Been There, Done That (April Book 10) Read online

  Been There, Done That

  Book ten of the April Series

  Mackey Chandler

  Cover by Sarah Hoyt

  Chapter 1

  Jeff Singh read several supposedly professional journals, explaining why the whole sordid affair of James Weir and the Pedro Escobar was a fraud, with amazement. The articles seemed worthy of gossip sites instead of business or scholastic publications. Several suggested the entire event was a virtual construct and no ship had ever been built or launched. Jeff noticed that all the people suggesting that had never been above the atmosphere. They were not physicists or engineers, or even anyone who ever had to deal with the realities of space traffic control as a pilot. The author of one such theory was an entomologist, and Jeff wondered if the publication committee misread her specialty?

  In Jeff’s opinion, the more insistent and sarcastic the certainty with which Weir’s disappearance was denounced, the more thoroughly the people spouting that sort of stupidity would be proved wrong in time. The Earthies would make Weir’s drive work, Jeff was sure of it. He wasn’t sure what happened the instant it vanished, or where the Pedro Escobar ended up. Maybe it no longer existed in this universe. He just wasn’t sure.

  What he did know was that he’d already been to another star twice in a ship based on the same math, with slightly different engineering. Some of his close confidants thought him crazy to pass up the opportunity for fame and glory. Jeff wanted a head start to get out there and lay claim to the best real estate before the mob arrived. He also suspected that in the long term, when the late comers found him and his partners already out there among the stars, the historic record would be edited and he’d get the proper credit anyway.

  Neither could he imagine any of these naysayers ever making a public retraction or apology, no matter how thoroughly proved wrong. That was about as likely as any of them retiring in shame. Most of them seemed immune to embarrassment much less shame. Certainly none would lose their job. Journalists seemed to thrive in their careers after repeated failures as easily as economists.

  Just because there was no agreement about what had happened to Weir and his ship, and a great deal of public misdirection, that didn’t mean Weir’s partners and possibly others weren’t hard at work pushing ahead to try again. The lack of excess ship building capacity would undoubtedly slow them, but there were enough facilities that somebody would build another vehicle for them if enough money was thrown at the problem.

  Jeff wondered if Weir’s Brazilian partners actually believed any of the slurs leveled against Dave, who built Weir’s ship, but there was no way to tell. He often visited Dave’s shop and there simply wasn’t anything large enough being built to be such a repeat project. The fact he wasn’t building for them again suggested that they at the least had doubts about Dave’s shop now. However, Dave was so secretive about his customer’s business that he’d never tell Jeff if Weir’s partners had asked him to build for them again.

  Since Dave was now a minor partner in building a ship with Jeff, Heather, and April, he might very well quietly turn down a new commission from Weir’s people. Knowing Dave, he’d likely have moral qualms and consider it assisting suicide to build a ship based on a failed design.

  Jeff couldn’t see any possible benefit in trying to speak to Weir’s partners personally. Meeting Weir himself had been instructive, and Jeff had actually liked him, however, dealing with his Earthie partners was a very different matter than dealing with James Weir alone.

  Further development could be happening right now, behind the scenes, if government players were involved as Jeff and his ladies suspected. It was only six months since Weir’s ship disappeared. Realistically, Jeff would have expected some time to pass in analysis of the event, and careful consideration of design changes in design for the next generation ship, even if public support had proved to be generous and consistent. It might still be too early for them to be letting ship-related orders to subcontractors for new components and sub-assemblies, but Jeff and his people were watching for that sort of activity closely.

  Even if Weir’s partners, and their suspected backers, went to the hugely expensive way of building components on Earth, there was still no way lifting that many heavy pieces could be hidden. Lift capacity was strained and stand by shipping often backed up months for anything but the smallest parcels. You couldn’t slap a standby sticker on a something like a three hundred kilogram forged aluminum bulkhead and motor mount without having every UPS guy and dock rat tell the story around. He would find out. Maybe they could keep things like that secret on military vessels, but Jeff doubted the military had anywhere near enough uncommitted launch capacity either.

  Thinking about that, and the ties they had seen between Weir’s partners and their French relatives, Jeff composed a short text to Chen, their primary intelligence guy.

  “Chen, please direct our assets toward detecting any major increase in the ability of the French to build another light space-craft like the one Dave’s built for James Weir. That might happen in the area of the Turnip, or elsewhere in orbit. It could be evident from increased traffic to the new facility. Research or military satellites could be used as a cover. Also, it would not be impossible for a small craft to be built at the Marseille lunar outpost. I will ask Heather to watch for any signs of such activity from Central. – Jeff”

  The truly amazing thing was that one of the news personalities who had quickly accused Dave’s shipbuilding shop of sabotaging Weir’s ship and stealing the design now claimed the Pedro Escobar had never actually flown. The obvious impossibility of both claims being true didn’t seem to bother her or her fans.

  The company with which Weir had been associated was a closed partnership. Hence it didn’t suffer a series of surges and crashes in stock price as public opinion flip flopped back and forth based on the most recent news article or web video. Those claiming fraud never explained who was defrauded and where the illicit profit went, since the ship was all privately funded and took no money from any outside investors, or public funds.

  Perhaps the very craziest idea advanced was that the underlying paper published years ago was wrong and should have never been accepted. Since perhaps one person in a hundred thousand in the general population could understand and judge that paper it was pointless to refute it. Not that Jeff wanted to stir up a public debate. He knew better. If people wanted to believe all that garbage Jeff wasn’t about to correct them. It served his purposes just fine if their ravings hindered the development of a star drive for years.

  Jeff just plowed ahead with the design of their own star ship, the Hringhorni. They were at the point now where the design was frozen for some of the larger components and they were already let for fabrication. As much as possible, the design would be modular, like the old Happy Lewis. If they wanted to cut out the command cabin and tack a new one in a year from now the cable runs and deck plates would line up to accept new consoles, new wiring, and different command couches with minimum fuss. If modularity knocked a couple percentage points off the ultimate performance that was a price he was willing to pay for utility and delayed obsolescence.

  Was the Hringhorni going to be used ten years from now for high gravity planetary landings and exploration, or to help set up a colony? No, but it could do survey work with a small crew and few resources, and hopefully avoid an early obsolescence for that very specialized task. This first configuration only had four seats in the command cabin, and could fly with a crew of two if needed. Carrying more would limit acceleration since the simple bolt in seats wouldn’t have gravity compensators.

  It was a better plan for their initial explorations than trying to guess what they
needed in huge vessel, with a big crew working in shifts, carrying dozens of specialists, and landing shuttles. That sort of a ship could be built to be suitable to such new worlds after they were found. Then they would know what specialties and equipment were needed for the worlds they found, once they knew if they were water worlds or dry, with breathable air or not, instead of trying to cover every possibility.

  They still hadn’t picked a destination for a shake-down cruise. Jeff had discussed it with his crew, and had yet to reach a consensus he could present to his partners April and Heather. A quick trip to Alpha Centauri again seemed safest. They knew there was a world there to survey. They also knew their drive had made a safe jump there and back twice. Kurt favored that, and a return to the Moon, followed by other single jump missions to the closest stars.

  The pilot Deloris was aggressive in personality and proposed a loop across three or four stars and back home. Jeff turned that idea down as politely as possible. If they had a mishap along the way there was little chance a second vessel would ever find out where and how they failed. Or if it did, it might only do so by duplicating the loss.

  Alice, the third crew member, knew her limitations, and said she didn’t have the expertise to form an opinion. She allowed that she would bet her life on their good judgment. Jeff would just as soon she hadn’t put it that way.

  All that went out the window when April left a voice message.

  “Dearheart – I’ve been talking with Heather and I’m aware you are training crew, but I’m hoping you have not made an actual itinerary yet for testing the Hringhorni. I have a proposal for using it which will probably only take a week or two but give you opportunity to test the environmental systems and other things in a safer manner than star hopping.

  It occurred to me we are ignoring some very low hanging fruit in taking resources for ourselves. In our own solar system there are bodies much more valuable than the Rock, that the Earthies have no way to exploit, and we do.

  With your drive and the tech Heather has put into operation we no longer need to bring a smaller body into the Earth-Moon system to mine it efficiently. I propose to survey and lay claim to minor bodies right here. That has training value for your crew. I’m open to suggestions, but am thinking Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake. They are of diverse composition and large enough to be worth owning. The crew would take samples and seismic readings on each body.

  There was a lander on Ceres some years ago but never a human presence. If the lander’s presence presents a problem, I’d propose returning the lander to the European Space Agency. I know the Earthies would never respect a corporate ownership, so I asked Heather if she would declare them under her sovereignty, hoping the legality of it is less disturbing to the Earthies. She’s good with that as long as we administer them like you have Camelot, without adding to her own administrative burden.

  Heather also suggests putting some sort of permanent structure on each body and a radio beacon that can be easily detected from Earth to make clear we are not making claims without a physical presence. I’d think a moon-hut would be sufficient structure initially. As long as you keep Dionysus' Chariot in this system it won’t be necessary to actually staff any of the sites. The Earth agencies can’t go visit them without a large effort that would be very visible to us. We would have time to jump ahead of them easily and be on location to object if they try to dispute our claims.

  Heather is going to conference with her people to find out if it is practical to create versions of her regolith mining machines to place on those bodies with loose surface debris. That will be a start at making the whole venture profitable very early. I will come to the Moon soon to talk with both of you face to face. It’s past time for all three of us to have a nice visit anyway. – Love, April”

  Well… That was in interesting. How could he turn that down, and why hadn’t he thought of it himself? Kurt, Delores and Alice all had experience with recovering a snowball, surely landing on a larger rocky planetoid would be easier. He already planned on the Hringhorni having landing jacks to support its weight up to a quarter G just for the purpose of being able to mine fuel and reactive mass from icy bodies. The crew might have other ideas too. He’d ask them.

  * * *

  A priority message from Chen was always business. He wasn’t a friend who would priority tag a message to her about social things. He ran Jeff’s intelligence operations. Their intelligence operations technically, but it was Jeff who actively managed him. April tried not to ask too much of him, since she knew he had plenty to do. Occasionally she asked him to research something, but he had a habit of refusing to hand those requests off to subordinates, so that made her avoid burdening him all the more. April wasn’t sure if Heather ever assigned him anything to investigate. As a sovereign she must have things that needed to be watched and researched, but they never discussed it. Heather might have her own people. Certainly her aide Dakota seemed capable of such work.

  This message was copied to both her partners, so it was of general interest to all of them. Chen had agents and sources on Earth, but this was triggered by a very public action. The news release was from the Texas Republic Secretary of State.

  Dallas: ROT per the Secretary of State to all media

  Due to increasing refugee pressure and incursions by criminals on our eastern border, and an inability to maintain border security due to the lack of public services, safety and suppression of outlaw activity on the North American side, the Republic announces it is annexing the adjacent territory south of the thirty third parallel and east to the Pearl River, comprising the territory of Louisiana and portions of Mississippi.

  Elements of the Texas Militia supervised by Texas Highway Patrol will recruit local law enforcement and supplement them upon request. Border stations will be created and manned on the new boundaries. The old border stations will stay in operation until the situation is considered stable. The militia will deal with armed highwaymen and raiders without uniform summarily while taking control.

  Citizens of North America will be given a year from this date to decide if they wish to assume Texan citizenship or continue to reside as lawfully registered aliens. All private property will be respected and an orderly transition of public records administered. All State and North American government properties such as courthouses and military installations, airports and parklands will be converted to Texan use.

  Active members of the military are free to withdraw to North American territory with personal possessions or apply for Texas citizenship. Enlisting in the Texas services is open to any Texas citizen with the same requirements and credits as allowed for anyone with foreign military service.

  Travel for recreational purposes is discouraged temporarily. Travelers can expect to be stopped and questioned and those intent on leaving the jurisdiction will have their vehicles prominently marked and a pass with their planned route issued. Parties of all males transiting in questionable directions, with weapons in excess of that needed for self defense can expect to be turned back or detained.

  The Navigation of the Mississippi river channel will remain open to the passage of both North American and other nations’ vessels with the same rules of dockage and customs on our shore as any international port.

  The new territory will retain the same parish and county structure, the same traditional names, and be collectively referred to as the Territory of Orleans during the transition period to full statehood.

  Residents are urged to remain occupied with their usual business. Many of the banks and other services already have a legal presence in both countries and orderly transition should be possible. Both currencies will circulate during the transition. Prisoners with felony convictions will be forcibly repatriated to North America. Prisoners with non-violent convictions, and for things not considered a crime in Texas, may apply to have their records expunged to qualify for residency.

  Foreigners on a travel or student visa are free to remain during the transition. Those on wor
k permits and other visas must reapply to the new authority.

  Diplomatic personnel and consular officials must present their proof of authority to this office anew.

  To the vast majority of current residents this will mean better stability and local safety, simpler laws and lower taxes. We say to you: Welcome to Texas!

  What jumped out at April was the lack of any concern about resistance. There were no warnings of dire consequences to resistance, and why the Secretary of State? Wasn’t this something important enough that the President of Texas should be announcing it? Was there any visible military buildup on either side of the border? April jotted down a couple of these questions and sent them to Chen.

  * * *

  It was a cloudy dark day in Brussels, darker for being late in the day, and the auditor examining the expenses for the joint Mars base was in a still darker mood. Things didn’t add up to make any sort of sense. Simon knew all sorts of patterns for the myriad ways people stole or defrauded. Sometimes they committed crimes to cover up accidents and incompetence instead of self enrichment. If the odd things he was seeing were happening on Earth he’d know exactly what the scam was.

  There were too many items marked as damaged in transit or ruined beyond repair on site. If it was on Earth he’d figure things were being skimmed off to sell on the cash market or even sold as scrap. Thieves have no shame to sell a brand new roll of copper tubing for a fourth of its real worth as scrap. The scrap metal dealer he sold it to might have the connections to resell it as tubing, but that was too dangerous for a construction worker to do who didn’t have a regular fence. If you put it in an online marketplace or went to a flea market there always the random chance of someone from your employer happening upon it.

  The trouble was, there was no cash market on Mars. There weren’t any other colonies, outposts, or any private enterprise or construction. Somebody might pilfer a roll of copper to make a still. That sort of diversion was expected and not worth pursuing. But an outpost of two hundred people wasn’t going to suddenly have a half-dozen illicit stills. It was going to some other use.