April 3: The Middle of Nowhere (2 page)

The coffee when it came had whisky in it. Pretty good whisky by the smooth taste. She didn't object. Music started up low enough to allow conversation and people started dancing on the other end of the room. The chairs all scooted down and one with a stunned looking Gunny was inserted next to her.

Somebody reached past and slid a plate unasked in front of April and then Gunny. They had a nice petite steak and fresh rolls and butter. It didn't take long before a cold shrimp plate and sweet potato chips and fruit salad got passed down the table to them.

Gunny had a glass of amber fluid, the same as hers minus the coffee. "I've never
seen
so many civilians with weapons," he said in shock, "and all of them pissed off at you just like you warned me," he said straight faced over the noise. "I'm moving. People want to talk to you and I'm just in the way."  He moved down to the end of the table but opposite so he could see her.

The chairs next to April kept changing owners. Eddie took too long talking to her and somebody grabbed his chair back and dragged him off into the crowd. The next chair was just slid down and it was her mom.

"I am so glad to see you," April turned and hugged her as best she could sitting down. "I thought I'd just come home and get Dad to settle my hired man Gunny in and I could go to bed and sleep a shift. Do they still sell transient bunking down in the Animal House?"

"He's your bodyguard isn't he?" her mom asked.

"Yeah, but I just have him on a thirty day contract. I imagine I'll find him a slot somewhere else. I don't really need him here," she insisted. "He's sort of another rescue. He got caught up in the politics for guarding me and they wanted to arrest him."

"You should keep him close, not all the way across the station. We boxed all Bob's stuff up for you and gave away his clothing to charity, but the cubic is still partitioned off and there is still a bed in there. Why don't you stick him in there for now?" her Mom offered.

"Wouldn't that make you feel weird, having somebody in Bob's room?"

"I'm
not
going to make it a shrine. Some folks leave everything like it was as if maybe the person will walk back in some day if they keep it the same. I'm sad, but that's just sick.  I'm not in denial, Honey. I just haven't got around to hiring out the remodeling to tear it out. Go ahead and use it. Even a hot bunk with a small locker is around two hundred-fifty a day in company housing. No reason to throw that away. Besides, if you have a bodyguard, use him for now. The same people who would hurt you down on Earth might infiltrate somebody here."

"Okay Mom, thanks." April had worried. She always felt her Mom favored Bob, just like she was sure she and her Dad were closer. But if she didn't seem any warmer, she didn't seem any cooler either. That was a relief.

When Bob had gotten so selfish and driven he'd tried to take advantage of their parents. Her Dad had firmly resisted. April wasn't sure if her Mom could have denied him without her Dad to quietly point out what was reasonable and not. She worried she'd be blamed for Bob's actions, but so far nobody was looking daggers at her.

"I'm whipped. This is nice, but I need to get home and get some sleep."

"Collect your man then and we'll go home. These folks are all charged up and out of sync with your day by almost twelve hours. Let them party on and you can talk to them when you aren't sleep deprived," her mom urged.

April gave Gunny a 'come on' jerk of the head and he excused himself. It was Mr. Muños next to him. That was a good choice to find out a lot about Home in short order. But he had to be tired too. He could speak to him another day.

Chapter 2

The next morning when she got up it felt strange to be in her own room. Somehow it made her feel about eight years old. She showered and dressed and when she went out Gunny was sitting watching the recording of the second assembly of Home. "You been up long?" she asked.

"Hours and hours. It's been boring and I thought I'd go mad waiting."

"Just got up, huh?"

"Yeah, I did see your mom before she took off. She explained something you should know. Part of the reason everybody was in such a jolly mood when we arrived. Last night when we were in Tonga, the Patriot Party made a big move and tried to pull a coup on Wiggen. They let them carry it out far enough to really nail down who were talkers and who seriously intended to overthrow the government. There were about seven hundred arrested and about three hundred killed. The Patriot Party is pretty much gutted. Word was getting out while we were on our way up in the shuttle. Most folks here figure you precipitated it with Harrison."

"Does that change anything for you?"

"Not for the better! They were willing to allow me to be arrested if it helped them flush out all the bad guys. Never mind the danger to me or to you. That terminates my service. I gave them years of loyal service and they'll use me like that? I'm done."

"I don't blame you, but wouldn't it be smart to leave as gently as possible? You know they screwed you and you're angry, but if you can leave and still get your retirement, sell your house and feel free to go down there again openly… Well, I've heard living well is the best vengeance. If things get back to normal and I can call Wiggen, I might even be able to put in a good word for you."

"Amazing advice from a young lady who ends
her
disputes by orbital bombardment."

"How about if we go get some breakfast? I think much better on a full belly," April said, ignoring the accusation.

* * *

Gunny declared the cafeteria breakfast 'not bad'. April bought him the standard service plan and he got his own card. He could get anything on the menu as often as he wished. Any special orders or catering he had to pay upfront. Air and water fees she'd arrange off her pad.

April pointed out a number of characters while they ate and told a few stories about them. Nobody mobbed them but five different people stopped and welcomed her back. They walked out down the main business corridor and she pointed out the bank, employment agency, ship's chandler and general store, as well as a new shop opened since she'd left offering bespoke clothing for men and women.

"Is there a gun shop? I really need to buy something. Is that a problem here?" he added.

"Nah, you want a laser?" April suggested. "I have to go get one for myself from Jeff and explain why I loaned mine out. I can try to get you a deal if you want."

"As much as I'd like to try one out, I'd rather go with what I know right now."

"In that case, Zach sells firearms," she turned back to the Home Chandlery and Provision Company. "I remember seeing them on his special board."

First thing she did at Zach's however, was buy Gunny spex and sign him up for com service. She figured she'd cover that as he might be on call. Then she let him see to his own pistol.

There were three pistols laying on the carpeted counter. Gunny wasn't happy with any of them. Two were caseless Sigs and one was a Portio Custom Arms chambered for 10mm Hornady. He'd never carried that caliber before, but it looked like he was going to try it.

"What kind of ammo you stock in the long 10mm?"

"Full metal jacket for cheap shooting, frangible copper rounds, special segmented defense rounds,  memory metal rounds, armor piercing and special hard core armor piercing."

"A box of each and three of the cheap plinking stuff. I need a hanging holster and a lefty inside the waistband clip holster. You got a leather holster? I'd rather that than synthetic."

"I do indeed. And I will throw in a free cleaning kit and a bottle of neatsfoot oil."

Gunny tried his new card and was relieved it worked. He loaded and holstered the new gun and clipped it inside his pants on the left, cross-draw. The rest was bagged. He reached and touched hands lightly with Zack instead of shaking grounder style.

"Ah, another little custom thing," April said, embarrassed she hadn't told him.

"Yeah Mr. Muños taught me that one last night in the cafeteria. I think he's going to be a friend. He impressed me. That feels better," he said, pressing the pistol against his hip with his elbow.

They walked back home in companionable silence. "What is on the agenda for the day?" he finally asked when they were inside.

"I need to talk with my Grandpa about Bob's businesses. I suppose Jeff and Heather next and Eddie Persico or the other way around if one is busy," she prioritized. She put a call in to her com and waited. "And I need to get back with my Japanese study group and see if I learned anything visiting the Santos. I'm hoping my instructor thinks my accent is a little less horrible."

"You're still in school?" The idea seemed to surprise him.

"I don't ever expect to
not
be in school. There's too much to learn. I need a ticket for ground landing shuttles too and I bet I'll never get back to Hawaii before my student driver permit expires. I'll have to start all over again," she complained.

Gunny just horse-snorted through his nose in amusement.

"Hello little gal," her Grandpa greeted her on the com screen.

"Gramps, when can we get together and talk?"

"Right now if want. I'm at home."

"Yeah, please. Come on around." His apartment was cut out of common cubic, like Bob's room, but it had its own door on the public corridor. It was a seven meter walk. He had the codes so he came right in a minute later. April introduced Gunny who went off to the other side of the room and seemed to get engrossed in his pad. Gramps had a cheap portfolio, well stuffed.

"I know you're probably wondering if this was something your brother did after your breakup with him. I think you will be happy to know he wrote a will leaving everything to you right after your first business venture together. Remember what that was?" He asked smiling.

"The  meal delivery service? Where we picked up a meal from the cafeteria and delivered it to peoples apartments? I was what? Nine years old?"

"No, even a little before that. I think you supplied the money again, because he's spent all his and he took care of all the footwork."

"Oh, the used clothing. He offered to buy clothing from tourists after they wore it. Why clean it or take it back to Earth when he'd give them more than the retail price for dirty and used? That worked out pretty well didn't it? Even though we got maybe two or three tourists a month then."

"It did," her Gramps agreed. "It's interesting, Bob sold the company off, but retained an interest. He was still getting a small income from it. He did that with almost every venture that succeeded. Individually they aren't much but they add up to a nice little income. Here, there is a folder on each one and notes about any obligations you have." He gave her a short stack of hard copy and a memory chip.

"Then making me his heir wasn't something he did in guilt. It gives me hope I didn't cause his other – behaviors."

"We're all responsible for ourselves little gal. You can influence people, but blaming your behavior on others is a lie. Nobody made your brother
selfish
," he insisted. "If you assign blame for what a person is then who made Eddie generous? See? If a person has good qualities people are happy to allow it is their own volition. In fact I imagine it was just plain inertia that you
stayed
his heir. It reflected his earlier personality, not lately."

"I don't understand why that happened. Mom and Dad are not selfish. You certainly aren’t selfish. He wasn't raised that way so where did it come from?"

Her Gramps shrugged. "People are complicated. I'm not sure it is learned. There are all sorts of things folks do that we just put up with because they are not extreme enough to warrant intervention. Where do you draw the line? Pretty soon you are counseling people for taking the last biscuit."

April remembered some fellows who rushed to hog all the stuff in the beam dog's cafeteria and saying something to them didn't sound extreme to her at all, but she didn't say it.

"We gave Bob's clothing and shoes and stuff we were sure you wouldn't want to charity. Fred Folsom who works in station com preaches a Sunday service and keeps a charity locker of household things for folks who need a hand," he explained.

"We saved this for you though," he said opening the box he'd kept to last and laying the contents out on the couch between them.

A few memory modules were a mystery she'd have to explore, a food service card he apparently didn't like to carry. A couple certification cards for environmental tech and some IT specialties. A couple hard prints of photos. The one on top was a girl on a beach. That must be her grandparent's neighbor in Australia. Decency dictated she should be notified of his death.

There was a short stack of business cards with a rubber band. The top one was blank with a hand written blurb, probably a password. It said:  SAF)dz$PckXib.  Out of curiosity she checked and the other side was blank too. A tiny two bladed pen knife was sharp and apparently unused. It had elaborately embossed and enameled handles with a level of finish that said expensive. There was also a common multi-tool still new in the box.

Oddly there was a man's tie, something she had never seen Bob wear. It was so different she could see why they saved it out of the clothing for her, besides being a mystery. It was very pretty, with shades of blue and grey in a fine basket weave and subtle dark red edging to the grey parts, rolled to fit in a small clear box that was almost a cube. On the back a little label said, 'Hermes – Paris and underneath that, SILK. She rolled it back up and fit it in the box again.

"I suspect these things were gifts," her Gramps suggested.

That left a small decorative box. It had a sliding top in a dovetail groove, but no notch for your finger like most of that sort had. Fitted so closely it wouldn't slip on its own. The grain was matched to the body so maybe they didn't want to mar that. There was a band of carving around the sides and a very complicated dragon inlaid on each end. She pushed the slide open with her thumbs. The inside was divided with thin wooden partitions.