April 8: It's Always Something (28 page)

It was hot and humid outside and they had no desire to go outside to watch the shuttle come down from the catwalk. It was also a first attempt no matter how confident everyone felt, and the bridge offered substantial protection. Captain Havilland glanced at the limp fabric wind indicator outside, that supplemented instruments on top of the superstructure. He didn't bother the helmsman by leaning over to examine his instruments. They were still running dead on with the slight breeze, almost fast enough to have zero airspeed.

The captain finally was sure he had the shuttle sighted. The point of light was not from ablative action. First it wasn't coming in that fast. It had bled off most of its speed out of sight to the west. The faint spark was the engine at idle, just running enough thrust to keep the atmosphere out of the thrust chamber.

They planned to let the shuttle land on autopilot. The human pilot would just have his hands on the controls, ready to override and lift off it there was any problem.

"
Isle of
Hawaiki,
this is
Dionysus' Chariot,
Captain William Costa sitting the right seat.
We have you sighted and on radar. Still on auto. Three minutes out. Is your deck clear and have I permission to land?" The one screen showed Costa head and shoulders in his acceleration couch. He had on his helmet but the face shield locked up. His eyes were down on the board not the camera. He looked to be about seventeen.

"Deck clear. The grappling gear is powered up and operational," Havilland said. "Bring 'er in."

The faint star had flared while he was speaking and was bright now. It didn't seem to be slowing down much at all. It came down like it was going to bore a hole through the bow of the ship.

Havilland, a veteran, demonstrated his reflexes by grabbing the rail in front of him and bending his knees for the expected impact. He looked ready to go down all the way behind the stout console.

Dionysus' Chariot
dropped
like a stone and didn't come to a hover until two meters off the hatch. It then dropped and had all three pads on the hatch in another five seconds. The steam from below boiled up and obscured it, but the pilot reported, "Down, at idle, weight on all three pads."

"Locking you down," the helmsman replied, flipping a switch on his board. They might give control of that over to the shuttle later, but for now they still had control from the ship.

"All three pads locked down. You should be secure and safe to shut down," the helmsman said.

Havilland stood back up straight and sucked in a big breath. The roar of exhaust ceased.

"Bloody
hell
. I've seen missile strikes plunge through the deck lazier than that approach. Fuel's cheap enough to waste a little more and not scare the crap out of us. I find it hard to believe he could react fast enough to goose her back in the air if something happened that last hundred meters!"

"I have to admit that was spectacular," Li said. "Don't forget the pilot is gene mod. He has the best reflexes money can buy. As fast as the best test pilot or world class athlete of twenty years ago."

"I'll stick with big ships," Havilland decided. "It's true you better think ahead a little further, because she won't stop or turn in a hurry, but it's much more leisurely piloting her."

"I've never been on a ship," Bill Costa said on the radio. "I mean a...
wet
ship. Should I ask permission to come aboard like in old videos?"

"No son, you are already aboard when a smaller vessel is on or in a larger one. Come on out when you feel like it. We have crew waiting to give you a hand and off-load. You realize I was about to throw myself off the rail thinking you were going to bore a hole through the bow?" Havilland asked.

"Shucks, that was the conservative five G approach," Costa insisted. "Ask me to put on a show sometime and I'll drop like a hawk on a rabbit."

"Have you actually ever seen that?" Havilland asked skeptically.

"Sure, I was raised on a Kansas farm," Bill said. "But this is going to be a treat. I've never seen the ocean before. I mean...except from orbit. Shutting down my board now," he informed them.

"Kansas..." Havilland said. "Somehow it's easy to forget most spacers aren't really from
out there
."

"Oh a few are," Li said. "I've had the pleasure of hosting them on my boat, as will you. They look just the same, mostly. Except for the ones that dress weird and the ones with tattoos. But then they will say something that
sounds
like English, but you are standing there looking at them blankly because it doesn't make any sense to an Earthie."

Havilland looked at him, a little distressed. "I'm an
Earthie
?"

"You are, and I still am, even though I've been out there," Li said.

"It's derogatory isn't it?" Havilland demanded.

"Well, it sort of depends on how they say it. It can be near neutral, or pretty snitty. But it's definitely a club for which neither of us have a membership card."

"I don't feel like an Earthie," Havilland protested.

Li shrugged. "It's like having an accent.
I
never have an accent," he assured Havilland. "It's always the other fellow, isn't it?"

"There's that," Havilland admitted.

* * *

"Assembly tomorrow," April reminded Jeff.

"Are you proposing anything?" he asked.

"I don't plan to. But I'm sure I'll vote on a few issues."

"Well yeah, but I don't know of any big proposals. People seem to have accepted that we'll just be at war with North America if that's what they want, as long as they don't
do
anything stupid."

"Put that way, I'm not very hopeful, April said.

"Yeah, they haven't done anything stupid since they decided to steal my bomb and take it apart. It's been
weeks
. That's a pretty good run for them," Jeff admitted.

"Do you know of anybody who wants to force an end to being at war?" April asked.

"No, how can you?" Jeff asked puzzled. "I mean, we could surrender or resume hostilities. How else could you end it? We can ignore it but it takes one party to declare war and two to fight it."

"I don't think they could actually fight North America and be sure of winning without you."

Jeff looked surprised at that, then thoughtful. "I
won't
be forced into it from our side."

"Yeah, I know," April agreed. "You want to go to the cafeteria? It's been packed the last two times. People had to go home and attend on com who couldn't get in."

"You can make a case for things better there," Jeff said. "If you speak from home you are just a floating head on a screen and you don't have the impact of the audience around you."

"Then we better get there early," April said.

Chapter 20

"I need some riggers for some special high value cargo," shuttle captain Costa said. "These are items not detailed on the manifest. They are crated up about three meters long and have eyelets and take-holds. Each masses near a half metric ton. They need multiple lines on them and they can't be loose on the deck at any time. They have to be secured until they are inside. If that means attaching and removing lines in sequence as they are moved then it will be necessary to do so. If you have someplace to take them into the superstructure rather than down in a hold that's to be preferred."

"What are these items?" Captain Havilland asked. He'd been told they would be bringing security devices and power equipment. But this sounded far too much like they could possibly be munitions, and he worried about bringing them right where all the ships vital systems were concentrated.

"I don't want to say on open com, but they will be held in storage very briefly. Once they are given a final check they will be...removed from the ship," Bill Costa promised.

"We have a very secure purser's locker that was used for high value cargo. It is down a passageway with a flat uninterrupted deck to roll heavy items straight through. There are two serious hatches between the weather deck entry, and the actual vault. It has cameras and alarms, and the bulkheads can't be breached without extensive machinery or explosives. Will that do?" Captain Havilland asked.

"That will do perfectly. Once these two items are removed the rest is high value, but of the normal range. Your new power plant is only about thirty kilograms. Oh...I sort of forgot this is your first shipment. The rest is all packed in sealed boxes, most about six kilo max. They can all be dropped in a net and put on a push cart or hand carried short distances. Mr. Li used to receive them down slides when we unloaded to his ketch, but sitting on her tail like this we can't use that. We do however have a one ton powered gantry that sticks out the open hold a meter and a half."

"Our Chief is at your base with two hands," Havilland informed him. "If you will drop your hook he'll ride up and help you secure the cases to unload."

They watched as the officer casually stuck a toe in the relatively small hook and grabbed the cable one handed. A wave to those above saw him reeled in. It wasn't anything anyone on the bridge would have volunteered to do. The seas were very mild today, but lifting off the deck on the end of a twenty meter cable he had to be a pendulum from the motion. Not to mention the breeze.

"May he have the joy of it," Li said, watching. "It's been a few years since I rode a bosun's chair up the mast. Nothing I've missed," he assured them.

The crates came down, slowly and carefully. Captain Havilland used the bridge binoculars to see the operation in greater detail. He couldn't find fault with it, or they would have quickly heard.

* * *

The tables furthest from the serving area had already been moved and a slight riser of nesting cartons installed as a sort of stage for the Assembly. It simply had a sheet of decking overlay on top such as Housing used to temporarily cover work in the corridor. There was room for three chairs without crowding, and space for Mr. Muños to set a small computer with a com link.

The big flat screen on the wall behind was commandeered to show the video link of anyone speaking to the Assembly via com, should they want to share their face. A few didn't. April had no idea why, perhaps they thought their appearance would prejudice people. She had to admit there were lingering pockets of Earth Think, particularly among the new people still getting integrated.

There was a custom with seating, not a law, nor any published rule, but the prominent business owners and leaders in associations such as the militia sat to each side of the podium. A few of them always arrived early and took possession of these tables. On only a few occasions had April seen new people unaware of the custom get told a table was being held for friends.

April and Jeff had sat at different tables for different Assemblies. The custom didn't have that rigid a structure. But it was always against the same wall as the platform occupied by Muños, their Registrar of Voters, Jon Davis, head of security and the militia, and April's father who was resident manager for Mitsubishi. There were those who had a prominent part in the revolution who would sit there uncontested, but not everyone took the privilege. 'Easy' Dixon who piloted the shuttle that initiated the hostilities of the revolution would have been welcome, but preferred to attend from his home.

The cafeteria lacked the grandeur of an Earthly legislature with a dedicated capitol. There was no physical way to have one that could seat everybody when the Assembly was the whole body of citizens. It was as impossible as the desire one fellow had for a vast park on the habitat. He'd worn down people's patience with him by proposing it over and over each Assembly. Now if he stood to speak most people signaled on com they had heard enough in ten or fifteen seconds. It was just a time waster.

April felt bad for him, because it was to the point now that he'd be cut off before every getting an opportunity to speak if he might have a different proposal or question. But he had brought it upon himself. Last Assembly she had encouraged him to go speak to Heather Anderson, the sovereign of Central, because such a park was much more practical on the moon.

Today, when they walked in Irwin Hall who ran the Private Bank of Home was sitting alone at the second table to the right of the stage. He gave them very subtle come here tilt of his head toward the empty seats. Irwin was low key and very conservative. He even wore a jacket.

Jeff walked April to the table but didn't sit down. "I'm getting coffee, do you want one Irwin?"

Irwin made a passing motion with his hand. "I'm jittery enough," he said, declining.

Jeff didn't ask April. He knew she'd take it and to bring it black. What he did wonder about was why Irwin was nervous? Well...more nervous than usual. By the time he walked back with two mugs April had him deeply engaged in conversation, and having missed the start, he stayed silent. April could get the facts out of him better than Jeff could anyway. He had a tendency to ask too many questions and interrupt someone unburdening themselves. April was a snoop, and long experience had taught her an occasional nod and 'uh huh' often produced more information than direct questioning. Of course it took longer, the flood of speech often seeming more random than demanding just those points one wanted to hear. But it all came out eventually. Jeff just didn't have the patience.

Jeff checked his phone, one ear sort of listening to Irwin ramble on. That was enough to make Irwin stop talking and ask if he had something going on? April briefly looked irritated as she understood just checking his phone was enough to derail Irwin.

"We dropped our first shuttle to the ship we have set up as a landing platform," Jeff informed him.

"It went OK? It's down safely and unloading?" Irwin inquired.

"It is," Jeff assured him. "I really didn't expect any particular problems. The mechanical systems are simple and way over engineered. It landed and the landing platform grappled the landing gear just like it was designed to do. It's a calm clear day with very little in the way of waves. If it had been stormy with high seas we'd have delayed. Now that we've seen it work, we will try it out under worse conditions, but it seemed prudent to not stress the systems by making the very first arrest difficult."

Irwin nodded in approval, his conservative side appreciating that approach. "It will break somewhere, in a storm or such. No help for that."

"What I am more interested in than just the demonstration of the first landing is the cargo. Our platform has been at sea several days, and I'm concerned we might have opposition from others who will not welcome our intrusion into Earth affairs, even if it is off in international waters."

"You think somebody might try to sink it?" Irwin said bluntly.

"That's always a possibility. We
are
still at war with North America according to their recent denial of the previous surrender and treaty. They could sink it and have every legal justification in the eyes of many people. We aren't very popular in a lot of places. Tonga and Japan would object. France
might
. Australia I have no confidence at all. They seem to be sending me mixed signals."

"Well, since we bombed the UN off the map there is the matter of a forum. There's no one place to get everybody together and discuss it. I don't mean that critically," Irwin hastened to say. "But I think I interrupted you. How does this cargo relate to your vessel's security? Are you arming it with things like anti-aircraft missiles?"

"That's not a bad idea," Jeff allowed, "eventually. When we get to the point of having defenses in depth. However we can see and defend from above fairly well from orbit. What worries me more is an attack from
below
. I had to warn off a submarine from our ally down there before. It was a bit of a bluff considering my limited capacity. I want to make sure I'm not bluffing at all next time, so I sent down a couple submersibles."

"Manned?" Irwin asked, clearly surprised.

"No, no not at all. Submersibles as in drones, not submarines. We have neither the design expertise nor funds to build something so grand. I wouldn't have any idea where to recruit crew or how I'd pay them. I think you have to be nuts to climb in one anyway," Jeff said.

"Yeah, well a lot of people feel the same about strapping yourself in a shuttle," Irwin countered.

"Indeed. To the good if it keeps down the immigrants with which we are flooded," Jeff said.

"So...these drones. I assume they are armed?"

"The the second one we designed is. The first is a weapon itself. It would have to sacrifice itself to stop someone, but we already had a lot of the parts contracted and some assembly done when a couple of Dave's boys started asking me why I didn't do this and that after seeing the plans. We ended up making another one with a sort of torpedo. More like a missile since that is the tech we know, but it does the same thing."

"But not as fast, underwater and all," Irwin said.

"Not as slow as you might think," Jeff countered. "We have two separate propulsion technologies each drone will test. If the drone with the launchable weapons is a bust so will the torpedoes be a waste. We're using the same tech on both."

"There's Muños," Irwin said. He did that eye flick inside his spex everybody knew was a time check. They still had ten minutes. "Gotta check something," Irwin said, excusing himself, and tilted his head back so his spex had the relatively blank background of the overhead as a background.

"What was Irwin nervous about?" Jeff asked April. They had a bit of privacy here, and he didn't care if Irwin heard, so he just leaned over and asked quietly.

"He heard somebody is going to ask why we don't get our own currency, like Earth nations do, and is concerned to stop it early and completely. Yeah, I know," April said at his disgusted look. "We got away from Earth, and now every idiot who comes up because it is different, wants to make it the same."

* * *

The one sleek shape, removed from the foam nest in which it lay, was complete. It was not a pointed shape but a tube, the opening large for its diameter of about a meter. It was almost all of circular symmetry except two bumps to hold machinery on the tapered rear, blended very smoothly and gradually into the shape. At the very front it had a rim around the opening that had numerous short thick fins. Certainly too small and stubby to propel it. They looked more like a saw than a propeller.

"What the devil do those do?" Havilland asked pointing. "Grind a hole in the target?"

"We hope that creates cavitation," the tech from Dave's told him. It does what a propeller does when driven too fast, but deliberately. The cavities should persist at speed back past the widest part of the drone, to reduce drag,
if
we've calculated right."

"And the other?" Havilland asked, pointing with his chin.

"It's supposed to go fast in a sheath of cavitation too," Billy Costa explained. "But instead of mechanical cavitation it uses ultrasonic panels to create them. It didn't used to be practical, because it needs a
lot
of power, but with a fusion generator that's not a problem. It doesn't run them all the time, just when it
sprints
."

Havilland looked at the ships machinist Billy had assisting him. He was fastening what looked like a huge spike on the nose of the second drone. "Are you sure that isn't too technical for my man?" he worried. "If we screw it up Singh will have us swimming back to Australia."

"No problem. It's a straight up bolt on job. Simple as anything and the glass steel bolts can't be over torqued by a normal human."

"Looks like a bloody swordfish," Havilland said. "Is that the ultrasonic thingy out on the end? Or is that a weapon to ram into a ship?" There was a slight enlargement at the tip, perhaps as big as a standard beer bottle.

"No the panels are on the body. That is actually to get a sensor group out ahead of where the cavitation would mask the sonar in it. It has separate weapons it releases, unlike the first design. The long point is like those long spikes you see on some aircraft, and for the same reason. They are to reach outside the disturbance envelope the plane itself creates. In theory...it will be able to track a target while moving at speed.
If
we can find frequencies that the cavitation isn't particularly efficient at generating. It's going to be
loud
," Billy assured him. "We didn't think of this early enough to make it on the first drone. And that system promises to be a lot louder over a wider range of frequencies. The ultrasonic one can be tuned, within limits."