April 3: The Middle of Nowhere (3 page)

There was a substantial rose gold chain. What they call an anchor chain but the links were puffy like they had been made out of dough and allowed to rise. There were some plain gold hoops, an impressive pair of simple diamond studs and the emerald and diamond earrings her grandparents had given Bob. April pulled those out and held them. She couldn't help it, she started quietly sobbing.

"Those mean something to you," her grandpa said, arm around her shoulders. She couldn't answer, she just nodded yes. She put them back in the box. The chain she put on over her head. Her Gramps held her until she stopped crying. Then they put everything back in the portfolio and  closed it up.

"I'll read the business summaries in the next couple days," April promised.

"They've been waiting this long, a couple more days isn't going to matter," he assured her. He went in the kitchen and made them tea without asking. He used the big tea pot and carried a cup to Gunny too who nodded his thanks.

"What are you going to do now?" her Gramps asked gently. He must think her fragile, April realized. He never used that hushed tone of voice. But she
had
cried.

"I have to see Heather and Jeff, she still has the Moon thing going on. Eddie deserves to hear what all his money bought. That looks a
little
better than it did yesterday. At least we know the Patriot party isn't going to be in power next year. What are
you
doing now?"

"I'm helping Heather get her expedition ready as I promised you. Jeff and I are still working on some things even though we have the next generation of ship designed. We are saving up ideas for the next level of ship and beyond. I'm getting some treatments from Jelly you were worried I'd skip. He can do everything important for life extension therapy without me going down to Italy. I'll see you soon, dear," her Gramps promised and patted her knee. He got up and made a abbreviated wave of his hand to Gunny who wasn't even looking up and left.

She took the personal items in her room and returned to the living area. It seemed rude to disappear and leave Gunny alone without a word. It wasn't exactly like having a guest, she thought. But it wasn't like anything else that fit the rules of behavior she'd picked up either. She contacted Jeff and Heather and agreed to see them over supper. Gunny saved her from wondering what to do by announcing he was still not adjusted to Zulu time and he was going to take a nap. That sounded pretty good actually, so she told him she would nap too.

Chapter 3

It was too late for lunch and too long until supper when April woke up. She searched in the kitchen and there wasn't much to snack on. Her parents weren't stocking much with just the two of them here. Suddenly April really wanted her own place with whatever she wanted in the frig, not worrying about if somebody would miss that last carton of yogurt if she ate it. Would she ever be able to safely visit the house she bought in Hawaii again? She wasn't even through furnishing it and she'd needed to run for her life. She'd never felt such a strong need to have her own space before. She'd always been content with her room.

Cubic was so expensive and she was spoiled having her own tiny bath. Was Eddie going to want some money back? That could make buying cubic hard. He seemed happy with her last night in the cafeteria, but he'd hardly shout private business in her ear in that mob.

Her gramps told her whatever she didn't use was hers to keep when they sent her down, but then she'd rushed back early and still wasn't that sure she'd accomplished as much as everybody seemed to think when she got back. Better not to think ahead on spending what might get clawed back. She decided that, if they wanted it back, to be gracious about it and not complain.

There was some cheese spread and she checked in the cupboard. A carton of crackers was almost full. She took them in the big room and called up the news with stock quotes in the corner. She added Bob's stocks under hers in the display from the hard copy Gramps gave her. She was only holding a few issues long when she went down to Earth.

Bob had more equities than her and she had no idea what some of them were. One showed a week long trend down a good 8% and she just sold it rather than start reading a big history and analysis. She'd have to establish she had control of the stocks with the brokerage house, but for now she had his login and password so she could trade them unless somebody had notified them of Bob's death. As she suspected it executed the trade with no problem.

In the news window she left open the Louisiana State Police conducted a sweep of public land and corporate timber stands eradicating hidden plots of guerrilla gardeners. Unlicensed food gardens were both a way to evade accurate census counts and a source of black market income.

They vowed to post guards on conventional farming acreage to prevent a repeat of last year when illicit gardeners burned licensed farm fields in retaliation for their losses. The fires spread to timber land and destroyed a number of buildings. Official losses were classified under national security since it was considered terrorist activity.

California passed a bill requiring bathing costumes to cover the elbows and knees on all public beaches and parks and making the possession and use of still or video cameras on a public beach a misdemeanor.

Tennessee introduced a bill making it a misdemeanor to sit any object on top of the Holy Bible (King James version) with a thousand dollar fine.

New York faced a firestorm of public criticism for suggesting an ordinance that would prohibit sending children anywhere unescorted in an automated ground car. Parents protested such a law would leave them unable to work and send their children to school safely.

Detroit Michigan announced a new initiative to revitalize the city, noting the core population had stabilized at twenty-two thousand now for three years. The pressure to dig up the old underground utility feeds in abandoned areas for the scrap value was running into opposition from those who didn't want lines of clear cut dug up through the state owned wooded zone between New Detroit and the suburbs. The scheme was branded as suburban greed by the city council, claiming the recovered funds would go to the state not the city.

Little Jocko the Clown died and over a hundred mourners who attended his funeral in New Jersey wearing his face pattern were charged with copyright infringement by his agency.

The Holistic Open School in London proclaimed reading was an unnecessary skill given universal character recognition and audio reading programs in every pad and com unit and eliminated the requirement from all their base courses of study. It was retained in a select group of courses in the arts program described as 'arcane' skills and as an aid for the few incurable deaf.

Gold was briefly higher than Platinum in early trading on the New Delhi exchange. Americans could not own the metal unless it was jewelry of 'artistic merit'. April wasn't sure if the piece around her neck qualified. Artistic appreciation seemed to vary from judge to judge.

The America First Party said they had removed a number of new members on suspicion of being secret Patriot Party members. They cited a loss of ideological purity the new influx would bring and a real danger of proximity to that failed organization either physically or in the taint their programs carried.

April agreed they should worry. She was going to speak with Heather about watching to make sure the Patriot party did not just reappear under a new name.

Gunny dragged out of – his room? Bob's room? It wouldn't matter soon if it was merged back into family cubic. He looked stunned and grumpy. April got up and started the coffee maker before he even asked.

"That bed is way too soft for me to sleep on," Gunny complained. "I woke up feeling like I was being consumed by this giant amoeba," he said with his hands doing an englobement. "I could sleep on the floor easier, I think."

"Oh, there's a control on the side that lets you set firmness and keep the bed warmer or cooler than the rest of the room. I didn't think to show it to you," she apologized.

"Everybody knows…" Gunny said smiling. "Won't be the last time that happens."

"I'm going to meet Heather and Jeff for supper. You want to come meet them and eat with us?" she invited. "They are good people to know on Home."

"I'd like to, yes. However this brings up an awkward question I should have anticipated. How many hours a day do I owe you? And how can they be staggered out? I don't mind working a shift or a block in the morning and a block in the evening. But I'd rather not work late and then have to get up and start early without sufficient rest. Unless it is an emergency of course. And am I on duty any time I am with you? Or will we socialize too?"

"Why wouldn't we socialize? We seemed to get along just fine on the boat. I mean, if you found out you don't really care for my company I certainly won't
require
you to be around me, but didn't you do stuff with the people you worked with on Earth?"

"No, very rarely. In the military you have a command structure. It's bad for discipline to blur those lines. Officers have a separate mess and don't socialize with someone too far away from their command level. Some units might have a picnic or something occasionally, but it's a special event understood to be outside the usual rules. It's the same as in business. The CEO doesn't have lunch with the janitor normally. And it's always the higher ranked guy who initiates and controls it if they do, not the other way around."

"I meet with a group Wednesday nights for exercise and we do Tai Chi," April told him. "The head of security is usually there and Jeff, but we have construction crew and radio room guys too. I guess we don't have as big a gap from the best jobs to the worst jobs here. There's some social layering, but it isn't just about who makes the most money."

Gunny looked a little skeptical. "Yeah, you might belong to a gym, or to a bicycle riding club or something like that and never even know what some of the people do for a living. But the people tend to be from similar social strata. If they are upper class they are going to belong to a country club and play golf or a sportsman's club and shoot skeet, not a bowling league."

"Does that mean you'd rather not ride if we need a fourth for our polo team?" April asked.

Gunny blinked at her. "Heh, you had me for a second there," Gunny admitted grinning.

"Do what you want tonight. You should have a couple days off really to acclimate and learn how everything works, like the bed. If you want to meet Heather and Jeff you are welcome to come along."

"Well, I have to eat anyway. Better with company than sitting in the cafeteria alone. I'll get to see if this guy is really eight foot high with laser beams shooting out of his eyes."

"You probably couldn't sit long in the cafeteria before somebody was curious about you and asked to join you. But come on. We're going to the beam dogs' cafeteria at the other end. It's quite a bit different. It caters to the short term workers, the young folks who work in vacuum.

"Does my new card work there too?"

"Yeah, but you asked about customs. Custom is we don't crowd the place when it is busy with actual workers near shift change. They need to eat and get to work or maybe eat and get to bed. But if you go a little off–time then everybody is welcome. I never thought of it when you asked because we don't have a lot of rules. One other I thought of – it is considered very poor form to wear strong scent of any kind. Sealed up in limited cubic it's rude to impose on others."

"Oh yeah. I've been stuck in an elevator with some old lady that just bathes in that crap. You like to faint away before your floor comes up and you can escape. That's a good one."

"Gunny, people raised up here, who have never had their sense of smell dulled by pollution have really sensitive noses. All my friends carry sanitary wipes and don't just wipe with paper after using the toilet, they wash with a wet wipe. You might think on adapting it because they
will
smell you if you don't. A lot of people shower mid-day too. I always shower if I go to the gym and work out or have a run."

"Is there any limit on water use? Or is it metered and the charges will add up?"

"No, we can use as much water as we want. But you can't retain any significant amount without permission. They use a low pressure still so it's cheap to recycle it. And they use a column separator to remove the other volatiles, so it is cleaner than most water you'd get down in the USNA."

In that case I better take a quick shower before we go," Gunny decided. "You need to tell me where to take my laundry too."

" And we'll set the house lock to your hand on the way out too," April promised.

* * *

When Gunny stepped out of the elevator it was his first visit to a partial G level. April had warned him so he was cautious. He walked a little normally, then tried breaking into a run, which was hard to do and making quick turns. There was a real lack of traction when you were lighter.

The corridor wasn't as fancy as at the full G level, although it wasn't as bare as an industrial corridor. They could smell the food as soon as they stepped out of the elevator and the music was a low beat. Gunny surprised her by dancing a skipping step ahead to the music. He moved lightly for a big guy. He spun around, totally adjusted to the lower G already and had a grin like she hadn't seen on him.

"That some good music," he declared. "Is that the Arrogant Aardvarks?"

"I don't know. I don't really follow popular music. I tend to stuff that's, uh, quieter."

"There's a time for quieter, but this makes you move."

Heather and Jeff were at a table near the buffet. There was a room to one end with a big screen and a little dance floor. The bar was in there and the music. The other side had another room with smaller screens, lounge furniture and tables that was perfect for gaming and cards. In between was a self serve counter where you could make your own burgers or omelets.

Heather got up and hugged April. Gunny went ahead and introduced himself to Jeff and sat down opposite. April did manage to introduce Heather formally and just patted Jeff on the arm.