Chapter 5 of “The Middle of Nowhere”

Chapter 5

April started researching what was available to study economics. She’d find a formal class, but needed to know enough to even pick one. Jeff would expect her to do much more than a superficial look at the subject, and if she was going to be a bank owner she really should have a grasp of the matter. She hadn’t been thinking of all that when she first had the idea they should grab rights to have a bank while the window of opportunity was open on Home.

The array of books available was overwhelming. April usually didn’t approve of popularized guides, but saw a book entitled “Economic Jargon and Surviving Economics 101” That got bought along with what were said to be classics, “The Wealth of Nations”, and “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”. She had to admit they looked a little dry.

Eddie called her up and wanted to talk. He assured her it was too long and complicated to cover over dinner. She set aside tomorrow afternoon with some trepidation. He didn’t sound upset with her, but she still had doubts about her trip, and whether it was as successful as others seemed to think.

Gunny was still watching recordings of Home Assemblies. April set a timer and allowed an hour to try to absorb economic jargon, and then she’d join her Japanese class. She hadn’t been in the active class so long they probably forgot who she was.

When the timer went off she was ready to move on. She had a hundred new words spinning in her head. Words she was used to using having new meanings were more difficult than entirely new ones. The language of economics seemed a bit archaic.

April knew Gunny would take tea, so she went ahead and made it to move around after sitting so long. They didn’t have active furniture that moved around under you like some offices used. It might be more productive, but April agreed with her Dad that you need a mental break too.

Gunny got up and stretched, and went off, probably to use the restroom. April took a slight break to look at the stocks. Nothing big was happening or the screen would have alerted her by changing line colors. But she examined trends and then looked at the news.

She had almost two hundred key words and phrases for her bots to gather. That was going to go up when she added economic terms. There were a number of stories about Home, commercial matters mostly. Contracts let and a couple stories about the new ring being built. Jeff’s name came up a few times and the Rock was mentioned.

She’d skimmed over half when she came to a story gathered by the key word Santos, the name of the Earth family with who she’d been staying.

América del Sur Noticias Netos: Buenos Aires, (auto translated) – Search and rescue services report no sign of the American pleasure vessel Tobbiko registered to Tetsuo Santos. A rubber dinghy with the ship’s name and various articles of clothing and food containers washed up on Horn Island shore north of the Drake passage. Chilean air assets aided in the search out of Puerto Williams. The vessel is assumed lost in the dangerous seas close to the Antarctic Circle.

“Gunny, look at this!” He got up and came over. She was too shocked to send it to his screen. She thought while he read it. When he finished and looked at her he was surprised she wasn’t upset anymore.

“It’s bullshit,” she said with absolute conviction.

“You think so?”

“Mama-san told me the Tobbiko was much stronger than boats made just thirty years ago. She said it could be pushed under by a rogue wave that would crush and demast those sort of boats and it would just bob back up. No way they got broke up and sank in the easiest season to make the passage. Papa-san wasn’t the sort to take her into something he didn’t have the skill to do.”

Gunny pursed his lips and considered it. “If this were true you’d have heard from Adzusa by now. Until we hear something from her I don’t believe it either. He just decided to disappear himself lock stock and barrel. I bet some of the intelligence community are skeptical too.”

“I’m not going to call the lieutenants in Maine. In some form Papa-san will make his pickup or he’d have arranged to let me know.”

“You going to say anything to Adzusa?”

“No. No condolences tells her I don’t believe it. Saying anything else is a security risk. If it was true she’ll contact us personally with details.”

“I agree. I bet this indicates he decided to leave Earth. He’s abandoning his contacts and networks if he’s going to fake his own death.”

“Wouldn’t they continue to have value?”

“Their value declines with time,” Gunny explained. “Their value hinges on people never being entirely sure he is fully retired. If he’s still seen as a potential player he has leverage. If he left Earth and took up permanent residence off planet I think that would end most of his influence anyway. Home just isn’t big enough or old enough to have an influence in the intelligence world. Maybe someday,” he allowed.

April thought about it. “I’m going to just keep my mouth shut. I’ve got to log on my Japanese class or miss it again. Want to go get some supper after that?

“Yes, but let me know when it’s near. I want to shower and change first.”

* * *

“Get ready if you still want to go,” April said much later. “We’re about done here and the instructor is giving us his usual little summation and pep talk.”

Gunny grunted a response and disappeared to his room.

Her time with the Santos had polished her Japanese. The household help, not her hosts, had taken the time to couch her by explaining the common daily speech about laundry and meals and shopping trips. They had even patiently repeated phrases in both English and Japanese when she was completely out of her depth.

The instructor and even a few fellow students had expected her to be rusty after an absence, but instead she had improved her accent and vocabulary. Quite a bit of it had to do with fishing and sail boat handling, but those terms can be used nicely to build analogy and metaphor.

“Assuming my paperwork comes through clean and complete, I believe I’ll set things in motion to assume Home citizenship and pay the severance taxes to end my North American citizenship,” Gunny said.

“How much do they ding you to leave now? Most folks who come up here plan it ahead and just abscond.”

“It will run about three-hundred-thousand over my regular taxes by the time I am done. I figure about a third of what I’ll get for my house if that isn’t screwed up. I put enough in my account to cover my utilities and the summer taxes when they come due. We’ll see if they get applied or if somebody snatches them. At least the account accepted the deposit.”

“If they don’t, want me to drop a rod on it so they can’t make anything from stealing it?”

“Let me see what else I can do before you bombard North America for me,” Gunny asked. “I suspect that might work against me being able to freely visit the continent too. That was one of my goals in leaving quietly and politely.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure when I’ll feel free to visit Hawaii again.”

“You are young. Smart to keep it open if you can. You may really want to go down in fifty years from now.

“Or I might not even be in the system in fifty years.”

Gunny looked at her funny. “What system?”

“Why, the Solar System,” she said, like it was obvious.

“You feel confident that is a possibility?”

“Jeff is working on it.”

“Okay.”

The cafeteria was past peak for supper, starting to empty out. April got fish and chips and a side salad with chilled shrimp and a lemonade. Gunny got weinersnitzle with potato pancakes and sauerkraut with apples.

April went to the far wall away from the coffee where everybody congregated. She greeted several people passing through, but nobody stopped her. She sat looking back as always because she enjoyed the people watching.

Margaret from Security was sitting against the other wall right by the entry. Usually nobody sat there unless it was full because it was as far from the line and coffee as you could get. But she had a pad open and some hard copy on the table like she was working. Which she confirmed even before April unloaded her tray. A message appeared in her spex that she was working and couldn’t visit, so April just replied ‘OK’ in text with a flick and blink of her eyeballs since she had the tray in both hands.

There was Mr. Muños, as usual the center of a deep discussion, and Ed Page who was a multi-tasker with an actual computer open, not just a pad. He’d eat breakfast and watch the news and manage his stocks while listening to the Muños group and not miss any of it. There was a new guy by the coffee she didn’t know, but he had eyes only for the girl with him.

Ben Patsitsas the author came in with his usual scarf around his neck. On his heels was a new guy, Oriental, but big. He looked more like he belonged in the other cafeteria with the fit, young vacuum rats and beam dogs.

She had her stuff all off the tray, so Gunny pulled it over and set his tray inside hers and sat down beside her, eating off the tray. He hadn’t done that last night.

It finally slowed down enough there was nobody in the food line waiting and Ruby came out with a rag to tidy up the coffee area.

April stabbed a few pieces of salad and a shrimp on her fork when Gunny stood back up. What she didn’t expect was his big hand reaching in past her arm to tip her over backwards chair and all. She wasn’t even half way to the floor before there was a >BOOMBOOMBOOM<.

Her ears were ringing and she looked up laying on her back and saw Gunny drop the hammer on his new pistol and slide it back in his holster before he reached a hand down to help her up. She had to switch her fork to the other hand to accept his help. Once she was up he reached back and sat her chair upright and took off for the commotion over by the coffee machines without a word of explanation.

April followed him wondering what was going on.

The Oriental fellow who came in last was sprawled on the floor. He was a gory mess in the middle of his chest and weirdly his hair and the shoulder of his shirt were all wet but steaming. There was the handle of a kitchen knife sticking out of his lower back. Just then Jon rushed in with McAlpine. When he saw the body he breathed a visible deep sigh of relief and holstered his weapon. He pulled a chair up at the next table and made a call on his pad while Margaret hovered over him and Gunny leaned in and said a few quiet words. Then Gunny quietly spoke to Ruby, and she laughed and gave him a play poke.

Gunny came back to her and put a big hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go sit back where we were, and Jon will come tell you what’s happening when he gets it sorted out.”

“I can’t eat now,” April protested.

“Neither can I,” Gunny agreed. “Maybe after the adrenaline high wears off a bit. I need to just sit a minute. I’m kind of shaky.”

“Oh, Okay.” April was more willing to accommodate his need to sit than her own. She watched Jon finish talking to Margaret and the medical crew showed up and bagged up the dead guy. Jon conducted brief separate interviews with Ruby and Mr. Page and somebody showed up from maintenance and was cleaning the floor and all the tables and chairs on that side of the room.

“What did you say to Ruby?” April asked. She thought it bizarre she’d laughed.

“I told her she scared the crap outta me running up directly behind my target like that.”

“She thought that was funny?”

“She suggested the Chinese fellow was so wide I couldn’t have missed him with a brick.”

Most of the crowd there left and the few who stayed moved over where Margaret had been sitting. The cleaning guy sprayed and wiped Mr. Page’s computer and helped him move it. Ruby came out and gathered all the trays and plates wearing gloves, and took them to the back.

The next shift cook came in and after a brief word and a hug Ruby headed out the door, obviously done for the day. The new cook took both carafes of coffee away and cycled the pot.

When Jon was through with everyone else he took Gunny over two tables away and had a conversation in low tones. She caught a couple words, but her ears were still ringing a little.

Finally Jon came to her last, and Gunny took a seat on the other side of her.

“Take this,” Jon said putting a capsule by her glass. “It will keep you from having any permanent hearing damage from the gun fire. Your ears are probably ringing aren’t they?”

“Yeah, a little.” Gunny had just swallowed one too, and she chugged her’s with some of the lemonade. It was good and she took a couple more swallows of it before putting it down. She didn’t tell him she’d taken them before down on Earth.

“Tell me what happened since you walked in the door of the cafeteria today,” Jon asked.

April related everything she could remember. Even who she observed was here and the way Gunny ate off his tray instead of removing everything to the table. Then how she’d been shoved back and she’d had to curl forward to avoid banging her head, and what she’d observed when she followed Gunny to the other side of the room.

Jon just nodded a few times, and stayed attentive, letting her go at her own pace.

“The fellow who was killed waited until you looked down at your food, and then stood, drawing a pistol as he stood. He was looking right at you and it’s pretty obvious he’d been warned how fast you are and was waiting to move on you until you had your attention elsewhere. He really should have been patient and waited for both you and Gunny to be looking down. Not that it would have saved him, but I would have thought it was obvious Gunny is a guard. He discounted him entirely too much.”

“Why wouldn’t that have saved him?” April asked.

“Watch the security video,” Jon invited, and sat his pad open to her and played the captured scene in slow motion.

The man sat his tray down and seated himself, but he didn’t scoot his chair in. He looked to the right where Mr. Page was looking at his computer screen. There was an empty chair between them and he was the closest of the group with Mr. Muños. He glanced to the left but there was nobody close, just Margaret clear across four rows of tables against the far wall.

Page’s eyes flicked to the left when the man looked away, but his fingers never hesitated continuing to click, click, click away at the entry he was making.

Ruby was walking slowly, sliding a rag along the edge of the counter, but she was watching the new guy from behind and frowning.

When the man started to stand back up he already had his hand on his gun on his left side worn cross draw. He stood too abruptly, telegraphing something wasn’t normal. Ruby shoved off the counter hard with her right hand. The rag went flying and revealed she had a twenty centimeter chef’s knife clutched in her hand under the rag. It was three long steps to the man.

Mr. Page threw the mug of coffee in his left hand with no discernible hesitation at all. He couldn’t have seen the gun yet, just the motion that shouted it was being drawn.

The man was still hunched over slightly, gun just a little higher than the table edge when Gunny’s first round hit him right in the breast bone. The coffee mug hit the side of his face just about when the second round hit him a couple centimeters from the first.

By the time the coffee was a explosion of drops splashing off his face there was a violet aura of electric discharges arching through them and all around the man’s head. Margaret had discharged her Air-Taser dead on the man’s head, and it looked like she had the power level set lethally high.

The man spasmed from the Taser, gun hand jerking up past the point he’d have thrust it forward, hand opening in a claw. The gun would continue climbing and sailed over the group talking to Muños to bounce off the next table onto the floor.

His back arched from the electrical jolt, helped by the impact of a third slug from Gunny. He was bent the other way now, backward. Ruby slammed into him from behind with her left shoulder, not taking time to slow down. Her right hand slammed the blade into his back to the hilt right where a kidney would be.

Ed Page was pushing himself up off the table, obviously intending to offer further violence than the coffee mug. But by the time Ed was fully vertical the man was going down the other way, rolling off the edge of the table from Ruby impacting him from behind. Ruby yanked sideways on the knife handle, twisting it in the fellow, and it was wrenched out of her hand as he went down crooked, falling on his side.

Ed Page stopped his motion, needing a step to stop his forward momentum, and it was all over except for a vicious kick Ruby gave the fellow after he sprawled on the floor.

“Poor son of a bitch had no idea what hit him,” Jon explained unnecessarily.

“Who would want to hurt me bad enough to send somebody all the way up here?” April asked, shocked.

“Well, the remnants of the Patriot Party, any of the genetic purity nuts, maybe even rogue elements of the USNA government or military all come to mind,” Jon guessed, “but I’m guessing just from his appearance that it is the Chinese who are still peeved with you, this time.”

“Do you think Jeff or Heather might be targeted?” she suddenly worried.

“I called then and cautioned them on the way over here,” Jon assured her.

April looked at Gunny, thinking how she’d told her mother she didn’t really need him here. She dug in her pocket and got the platinum coin she’d got from Jeff. “Performance bonus,” she told him and flipped the bright thing to him. He snatched it out of the air, looking pleased.

Another snippet of “The Middle of Nowhere”

Chapter 4

Sleeping in low G was a treat. You barely dented the mattress. It was almost like floating on your back in water. She still had her clothes on from last night. Either she or Heather had managed to get her shoes off. She was in the back against the wall and Heather was curled up arms crossed in front of her and head pinning April’s arm. In this low G it didn’t even cut off the circulation and make it tingly.

April could see the glow of the clock on the com board, but it wasn’t pointed this way. Not that she had any appointments. It was just habit to know. Her bladder was telling her it was on a timeline though. She hated to wake Heather up.

Heather saved her the trouble by waking and stretching like a cat. Then she seemed to realize she wasn’t alone, the extra arm gave it away, and tried to get up real slowly and not disturb April.

“I’m awake. No need to be sneaky, but hurry back so I can have a turn at the bathroom.”

“Okay,” she went off barefoot and left the door open a crack. When she came back she had a glass of water and a bottle of pills.

“You need anything for your head?” she offered.

“I’m good. I’ll be right back.” She used the toilet and washed her face and rinsed her mouth out. Maybe Heather would loan her some shorts and a top. They’d be big but clean.

Heather was still in bed with an arm thrown over her eyes.

“You didn’t drink much more than me,” April protested. “A couple beers with supper and that one drink after we moved. Maybe you just have a headache. It happens.”

“No, I get one sometimes from just a single glass of wine. I should know better. The Naproxen will kick in soon and it’ll dull it. Breakfast will help too.”

“Can I borrow some gym shorts and a t-shirt? I’ll run my stuff through the quick cycle and put ’em back on after breakfast.”

“Top left and middle right drawers,” she offered with a wave of her hand, eyes still closed. “You shower first and I’ll lie here and let the pills do their thing.”

When she came back Heather was asleep again. She eased back out and stuffed her clothing from last night in the laundry unit. It would pump it down and vacuum tumble it on quick cycle. Good enough one time for something she only wore six hours or so.

Barack, Heather’s little brother was hanging around out in the big room looking forlorn.  He brightened up to see her.

“Hi April. Wow, I haven’t seen you in a long time. You’ve got Heather’s stuff on.”

“Yep, I didn’t go home last night. Heather let me stay here. She’s back asleep so I’m going to just be quiet until she wakes up again.

“She didn’t drink again did she? She can’t do that,” he assured her solemnly.

“Indeed, you are right, she did, and is paying for it.”

“Let’s make breakfast then. She’ll want it when she staggers out.”

“I ‘m not sure I want to mess with your Mom’s kitchen. She might have something planned.”

“Nah, she’s on New Las Vegas and won’t be home until Tuesday. I can make pancakes. You want me to show you how?”

Heather woke up again to a strong spicy scent that made her mouth water. She used the bath again showering and letting the hot water beat on her face. By the time she was presentable Barack and April had the grill and most of the dishes cleaned up. On the table was a plate of pancakes with pumpkin pie spice and pecans in them, and hot sausage patties. A small fry pan was waiting to finish off eggs for her. Best of all somebody had made coffee.

“You’re hired. When can you start girl?”

“Barack showed me how. I had no idea how to make a pancake,” April admitted.

“Mmmm. I may have to promote him to minor minion.”

“What is he now?”

“Just barely above a nuisance.”

“It isn’t nice to talk about people like they aren’t there,” Barack protested.

“It isn’t nice to put a tea bag in somebody’s wet wash.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Three months.”

“See?”

“I think three months seems longer to Barack than to you,” April offered.

“Whose side are you on?” Heather asked beady eyed.

“Yours, in the long run. Barack is a resource.”

“Umm,” Heather restrained her tongue with effort.

“So, we had an almost duel and you got the bank started on paper. I can’t believe nothing else happened while I was gone,” April said trying to change the subject.

“Those are the biggies. I think we were hesitant to speak around Gunny at first. They got a company started to go capture a snowball. Probably from around Jupiter. It’s going to be tough making the actual vessels to do it. There is still a shortage of all sorts of materials. We don’t have the cash to buy into it, but maybe we can get some work from them. Jeff would rather we wait and get involved in a stony asteroid capture. I can’t start to tell you all the foreign money coming into Home now. Not USNA but the smaller ones, Greece and Italy and Iceland. You’d have to be stupid not to grab a share of it.”

“Is the suit cleaning module selling?”

“Oh yeah, but how many p-suits are there to de-stink? It’s a limited market. He is always coming up with nice little inventions like that. They are a steady money not a big hit. Let’s go in the living room where there are cushions,” Heather said and topped off her coffee. Barak cleaned up her dishes without being asked.

Heather sat in a love seat and closed her eyes. “House, dim lights thirty percent,” she ordered. “Jeff and I have some friends on the moon working on making our own semiconductors. We have a lot of germanium in the Rock and when they vacuum distill it out it isn’t that far off the purity needed to make diodes and transistors. It’s use has kind of lagged silicon in the industry, but if it’s what you own a ton of then it’s time to look into using it again. We’re looking at how we can use iridium and gallium too because there will be a lot of that. The lunar people keep asking about our real estate venture on the moon. Not that I don’t welcome their business, but I don’t understand why they don’t just claim right by where they live. It’s not like there isn’t plenty of wide open spaces.”

April sat in an opposing love seat. They were crème leather and had a narrow table between them of that limestone with tiny little fossil shells in it. Barack came in from the kitchen and surprised her by sitting hip to hip and wiggled under her arm.

“He’s got a crush on you,” Heather told her.

April felt him stiffen. “He’s welcome to have a crush on me,” April said, giving him a squeeze. “I might steal him away and have pancakes every morning,” she joked.

“I’m not old enough to have a crush,” Barack protested, embarrassed still.

“A crush isn’t necessarily about sex,” Heather explained. “There’s a guy in the radio room has a man-crush on Jeff, and he’s straight as can be, but he just adores him. Maybe English doesn’t have good words for it, admiration, idolization, fandom, something like that.”

“I like April,” Barack said taking her hand. “I think that’s a good thing. You do too. All three of you look happier when you’re doing stuff together.”

“True,” Heather agreed.”She scared the snot outta me going to Earth. It’s nasty down there.”

“Maybe we should put one of your drives on Home like they did the Rock and push it off around Mars or someplace further away from Earth.” Barack suggested.

“Now there’s an audacious plan. If you suggest that to Jeff he’ll start planning how.”

April didn’t think it was all that farfetched.

* * *

         Gunny was intently studying the screen when she came in after noon. It was almost time to have lunch despite her late breakfast. She decided not to ask if he made it home last night. He hadn’t quizzed her and it was none of her business.

“How can you operate Home on the taxes you charge?” Obviously that was what he was reading. “I’d pay less tax here than the property tax on my house in Maryland, never mind income taxes, sales taxes, retirement taxes and medical taxes, excise taxes, luxury taxes and fees on my phone and automobile and, well, you get the idea.”

“We pay air and water and fees for infrastructure maintenance. If an airlock controls go bad or a lamp in the corridors burns out they fix it. They have to keep the air plant up and cover leakage and stuff. If they ever have to do something huge like replace a bearing at either end it’ll cost us thousands of dollars each.”

“That’s just like a condominium fee to keep common elements up. It’s cheap.”

“Then you will probably want to pay tax so you can vote on stuff, right?”

“Not until I get my status straightened out with the Navy. I decided you are right and I should leave gently if possible. You still feel like talking to Wiggen for me?”

“I’m happy to try,” She looked at the com clock. “It’s nine something in her morning. I find most people are still putting out fires and sorting things out at that hour.”

“Yes, but if you wait too long they are hungry for lunch and will be irritable or blow you off so they can go to lunch. Same thing towards the end of the day. You know, there is probably only an hour – hour and a half twice a day it’s optimum to call a working person.”

“Okay, lunch first, and then we call Wiggen. Write me out a cheat sheet with the names of the guy who sent you to me and the one who wanted to arrest you, and anything else I need.”

“Ruby, this is Gunny. He’s working for me, at least temporarily. Ruby is the best cook on Home. She can do special orders if you have taste for something.

“Huh, got you some muscle,” Ruby said appraising him frankly. “I saw him when you came home. Wasn’t sure who was guarding who. He looks like he’ll do,” she decided checking out the gripes showing above his waist band, and offered her hand to touch.

“Ma’am, a pleasure to meet you.”

“All mannerly too. Very nice.”

“What’s fresh?” April asked.

“We have some really nice cantaloupe, and some raspberries that are over ripe and may be gone tomorrow. They finally got some sausage that may be hot enough to suite you.”

“I’d like a double order of pancakes with the raspberries in them and on top too. A half cantaloupe, and a couple patties of the hot sausage.”

“And you, big boy?” Ruby asked Gunny.

“Same, but just two pancakes, please.”

Ruby squinted at him. “On a diet?”

“Indeed, I have to limit my carbohydrates or I start to pack it on.”

“You fooled me. I was sure you were gene mode like this one,” She nodded at April. She turned away and started their orders.

When she came back Gunny couldn’t help himself. “Ma’am, may I ask why you thought I was modified?”

“Your eyes. The doc who is modified to be so fast has quick eyes. They track side to side faster than normal. April was the same way after she had that mod. You’ve got the same look.”

“Thank you. I appreciate the information.” She seemed to have more, but just nodded.

“Not much gets past her does it?” Gunny asked when they were well away.

“She’s smart and pretty fast for an unmodified person. You might find it interesting she was a professor of Medieval Music. Her husband was the command pilot last year who set up the ambush of the Pretty as Jade and the James Kelly, and destroyed them.”

“I take it one should be polite to his wife as a matter of self interest?”

“Yes, but also she is trained with weapons, being an experienced loadmaster on combat aircraft. Not to mention she prepares your food,” she added after consideration.

“A small kindness now and then even seems appropriate,” he looked back, reappraising.

“I do a little trade with her,” April said, and then regretted it.

“What do you supply? Spices or something?” Gunny asked innocently.

“Information,” April admitted. Determined not to lie to him.

Gunny opened his mouth like he was going to say something. “This coffee is Okay, but not as good as the stuff at your house,” he said after a tiny pause.

“Thank you. We carry the same blend on our ships.”

“Ten-fifteen in DC,” April said checking her pad on the way back. “Let’s do it.”

April had Gunny sit to the side of the camera angle. His note was in front of her. She punched in the number Wiggen gave her when she was staying with the Satos in Hawaii. It had failed when they tried using it during the coup.

A young man in an Earthie style business suit appeared. “Please do not identify yourself. This number is among a group which was compromised. Your number is no longer useable, but a new number will appear on your screen which is not available to me. If you have code words or authentication procedures they remain valid and will be required to validate the new number.  Please record or memorize the new number before disconnecting. This number will return to general service within 30 days and will not work again.” The screen went gray except for a ten digit number and a blank entry box.

April recorded it and hesitated. She had no password. On a guess she typed April Lewis and hit enter. The system accepted that and disconnected.

“Well, looks like we’re not the only ones couldn’t get through,” Gunny said.

April punched the new number in. She didn’t get Wiggen, she got a very well dressed middle aged woman behind a desk. “May I have your name and business please?”

“No, I’m not sure I want to do that. I expected President Wiggen direct. The way things have been going I have no idea if you are her secretary or her jailer.”

“I can assure you she is very much in control of her office. She is however in a meeting that is sufficiently important she is taking no direct calls. If you’d like to hold she will take the calls after in the order she wishes. I’d say in another twenty minutes at least. If you wish to remain anonymous be aware she may give priority to identified callers. She will however be made aware the call is from an off planet number.”

“That seems reasonable,” April had to admit. “Please inform her April Lewis of Home called about a personal matter and I’ll await her call back. It is not an immediately life or death issue.”

“Thank you Miss Lewis. Your call is in the queue,” she promised and logged off.

“I’m going to read some of my stuff from my brother. You want some tea? I’ll make a pot.”

“Sure, I’m still catching up on the Assembly videos. I’ll take some tea.”

It wasn’t twenty minutes, but over an hour went by before April’s com chimed and she transferred it to the big screen at the com desk. President Wiggen shocked April. She had bags under her eyes and was slumped like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

“Miss Lewis, I was advised you were on the manifest for the Home supply shuttle. Your bodyguard was listed too. Did he really accompany you to Home? Or was that a ruse to lift somebody else?”

“Oh, that was Master Sergeant Gunny Mack Tindal. He’s really the reason I’m calling. He got caught up in the coup attempt on you. He tried calling Captain Yoder who assigned him to me and got a Captain Maddow who claimed to have no records of his duty assignment at all. He wanted to arrest him, so Gunny took the advice of the State Department lady and grabbed his cash money and disappeared with me.”

“Ah, yes, I’m familiar with more of the details where they touched my personal protection. Captain Maddow actually was innocent of any conspiracy. He was however put in as a placeholder to get Captain Yoder out of the way. He sat in the stockade for a few days as did some others, but we sorted it all out and none of them will suffer for it.”

“Well, Gunny wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t get sorted out into a shallow grave somewhere. He might lose his house if his automatic payments aren’t made for utilities and taxes. He’d really just like to take the retirement he has the service to qualify for and be done with it.”

Wiggen’s face already tired went to unhappy. “I’m sorry he didn’t have confidence we’d straighten things out. We weren’t going to let them start executing our people. Maybe he thought the coup would succeed,” she speculated.

“We didn’t actually know there was a coup until we got up here,” April assured her. “We simply were cut off and couldn’t contact anyone. Then we had a missile attack on Mr. Santo’s home and an unknown force, maybe Chinese, landing aircars in their woods. We ran for it.”

“Yes, you took care of the Chinese sub in your usual subtle manner,” she accused. “The train of reentry vehicles blazing across the sky was on the TV news everywhere that night.”

“Well, if you know some more subtle way to stop one lobbing missiles at you let me know. At least I didn’t use anything explosive on it, just some plain old Rods from God,” April said.

“And the aircars?” Wiggen demanded.

“What about them? I didn’t even shoot at them. When I shot the missile down it just happened to crash on them.”

Even Wiggen couldn’t help smiling at that. “From anyone else I wouldn’t believe that,” she assured her. “It’s just…” she seemed at a loss for words.

“My one friend on Home said that by the most amazing coincidence there seems to be a history of expensive damage, death and destruction strewn closely behind me. I never meant that to happen.”

“Very well put. I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll direct the Navy to retire the Master Sergeant with a clean record and all his proper retirement. The arrest warrants against him and others that night are already gone. I owe him that for his service. As to his house and other personal affairs, that is yours to straighten out. Smart politicians don’t get involved in things at that level, it always looks dirty to someone, and I didn’t make him yank his money and run. I’m still not sure I shouldn’t be a bit miffed on that. I suspect the way this conversation is going he is in no rush to come back?”

“I don’t think so. I’m hoping to hire him at least temporarily.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Wiggen asked.

“I also have to thank you for your previous invitation to the state dinner, but I think it would be best for both of us if I stay home for now.”

“Oh God yes,” Wiggen agreed. “I have a few guests who’d probably crawl over the table to attack you with their silverware. Not that it wouldn’t be entertaining. Now, if there is nothing else, I have some other calls to return, and a nation to run,” she said drolly.

“That’s all. Thank you for straightening that out,” April said heartfelt.

Wiggen disconnected with a nod.

“Well, you weren’t the last call to get returned,” Gunny noted.

“And she didn’t ask anything about the Santos.

“I got the impression most people who know him would be happy to ignore Santos, and hope he returns the favor.”

“He’s a sweet old guy,” April said. “I can’t imagine why anybody can’t get along with him.”

Gunny remembered reading Santos’ folder. Santos the congenial host was a sweet old guy. Santos the master spy was scary. There was nothing he could say. Nothing he should say, it was classified, after all.

Old Rochester – Goodbye

The whole of Main St. in Rochester MI is torn up. They dug way down – 20 feet some places. and tore out water mains from about 1900. Uncovered trolly tracks.

This is a sketch I made of it a few years ago.

We’ll see what it looks like new. I haven’t seen any drawings.

“Paper or Plastic?” is free 5/27 and 5/28

Please download and enjoy if you don’t have it yet. Both days, approximately Pacific time.

http://www.amazon.com/Paper-or-Plastic-ebook/dp/B004RCLW68

Yes! Amazon has “Family Law” free today 5/19

I wanted to see it actually posted before saying anything again.

A little nature near Detroit – pix from the week

My wife is off this week. We did some day trips and enjoyed each other’s company and ate out a lot. We don’t do a lot of long trips now.

This is a picture she took at a Metro Park down in Gibralter MI. She doesn’t take many pix but she has a good eye. Click to see bigger versions of these photos. It was a pleasant park and the first time we’d been there. It has an area you can fish from very comfortably, and a boardwalk into the marsh. We saw a lot of birds we’d never seen before and in the fall we intend to go back when the hawks and eagles migrate through.

 

 

 

 

This Blue Heron rookery is near our house in Rochester MI. It is on the edge of a Super Fund site. This was shot from a business over a busy road and looking under power lines. It is about a quarter mile away. Done with a Canon Power Shot SX120compact camera – a point and shoot. So it is stretching its capacity. Shot at sunset.

 

 

This is the edge of the swamp in which the rookery stands. Notice the five egrets bedded down for the night in the trees. It was much darker than the photo suggests. I tried to zoom in on the birds, but the camera was not capable of getting a focus in the low light. There were geese in the pond. The whole place swarms with birds.

FREE Kindle download 5/12 – “Family Law”

Not Going to happen. Amazon has software issues. 5/19 maybe.

Family Law is my latest stand alone book and my best writing yet. Grab a copy and remember to review it please.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006GQSZVS/?tag=kindleboards-20

You know people who love their dogs. They put them in their will. They forgo vacations to stay home and take care of them. We are sure humans can love non-humans.

Can a dog love back or is it simple self interest? Affection or love? Unconditional or a meal-ticket? What if you dog could talk back? Would your dog be less lovable?

Is the dog part of your family or property? Who should decide that for you? How much more complicated will it be if we meet really intelligent species not human? How will we treat ‘people’ in feathers or fur? Perhaps a more difficult question is: How will they treat us?

Could humans adopt such an alien creature? Can they adopt a human child into their society?

Usually the people who have these sort of questions thrust upon them have no desire to be on the pointy end of things. They are just doing their best coping and somebody decides they don’t like it.

Of course when the adoptive father is a very smart carnivore similar in size and disposition to a grizzly bear you should at least be polite about objecting. When they are both rich and his race whooped human butts on first contact…What was your big problem again?

 

 

 

Economics – hard to suspend disbelief – is it satire?

I’m going to incorporate some thoughts about economics in the third book of the April series, “The Middle of Nowhere”.

It’s hard to do so because today what the talking heads on TV and the writers in financial e-zines write is so bizarre it is like a well written ‘Onion’ article. You are almost sure it is satire, but not without small doubts you will read it the wrong way and embarrass yourself in front of all your friends.

If you wish to have your car repaired or your teeth cleaned the state requires you to deal with a mechanic who is licensed and certified. Your dental hygienist has to be approved by the almighty state too. If you think this is primarily for your protection  you are a fool. It is to limit the number of people who can enter the profession and keep prices up for them.

Do you know what you need to be an economist?

Well a degree in economics helps. But actually many people work as economists from other backgrounds in mathematics, business, finance or even agriculture.

There is no such thing as a licensed and certified economist.

If you look into the matter closely, you do not even need a personal history of being right more than half the time to continue working as an economist.

If you as a surgeon killed fifty patients in a row on your operating table do you think you’d continue in the business? But an economist can be wrong every week for a year and still be employed, asked to appear on TV networks and given awards and advanced to  better jobs.

The key to being a successful economist today is the same as being a successful priest in a major religion. Publicly profess believe in the dogma of your sect and punish any unbelievers.  Today the sect in power is Keynesianism. The Fed and the treasury espouse it and the vast majority of academic economists are given fellowships and published based on faith in this orthodoxy.

As an example of how convoluted such academic thinking works, online today was data showing the Japanese in the last year have exported gold for the first time since they started keeping records.

The economists painted all sorts of complicated theories about how the psychology of the Japanese has changed because they have not seen inflation in so long it is impossible for them to worry about it. So since gold is an inflation hedge they don’t want it anymore. 0o.

Since 1989 the value of Japanese stocks has stagnated. The real estate market went from homes being an investment to an expense. Everything is expensive. I had a friend go to Japan for a few weeks. He bought a MELON in a fruit market for the price on the sign. When he got back to his rooms he calculated the exchange and it was a $30 melon. The Japanese have layers and layers of wholesalers and inefficient protected industries to drive prices up. Imported rice has a 700some % tariff on it. Japanese industry is being sent to cheaper labor markets just as happened here. The earthquake and nuclear contamination have made everything less certain and more expensive.

Okay, here is my deep technical analysis of why the individual Japanese are selling their gold. They need the money!

 

 

 

New Snippet – 3rd Chapter “The Middle of Nowhere”

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 keeping 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? 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 had 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 on spending what might get clawed back. And she decided, if they want it back I’ll 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 still. 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 Bobs death. As she suspected it executed the trade with no problem.

In the news the Louisiana State Police conducted a sweep of public land and corporate timber stands eradicating hidden plots of guerrilla gardeners. Unlicensed 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. 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 must 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 with a five hundred dollar fine.

New York faced a firestorm of public criticism for suggesting an ordinance that would prohibit sending children 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.

Windsor still refused to reopen the bridge to Detroit. Citing lower costs and crime stats in isolation, the Federal government said it was a matter for the City and Ontario. The Canadian side still had a moat around the southern bridge pier and the approach road was torn up and turned into a park.

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 former 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 amoebae,” 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. Nobody thought 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 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. It’s the same as in business. The CEO doesn’t have lunch with the janitor. And it’s always the higher rank guy who initiates and controls it, not the other way around.”

“I meet with a group Wednesday nights for exercise and we do Thai Chi. 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 who makes the most.”

Gunny looked a little skeptical. “Yeah, you might belong to a gym, or belong to a bicycle riding club or something 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.

“Heh, you had me for a second there,” Gunny admitted after a tiny hesitation.

“Do what you want tonight. You should have a couple days off really to acclimate and learn where everything is. 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 have as much water as we have power to distill it. 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 the seven tenths 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 was not as fancy as at the full G level, although it wasn’t industrial. 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 table, 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 bar 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.

“What are they serving today?” April asked.

“This week is Mexican/South American,” Jeff answered. “The chiles rellenos, the empanadas, and the feijoada are really good. The cheese and vegetable enchiladas  have nopales and diced tomatoes in them. The cook will make fresh gorditas for you if you ask.”

“Do you folks know those people?” Gunny asked with a slight nod. All three looked over at the loud bar, and a dozen people waved and one fellow stuck his fingers in his mouth and let off a whistle that would shatter glass. They all waved back so Gunny joined in not wanting to look stuck up or unfriendly.

“I don’t know any by name, but everybody knows April,” Heather said matter of fact. April blushed but she’d learned talking to Jelly that protesting was usually counterproductive.

A large fellow in subtle Tangerine shorts and a yellow silk t-shirt came over to their table with a tray. It had a large pitcher of dark beer and four glasses.

“Thanks for your service,” he directed to April. “This is Apogee Amber. We had a brewing house open in Home last week. I highly recommend it.”

He’d have left without pushing his company on them, but April asked his name.

“I’m Steve. I service pressure suits and hard shells too. I like to hang out with the folks who use them.” He had a playful cartoon dragon tattoo around one wrist and a colorful and very Japanese cluster of chrysanthemums around the other. “Join us later if you have a mind to,” he invited gesturing at the party room.

“Maybe, thanks for the offer, and the beer,” April told him.

“The natives hold you in high esteem,” Gunny observed pouring for them.

“Beats the last time we were here,” April noted. “We had a couple creeps steal our dinner, insult Heather and assault Jeff. I like this better.”

“Oh my, that is good stuff,” Heather agreed after a long sip.

“What, uh, was the ultimate outcome to that previous visit?” Gunny wondered.

“Oh, the cook came and read the riot act to the vacuum rats, the one flipped out and acted like he was going to lay hands on the cook and Jeff stepped between them and they did a little dance that involved broken bones. Before it could get really ugly Jon the Security Chief came in the door and Air Tasered the guy in the head. After medical got him treated and trussed him up they tagged him for expulsion to the slumball.”

Gunny looked at Jeff in a new light. He’d have to find out what sort of ‘dance’ that was.

They filled up plates off the steam table and Jeff put an order in for four gorditas. There was minimal talk until they were somewhat sated. The bartender delivered them another pitcher and informed them their money was no good here when they offered a card.

“So, what has happened while I was away,” April asked before hitting the buffet again.

“We almost had our first duel,” Heather informed her.

“Wow, over what? A bad business deal? A woman? I know the assembly allowed for it but I never expected to see one happen.”

“Do you know the goofy looking guy in supply named Albert?” Heather asked. “Albert Nielson? He is real lanky and looks like he cuts his own hair?”

“Sure, I’ve dealt with him to send you guys stuff in your regular deliveries. He makes weird jokes that don’t make any sense but he seems harmless. Certainly not violent.”

“Well, when it finally dawned on him that all the old USNA laws were gone and we have created very few laws of our own he suddenly realized there was no law against public nudity. Seems he was a fan of going to nude beaches when he was an Earthie and he decided he could do the same here. He showed up for lunch one day au naturel.”

“I wasn’t there thankfully, but Wanda told me Mr. Gidley who has two young daughters tried to talk to him about it and Nielson got all preachy about how healthy and natural it was and got kind of loud. Gidley just informed him he found it a matter of his honor to preserve the custom of clothing, and he didn’t intent to have to sit staring at his hairy butt while he tried to eat, so he could show up with weapons at the north terminal corridor in the morning and they would settle it or he could retract his stand on it and he’d let the matter pass.”

“What if he refused to meet him and still refused to cover up?” Gunny asked.

“The fourth assembly of Home, they talked about avoiding all the nuisance laws Earth has, spitting on the sidewalk, what you can do in your own cubic like bake cookies or run a business.”

“Stuff like showing ID and sleeping on the grass in a park, licensing dogs They all seem like a good idea, examined one at a time.” Heather explained, “but the cops can use them to make anybody they want to arrest a criminal instead of the original purpose. Especially the ones that are subjective like creating a public disturbance. Cops seem to be capable of seeing a disturbance easily if they have some reason not to like you. Collectively it gets to where it is impossible to live without breaking some law.”

“Yes,” Jeff agreed. “The same with consumer protection laws. Who can cut hair or be a private investigator or run a restaurant. Pretty soon they are just to keep the current businesses from any competition. They have laws that forbid companies from advertising their products are superior even though they are and can prove it. Laws about how many bugs are permitted in your breakfast cereal!”

“So, they decided not to get into those sort of laws, and the whole mess of libel and slander laws that have never worked. If somebody offends you then you have the right to call them out on it. You can demand satisfaction, and if somebody will neither satisfy you or meet you then the assembly of Home will expel them.”

“You said almost,” Gunny remembered. “How was it avoided?”

“Well, at first Albert told him not to be ridiculous, that he wasn’t about to fight him. When he was told to read the assembly record he scoffed at it. Gidley just repeated that he needed to meet him in the morning. He pointed out it was his choice of weapons, or if he brought nothing they’d go at it bare handed.”

“When he went and read the assembly record he realized he would be expelled if he didn’t back down or fight him. Push come to shove he called up Gidley before the morning and tried to apologize. Gidley said he wasn’t looking for an apology. He just wanted him to put some pants on in public and acknowledge the fact since it had become a public matter. Albert made up a very short text message saying in the matter between them about public nudity he was following the custom Gidley demanded rather than meet him to duel. He posted it to the com sent to ‘all’.”

“I’ve got mixed feelings about that,” Gunny admitted. “Sooner or later some nut job is going to kill the reasonable fellow we all feel is in the right.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Jeff agreed. “It’s just a question of whether this method ruins less lives than the myriad laws North America has. Certainly all those laws have hurt many people and even resulted in unjust deaths. Don’t you agree?”

Gunny thought on it before answering. “True. If it doesn’t work you can change it later. I suppose it’s too much to expect that once you start making laws you’d be, moderate.”

“There doesn’t appear to be any historical instance where it didn’t eventually run amuck, I’m sorry to say. Better not to start. You should read the debate yourself,” Jeff suggested.

“Oh, I will. I haven’t finished the second assembly video yet. I’ll get to them all.”

“You’re here to stay then?” Heather asked.

“I feel I got used down below. I’m wanted for arrest because I got caught between political factions. I may go down for business if it’s safe, but I’m done with the USNA to live there.”

The look on Jeff and Heather’s faces changed. There was some reserve that disappeared.

“Why don’t we take some dessert over and join the folks who brought us beer?” Gunny suggested. “I think they’d very much appreciate it if their heroine visited a bit.”

April snorted like it was a joke, but Heather and Jeff said, Yes, it would be polite.

Gunny it seemed, loved to dance. April wasn’t against the idea but had little experience. Jeff kindly showed her some steps and danced with Heather and a slim vacuum rat who looked like she wanted to eat him alive. He escaped however.

They ended up the three of them, April, Heather and Jeff at a table watching Gunny dance. Their novelty had worn off and everybody who wanted to meet April had. They had drinks in front of them with no idea who had bought them. Jeff tasted his and wasn’t sure what it was but slightly fruity and very strong. They nursed them slowly after all the beer.

“You remember you strongly suggested we start a bank before you went to Earth?” Jeff asked.

“Yes, have you had time to look into it? Does it seem practical?”

“You assigned me your Rock rights. They have been allowing folks to take their payout in kind. The fab shops have been taking iron to make steel and nickel. I got in early and grabbed us the rights to the platinum.” He reached in his pocket and got a disk and passed it to her.

It was smaller than the coin Papa-san Sato gave her on Earth. She’d been carrying that since he gave it to her, but hadn’t shown it to anyone. She fished the silver dollar  out and traded it silently to Jeff, who laughed in surprise she’d have such a thing.

The coin was heavier for its size. It had a deep relief but a heavy raised edge to protect it. The one side had an image of Home with the Rock trailing, closer than reality, the arch of the Earth behind them, and the Moon showing above it all.

She flipped it over and there were no graphics on the other side. It said System Trade Bank of Home – 25 grams Pt – 99.9999 Pure – One Solar.

“It’s money,” April exclaimed delighted. “But, Solar? Not EuroMarks or Dollars? Who is going to take it? Won’t its value go up and down with the price of platinum?”

“It depends on your viewpoint,” Jeff said. “I intend to deal honestly with people. If we are a known to be of good reputation, and if Earth governments keep treating people as disposable, well, it is possible people would regard the value of a dollar or EuroMark as going up or down against a Solar.”

April looked uncertain.

“Do you take Argentine money if you have a choice?” Jeff asked her.

“No way, and I’m not thrilled to take Brazilian or Macedonian either.”

“See? Money does have a reputation. You trade your own stocks don’t you?”

“I do, in a very limited way,” April admitted.

“You already have formed opinions about the markets then. May I suggest you take some economics courses? I’m not saying the things you learn will be right or wrong, but it matters what other people think makes the economy work.”

“After you have some ideas about economic theory then we can talk about how the bank will work. They haven’t separated enough platinum yet to matter, so this is just one of a few prototypes, but the bank exists not just on paper, but in reality enough it would be hard for people to try to stop us from having it now. We’re grandfathered in as they say.”

“So I’m part owner of a sort of a ghost bank that doesn’t have much yet in assets, but it will as they keep mining the Rock?”

“Exactly. And I’m already doing various small transactions so there is a record of the bank existing and forming contracts from several days ago. If I let out contracts to fabbers I use it.”

“Nice. Can I get a loan to buy some cubic?”

“The bank can loan you one Solar,” Jeff offered gravely. “Can you offer collateral?”

“How about an antique silver dollar?”

“A done deal. I’ll have your papers tomorrow. Perhaps you’d like to put some funds on account with us?” he asked very formally.

“Maybe. Let me talk to Eddie first and we’ll see,” April said remembering another worry. “I’m tired and I drank too much, she announced. “I need to go home, and it’s a long way back.”

“You stayed at our place before,” Heather reminded her. I’m ready to go home too. Drop a message at your family com and come stay. It’s pretty close.”

“Okay, I’m going to tell Gunny.” She waved him over.

“I’m not going home tonight. Can you find your way back yourself?”

“Sure, I know the way. But I might not make it back until tomorrow myself,” He went back to his dance before she could register surprise.

“Nice to see your man fitting in so well,” Heather said with a smirk.

Snippet – 2nd Chapter of “The Middle of Nowhere”

This is the third book in the “April” Series – “Down to Earth” being the second.

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, just saw 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 use me like a pawn. 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, 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 advise 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.”

* * *

         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 she’d arrange off her pad.

April pointed out a number of characters 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 shop new since she left offering bespoke clothing for men and women

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

“Nah, you want a laser?” April suggested. “I have to go get one from Jeff and explain 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 think she did 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 10mm?”

“Full metal jacket for cheap target 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 when 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, 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 and he 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 pretty well didn’t it? Even though we got maybe two or three tourists a month back then. And he picked up the down leg luggage shipping it freed up cheap too.”

“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 or 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 cafeteria, and saying something didn’t sound too 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 in station com who preaches a Sunday service keeps a 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 apparently he 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.

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 grove, 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. The inside was divided with thin wooden partitions.

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,” he 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, 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 thought. He never used that hushed tone of voice.

“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 like having a guest,” she thought. But it wasn’t 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 said she would nap too.

Snippet – First chapter of “The Middle of Nowhere”

The Middle of Nowhere

By: Mackey Chandler

Third book in the “April” series.

Sequel to “Down to Earth”

       April was tired and a bit depressed. Her trip down to Earth was a failure. She hadn’t rescued the two lieutenants who had asked her to help them get to Home. She had certainly tweaked the Giant’s Nose as far as irritating North America. But she couldn’t see she had really improved anything about the USNA ignoring their treaty obligations with Home. She’d spent a great deal of Eddie’s money, but if it made war less likely as he was hoping she didn’t see how. His fortune was still at risk if whoever replaced President Wiggen wanted war with Home.

About the only thing she could claim to have accomplished for sure was Preston Harrison was not going to ride the Patriot Party ticket to the USNA Presidency. He’d tried to arrest her and she’d shot him dead for his trouble. Her Earth hosts the Santos intimated that might not have been the best PR move of all time. However the fool swore to her face he’d kill her family and nation as his first official act. What did he expect?

Whatever their private plans and opinions April doubted other candidates would make such a public threat if they ever intended to stand under an open sky again. She’d certainly be happy to put a smoking crater where any of them showed themselves. Harrison had certainly underestimated how difficult one young girl could be to drag off under arrest.

Things were sort of a mess. Her Earth hosts were unsafe to go back to their home and instead were going off to do her job and rescue the men she’d intended to extract. Her bodyguard was sitting in the other shuttle couch beside her, apparently betrayed by his own government, the same as the lieutenants. Mixed up in politics that didn’t concern him. Assigned by Wiggen it was true, but because she’d asked for him, and she felt responsible.

She had to sort out the businesses she’d inherited from her brother. She wasn’t even sure what all of them were and if he’d left anybody in charge running them. There was the real possibility some people would blame her for precipitating his apparent traitorous theft of the armed merchant Home Boy and the destruction of it in Lunar orbit while collaborating with the USNA.

Since she’d walked away from her interest in their courier business and left her share to him she certainly had not expected him to leave anything to her. She had bluntly made clear she didn’t approve of his business practices and had separated herself before going down to Earth. So why had he left everything to her? Why not their parents or her grandfather? A friend even, if he had one. Was it guilt?

Just about everyone she knew had a good reason to chew her out or blame her for things ending in such a muddled mess. She wasn’t looking forward to facing the music.

This was a freight shuttle, so it would dock at the north end. They wouldn’t go to the passenger dockage for two people. Not unless they were high end VIPs, and VIPs didn’t ride freight shuttles. To switch docks was another hour for the flight crew, a couple hundred bucks of propellant for maneuvering jets and an expensive hour on the shuttle airframe to move it. The north end was industrial and lacked carpet and bright colors and shops. There would be an unlocked com pad at the airlock with a camera and touch pad for crew. Jon might not even send security all the way up to the north hub for one person knowing both crew and she would direct them to check in.

“I don’t know much about Home,” Gunny spoke up from the other couch. “I mean I know about you, because I read your folder. That told me a little bit about Home, but otherwise I only know what I’ve seen on the news, and we know how reliable that is. Are there any customs I should be aware of to avoid offending people?”

“I’ve been thinking about my own problems so much I didn’t stop and think about what you need in practical terms. I have a bad habit of assuming everybody knows what I do and probably more. Look, I’m not sure who I’ll get you placed with. I have to look at the companies my brother left me. One of them may need you,” she assured him.

“Believe it or not we got an actual employment agency running before I came down. How about if you stay on as my bodyguard for a month? You hang out with me and I’ll try to explain things as they come up. You can read the recordings of the public meetings when Home was formed. Especially the few before the war will explain how we voted to break off with North America. You can meet people and get a feel for how things work. I have to go around and smooth things out with a whole lot of people. Don’t be surprised if some of them are angry with me. I didn’t get the basic things I intended to done on Earth and blew a bundle trying. But I don’t think anybody will be mad enough to hurt me. Guarding me shouldn’t be hazardous.”

“How much you paying, and where would I stay?”

“Say, a hundred-ten for the month plus basic cafeteria access and your air and water fees. The Holiday Inn is really expensive for a month. Let me see if the company still lets transients rent out space in the company barracks.

“A hundred-ten?”

“Yeah, thousand dollars, USNA, unless you insist on EuroMarks.”

“That seems, generous,” he said. So generous he was somewhat dubious.

“It won’t after your first hundred dollar t-shirt and you need to buy lunch off station and it’s a forty-five dollar cheeseburger and a fifteen buck beer with a ten buck tip.”

“I see,” Gunny said slightly stunned.

“If we hadn’t had the devaluation back the year before I was born think what it would be.”

“That’s of course easy for me to remember. My paycheck was suddenly one tenth what it was the month before. The prices didn’t all instantly adjust either. I kept a bunch of clean uncirculated notes figuring they would be worth more as collectibles in my lifetime rather than turn them in. I’m pleased I’m on the plus side of that deal already.”

“But if they were in your house or a bank box you might never recover them.”

“No, no. They are out in the piney woods. You have to dig down as far as my arm will reach  under a big old pine tree where you have to crawl under the branches. You get down there and you find a screw out cap. Then the stuff is on a line hanging down at the end of a three meter plastic pipe. There’s old money, some newer money, a few gold coins, and a spare pistol. I’m sure I’ll be able to recover it someday. I have the GPS coordinates memorized.”

“Kind of hard to do that on an orbital habitat.”

“Not at all. I can hide stuff on a ship or an aircraft. That’s one way I can earn my keep. I will teach you how to cache stuff so others don’t find it while I’m working for you. Perhaps there are a few other tricks an old man can teach you if you want.”

April was still processing the original question. “Gunny, we don’t have many customs different from North America, I can’t think of anything important, but I’m sure we’ll run into little things as you get settled in. But we do have a lot less laws. Don’t assume anything you see is illegal by ground side standards. You can let your minor child alone in your apartment, or let them go to the cafeteria unsupervised. They can be in public in short sleeves or even shorts. Marijuana and tobacco are legal to own and use, but it is against regulations to pollute the air or have an open flame in public spaces. And you can own and carry any crazy sort of weapon you want.”

“Burn in thirty seconds,” announced their pilot. After a very sort burn there were a couple minor taps on the attitude jets and the lurch of the grapples pulled them the final couple centimeters flush to the station with a >clunk<.

The number two passed through and opened the airlock hatches. The pilot waited at the hatch of the flight deck for them to exit before she’d leave her vessel. There was the slight pressure change when it opened and they had to swallow and force a yawn to get their ears to feel right. Neither had any carry on to deal with. April motioned Gunny ahead. He’d never been in zero G and she wanted to watch and help him. He was so big he sort of blocked the view, which is why she was to the outer door before she saw it was the tunnel for the south end passenger docks.

She grabbed the edge of the flange. “Why aren’t we up at the freight docks?” she asked their copilot. “You didn’t have to dock here for us.”

“We were told the north docks would create a problem. It isn’t set up to handle a crowd meeting the shuttle,” she explained.

Just then Gunny reached the end of the tube. It did have a line for newbies to go hand over hand. April heard a murmur of voices. She hurried after him without another word to the crewwoman. Where the tunnel opened up there was Jon manning the entry station himself, and here outside spin where they restricted access were her parents and Jeff and Heather, Ruby and Easy, Eddie, Doris, her Grandpa Happy, and a couple of Jon’s off duty people as well as a half dozen of the militia guys.

Around the entry bearing to spin there were folks elbow to elbow all around the rail looking through at them, and there was a banner strung beneath it that said, “Welcome Home April”. It was so long you had to watch it a full turn to read it all. The crowd noise indicated there were quite a few out of sight on the other side of the rail. She looked up there and most of them waved. What else could she do? She waved back. Then a dozen people all tried to hug her at once and she was squished. Somebody had her left hand and was patting the top. She couldn’t even see who it was so she just squeezed back.

She folded her arm over her ribs worried she’d get bumped but people were careful though they still reached to touch her hand.

Gunny had been signing in at the entry com before she’d looked up and waved. It didn’t look like she was going to get a chance to log in. She was more or less dragged along by both hands and elbows as the mass of friends and family all took off for the rim of the bearing like a bird flock. Somebody kindly grabbed her by the belt in back and pulled her over to the rail as they approached it.

She gave the rail a symbolic touch but there was no need to swing over it. More hands grabbed her patting back or arm or shoulder, whatever they could reach, urging her along and a succession of people most of whom she at least knew by sight hugged her.

The astonishing thing was the brief greetings spoken softly in her ears as she was passed along. “Good job, good job, welcome back.” – “You scared us. Damn Earthies.” – “Hated to see you on the slumball, but thanks for going.” – “‘Bout time you came Home.”

She had home and a bed in mind. They ended up at the cafeteria. A hand fell on her shoulder and a male voice asked what she wanted? “Coffee please,” she told the fellow, giving the hand a touch. Wasn’t he from maintenance? She wasn’t sure. The coffee when it came had whisky in it. Pretty good whisky by the taste of it. She didn’t object. Music started up and people started dancing on the other end of the room. The chairs all scooted down and one with 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 little steak and fresh rolls and butter. It didn’t take long before a cold shrimp plate and a sweet potato casserole 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,” he pointed out with folks reaching across his dinner and leaning out past him. 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 body-guard 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?” 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 body guard 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 thought 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 resisted 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.”

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.

Making a book is easy – Hah!

Don’t you believe it for a minute.

I started out using MobiPocket Creator to make a file which the Amazon web site would convert into a Kindle book. It sort of worked.

Of course it looked like it was assembled by a typesetter on LSD. There were unexplained gaps and lines and indents…and sometimes what I wanted centered would be on the left margin. At one point all my hyphens showed up as solid black triangles.

Well it turned out a great deal of the trouble was I didn’t know how to use MS Word properly to produce a correct .doc file in the first place. I’m 64 years old and learned to type on a mechanical typewriter. It’s a miracle I could work around being deaf to learn to word process on a computer at all.

It certainly didn’t help that Word 2009 fights me tooth and nail in many ways. If you started any files before knowing you MUST have a .doc file to convert it will never forget you started that document without specifying a .doc file in your options. It will change back to a .docx file at every opportunity – even if you go in and change the default in the system registry. You must convert the document – reset the options to save as .doc and do a save as choosing .doc – three separate steps every time you save. It’s worse than Simon says. MS is evil because they know better than the customer what is good for him.

I really didn’t appreciate that the one book I bought made fun of elderly people for using the TAB function to indent paragraphs. But after taking the time and space to mock us he said it was not the purpose of his book to teach us how to use Word. He assumed (demanded) that we know how to use it properly in order to follow his instructions, although he obviously had cataloged a number of such common errors. He was above sharing them with us.

I now have a copy of the software caliber downloaded and I understand it will make an even cleaner file for Amazon to convert. Perhaps after I am done learning it I can get the page numbers for the table of contents over on the right side of the page where they belong.

I’m not sure – but I think those of you who have bought my books and found these terrible formatting errors can delete the copy in their Kindle and force a newer copy from your Manage my Kindle page. I’d appreciate your experience if you try that.

I very much appreciate all of you readers who looked beyond these faults to enjoy the story I had to tell. It is of great value to me if you will give me your thoughts and review my books on Amazon. – Thank you. – Mac’

April is FREE again Sat. 4/21

Help yourself please. I’ve updated the file on Amazon to make it much easier to read. I’ll post about that later tonight.

If you have an older copy of “April” you should be able to get the update by deleting and getting it again off your Manage my Kindle page.

“April” is a free download Sunday 4/8 on Kindle

No Fun at All – Mackey Chandler

Jeremy Kyle was hurting. He’d got a whipping from his uncle on top of the one from Billie Lee Osborne and a lecture about how the only way to deal with a bully was to stand your ground and fight them even if you got whipped. It rankled him that his uncle felt it his place to act like his daddy even if he was living under the man’s roof.

He was still heart broke that his daddy died going on a year ago now and instead of sympathy uncle Earl seemed to think everything gave him cause to ‘toughen’ the boy up. It was irritating as hell that his old uncle could still whoop his ass one handed when he was fourteen. With Billie Lee he stood a chance. That boy was just mean and didn’t have his full growth much more than Jeremy. Uncle Earl was a full head high over him and twice as wide. Years of felling trees and cutting lumber gave him a grip like a vise and massive shoulders and arms.

It didn’t seem like he’d ever grow out of his skinny long arms and legs. He had delicate long fingers his grandma said were meant to play piano, but with his ma and pa dead and living off the charity of relatives that was a joke. He didn’t know anybody that could afford a piano. He didn’t even know anybody who had a house big enough to fit one in.

Uncle Earl was agreeable that Jeremy might not win a fight. He admitted up front he’s got the bad end of a few over the years. He pointed out some fathers would give a boy a whipping for losing.  But he was absolutely firm that you had to give it a go. He wasn’t mad Jeremy lost. He was mad he tried to run.

“You watch all those nature shows on the TV,” he reminded him. “There two kinds of critters in this world. There’s the ones that get up in the morning and go looking for breakfast, and  there’s the ones that wake up and are looking over their shoulder scared before they ever take a morning piss, because they know they are breakfast. What do you call them?”

“Prey,” Jeremy supplied.

“Well if you want to be like that, looking over your shoulder and jumping at every little noise afraid all your life then keep running. Once you make a habit of that Billie Lee and all his kind will never give you any peace. They’ll go after anything running like a mean dog.”

“My teacher is just as likely to punish me as the guy making me fight,” Jeremy pointed out. “She and the district head don’t believe in self defense for anything. I’m going to have detentions or even get suspended if I leave a mark on Billie Lees face.”

“Miss Blanchard is paid by the government to come up here in the hills of Appalachia,” he said with a sarcastic twist. He never did like that word. “She’s set to teach us poor hillbillies about civilization like we was a bunch of heathen savages. That’s fine, you need all your letters and such you can get to live today. But this isn’t Cleveland and things don’t work in the hills like they do there and maybe never will. You do what’s by God right and I’ll stand by you with Miss Blanchard. If you get a suspension, well they got to let you come back. I spent a few days in jail when I was younger. If you aim to never upset nobody you’re gotta be a damn little mouse of a man.”

That was yesterday and it was good it was Friday. He had the weekend to get over being sore and he didn’t have to see Billie Lee again for a couple days. Billie was always all agitated about something. By Monday chances were he’d be on somebody else’s case. Miss Blanchard ground her teeth a lot dealing with Billie and said he was borderline something or the other that didn’t sound good. But she’d never lift a hand to him no matter how much trouble he stirred up.

He didn’t want to see uncle today either. He got a hunk of cornbread left over from yesterday and a candy bar he had saved in his dresser. He put a length of fishing line wound on a stick and a snuff tin of hooks and bobbers in his jeans. If he decided to fish he’d cut a pole wherever he happened to be.

His daddy had given him an old nine-shot .22 revolver before he died. Uncle had not taken that away. He actually felt better about Jeremy roaming around out in the woods if he took it. They just had another big talk like he’d had with his dad about responsibility and never, never, ever, taking it to school. That got tucked in his waist and some loose cartridges in his jeans pocket with the pocket knife and the few coins he had right now.

He had on his sneakers that were too ratty for school, with holes worn in the sides where they bend, his Tractor Supply Company t-shirt and a baseball hat that said DRB across the front. He had no idea what that stood for. It had been in the lost and found box at the diner forever so he’s rescued it. That’s where he’d got his sunglasses too.

* * *

            Diroc worried the last little bit of flesh off the bone and tossed it in the bushes. He had gobbled it down so fast he let out a mighty belch. Yorpac hadn’t been as thrilled with the deer as his partner. It had given them a good chase, and the pheromones it threw off in terror had been just lovely. He just didn’t care for the flavor. The People had excellent taste and sense of smell. He could taste too much of the bitter plants the deer had been eating in its flesh.

Still, this world might be worth claiming as a private hunting preserve. The People did not trade nor did they form alliances. They claimed worlds as private preserves and occasionally they found those who objected. About two thousand years ago they had found a race who objected so strenuously that six worlds of the People had been rendered uninhabitable. They now refrained from any expansion in that direction.

This world had a very heavy population of bipeds that looked like they really needed to be managed back to a more sustainable level. The People always saw to it that a race they owned was taken care of and properly managed and responsibly harvested. They probably would not be as fast as the deer they’d just run down, but maybe they’d taste better too.

The alien chemistry of the deer didn’t bother them at all. They had a digestive system that processed anything remotely organic with an efficiency that made a Death Angel mushroom a spicy garnish. Diroc had eaten a discarded plastic water bottle a few miles back and thought it had a pleasant texture even if it had little flavor. In fact the People sorted others into two groups, fun to eat, and impossible to digest due to owning Nova bombs.

Just another half hour and they’d come to a cluster of the bipeds and get a decent sample.

* * *

            Jeremy was deep in thought climbing the long familiar trail. He’d cut himself a good hiking staff from a downed maple tree. He’d eaten the cornbread and was saving the candy bar for later. He didn’t think he was done with Billie Lee and he was working himself up to a good snit. If he couldn’t punch his face in without getting blamed for defending himself then he needed to use his head. How could he give him a really memorable thumping and not leave a mark above the neck? Didn’t somebody tell him a piece of hose left no marks?

He looked up and there were two very strange creatures walking down the trail toward him side by side. They were sort of dog like, but big for a dog. The head and shoulders were kind of exaggerated like a male lion. They wore stuff, not clothing exactly, but a collar and a sort of harness around the shoulders and crazy as it seemed, what looked like safety glasses.

When they got real close they had a pink triangle of a nose like a cat, and they were both actively twitching. You didn’t have to be real smart to see they were not animals.

As they came down the trail well, here came a native, climbing to meet them. He should have been able to see them from far away but he didn’t slink away into the brush.

“Is he blind?” Diroc asked. “Why didn’t he take off when he saw us?”

“He’d have to be deaf too, not to hear you bellowing to me.”

“Maybe we look like some local animal. When he gets closer and realizes we’re different he’ll soil himself. Be ready for him to give us a good chase.”

“He’s awfully little,” Yorpac remarked critically. “The ones we saw from the ship were easily twice his size.”

When they got close they all stopped. Jeremy could not have reached out and touched them, but he could with the hiking staff. He was well inside their jumping distance, but he had no reference for comparison.

Now that he was close they looked very much like the paper mache lions  on each side of the entryway at the Thai restaurant in town. Sort of cartoonish. He wasn’t sure what business these weird creatures had in mind, but he could sure tell they were not from around here.

This was his country, his horizons kept him from thinking his planet, and his mountain, and sure as hell his trail. He had pretty well had all the back down and run knocked out of him yesterday so that option just never occurred to him.

“He doesn’t smell afraid,” Diroc said disappointed.

“No, no I think that’s anger, Yorpac agreed. It was actually more entertaining because Diroc was so out of his element with anything that didn’t flee.

“A little noise and a display of teeth will fix that,” Diroc assured him. He didn’t step closer but he leaned forward and opened his mouth wide and gave a mighty roar.

Jeremy smacked him right on that pink nose with the maple shaft so hard the last six inches busted off. He was – quick.

“Oh, oh, oh, I think he busted it.” He said holding his nose in both hands.

“Oh come on you big sissy. It isn’t even bleeding.”

Then the native did the damnest thing. He clearly motioned with his free hand for them to get out of his way.

“Of all the impudent…I’m going to just shoot this crazy biped. He’s obviously deranged. Probably driven out by his own kind to wonder the hills until he dies.” He drew his weapon and pointing at the sky he thumbed the charging bar with a chuh-chunk.

Jeremy had been taught responsibility for owning a pistol, but when somebody pulled a gun out and waved it around that was a direct threat. He pulled the .22 out of his waist and held it the same as the critter, and rolled the hammer back. The click, click, click was loud in the silent woods.

“I do believe that is a projectile weapon,” Yorpac cautioned his friend.

“It doesn’t look like much of one,” Diroc said. But he kept his gun pointed at the sky.

“I’ll have that engraved on your memorial plaque in your clan hall if you are wrong.”

“He smells really pissed off now,” Diroc noted.

“Uh-huh. Why don’t we just back up a bit?” he suggested sensibly.

After they had a little distance opened up Yorpac suggested, “How about if you turn around and holster your weapon? I’ll keep an eye on him.” When Dirac had done so Jeremy stuck his pistol back in his waist band.

Yorpac considered the conciliatory nature of that matching gesture and the distance they had opened up and turned away like his friend. Not without a certain itchy feeling at having his back to the native, even at a good long range for a hand weapon.

“I’m pretty sure that was an immature specimen of the locals,” Yorpac decided. Unsaid was if the kids were so hard case nasty and run around the woods armed what were the adults like?

“Yeah, they looked so promising from afar.”

“My vote is we write this one off,” Yorpac suggested. “It looks to be more trouble than it is worth.”

“Oh yeah, Diroc agreed. “The locals are just no damn fun at all!”

END

New book up – “Down to Earth”

April seems to make a habit of rescues. Now two lieutenants from the recent war appeal to her for help to reach Home. The secret they hold makes their escape doubtful. Her family and business associates all think that is a good idea. North America, the USNA, has been cheating in their treaty obligations and a public figure like April taking a very public vacation there would be a good way to remind them of their obligations. Wouldn’t it? Things get difficult enough just getting back Home is going to be a challenge. It’s a good thing she has some help. Why does everything have to be so complicated?

How it goes…

I ended up giving away over 5,000 copies of “Paper or Plastic?”

I also saw somebody returned a copy of “April” for refund. That’s the first that is ever happened. Upon investigating I found I had edited a typo somebody pointed out and when I submitted the new file it did not convert properly to Kindle. All the hyphens were solid black triangles. New lesson – view manuscript after any change no matter how minor.

What’s happening 3/31/2012

I’ve finished the sequel to “April”. It will be titled “Down to Earth” per beta reader Xander Opal. It has to have a little editing and it will go up as my fifth Kindle book.

The third book in the series is started and will be titled “The Middle of Nowhere”

“Paper or Plastic?” already has over a thousand free downloads the first day. – Make that 2k.

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