April 8: It's Always Something (2 page)

April chewed and swallowed. She looked at the hunk of meat in wonder, and perhaps resented a little bit needing to stop eating to speak with Jelly.

"Of course," April agreed, readily. "I'd do that much for friendship, not just business. I think you're right, the Chinese especially, would have factories set up cranking this stuff out in a couple months if you let it be public knowledge. And you'd never see so much as a plastic Yuan coin for it. I just don't understand how you can grow this without...the
cow
."

"Tissue culture is nothing new. Even growing it to a certain shape is not unheard of. We can grow some complex organs easier than bulk muscle tissue. I can grow chicken chunks, nuggets, pretty easily. People will buy those. But with beef it's hard to market it in small pieces. They don't sell very well, even for kabobs. The shape and texture are not what people expect," Ames lamented. April took the opportunity to slice off another bite while he was talking.

"There are difficulties both in getting a large mass without vascularization to oxygenate it and to provide nutrients..."

"Where
do
you get the nutrients?" April asked around a full mouth.

"The first experiments used bovine blood fractions, the same as a cow. Obviously that's not cost effective," Ames said, "even on Earth. It was just useful to prove the concept in a laboratory setting. But you can create bacteria to produce the proper nutrients by altering them genetically. So far we've been able to get everything we need from combining five separate cultures, blended and filtered.

"You process those cultures, add electrolytes, add a few extracts we obtain from food plants like glucose, and introduce it as a nutrient bath. The culture is started on a platinum plate and grows from it along a grid of very thin tubes with microscopic orifices which release the nutrients. It's also done at higher than normal pressure, and with additives in the mix which have no function but to increase its oxygen carrying capacity."

"But doesn't it have a bunch of holes through it then?" April asked, making a repeated gesture with her straight fingers. "I don't see a grid of holes in my steak."

"The tubes are
very
thin, Think of an ultrafine hypodermic needle. One of the ways they tenderize natural beef is to stab it repeatedly with fine needles," he said, copying her gesture. "You won't see holes from that process either. But when the culture is mature you slide it off the grid of needles and it appears a solid mass. Electro-stimulation hastens growth and is a factor in giving it the proper grain.

"Then you sterilize the apparatus and start a new one. It takes about two weeks to grow a quarter kilo filet. My next generation tank will grow three hundred sixty at a time.

"Just like Gunny had 'trodes on each one, making his fingers grow faster inside the clamshell when they grew him a new hand?" April guessed.

"Very much so, but I'd avoid bringing that up when marketing the product," Ames suggested.

"I know, people are squeamish. Don't worry. Even if I invest, I know better than to interfere with things for which I have no talent, like selling," April promised.

Ames nodded appreciatively. For all of his professionalism
he
was squeamish, but he'd rather not admit it to April. Ames let her eat. The steak was selling itself better than anything he could say.

April was chewing, but thoughtfully, looking off in the air trying to visualize something.

"Why do you have to keep starting and stopping?" she finally asked. "A batch process is always less efficient than a continuous production. Just grow the meat and trim it off. As long as you keep monitoring, and your nutrient bath stays clean and doesn't spoil, it could run a long time."

"The tissue will degrade once it grows past the ends of the needles," Ames explained. "It needs the oxygen and nutrients continuously. Just like tissue in a cow needs constant circulation."

"Oh..." April appraised the height of the filet on her plate. "Have the needles six or seven centimeters long. When the steak has grown out near the ends have the needles retract five centimeters and slice it off. Then push them back out to full length."

Ames looked distressed. "You'd have to anchor the remainder of the culture to the base...or hold it in place with a sort of fork temporarily, while the needles come back out. I can think of several ways to do that, actually. What made you
think
of that?" he asked, a little irritated.

April borrowed a phrase from her good friend Barak. "I'm not sure. It just seemed obvious." The look of consternation on Ames face didn't make her enjoy the steak any less at all.

* * *

After discussing it with his sister, Kurt wasn't at all sure what to do. She had some practical suggestions about stretching his money out, but they all assumed he'd eventually get some sort of job and have income, even if greatly reduced. There were shortages that had no easy to see reason, and one of them right now was work boots. He'd paid almost two thousand bucks for a pair assuming he'd need them. Now it looked like it might have been wasted money, unless he could resell them. It was always something...

He brought up moving to another area with an influx of refugees to his sister, and she had a fit about the word, warning him it was just as bad as his sick joke about working for the Devil. The official word was that all these people were
not
refugees, even saying migrants was starting to be frowned upon as the cop had clued him in on early. What would they call them next? They sure weren't on vacation.

His sister warned if he said anything about refugees in a new job interview he'd likely end up on another list of disapproved people. Saying refugees, she assured him, labeled you as anti-government. He felt like he couldn't say anything safely. What did they think these people were? Tourists? He might move to say, Atlanta, and get banned there for accidentally speaking some forbidden truth.

Kurt had lost track of what was acceptable to say publicly from being away working on M3. You had to be immersed in Earth culture to keep track. The faster you got with the latest acceptable phrase the better. Nobody on Home had lists of words that made them gasp in horror and shun you if you didn't know the current code. His sister had also confirmed what the cop said, that black-balled was also a long forbidden usage. He'd just rolled his eyes when she informed him it was racist. How did anyone come up with this crap? It was amazing they could sell black paint still, and not have to label it 'darkest grey' or some other euphemism.

All the time he was away working construction on M3 he'd neglected to follow the news from North America or even Mobile. His sister sent him a text almost daily, but she spoke about her roomies and work. Neither of them had ever been interested in politics on any scale. He didn't identify with any party, and suddenly he found people wanting to know if he was a 'Patriot' or a 'Saint' before they'd talk to him about football or share a beer. He found that insane.

He'd always thought of M3 as just that, a Mitsubishi property on which he was working construction. He was a little hazy on the parent company versus a subsidiary corporation. That all seemed as pointlessly complicated as calling refugees newcomers. But that sort of nit picking seemed to be what kept lawyers in big money. Calling it 'Home' also seemed a conceit and a bit silly to him too, like they were trying to be
folksy
. But suddenly he was feeling so isolated and alienated in his old hometown that Home seemed more like home...so he found himself setting his news reader to find out what was happening back there. It was stupid and irritating to find most search and direct access was blocked to both official sites and services hosted there, such as 'What's Happening'.

It took about two minutes to bypass and see whatever he wanted through foreign proxies. Any grade school kid knew how to do it. He made sure the only identifier would be the coffee shop he was sitting in at the moment. If they wanted to know who was interested in Home badly enough they could pull the security video from the store. It all had to be forwarded to the government now, but there was a limit how much they could actually filter and review.

Some of the ads in What's Happening
did
have some code words. The rowdier side of society, especially the beam dogs and temporary workers, tried to avoid offending some of the older more conservative people in their ads. That didn't seem as silly a word game to him as the Earth version for some reason. He was removed from that recently enough that he could still read the hidden messages, and smile.

The ad that caught his eye however was in the clear.

- Experienced space workers needed –

A Lunar partnership with both Home and Central backers intends to assemble and position an auxiliary un-spun habitat in proximity to Mitsubishi 3. The primary phase of the project will aim to provide housing for two hundred. The initial phase is expected to last a year and a half, the first six months being entirely at the Central Kingdom on the moon. Expansion past the first phase is dependent on market conditions for housing, materials and other economic factors.

Build standards will be the same as current Mitsubishi requirements or better. Workers need to be adaptable however, because innovative use of lunar materials will be an economic necessity for the successfully completion of the project.

Full literacy in standard English is a must. Ability to use and maintain hard suits or moon suits a must. Ability to vacuum weld, vacuum bond, handle and use explosive fasteners, instant soldering nuts, zero G counter-force tools, and helmet talk are pluses. Programming, use, and design for 3D fabricators desired. Repair of 3D constructs and composites a plus.

Preference to hire and salary are heavily based on verifiable hours of vacuum suit work, specialized training, extra languages, and pilot tickets. Power and data electricians, pipefitters, and airlock mechanics paid a premium.

Paid on job training for vacuum work / zero G procedures are available to certified Emergency Medical Technicians, Nurse Practitioners, computer / controller repair technicians, and electric vehicle repair and maintenance technicians.

Chefs / kitchen bosses, prep cooks, and a pastry maker needed. Ability to manage others, cook multiple cuisines and improvise menus to available supply a must.

A computerized veracity interview and an investigation of previous ability to integrate to the workplace will be conducted.

Contact / resumes : Jeffery Singh, Project Administrator, Home 1467 or Central 0002, Subject JOB.

Details : WW5.HomeWebS.SinghTechnologies/projects/M3

That sounded very interesting to Kurt since things in Mobile weren't working out as he'd planned. Unfortunately, he'd had a guaranteed shuttle voucher to bring him home, but no lift ticket to return since he wasn't employed anymore. From what he'd heard it was pretty tough to get a seat now. Maybe Mr. Singh would have some advice. Kurt still had an active account at the System Trade Bank. That was a Singh business too. It might not be a good idea to draw attention to himself by sending messages in the clear to Home right now, but he could leave a private message through the internal message system at the bank. They did things differently on Home. If he tried to contact an Earth bank executive through the customer message board, he had no doubt they'd just delete it. On Home he had every confidence they wouldn't freak out and slavishly follow the rules.

Kurt logged on and was happy to see he had 6.732 Solars. They'd just posted  0.032 Solars monthly interest. Thank goodness he hadn't changed it all to dollars! His Great Southern Bank account
charged
him. They couldn't even change Solars for him. It wasn't legal now, and he'd needed to transfer funds through Hong Kong. They'd have exchanged it for him through Germany, but the swap through EuroMarks would have cost a half percent even though he didn't hold them in anything but the fleeting legal sense of the computer transfer.

He thought carefully how to state his question. Better to keep it short for now going through this unorthodox channel. He outlined his dilemma and reasons for keeping a low profile and invited Singh to ask his previous employers about his service. On Home they'd talk to him without being scared they'd be sued if they dare say anything negative about him. He wasn't worried about anything they could say anyway. He'd worked his butt off for them.

* * *

Gunny leaned back in his chair and his eyes did the quick scan thing that April had come to recognize. He always picked the chair against the wall if he could. Nobody had tried to kill her in like...forever. But she was still happy to have Gunny around for when she went to other habs. He was sort of on call now – she still paid him a retainer. He couldn't help being
ON
if he was with her, even though they were just having supper and he wasn't officially playing body guard.

Home was a lot safer now beyond the moon. Their enemies didn't have the easy access from Earth they had in LEO. Both China and the United States of North America were pretty messed up internally, and had limited lift capacity. Any Norte Americano who came all the way to Home now stood out and was watched carefully. The Europeans still insisted in official propaganda that Home somehow had
something
to do with the Great Influenza epidemic. However they were never specific in their accusations, just subtle innuendo, and they didn't seem to allow that to keep European companies from doing business with Home. They certainly had no official sanctions in place like North America. In fact, the Europeans and the Australians, as well as the Japanese, all picked up a little coin repackaging or outright smuggling Home products into North America, and most likely China too. Jeff made sure he picked up a little cut of all that action, and that was all paid to the company he shared with April and Heather. So if the Americans wanted to pay through the nose to keep up appearances she'd be happy to take their money.