April 2: Down to Earth (7 page)

That was new to her, she'd never seen a pawn shop, but she kept walking. The last shop in the newly remodeled stretch was much less conservative. It was a bright modern office, with an oatmeal colored carpet and a open bottom spacer style desk. The pedestal mounted screens on the desk could be moved around and there was a woman sitting working with an actual keyboard, instead of voice. She was in the sort of powered chair with foot rests, that changed shape under you constantly so you didn't get cramped up, or get a blood clot from sitting for hours.

There was a big white mug on her desk with red lettering, just like the one April was carrying. Apparently  Zach made an early call here on his new neighbors. There was a comfortable waiting area and a couple thin see-through screens hanging in the window. The business name was a header on the screen, We Can Do It - Staffing and Personnel - Temp and Permanent. The bigger screen had a heading, - Positions -  and a string of paragraphs describing them scrolled underneath, about as fast as you could comfortably read them. Despite her resolve, April hesitated to read a few.

Live in companion - household aide and companion for physically limited male. Light cleaning and personal assistance. Medical background helpful. Flexible schedule with vacations and retirement benefits by inheritance. No zivies or stinks. Private room, shared bath, small pet welcome. 60% gravity. Full English literacy a must. M/F, Gene Mod' and citizenship = Opp.

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Aerospace frame mechanic - Fabricating exp', some simple design skills. Multi-composite laying and molding. Vacuum welding and suited work . Lunar travel required. Weapons board watch exp' a plus. Boeing cert' a plus. Japanese or Tongan a plus. NO continuing USNA citizen status.

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Nanomechanical Design - Long term integration program to support gene mod variations. Biological exp' / Medical exp' / MD a plus. Italian or Chinese a plus. Frequent Earth travel required. Stock options. Substantial employee discounts. A contracted position. Verifiable ID.

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Private Security/Shuttle - Plainclothes, good pay and bonus program. Ability to operate independently. Proficiency with zero G and/or small arms a plus. Earth and Lunar travel. Mars possible. Verifiable identity and history to birth. Public Eye worn on duty. Personal integrity foremost. Japanese and golf skills a plus. No unresolved military or legal obligations. Approx. 8 duty days a month. Use of company condo on Tonga with personal locker for layovers. Use of company country club and boat. Per Diem for off planet duty. Must share genome for security purposes. Suit exp' a plus. Military/police exp' a plus. M/F, Gene mod. = opportunity.

The lady at the desk had glanced at her, when she first was mesmerized by the screen and went back to her work. April tore herself away and continued down the corridor strangely excited by the changes. Home was becoming more like a big city than a secluded village. Like most young people, that seemed much more interesting to her.

Chapter 5

By the time she got to the cafeteria it was past the rush. There were a half dozen people loitering over their coffee and watching the wall screen on which someone had put on a concert, listening on their spex. The icon in the corner said -LIVE- and wherever it was on Earth it was night. Wanda was working the serving line and was still smiling.

April had conducted a guerrilla campaign of trying to jolly Wanda for the last year to no avail. The woman was in a perpetual bad mood. Then last month she walked in one morning and Wanda turned around smiling and said, "Good morning Honey. My, you look pretty today. What would you like this morning? We got some fresh Raspberries in, if that sounds good." April almost turned and ran out the door, wary it was a trick. Wanda smiling was kind of scary. It seemed almost unnatural. April checked over the pocket - Yup, stitching still spelled out Wanda. The next day, as soon as she saw Ruby she inquired. "Uh - Ruby, has something happened with Wanda? I was in yesterday and she was acting strangely."

Ruby laughed and tried to act innocent but couldn't fake it. "Oh, April, how can I explain? You told me you kids take that med. Keeps you from bonding. From getting all obsessed with some big hunk of a man. Well Wanda doesn't do any anti-bonding med. She met a fine looking man who came through the line one morning and mostly they don't know anyone else is on board with them now. She was so taken with him she was going out to his table and topping his coffee off in order to chat him up"

April was incredulous. "Wanda?" she asked.

"They're both head over heels in love and so tickled with each other so you'd think she's sixteen. And they like it just fine like that. Aren't you happy for her though?"

"You're right, I don't have a lot of experience with that, Haven't even
been
sixteen yet myself, don't forget," she reminded Ruby, after the remark about age that rankled a bit, "but if it makes her that happy, who am I to knock it, if that's what she wants. I have a lot of other things to do right now myself. As long as he's a good guy. You figure he's OK?"

"Honey, they don't let many real creeps sneak through up here, but he seems real nice, maybe just a little nerdy. Shy and smart. He's an economist of all things. Wears a brush cut and has a face full of freckles like you. Real skinny too. How long do you think
that'll
last?"

They both laughed at that. Dating a cook could be hazardous to your waistline.

That was a month ago. Wanda didn't seem to be losing her glow at all. Then April saw the ring.

"Whoa," April exclaimed, throwing up a hand to shield her eyes. "I'm blinded. That rock throws a glare that's dangerous. How about dimming the lights a little?"

"How you do go on," Wanda tried to pout through a smile. It didn't work well. "I had to keep Harold from buying a silly thing even bigger than this, that I would have been bumping all the time and he couldn't afford. Men are just not practical at all. It's the thought that counts, not how many carats it weighs."

"Well that pebble says a lot about his thoughts. When are you looking to get married?"

"He wanted to do it right away, after he only knew me a month. I've seen too many rush into it and be sorry. I told him after he's been here six months he'll have leave due and if he still wants to marry we'll go down together and make our leave a honeymoon. He already made the reservations to drop on Tonga and we'll visit Australia and lift back through NLV before coming home." Despite her demands they wait, she didn't seem too worried he'd change his mind.

"Congratulations. I'm happy for you. So you will be coming back and still be here?" she indicated the cafeteria with a look around.

"Oh sure, I have seniority built up and he's just starting with the Bank. I wouldn't give up the security and we can use the money. Besides I love my job."

April couldn't believe the change. She was always sure Wanda hated being here.

It tickled her to see the effect wasn't wearing off. She liked the new Wanda. She assembled a serious breakfast being way past her normal time, with three kinds of meat and a plate of eggs, with cheese grits and a stack of buckwheat pancakes. That should hold her two or three hours. She grabbed a handful of butter slices and a couple pouches of syrup.

She filled up her new mug, which held about twice as much as a cafeteria cup. It was so heavy it made the whole tray heavier. When she turned for the tables Jerry Ames was sitting off to the back, like she liked to do, but she didn't aim for him, just waited to see if he wanted company. She didn't want to make a pest of herself, where people couldn't get away. But when he looked up, he did indicate the seat opposite him if she wanted. She made her way over, but asked him, "Mind if I sit beside you instead? I like to people-watch."

"No, not at all. If you see me here you're welcome to join me. But if you don't, I won't assume you're mad at me or anything. Sometime you might just not feel like company. I'm flexible."

"Oh you have a mod for that too?" she asked. "Can you do a number like the rubber man at the circus?" she joked.

He started to say something with a devilish grin and then his face shut down and he dropped it.

"What?"

"I find myself a victim of my cultural conditioning. I thought of a really wicked jab to say, but no matter how adult you are legally, I still found myself repelled at the idea of saying something risqué to you, because you are still visibly a young girl. It seemed very vulgar and unfunny suddenly. I suppose if I had been with a bunch of guys, after a few beers, I would have gone ahead and thought it hilarious. I hope you're not too much of a good influence."

"Don't worry," she said, patting his arm. "Even if we keep it squeaky clean, don't forget that ‘expensive damage, death and destruction' follow close behind me."

He recognized the quote as his own and they both roared with laughter, until even the people using their spex looked over at their table.

"I discussed this gene mod with my grandfather and both he and Jeff Singh are going to discuss it with you. My grandfather was very positive about it. We may have some further business for you also. I'd like to have the undo virus however, so if anything happens to you I still have it. You are a defector and who knows if they may have you on a list to assassinate if they can. I'm certainly on one I'd think. And here you sit in a public area," she scolded, "and didn't even get a steak knife on your tray. You trying to camouflage yourself as an Earthie?"

"You mentioned that before, but I have no training. Is there anywhere I could get trained with a weapon, if I buy one?"

"I'm not sure. I have some friends that might arrange something but I'll have to ask. I'll get back to you on that. How about the virus? You willing to dispense the undo version with the treatment?"

"Yes, but you'll have to have cryogenic storage. Is there someplace on station that can do that for you? A clinic maybe?"

"If liquid nitrogen temperature is good enough, I'll have my own private storage here and on another station for redundancy in a few days."

That's good enough, yes. But why have storage on another station? What could happen to it here, that wouldn't happen at another?"

"If a certain nation with the initials U-S-N-A, just happens to nuke Home to vapor is why. That's why everybody has been keeping their financial records and accounts dispersed, so they have something if they don't have a Home to come back to. Lots of folks divided their heirlooms and such and some families have sent their kids off to earth schools, or relatives, until the situation looks stable to them. It's only been a year and instead of accepting the situation and learning to live with it, some of the North Americans are allowing us to become, as my French friend would say, a 'fixe idee'. They can't let it drop. And even my grandpa is concerned we might end up fighting again."

"But nuclear weapons. I can't believe in this day and age they'd resort to them."

April laughed aloud at his expression. "You said they were trying to hide from the public just how bad we pounded them. Everybody up here already knows, they tried to use nukes on us last year. They targeted us with two nuke missiles and they were intercepted."

Jerry looked shocked. "There were  reports of that in Australia. They quoted the Koreans as saying their satellites saw explosions, but the mainstream press denied it all. Nobody had any pictures of it and most everybody believed it was just a few nut case web sites, reporting crazy conspiracy fantasies. They didn't give it any more credence, than the crazy idea you guys caused the Great San Diego earthquake."

April just looked at him with a delicate little Mona Lisa smile. He finally got it and just buried his face in his hands and said, "Ohhhhh my God." After a while he regained composure from the revelation, took a sip of his coffee and looked askance at her. "And they really want to mess with you guys
again,
when you can do
that
?"

"With us," she suggested. "You've pretty well hitched your fortunes to our star haven't you? Are you going to join in making laws and paying tax?"

"I'm not worried about paying the tax, but I wonder if I'll have the time to listen to the long winded debates and actually know what vote I should cast."

"Two things that can help with that," she offered. "Last month we had another motion to make a park, that a fellow has been making every month. It would be nice, but we can't afford it. We wouldn't mind hearing something new, but this fellow will consume about a thousand man hours of our time every month, to make the exact same pitch if we let him."

"So a fellow stood up and asked Mr. Muños, who has volunteered to supervise the elections, if his server keeps track of how many are logged on to follow and vote. He said yes. So the fellow made a motion himself, that if a speech for a motion was being made, another box should be made active on the screen to click, that was an ‘I've heard enough.' box. If 30% of the listeners clicked that, it warned the speaker to wrap it up. If the number grew to 40%, it gave him 30 seconds to wrap it up and bring it to a vote. And if 50% said they'd heard enough it just plain cut him off and put it straight to a vote. Coming right after the park guy, it passed with the widest acceptance of any vote we've had to date."

"The other thing is, Muños is supposed to make a page on the voting site, where you can check ahead of time and read all the proposals that have been prepared ahead. Only thing is, once it's being debated on the floor a proposal can change quite a bit. First election we had my grandfather made a motion and proposal and in just a few minutes I suggested a modification of it and got it passed. But it does tell you ahead of time what some of the ideas are that will be discussed."