Chapter 18

“I’m amazed you had a soldier who knows how to tend bar,” Jeff said. Clarke was busy setting up and displayed every sign of being familiar with his equipment.

“I didn’t,” Strangelove admitted. “I assigned him to learn how and gave him funds.”

“I was under the impression it isn’t that easy,” Jeff said. “I understand there are hundreds of mixed drinks and people are fussy about how their favorites are prepared. I remember an old flat movie quote: “Shaken not stirred.” I have to wonder how that could make any difference mixing them. Mixed is mixed, isn’t it?”

“What are spex for?” Strangelove asked. “He has all the recipes in an index that can be accessed in seconds. If it seems really difficult most of them have videos available too. I’d worry about the buffet server as much as the bartender, if I were given to worrying. Fortunately, it’s only my charges who make me worry, not my soldiers.”

Jeff gave him a brittle smile. He couldn’t argue he never gave Strangelove grief.

There was extra seating provided on request by the hotel. The usual furniture was pulled to one side and the loaners made into a second seating group. They all were shifted to one side to allow a buffet and bar to be set up along one wall. The Foys showed up first with a gift of flowers and dressed in Earth styles Jeff was surprised they still owned after all this time. Eileen was in a long blue dress, and Victor in a fancy shirt with pearl buttons and a hunk of turquoise at his throat as big as a duck egg.

“Get a drink and park yourselves wherever you please,” Jeff invited. Vic didn’t have to be asked twice. He headed straight for the bar.

“What’s the odd bottle there that looks different?” Vic asked.

“I’m informed that is a whiskey Mr. Singh produces as a hobby.”

“He still does that? I had some years ago. Give me a double neat,” Vic said.

Clarke stopped and his eyes flickered in the spex.

“That means without any ice or mix,” Vic supplied.

Clarke poured a generous double and managed to do the long pour without spilling any. He was a little disappointed Vic didn’t want anything fancier.

Vic took a sip before walking away and considered it thoughtfully. Took another sip and nodded at Clarke’s unasked question.

“That will do. I don’t need to add anything.”

By the time he rejoined his wife, she was talking with Martha Wiggen and her husband Ben. They’d met some time ago but it was nice to see them again. Mel Wainwright was standing at her elbow and Vic wasn’t sure if he was a guest or her security until he engaged in conversation easily. He wouldn’t do that if he was working.

The Badger ambassador known as Talker came in holding hands with the Bill ambassador Singer. They presented April with a bottle of alien liquor which she took to the bar. Lee came in behind and covered Talker’s eyes from behind. He threw his hands up like he was being robbed. Gordon did some kind of elaborate hand slapping greeting with Singer. Everybody seemed to be in a pretty good mood.

There was much discussion of the effects of Home on the Derfhome economy, speculation about where things would be in a year or ten. April and Jeff’s associates Jan and Chen showed up in tuxedos with their wives dressed to the nines.

Lee’s techs, Born and Musical, showed up and gravitated to the other Badger and the Bill but didn’t say much, intimidated by company that was their bosses and above.

The hotel kitchen was asking if they could bring up the buffet and Jeff asked if April was sure Papa-san was coming? He saved them begging a delay by turning up asking for clearance to come up on the elevator.

Strangelove went to the door to make sure the hotel staff handed off the buffet carts without coming in and Jeff noticed he inspected them closely for anything untoward. He very much approved of his caution. When everything positioned along the wall and Strangelove’s second soldier ready to help serve it, Jeff announced the buffet was open.

People got quieter and talked to those nearby while eating.

“I understand you are going back to the Moon,” Wiggen mentioned to the Lees.

Chen just nodded. His wife Huian was the one who perked up and answered.

“Yes, not immediately but Chen is needed there and I have business with various Earth people. I was conducting that through the Private Bank but Irwin Hall isn’t going back. I’m going to take over as his manager for the Moon and conduct any business in the Earth-Moon system he’d have done from Home before. He isn’t sure if he’s staying here or will move on if Home does.” She did an elaborate shrug being careful of her plate. “Wherever he ends up, there will be transport there and banking will be needed. He’s no fan of Earth and happy to be a bit further away.”

“That seems to be a recurrent theme,” Martha Wiggen admitted. “Even my husband set his last two books off Earth. He says when you are no longer immersed in the culture you lose touch with the changes in language and customs. Pretty soon your works are dated if you aren’t trying to write period pieces. He doesn’t want to write Earth-centric stories. The surprise to me is they are selling pretty well with off Earth settings. He even has Derf fans!”

Talker leaned back from a seat facing the other way.

“I’ve read both those novels, so you may be surprised to know he even has alien fans.”

“Sugar, this may come as a shock, but Derf are aliens to us,” Martha said.

“We need a new word then. All the people in our… uh, group. Badgers, Bills, Cats, and Sasquatch aren’t alien at all anymore. They’re known qualities. Some very strange,” he admitted looking over his shoulder at Singer. Singer made a gesture at him that was probably rude. “But well past being alien. I’m still thrilled to see a Hin, and I’ve never seen any of the self-isolating aboriginals from Human space. However, I’ve been around Humans and Derf so long now I don’t think of them as alien.”

“Mr. Ambassador, it would take a long time to explain, but that’s about the sweetest thing you could say. It speaks very well to your personality.” Martha reached and gave him a friendly scratch around his furry little ears.

“When you figure out what word you want to use for the comfortably familiar just start using it. That’s the nice thing about English. There’s no static standard. We can change it by usage whenever we please.”

“My daughter there,” Gordon lifted his chin and looked across the room at Lee. “Found the Earth Humans as alien as any Hin or Elf. It rather put her off planets at all. I’d like to see her get past that but experiences get mixed up with feelings. We’ve talked about it. She finds plenty of Earthies acceptable once she knows them, but the bulk of them are still on probation with her.”

“I read the account you sent to the Mothers,” Mel Wainwright said from behind Wiggen. “They entered it in full into the legal record for the other clan Mothers to see their reasons to declare war and to presume to speak for all Derf again.”

“Again?” Martha’s husband interjected.

“The Treaty of Man,” Mel explained. “Which they defended at considerable cost to the opposition. I’ll note they found no such objections to their war on North America, even though it exposed other clans to great risk.”

“They may not have appreciated they were at any risk,” Gordon said. “They well could have regarded it as a matter between Red Tree and North America.”

“But would the Treaty of Man have stood if Red Tree fell?” Mel asked.

“Read it again,” Gordon suggested. “Every statement is between Man and the Derf. Nowhere does it limit any provision to Red Tree.”

Mel nodded, accepting that.

“As a lawyer, even if I am somewhat in arrears on my bar dues, I’m curious. I have to ask why you didn’t instruct your attorneys to pursue and appeal the juvenile judge’s decision? Wouldn’t that have been much simpler than declaring war?”

“Much simpler but wrong. My Mothers would have disavowed it and corrected me if I had followed that course. You mistake why I was in court that day. I was going to invoke the Treaty of Man and ask for Lee back. It was a courtesy in the face of rude mistreatment. However, I was labeled an animal and kicked out before I could make any statement myself or through my attorney.

“Talking to my attorney later, he did invoke the treaty and a bunch of other blather I didn’t request. The judge was even told by the prosecutor that he was in opposition to his own government. To finish matters off Lee appealed to the Mothers’ law and asked the intercession of the Champion of Red Tree both in her case and to support the Treaty of Man. I was surprised at the time she had the understanding to invoke both.

“Once she appealed to the Mothers’ superior court, I’d have been undermining her case… her cases, if I appealed the cases in lesser Human courts as if they still had jurisdiction. It would have been hypocrisy to appeal and refuse to accept the ruling going against us, then declaring war anyway. Now, I admit there was a lot of miscommunication between me and my lawyers. They kept refusing to do the practical things I asked to do to find Lee and extricate her. They kept asking to pursue things I didn’t understand. But once she stood and asked for the Champion to act for her there was no way it would end in anything but war.”

“Oh my God,” Mel said. “I appeal to Caesar.

“You said that in a different tone of voice, the way people do when they are quoting someone,” Gordon said.

“It ended a very famous hearing. Something we’d regard as a probable cause hearing. It might have ended with no charges but the man undergoing it didn’t want to risk being subject to that court, so he appealed to a higher authority. Who knows if it was the course of wisdom or unnecessary? It altered the history of western civilization in any case.”

“Did it end in war too?” Gordon asked.

“Not immediately, but it helped move along the destruction of that world power, its culture, and religion. It had already taken to wounding itself other ways without recognizing it. It just took another thousand years to bleed out on the floor.”

“Little girls can’t wait a thousand years for justice,” Gordon said.

“I’m glad she didn’t have to,” Mel said, “Too many little girls have had to do without justice entirely. But you are making me consider whether this culture and its adversarial justice system may be on a similar decline. Sometimes it’s hard to stand back and see such a big picture. If Lee’s case gave it a nudge in that direction, I won’t mourn it. I used to be an officer of the court but this conversation makes me see I could never go back and stand before the bar. I just hope whatever succeeds it is kinder.”

“The Mothers’ law is adversarial too,” Gordon said with a four-armed shrug. “Lee and I worry it won’t be up to dealing with the trade towns and the clanless Derf. Now Humans add a further complication since you have such different customs. Cases only arise out of conflict. If you can formulate a gentler system that removes some of that hostility, publish it and we’ll all give it serious consideration,” Gordon invited.

“Perhaps I will,” Mel said. “It seems like a worthy use of my time since my Life Extension Therapy is working so well. Are they making any progress on LET for Derf?”

“I’m no molecular biologist,” Gordon disavowed. “What I’m being told right now is that it took years to detail all the metabolic pathways and genetic deterioration aging Humans suffer. Derf are different but any biological machine that accomplishes the same thing will have similarities. We all metabolize glucose. We all transport oxygen with some form of hemoglobin. The details of the protein differ, but all carry iron. As one fellow explained to me, we all bleed red. Since they have a model in Humans and Earth species it will take much less time for them to detail the same functions in Derf.”

“And Badgers and Bills,” Talker piped up with hopeful enthusiasm.

Gordon looked and most of the others had turned their chairs around and were following their conversation.

“Probably everybody except maybe the Caterpillars and the tentacled people on Ocean,” Lee said from the other group. “I want to eventually get back and talk to them.”

“Good idea,” Gordon said. “They know we exist now. Better to go back and get to know them before they come looking for us.”

Talker’s eyes got big. “Can you imagine the difficulties of making an orbital shuttle in a planetary ocean with no dry land?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lee said. “They may wonder how we get anything done fighting gravity all day long. None of them are going to trip over their own tentacles and hit their head on the floor. They may wonder that we ever risk climbing a tree much less take off into the air. Look how long we persisted in doing that when it was obvious the transition back to the ground was often more abrupt than we wished.”

That got a lot of laughter but several phones pinged, clicked, and whistled. Some looked to check theirs from some sort of silent alarm. It broke the conversation and the ones not distracted returned to eating and waited, wondering what matter could be to touch so many of them at the same moment.”

“The ore freighter Out o’ My Way converted to passenger transport has entered the system and jumped a messenger drone ahead to give notice and request docking on Home,” April announced, raising her voice to read the message. “They intend to offer free transport to all the other dispersed habs or worlds if anyone cares to move or repatriate. Limited transport of personal possessions will be included up to four tons. The Way will make a layover of at least a day at each world and do a second free circuit before offering the same service as a paid routing. They’re laying over at least a day so you can finish your dinner before you make a mad dash for the shuttles,” April added.

“I suspect the majority of their passengers stayed up on Home, “Ben said.

“I’m sure that’s why their lay-overs are subject to change,” Eileen said. “Heather is reasonable and if her captain flew off to meet an arbitrary schedule, she’d have him on the carpet asking what he was thinking?”

Most of them there knew that carpet was literal, so they could picture the poor fellow standing on it making an explanation for his sovereign. Still, several of them were taking the time to do something on their pads or in their spex. Probably sending messages to friends or checking for private messages carried on the Way even if they weren’t intent on reserving shuttle space back to Home.

April moved over by Lee and didn’t whisper but addressed her quietly.

“My Lady Heather wishes me to inform you there are two Earthie envoys on the vessel who are intent on meeting you and discussing the possibility of joining your new Claims Registry. These two happen to be from India and France, but they seem to credibly have a wider coalition of nations they are representing.”

“Oh, my goodness,” Lee said visibly flustered. “What a bad time for them to show up when everything is booked up and the arrival of the Way will probably make it worse. I’ve so little experience dealing with diplomatic stuff. It doesn’t feel right to offer them rooms in my suite. What should I do with them?”

April was relieved. She was scared Lee would revert to denying she had the authority to deal with governmental envoys.

“I’d ask the hotel if they can put your guests in rooms. Make sure they know it is a day-rate rental. I believe they have their fill of long-term leases.”

Lee nodded and bent to her pad. It wasn’t long before she looked greatly relieved.

“The timing was perfect,” Lee said. “The desk informed me they had several cancelations as soon as the Way announced their arrival. They were happy to reserve two single rooms for the Earthies.”

“Now all you have to worry about is getting them down,” April said. “It may take a day for the rush to abate and shuttle seats to be open. Once the Way is gone the shuttles will catch up on anyone waiting to drop pretty quickly.”

Lee smiled far wider than anything April had said could explain.

“I think I have that covered, but I have to make another call. Would you call the Earthies and tell them you will arrange to provide them transport and will be back in contact soon?

Then inexplicably, when April agreed, Lee didn’t call but went across the room to Strangelove.

“Did your guys take my aircar to the safe house and has Alonso given them any instruction?” Lee inquired.

“It’s still at his hangar and he’s giving them lessons but he indicated it will take several days to complete them to his satisfaction. I wouldn’t second guess him on such a critical safety matter,” he warned.

“I wouldn’t think of it but I do have a sudden need to use it,” Lee said.

“So, ask him. He doesn’t think the moon keeps going around without your permission.”

“Alonso?” Lee asked. “Are we talking about the same guy? He barely acknowledges I might be trainable to be the village idiot.”

“Which is much better than he treats me,” Strangelove assured her. “He speaks to me carefully with little words. You see him reviewing them to see they can’t be misconstrued.”

“That’s not right. For crying out loud! You administer nuclear weapons. You have all kinds of tough guys who jump when you say FROG! He shouldn’t treat you like that.”

Strangelove looked around alarmed to see if anybody was watching when Lee raised her voice. He made a soft little restraining gesture with a true hand.

“Don’t say anything, please. He does come to trust people with time. There are so many fools in the world I can’t fault his caution. His trade by its nature is a matter of life and death and you have to make allowances for the mentality of great artists.”

“Artist?” Lee objected. “You feed it a file and the smart paint does paisley or tartan plaid if you have no taste. What are you talking about?”

“How many people do you think could make such a radical aircar that works so well the first time? It not only works well, it’s pretty. Most designers have to go through five or six generations of a device to get it that refined, picking up details from other smart people to get a mature design. If you don’t realize that then you don’t deserve such a splendid product. It should go in a museum when it is retired.”

“I did gush on it a little when I accepted it,” Lee admitted. “I was worried later I might have given him a big head. You really like it, huh?”

“I want one. Not exactly like yours, but with a powered canopy, a pair of 40mm autocannons, and a seriously armored belly-pan. Not my property, I’ll never be that rich, but for the service of the Mothers.”

“I tell you what, when we get things sorted out and I have some income flowing in again we’ll see if he’ll build one for you,” Lee promised.

“That would be marvelous,” Strangelove said, and refrained from begging.

“I’ll ask if he’d do me the enormous favor if ferrying it in for me and taking a car back home. Bearing in mind what you said about artistic temperament.”

Strangelove nodded. “I bet he will. You’re his only current customer that can afford to keep him playing with such neat toys.”

“I’ll find out,” Lee said punching in Alonso’s contact and glaring at the pad.

“Missy you don’t want to look angry,” Strangelove quickly told her. “Look distressed and hopeful. You want to melt his heart not frighten him.”

Lee looked surprised but tried to soften her face. It was good advice.

“Well, you’re right,” Lee said. “He cracked all offended, and asked if I wanted him to pick up a pizza on the way, but he said he’d fly it in and park it in front of the Hotel. I sweetened the deal by telling him he could skip the pizza because we have a buffet spread and he’s welcome to come up and hit it. He said he’ll use the flight to continue training your guys.”

“Oh, I’m hoping to take Jeff too. Please don’t give him a hard time. There’s no room in the car for you.”

Strangelove sighed. “Of course, you are. And you have Alonso and two of my soldiers coming to raid the buffet? Excuse me while I warn the kitchen.” He looked grim. “I’m calling my boys and telling them to be on their best behavior too.”

“Oh yeah, this is such a refined crowd,” Lee said. “Just throw a blanket over anybody too full and wasted to move and I’ll try not to trip over them when I come back.”

Strangelove looked around the room, considering.

“They may learn to declare the revolution and start committing mayhem with this bunch. Do hurry back.”

But he was talking to her back. She walked away calling to April.

“Would you care to go with me to pick up the Earth envoys?” Lee asked.

April had that wary look on her face, like Lee might be setting her up for a joke.

“You want us to leave our own party early? Do you have a shuttle or some way to cut the line on one? I know you have the Kurofune, but it’s not a lander, even if it kind of looks like one. I can’t imagine you could build one and keep it secret.”

She didn’t say from us, but it hung there in the silence unsaid.

“Once everybody has eaten it’s all down-hill. Half of them won’t know you are gone. Strangelove will take care of stragglers. This is my new auxiliary vessel, but it’s not a conventional shuttle. There’s room for Jeff too if you’ll share a Derf-sized seat. It only has four seats and I don’t think we should ask the Earthies to do that. It’s pretty cozy.”

“Jeff,” April called. “Lee has a proposal.”

* * *

“Bill, Bill! Come here. They just landed that crazy aircar in front of the Old Hotel.”

“Did you hack their security cams? Bill asked frowning at the screen.

“No need. They make all the external cams freely available to the guests and public.”

That thing is freaky,” Bill said.

“Tell me about it,” Sam said. “I’m dreaming I’m in a science fiction movie.”

Three Derf climbed out of the car, the last one palming the security screen to lock up.

“That’s a lot of meat for an aircar to lift,” Bill said.

“Four ton? Closer to five maybe. Those are big guys,” Sam decided.

“You’re recording, aren’t you?”

“Of course. It’ll be… where we agreed,” Sam said.

“You’re getting paranoid. I like that. No need to repeat it out loud when we haven’t swept the place today.”

“Aren’t you interested enough to watch?” Sam asked.

“Sure, but I want to go get my coffee and top it off. I’m just checking that you can give me an instant replay if anything happens.”

* * *

“Thank you for bringing my car,” Lee said.

“You had me when you said free food,” Alonso admitted.

“We might be a couple of hours. Put a car on my tab if you want when you go home.”

“Thank you, but I imagine you’ll want me to take it back. I’m just going to go with Strangelove’s men to their facility. It’s close. They can put me up and when you return, I won’t have to run all the way across town. I’ll just take it back there tonight. We’ll do another training run with them in the morning to return it to the hangar.”

“Did you leave it parked the way I asked?” Lee asked him.

Alonso smirked. “Yes, you’re a terrible showoff.”

“Thank you,” Lee said, totally unrepentant.

“I feel weird deserting my own party and worse, nobody seemed to notice we were leaving,” Jeff said in the elevator.

“Maybe that’s a sign you planned it well if you can leave and it doesn’t fall apart.”

“I think you are just trying to make me feel better,” Jeff told Lee.

When they walked out the front door Jeff was distracted by the odd stare the doorman gave him. He didn’t understand what had the Derf upset until he turned his head back and looked at the aircar. It was floating there with the bottoms of the pods four or five centimeters off the pavement. He didn’t say anything. That was made easier by the fact he was having trouble breathing.

Jeff walked around the vehicle slowly until he came back to them but stopped and waved a hand through the gap below the rear pod. April just stood and watched.

“OK, what holds it up?” he finally asked.

“Magic,” Lee assured him gravely.

“Any sufficiently advanced tech…” April partially quoted.

“I guess we’re there,” Jeff admitted.

He walked around it again.

“The flames are a nice touch.”

Thank you,” Lee said. “They were a custom on highly modified ground cars some years ago. I haven’t had time but I intend to animate them.”

“And this is orbit capable?”

“We’ll find out. I’ve had it over thirty thousand meters and transonic. If it did that OK it should be good to go,” Lee said.

“Let’s do it before I talk myself out of it,” Jeff said.

Lee palmed the lock and led them in.

“One of you can ride up front if you want now,” Lee offered. “Only the back seats double up. Or one each any other combo.”

“Let April have shotgun,” Jeff volunteered.

“I, uh, don’t have any weapons aboard,” Lee said.

“That means to sit beside the driver. It’s an old expression. As old as flames,” Jeff said.

“Older,” April insisted. “I think it goes back to stagecoach guards.”

“That would make sense,” Jeff agreed.

“If you pull the board towards you it will lock in place. The release is on the left bottom corner so you can push it away,” Lee told April.

When April had it in place and Jeff confirmed he was secure, Lee announced she was doing a vertical lift on the informal Derf radio net. Nobody was in conflict with her departure path so she grasped the stick and lifted away briskly.

“That’s downright eerie,” Jeff said from the back.

Lee said nothing. She wanted Jeff impressed deeply enough he wouldn’t think to look down on her techs or their contribution in the future. That seemed to be going well.

“I hope you know that’s not going to hack it when there are a couple of hundred aircraft of mixed kinds all stacked up needing to avoid each other,” Jeff said.

“I imagine it will have to be run by a central program for the region just like the city ground car net,” Lee said. “With a little luck, I’ll be off planet before it’s so crowded.”

“You have some navigation now?” Jeff asked from the back.

“The same software I run in my ship,” Lee assured him. “It has very limited radar. It only has a couple of hundred kilometers range. That’s sufficient for ranging to dock at my ship or a station. But we have a very good astronomical model with precise orbital periods that can predict positions out a few hundred years.”

“Do you have our jump data program running on top of it?” Jeff asked.

There was some dead air time as Lee considered that.

“I have not contemplated making the Twool a superluminal vessel.”

“Why not? It would be handy as hell. If you break the Kurofune or get it shot up somewhere it could get you home or at least someplace safe as a lifeboat. We have a jump capable lifeboat for the Chariot.”

“It will be a while before we have production set up for jump drives,” Lee said. “Mine is the only one in existence and it was hand-built. Born and Musical didn’t start looking into what sort of facility we need to make lots of them until the prototype worked. They haven’t reported back to me on that yet.”

“We might be able to help there,” Jeff suggested.

“When we do start producing them, I thought the armed Red Tree ships should get them first and then likely some of the Little Fleet. This car is experimental too. I expect my guys will quickly make improvements on the thrusters that drive it.”

“Is that why you didn’t put them in the Kurofune first?” April asked her.

“Yes, I didn’t want to do a major revision I’d be tearing out in six months. Besides that, I’ve wanted another aircar now for quite some time.”

“When did you own one before?” Jeff asked confused.

“We carried an aircar in the shuttle for the High Hopes.”

“A lot of Explorers don’t even carry a planetary lander much less one that can carry an aircar. You guys were well equipped.”

“My people weren’t interested in claiming a few mining sites or a fueling station hoping it would be along the route to somebody else’s big find. They didn’t have crew wanting to be cashed out after every claim and plowed what they did find back into stuff like the lander for when they did hit the big claim.”

“Did it make any difference?” Jeff wondered. “If they found an obvious living world their claim would have been as valid with an orbital survey.”

“You never worked with the Claims Commission,” Lee said. “If you do that, they spend a couple of billion dollars to send a big corporate explorer out with at least two big landers to survey the system and the world. That comes right off the top of your royalties and the survey crew gets a cut of the claim too if they have to pay to prove it out. You don’t get to make personal land claims from orbit or any of the claims on biologicals.

“We came back with proof it was a class A world with specific claims for food plants and potential biologicals that just had to be tested. My island that I’m sharing with the Mothers is near as big as Madagascar and the drainage basin I claim where my folks died is similar to the Columbia river basin in the USNA.

“When they sent an expedition fleet back to start developing Providence, they were so confident it would fully prove out that they took a core space station along with them grappled to one of the ships.”

“I didn’t understand the details of how that worked,” Jeff admitted.

“It tripled our payout in the first five years,” Lee said. “Most living worlds have been found by corporate ships and the crew gets a percentage of the corporation’s fifteen percent. That’s split maybe fifty ways with the command and specialty crew getting a higher cut. Gordon and I split the whole thing a third for him and two thirds for me.”

“And they’ve cut you off now,” Jeff said. It wasn’t a question unless she took it that way.

“Be assured we are continuing to plan to repossess Providence. The logistics of it will take some time and we will give you some notice when we intend to move. I still very much want to take April up on her offer to stand system watch against any Earthie incursions while we settle matters on the planet.” Lee stopped and considered what that offer was worth and that April hadn’t asked anything. She doubted Jeff would have done that.

“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.

OceanofPDF.com