma security and request it be shared as an all-hands message. That will both cover whoever is creating this problem and everybody else allowing it, without us making inquiries to discover the details and players. Tell them I’m short of ships right now to help them, but that in approximately a week I will send a ship to grab a small snowball from the outer system and put it in a trailing orbit behind Gamma. When we are able, we’ll repatriate those individuals who got swept up in the emergency exit and return them where they want to be. When they have some idea where they would like the entire habitat to be moved permanently, we’ll facilitate that for them.”

“What about the two snowballs that got left behind when the habs were moved?” Dakota asked. “They probably have the machinery to process water.”

“And somebody owns those snowballs and the machinery,” Heather said. “That’s supposing the extraction facilities weren’t damaged or the snowball busted up. I’m not going to pay for them to give them to the Gammans. It’s about as easy for us to get a new snowball for free as move one of those. Indeed, this isn’t going to be charity. They can pay the bulk rate for cometary water and see to extracting it themselves. They aren’t without machine shops and work scooters.

“Remind them the polar regions are owned, and I will be sending someone with the snowball to oversee the sales of water and permission to land or extract anything of value from the Martian surface. I’m acting for Jeff without his permission, but I’m sure he wants his property to be secured. I won’t release access to any of his territory until I get his agreement. Is that sufficient for you to write up the message?” Heather asked her.

“Yes, I’ll create it. Do you know who you are going to send?” Dakota inquired.

“No, you can find somebody too. If you can’t find anyone free, look at which department has functioned best short-handed and rob them. Don’t bother me with a draft either,” Heather said with a dismissive wave.

“I’m on it. I’ll have it sent in a half hour and find somebody today,” Dakota promised.

* * *

“I’m showing you this first,” Tod Oliver, head of Gamma security said, “but then I’m releasing this message as she requested.”

“Are you afraid of the Moon Queen?” Franklin Abel asked after he read it.

“Damn right,” Tod answered with no hesitation. “Anybody above the atmosphere who knows how things work has a very healthy respect for her and that crew that runs with her. You had a complaint and a worry that got folks stirred up. She just addressed it even though it wasn’t an honest emergency, yet. If you just move right on to pick another point to complain about people are going to see a pattern. This isn’t a bunch of Earthies on Gamma, who will watch the talking heads on the telly and nod their heads in vacant agreement.”

‘We’re still isolated here with no transportation anywhere,” Abel said. “That isn’t any made-up issue.”

“She offers transport for the whole hab,” Tod pointed out. “If this mob can agree on where to go. I can see from your face that worries you about as much as it does me. If Mars isn’t ideal, at least we know something about it to deal with it. I wouldn’t want to put a vote about moving to the assembly yet. Especially not until she makes good on the promise to individually repatriate those who want to go elsewhere. That would change the demographics of it so much there’s no telling where they would pick. We could end up at some distant star with all our basic assumptions about which businesses are viable and valuable scrambled. Lots of us might have to start over from scratch.”

“That doesn’t change the fact we wouldn’t have local transportation wherever we end up. We’ll need surface shuttles or longer-range orbit to orbit transport anywhere we move,” Abel insisted.

“Then perhaps you should buy some transport,” Tod suggested. “There are still shipbuilding facilities in Earth orbit. If you buy something from the French perhaps you can get one of those improved drives that will do a constant boost for interplanetary trips. The time to do that might be now, before the mob decides to be taken to some far star system. After that, you may have to beg the Moon Queen for delivery. I assume you can’t afford a starship?”

“You’re right, I’m rich but not that rich. I’m not sure if anybody is even offering to build starships to a standard design yet. That’s not a half-bad idea to get a deep-space vessel while we’re still in the neighborhood,” Franklin Abel acknowledged.

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