Stranded on Haven Page 13

  Fortunately, the opposition was pretty fragmented. In New Home, they were pushing for Adventurer to be grounded, in New Home, of course, and turned over to New Home University. When that aroused too much opposition among the other nations, they decided that the Planetary Council could function in an ‘advisory’ capacity.

  In Westin, they wanted Adventurer left in space, but demanded that locals be immediately trained to fly the landers and given immediate access to the ship. They also demanded the right to examine Startrader to make certain she was unarmed and that there was no army of robots hidden aboard.

  Cornwell was perhaps most surprising. I’d expected little interest or opposition there, but I’d forgotten that their daytime radio programming was largely music and talk. And it seemed that now that Len was dead, most of the talk concerned the ‘threat’ from space. In general, farmers make poor activists; they’re simply too busy farming. But judging by responses on the new call-in shows and letters to the editors, general suspicions were running high.

  In Cellia, General Runtz allowed it to build to a certain level, but then clamped down using Len’s techniques to prevent it getting too extreme. The Government line, on the other hand, was very favorable, and seemed destined to drown out the opposition.

  The East Brents, of course, followed along with New Home. If anything, they became more openly hostile. I’d expected that, of course.

  The other big surprise was Refuge. I’d expected the strongest and most harebrained conspiracy theories in that hotbed of activism. Instead, public opinion in Refuge ran strongly in favor of my proposal. The conspiracy theories were instead leveled mostly at New Home. They were certain New Home was scheming to steal Adventurer from under the other nations. Nor were Westin, Cellia, and Cornwell ignored; there were plenty of conspiracy theories to go around.

  All this left me unable to guess which way the vote would go, and I spent plenty of sleepless nights worrying about it. My biggest reason to hope was the lack of a real alternative. If they voted down my proposal, they had no better ideas. Well, aside from New Home grabbing Adventurer, and I couldn’t see many of the others voting for that.

  I even tried to design a fall-back position, with the International Zone becoming a trading center, selling information and cargo. The biggest problem, of course, was Haven’s limited technology. I could easily retrieve the information someone wanted, but they had no comps to display it, and no way to print a hard copy, other than by typesetting letters in a printing press. Virtually all modern galactics carried a tablet and had little need for hard copy. Adventurer had a few ‘printers’ able to produce a limited amount of hard copy, but Startrader didn’t even have any of them.

  One of the items I’d put on all the tablets I’d given the governments had been designs for something called an ‘impact printer’ that was designed to interface with primitive comps. Of course, they didn’t have any comps, primitive or otherwise. And even a thousand tablets were insignificant for a population of over ten million. I could imagine warehouses full of copyists, laboriously hand writing copies of the large, wordy documents so favored by academics galaxy-wide. Maybe I could get a bunch of those ‘manual typewriter’ things; but I’d still have to get trained operators … Lisa suggested that I push for development in the fields of electrics and something called ‘electronics’. She claimed that typewriters were a ‘dead end’.

  What ultimately saved me was something else I’d put on those tablets I’d given to the governments. It seems Westin, at least, had taken my suggestion and had the contents of the tablets copied out and supplied to its scientists. In fact, President Curran had given her ‘spare’ tablet to a printer. Instead of being copied out, the information had been typeset, and multiple copies had been distributed to Westin’s scientists. And one of them struck gold.

  Ever since I’d arrived, I’d been confused about Haven’s use of electricity. They seemed to have hundreds of huge generator installations, but they also had smaller ‘booster’ installations every couple of kilometers. I’d been on planets that used wired electrical grids instead of beamed power, but none of them seemed to require so much effort and expense.

  But about two weeks before the vote was to be taken, a Westin scientist announced the ‘discovery’ of something called "reversing current" or "alternating current". He had demonstrated that he could transmit his "reversing current" more than five kilometers without a great loss of power, and without the necessity of "booster plants."

  Moreover, he was honest. He freely admitted that the design had come from the tablet I had provided President Curran. He claimed that the paper he’d used had indicated that electricity could be transmitted hundreds or even thousands of kilometers, without more coal-burning "booster plants".

  News of his successful public demonstration flashed around the nations. Electricity! Not just electricity, cheap electricity! Cheap enough that people would be able to afford to have it in their own homes! No more dangerous gas lights or oil lamps!

  Then, within a week, the University of Cornwell announced that it had successfully produced a fuel gas called ‘methane’, useful for cooking or heating, from animal dung! The process could be done on a small, single farm scale, and also yielded an odorless substance that, the experimenters claimed, made a very effective fertilizer.

  President Tyree immediately issued the University a grant to investigate the practicality of the process for farm use, and to design farm-sized installations. He also gave his own personal tablet to the copiers, urging them to hurry and reveal other secrets of the starmen.

  President Curran offered to sell him copies of the books her printers had produced from the tablet, and Tyree jumped on the offer. So did the others. I gather Westin made a tidy profit from sale of the books. There was a big difference between having five or six hand-copied manuscripts, and hundreds of printed books.

  As a result, the vote was almost a mere formality. Only New Home, with four votes, and East Brent, with one, voted against my proposal, leaving the vote 9-5 in favor.

  That’s when the real infighting began on the Council, and I was glad to not be involved. Oh, at some point I would have to negotiate my fees, but that would come later.

  Besides, I had my own problems. I wish I could say I just sat back and watched the excitement, but I was busy trying to keep the peace in the International Zone.

  All seven of my "assistants" seemed to resent Heidi. Mostly, I think it was her constant presence, now. Heidi took her bodyguard assignment very seriously. I had to order her not to sleep in the outer office. Even so, we ended up emptying out a storeroom next door to my office, and converting it to a small bunkroom for Heidi.

  Of course, they also resented Heidi’s new weaponry and even, I think, her new wardrobe. When inside the compound, Heidi had announced her intention to wear a shipsuit as a ‘uniform’, and to wear her weapons belt openly. I had agreed, although I find the simple coveralls rather drab, and had told her so. The next morning she showed up in her shipsuit and weapons belt, but with a colorful scarf adorning it. She also tailored them, and they became much more than simple coveralls. And as I mentioned, somehow that gun belt made the outfit sexy.

  I must admit, I had to hide a smile at Jess’ reaction to Heidi’s costume. There’s not a lot of difference between a shipsuit and a pilot’s coverall, and Jess, always uncomfortable in a skirt, had quickly reverted to a coverall. But when Heidi began wearing her shipsuits, Jess suddenly began exploring a variety of costumes.

  I can’t imagine where they got all this stuff; we hadn’t been to a town or city since I’d come down. Although, I admitted, they were free to go anywhere they wished on a supply airship.

  Anyway, she somehow had, and wore, skirts, now. She, or someone, had also followed Heidi’s lead in tailoring her pilot’s coveralls to emphasize her figure. She also had coveralls with short sleeves and very short legs, only a few cems long. I hadn’t seen shorts on Haven, and I’d rather gotten the impression that they were a bit sc
andalous here. Of course, I hadn’t got around much.

  I also suspected she was borrowing items from the others. I had to admit that tops that looked cute on college girls Andrea and Cara looked pretty extreme on the more-well-developed Jess.

  She had ignored me for days after our return, though missing no opportunity to glare at Heidi and/or her weapons belt. When that produced no result, she turned the glare on me. When that didn’t work she resumed speaking to me, calling me ‘Messer Carver’ in ice-covered tones, and talking only business.

  Finally, I went for her soft spot. I invited her for a ride in the gig. Her eyes widened and lit up, and then she remembered, and they narrowed and turned cold. “No, thank you, Messer Carver.”

  I shrugged. “As you wish, Jess. I just thought you’d like to see Haven from orbit, and maybe visit Adventurer. You can be mad at me again later.”

  She actually squirmed, obviously at war with herself. Finally she sniffed. “Hmph! It’s about time you got around to me! You promised me a ride quite some time ago, if you’ll recall.”

  This was my chance to clear the air. “Yes, I did. And now I’m offering it to you. And you will notice that you are the first, and so far only ‘assistant’ I’ve invited.”

  She tossed her head toward the ever-present Heidi. “What about her?”

  I shrugged. “Heidi is a special case. She is the only person in this installation who works for me, and is not a spy for one of Haven’s governments. You, for instance, work for Westin, not for me. If you take me up on my offer, you can expect Heidi to come along.”

  Her eyes widened. “What? Why?” She gave me a half smile. “Are you afraid of me?”

  I nodded. “Actually, yes, Jess. You’re a very attractive woman, and I like you and enjoy your company. But you are an agent of the government of Westin, and that is where your loyalties lie. I will not take the chance that you might pull a weapon and try to force me to fly to Tarrant."

  She looked distressed. “I wouldn’t …” she started, but I cut her off.

  “Yes, you would, if President Curran told you it was important to Westin.” I said. “Heidi is the only one whose loyalty I can be sure I possess. So, she was the one I took up to train and arm. I can’t let my attraction to you make me careless, Jess. There’s simply too much at stake.”

  “You’re attracted to me?” She asked in a demure tone.

  I snorted. “You already know the answer to that question. And if I could be sure the attraction was mutual, and not just obeying orders, I’d have done a lot more about it by now.”

  She looked surprised. “Orders? You think …”

  I shook my head in disgust. “Oh, come on, Jess. Everyone on this planet took a half-serious joke and decided that since I’d asked for women, that’s what they’d give me. And please don’t try to tell me that you weren’t told that you might have to sleep with me to learn my ‘secrets’.”

  She flushed. “Well …”

  I bulled on. “Every one of you women, Heidi included, was ordered to sleep with me, if necessary, to gain my confidence. I’m sorry, but that’s just not good enough for me. I’d rather go back up to Startrader and use a sex ‘bot than try to make love to an unwilling woman who is just following orders. I tried that with Giselle. I kept seeing Len in the corner, giggling. No, the invitation was genuine, but Heidi goes with us.”

  She looked unhappy, but she nodded, her face working. I got the feeling she was suppressing tears. “I don’t know how I can convince you that the attraction is, well, ‘mutual’, but I’ll find a way. In the meantime, I’d very much like to have you take me for a ride in your shuttle, and allow me to actually set foot aboard Adventurer.” She was standing straight and stiff, now, under tight control. Very different from the usual Jess.

  I turned to usher her into the gig when I noticed Heidi’s face. Her eyes were wide and she was staring at me, as if she’d never seen me before. I frowned, wondering what I’d said, but I was fully occupied getting Jess through the gig’s tiny airlock.

  I let the ‘bot do the flying; its ‘hands’ were flying over the controls so fast that I doubted Jess would learn much about flying a gig. Besides, I was doing my best to divert her attention. I’m not sure how necessary that was, though. She was amazed by the gig itself; apparently Haven aircraft (as opposed to airships) were crude, noisy things, powered by something called 'airscrews' or ‘propellers’. Jess explained it to me, but I had to hook up to Adventurer through my tablet before I understood it. Anyway, the silence, the luxury of the thick carpeting and VIP seating had her head swiveling around to take it all in. We made a high jump, hypersonic, so we could reach Westin in less than an hour. We circled over Tarrant while she identified landmarks, and finally admitted, somewhat dazedly, that we actually had crossed over half the continent in so short a time.

  I turned to Jess. “Now, Jess,” I began, “I’d be happy to just take us into orbit, and let you see Haven from space, but if you want to actually board Adventurer, you’ll have to do it naked. There’s a decontamination routine required.” She flushed, and I hurried to explain the need for the decontam when returning from a planet. She kept her red flush, but nodded with a determined expression, and said she understood.

  She was fascinated by the boarding tube, and hesitant about removing her clothing, naturally. She hugged herself to try to conceal as much of her body as possible as she scurried into the airlock. It was a futile effort, of course, but it put a smile on my face. She already understood the function of the breathing mask. She stepped from the ‘fresher and donned the waiting shipsuit gratefully.

  Jess was a pilot, so our first stop was the bridge. She walked slowly around the circle of control stations, a reverent expression on her face. Now and again she paused to examine a control position more carefully, but she was obviously lost in a reverie, imagining the bridge humming with activity.

  Then I took her to a VR gym. When I’d inquired about ‘propellers’, Adventurer’s comp had mentioned that VR training aids were available. So I let her run a flight simulator program featuring aerial combat between propeller-driven aircraft. She was impressed, sitting there, helmet in place, hands waving in the air and feet pumping as she operated the virtual controls. Afterward, she was flushed with excitement. But she was also disapproving. To Jess, flying was an end in itself. To see it reduced to a form of deadly combat rather irritated her, though Westin, and indeed all the nations, were developing ‘fighter’ aircraft. After running that program, Jess was considerably less enthusiastic about that. To soothe her, we ran a general introduction program to something called ‘jet’ propulsion that also included flight simulation. I practically had to drag her away to lunch in the Captain’s Wardroom.

  Jess was trembling with excitement. For weeks, she and the others had been dreaming and talking about the wonders I could bring to Haven. Aside from the comm bracelets and Heidi’s weaponry, this was Jess’s introduction to the reality, and it had her bouncing in her seat, almost too excited to finish her meal.

  “Do you realize that simulator was showing an airspeed of over a thousand klicks per hour? Our latest bird flies at about 200! And you have all the design specs!”

  She shook her head. “Now I really understand. This isn’t about some nation grabbing a weapons advantage over the others. This is about changing the lives of everyone on Haven. That lesson showed passenger aircraft. Big ones! Big as our largest airships, but much faster.”

  I nodded. “That’s why I went to such extremes to make sure no one nation got control of it. I wanted to make certain that all the people of Haven benefitted. But Jess,” I continued, “Len didn’t care about all the people; he only cared about Len, and the advantages he could gain, the power he could seize if he could gain control of Adventurer.”

  She frowned. “Yah. If he’d had those jets …” she shuddered.

  I nodded. “And there are many more like him. Would Duke Richard hesitate to turn those design specs over to King David’s military?”<
br />
  She just snorted.

  I nodded. “That’s why I was so concerned about getting planet-wide oversight for the ‘space university’. We’re going to need people we can trust who can review those lessons, and make sure they don’t get into the wrong hands.”

  Jess snorted, and Heidi smiled sourly. “You think that bunch of political appointees on the Council can be trusted?” Jess asked.

  I shrugged. “Jess, I’m only one man. I didn’t adopt Haven like a man adopts a child, and it’s not my job to try to control its development. All I can do is try to see that the knowledge is spread as widely as possible, and hope for the best. Of course each nation packed its Council delegation with agents and political operatives. Of course each of them will be looking for advantages for their nation, and of course there will be problems. I can only hope that most of the Council will be honorable enough to try to do their best for all the people of Haven, me included.”

  By the time we got back, I could at least hope I’d cleared the air a bit between me and my "assistants".

  ********

  But things didn’t go as well at the first Council meeting. I had devoted a lot of time and thought to what things needed to be done, and in what order. But I’d barely begun speaking when I was interrupted.

  “Nonsense!” shouted a man at the end of the table. He jumped to his feet. He was a large man, not really fat, just large. His face was normally florid; now it was bright red with anger. He was somewhere in late middle age; I couldn’t judge his age closely. His black hair was graying at the temples. He’d been introduced to me as Jame Corley, one of the East Brent representatives.

  “This … this man is not a member of this Council,” Corley said. “Yes, he possesses advanced information that we will need, but that does not give him a voice here.

  “The first thing to do is not to restart the hydroponics air plant, whatever that is. Nor is it to improve the decontam, whatever that is. The first thing this Council needs to do is select a Director, a Chancellor, whatever you want to call a man that is in charge of a large educational institution. If this … this interloper wants to talk about air plants and decontams, that is who he should be talking to. If necessary, the Director can bring such problems to us.