Torchship (12 page)

A slim woman walked up to his table. “You are the master of
the merchant ship
Fives Full
?”

Schwartzenberger bit back on a cold reply when he recognized
her uniform. He’d identified it instantly, it had just taken a moment to adjust
to seeing one in person. “Yes, I am. How may I assist you?” She sat down. “I,
uh, was surprised to see you. I thought the terraforming ship had left this
system.” The news had been full of relieved stories celebrating the departure.

“Yes,
Gaia’s Heart
has continued on its mission. I
have been detached for a specific task. I need a ship capable of delivering
cargo to an off-network location. This is in support of an on-going
terraforming effort.” A waiter obsequiously inquired as to her desires. “I’ll
have what Captain Schwartzenberger is having.”

“I hope you like spicy food,” he commented. The goulash here
was fierce. He used the food distraction to identify her with his datasheet.
Yukio 23 of the Terraforming Service, followed by the usual long paragraph
about giving them whatever they want and not doing anything to upset them.

“Yours has a novel smell,” was her answer. The waiter
returned quickly with a steaming plate. Another patron must have lost his meal
to the VIP. Yukio dug in. Her pleased expression brought sighs of relief from
Schwartzenberger, the waiter, and a suited man at the bar who’d followed her
in.

“So what’s your cargo?” asked the captain. “And where will I
be picking it up?”

Yukio put down her spoon. “Animal carcasses. Five hundred
tons of them. You’ll handle the logistics of procuring them.”

“What kind of animals? Cows? Dogs?”

“Herbivores. Preferably ones bred for consumption.” The
goulash disappeared rapidly. Schwartzenberger concluded terraforming ships
didn’t carry paprika. Odd for something that could supposedly synthesize
anything
.

“Why not use vatmeat? You’d get more nutrition for the same
mass.”

Yukio shook her head. “We tried that. My kitties turned
their noses up at it. They’ll eat it if we crate them but if they’re loose
they’ll keep hunting prey instead. It’s interfering with our plan to grow a
self-sustaining prey population. Real flesh will keep the predators content
enough to reduce the pressure on the prey. Or so the theory says. We’ll have to
see how it works in practice.”

“I see. Is frozen meat acceptable?” Schwartzenberger said a
brief, silent prayer to be saved from carrying live cattle.

“Oh, yes. They’ve had thawed meat before. Well, the previous
generation did.”

Thank you, God
. “Where will we be delivering it?
Somewhere in the Disconnect I presume.”

“No, we’re going to Savannah. You’d know it by the old name,
Tsing Yi.”

Schwartzenberger’s hands clenched hard on the table. He took
several moments to compose himself. He spoke quite calmly. “I thought the
Betrayal destroyed Tsing Yi.”

The goulash had totally occupied Yukio’s attention during
the pause. She seemed almost startled that the conversation continued. “The
human colony was destroyed, yes. The human counter-attack destroyed the Hostile
AI outpost. The ecosystem survived. There were breeding populations left of all
flora and fauna. Radioactivity has decayed to normal background levels over
most of the planet. That’s what makes it a perfect candidate for this
terraforming project.”

“I’m surprised no Hostile AI took it over.”

Yukio shrugged. “With no infosystem in place it’s just dirt
to an AI. The Hostiles have plenty of that in their current systems. We have
set up some automated defenses as a precaution.”

Using automated systems to guard against AIs struck
Schwartzenberger as oxymoronic but he wasn’t going to argue with a terraformer.
“Will we need an escort through the defenses?”

She scraped the last of the sauce out of the bowl. “I’ll be
on board to give the passwords. What is this dish called?”

“Goulash. It’s an Old Earth recipe.”

“Goulash. I’ll have to share that with my shipmates.”

“When will you be ready to leave for Savannah?”

“I’m ready now. Just let me know when you have the cargo
ready. The sooner we get it there the faster the prey population will recover.”
Yukio passed him her secure contact information and left. Terraformers weren’t
much for small talk apparently.

The suit from the bar slid into her still-warm seat. “Carstairs.
Liaison Office.”

“You’re not very subtle,” said the captain.

“We’re not trying for subtle. The point is to make it
obvious she’s under protection.”

“Shouldn’t you be following her?”

“My partner is. I need to make sure you understand your
role. Have you worked with TFS before?”

“No. But I know the drill. Give them whatever they want and
bill local government for it. I take it that’s you guys?”

Carstairs nodded. “Including your dinner here.” A message
popped up on Schwartzenberger’s datasheet. “There’s the info for the logistics
office. Just make the arrangements and send the bill to them.”

“Including my own bill?”

“We won’t be stingy. Making sure you stay nice to the TFS is
more important than trying to save a few keyneses. We’ve got a nice planet. We
don’t want them deciding to edit it.”

“I’m from a nice planet. I think they’re smart enough to
figure out where I’m from if they get mad at me. I don’t want Bonaventure
getting edited either.”

The government agent gave that a firm nod and left. The
waiter came by. “Want dessert? The tab’s still open.”

“Maybe. Give me a whiskey. Get yourself one if you want.”

***

Mitchie was the first to arrive for the crew meeting the
next morning. Schwartzenberger sat at a table in the shade of the ship. With
the repairs complete he’d moved the ship to a cheap groundside landing pad. “Morning,
Skipper. You found us a cargo?”

The captain shrugged. “Not exactly.”

Mitchie looked to her right. A pair of refrigerated containers
sat at the edge of the pad, waiting to be put aboard. She pointed at the
reefers.

“It’s complicated. Wait for the rest to arrive so I only
have to explain it once.”

“Okay, sir.” She pulled out her datasheet. Schwartzenberger
went back to studying his. They only had a few minutes wait before the rest
arrived in a shared floater. Once the amenities were over the captain launched
into his briefing.

“This isn’t going to be a regular cargo run.
Fives Full
has been requisitioned by the Terraforming Service.” He explained the mission
to an uninhabited star system, concluding with a warning that Yukio would be
traveling with them. “So we’ll be walking on eggshells the whole time on our
own ship.” He paused for questions but they were all still trying to assimilate
the news. “Now, TFS can requisition the ship but no matter what the Fusion government
says you are all free citizens. So you can’t be forced to do this. I can’t
blame you if you want to avoid terraformers or not go off the edge of the map.
But if you’re willing to come along I’d very much appreciate it. This could be
rough enough without me breaking in some raw crew.”

Billy broke the silence. “I’m in. Ought to get a good story
or two out of it.” The hazards of uninhabited space meant nothing to him next
to a better chance at picking up girls.

Mitchie said, “Me, too,” hoping none of the crew had noticed
how intensely curious the mention of terraformers had made her. Bing and Guo
just nodded.

“Thank you, all of you,” said the captain. “Shore leave’s
over. We’ll have a few days of just working one shift until we have all the
cargo and our employer on board.”

***

Getting that much animal flesh actually took five days.
Vatmeat dominated the market so animal breeders only had enough for the luxury
trade. Two containers were filled by convincing zoos to cull some of their
overpopulated exhibits.

Schwartzenberger had rented a cable camera to inspect the
containers. When a new one arrived he’d thread it through the whole volume. One
container came during lunchtime, giving Mitchie a chance to ask Guo about it. “Is
he that worried about someone slipping in some vatmeat?”

Guo shook his head. “He always checks cargo like that. That
fire on his last ship was started by some discount reactors someone tried to
smuggle in a container. Bribed a customs inspector to give them a clean
manifest. One of them broke down and started a fire. Spread to the rest of the
cargo. He got the whole crew off but lost the ship. He’s still paying for it.”

“Wow. How’d he get a new ship with that hanging over him?”

“
Fives
technically isn’t his ship. When he pays off
the
Jefferson Harbor
he can start buying into
Fives
but for now
he’s just a hired hand.”

The captain’s frantic money-squeezing suddenly made more
sense to Mitchie. “Still, I don’t think someone’s going to slip some exploding
meat into our cargo.”

“Don’t be so sure. A lot of people don’t like terraformers.”

“That’s so ridiculous. They’ve never done anything to an
inhabited planet.” Though Mitchie had seen her share of disaster vids featuring
a terraformer taking revenge for some slight.

“Not that. They’re friends with AIs and that creeps out
people in the Fusion.”

“Seriously? None of the terraforming ship AIs have gone bad.
They’re pure Golden Age tech.”

Guo shrugged. “Go talk to someone here on Demeter. They
think an AI is an AI, and they’re all ready to use us as spare atoms.”

“Idiots.”

“The idiots don’t worry me. It’s the ones smart enough to
try something like offing one lone terraformer by blowing up her ship.”

Mitchie made a face. “Yuck. Think the captain could use some
help with it?”

“He has Bing helping out and they’re training Billy.”

“Too much fun for me. I’ll go back to plotting courses.” Any
error in passing through the gate would be magnified to tens of millions of
kilometers in the next system. She was building a set of trajectories to cover
all the likely possibilities.

***

“Mail call!” cried Billy as he entered the cargo hold. The
crew made double takes as they took in his burden. In addition to the usual
handful of data crystals he had a heavy package nearly as tall as he was.

“What’s that?” asked the captain.

“Dunno, but it’s for me.” He leaned the box against the
bulkhead while handing out messages. Everyone pocketed their crystals. Billy
opened the shipping note on the box. “Oh, it’s from, um, a friend of mine.”

“The friend whose father blacked your eye?” asked Guo.

“He didn’t do it, he hired it out.” The package peeled open
to reveal a hunting rifle. “Oh, wow. This looks top of the line. That’s a fancy
scope, too.” He checked that it was unloaded and put it to his shoulder. “Real
comfortable fit. Scope can do visual or IR. When I get home next the deer won’t
know what hit them.”

Schwartzenberger had backed out of the group. He closed the
airlock door. The rifle’s sweetly synthesized voice announced, “Network
connectivity lost. Initiating emergency shutdown.” Billy cursed as the eyepiece
went black.

“Welcome to the Fusion, Billy,” said the captain. “You can
have any gun you want as long as it continually uploads the sight picture and
the prints of whoever’s holding the grips.”

The deckhand pulled on the trigger. With the gun shut down
it wouldn’t even budge. “Crap.”

“Cheer up, lover-boy. She meant well,” said Bing.

Demeter System. Acceleration 10 m/s
²

The gate to the Savannah system was a four day cruise from
Demeter. They’d lifted shortly after noon ship time so the first meal on board
was a formal dinner to welcome their employer. Schwartzenberger had swiped a
few pounds of beef out of a container. Bing turned it into a savory stroganoff.
The scent had everyone on board at the table early.

Conversation started out slowly. Yukio was too entranced by
her food to say anything. The rest were too scared of offending her to open any
interesting topic. The captain tried to get people talking but wound up
receiving a series of status reports.

Mitchie’s turn was last. “We’re in the groove for a normal
approach to the gate. I’ve finished plotting a set of courses for Savannah.
Wherever the gate dumps us we can start boosting immediately. There’s about a
twenty percent chance we’ll wind up close enough to one of the gas giants to
get a fuel savings.”

Yukio looked up from her second helping. “Why aren’t you
exiting toward the gas giant if it’s so helpful?”

The question didn’t make sense to Mitchie. “We’re aiming for
the star. We just have a probable error sphere with a sixty million kilometer
radius, which might drop us usefully close to one of the giants.”

“Oh, no. We retuned that gate when
Gaia’s Heart
returned from Savannah. There won’t be nearly that much error. And an
off-normal transit can put you wherever you like this side of the star.”

“Or we’ll never be seen again!” Mitchie shot back
indignantly.

“It’s perfectly safe if you have a current transition angles
matrix. I delivered the new one to the Demeter Observatory Office myself.” The
terraformer was taken aback by Mitchie’s hostility.

“I’m certain you did,” soothed the captain. “But they
undoubtedly declared it classified data and won’t give it to civilians.”

“Well, what good is it if nobody sees it?” asked Yukio.

Nobody wanted to tackle explaining Fusion paranoia to their
employer. Guo shifted to the technical side. “Why a matrix? Couldn’t you give
us a set of equations to model it? Then we wouldn’t have to worry about it
going out of date.”

Yukio shrugged. “We don’t have a human-understandable theory
of gates yet. We’re getting closer. Our genetic improvement program has
increased our average intelligence over five percent in each generation of
terraformers.
Heart
estimates we’re less than two hundred years from
producing a human who can grasp gate theory.”