Chapter Fourteen
Leaving Eddy hurt. They shared their last night together and Boer stayed with her until it was time for them to leave. As soon as they reached safe distance, they initialized FTL drive and raced for Tooverty Station. They spent eleven days there changing drives and control systems on five ships. They left seventy-five marines. Five took the small yacht, which was first to be completed, to Eddy on Boniface a few hours after they left the station. Thirty-five would bring the larger one to Valer and would be about two days behind them. Forty would bring the 'big' ship, with the two smaller in it, when they were done, about three additional days.
The addition of a large number of skilled people for several days would make the job of refitting five ships, one of them a much greater task than they wanted anyone to know, seem to be a rather quickly done job on three. They would move the medical section 'assembly' from the official governor's ship when it reached Valer. They made orbit and began unloading five days before the ship from O'Dona bringing Thomin was due.
Boer leased a pad at the port for the yacht, then hired a company to build a shuttle pad on the estate. He chose another to build a 'cottage' for Ven and Anverd and convert a quarter of the barn to quarters for six marines. He thought about it awhile, then bought a small apartment complex nearing completion on the outskirts of Brossom for the marines. If they were all home, it would be pretty full, but he wanted them to have homes, not live on the ships. How they shared the forty-eight two bedroom apartments and duty rotations were up to them. He told them, if they got married and had children, he'd add condos and a playground to the complex because he was sure that would be less expensive than separate quarters allowance.
They started working on who would be 'roommates' and 'timeshare' as soon as he told them. He asked Mim how they were doing on credits and she giggled. He decided he didn't need to worry and ordered furniture for the apartments. The merchants of Brossom became a great deal less disappointed the family had shopped for the house on Boniface.
'Both' their ships arrived before the one bringing Thomin did. Valer traffic control directed it to where most of the family and all the marines were moving from huge ship to big one. When they contacted the ships, they got a yell of welcome from Urber.
"Boer, he's here! Pick a hatch on the monster, Captain. Boer arranged a pad at Brossom Port and ten days R and R for you and your crew at Crystal Lake Resort, but he's been anticipating Thomin's help with moving some things up here. He said, if you can't stay the full ten, he'll understand, but you need a minimum of five and the ten is paid for."
"We'll take the ten. It's been a long trip."
"Has for us too, but this ship isn't a courier and the one we're moving things to is designed for us. Of course, we also have a nice apartment complex being finished and furnished for us on Valer. I'm bragging we're spoiled."
"I can understand why. We'll take the center port hatch. It looks easy and we're suddenly in a hurry."
"Good choice. The members of the family up here are working in the area."
Jobe ran for the hatch. He was the one they could 'spare' at the moment. The rest were carefully disassembling the surgical unit and Boer had yelled, "Of course now! Jobe, get him here fast so he sees why we weren't there!"
He got there just as the hatch cycled and five marines grinned. They'd known how busy the family was and made sure it was 'covered,' but been rather sure one of them would get there. They were also there to move Thomin's gear to the other ship. It came off first, then the captain handed him the copy of the presentation. Jobe told her the acceptance had been done on Boniface and was on its way to O'Dona by imperial courier. The captain said she was now sure they had time for ten days at the resort. Her eyes told Jobe her hopes for their passenger and he smiled. When Thomin walked through the hatch, Jobe dashed for him and gave him a hug. He was very surprised, but didn't dodge it.
"That's from everyone. I'm the only one here because all the rest on the ship are about to their hips in circuits that can't even be jiggled a little. We're in the process of disassembling the medical section and moving it to the other ship. Captain, Boer said have a good time. Mim made arrangements with the resort so you can use your credit accounts before a bank transfer is complete in case you want to shop or something. Sorry for the rush, but Thomin is needed and Boer yells for my little body when his shoulders won't get in far enough his hands can reach."
"We're in a bit of a rush ourselves. Thank the governor for us."
"I will. Thomin, your things went to the other ship. I know there are probably tools you'll want in them, but your hands and skill are needed right now and someone will shove tools in them."
"Where's Anverd?"
"Up to his hips like everyone else in the family. Oh, family includes Misty, Via, their new husbands, Ven and Anverd and the marines. Marriage is the fifteen of us."
"He made sure I came."
"Drafted you. We all patted him on the back for it. Something really odd is happening in Yarrow and Forester sectors. Ven's working on a hunch Anverd had. He said he kept thinking about the drug research you stopped when you were nine when he looked at sector maps."
"What?"
"Nine of the least likely planets to want out of the empire are being targeted to be pulled out. The conclusion is someone is doing something to them. Anverd drafted you for your skills, but the reason is you belong in the marriage. They're part of that reason because they're part of you. You look like hell. The trip was damn long and the only time you really felt like you were coming home was when you helped us hang onto Boer when he was poisoned. We all felt you helping. I'm sure you know you did."
"Yes."
"Maybe another reason you belong is your idea of conversation is very short statements and one word answers. When the girls all get going, that's about all we get in anyway."
Jobe whooped and ran down the corridor. He'd surprised Thomin 'into' a smile. Thomin ran after him. It was either run or get left behind and probably lost. He nearly ran into a woman over two meters tall. He blinked twice before his mind identified her as Aura.
"Ooh, you are a pretty man, but you definitely need some muscle to keep from wearing out about halfway through the night. We'll take care of that though. Li is under that unit and anyone else who fits far enough under to help doesn't know what they're doing. She's got the tools you need."
"Tommy, hurry! This thing is about to drop on me! We need to get it disconnected and slow the fall or we'll be rebuilding it!"
He blinked and dove under the unit where the cute voice had come from. Aura grinned and winked at Jobe. He smiled widely and dashed for Boer when he yelled, "My damn shoulders don't fold far enough!" He grinned when Jobe slid 'under' him.
"Gently turn that to the right, but just loosen. I could get the wrench on it, but I couldn't turn it when I got it there. Tommy."
"I think it will help. He blinked when he almost ran into Aura's chest, then Li yelled for him and he stopped thinking about what he was doing here and went to work learning why. Loose."
"Now the one opposite it the same. We want all six loose before we take any out."
"He asked where Anverd was and I gave him a quick definition of family versus marriage and a ten-word brief on his ugly hunch. He was mad. He knew he helped, but not do what. It surprised him how mad it made him when I told him. Loose."
"One on the bottom next. Take your pick. The one opposite on top, then bottom, last one and go back to where you started to take them out. We were sure he did. Yes, Tommy, we're talking about you! Li, how you doing?!"
"Lots better, Boer! I think Tommy would really like to take the whole thing apart and see what every piece does! I do understand! I've got all the specs on it and I'd like to! He's cute and warm, girls! And he has nice hands! Oh, and turns a pretty pink!"
"Yell, 'Help,' Tommy! Jobe and I do!"
"Help!"
"W
elcome to the family, marriage and home, kid!"
"Where is he, Aura?!"
"Under the unit with Li, Lola. Grab that end of this thing. We want to move it carefully over there. Lift slow and easy. Now left. Down easy and lean it up. Good. Boer, Garis and I need your muscle on the frame."
"Damn. Lola, Jobe is going to need another hand to keep the plate he's loosening from hitting him in the face when he gets the bolts out. Can you get far enough in to brace it without laying on him?"
"Without?"
"He has to be able to move around and he might forget what he was doing, too."
"Well, less fun than it sounded at first, but... Yes, Boer, I can get a hand on it."
"Somebody take this! Tommy's holding the bottom up and it's heavy and still connected!"
"Jast!"
"Got it, Aura!"
"I'm glad Ven's overseeing reassembly on the other ship. I've got a feeling she'd be yelping about every twenty seconds if she was here."
"Maybe ten, Boer. That's it for the top. Everything else is underneath."
"Garis, tell them we've got tiptoe that needs muscle to move."
"Yes, General. Sorry, Governor."
"Forgiven. We're still learning how strong the habit is. You and I have more years of it than most of the others. I'd say, 'just Boer,' but I think you and Issidi would stutter."
"Probably. Comm deck four. Tharn, get your squad here to move the panels and upper frame."
"Yes, Sergeant. Garis."
"Maybe we should just give up, Garis."
"Do an 'equivalent' chart and change the titles officially. The structure makes sense or liner crews wouldn't have titles. Adapt one of theirs. A sergeant is a tech chief and a squad is a tech crew or some such."
"Good idea, Tommy. We were trying to get away from the military titles specifically because they are military. I want to get rid of the feeling of rank and replace it with job too. We're doing pretty well on that with officers, but not troopers. Lola, grab who you need and see what you can come up with."
"Lola! That's not what he meant!"
"I know, Jobe, but it was just too good to pass up."
"Help!"
"Lola, he's not going to notice that plate is about to fall on his face if you keep that up."
"I've got a hand on it, Boer. I just had one empty."
"Had being the operative term."
"You gave her the job, Boer."
"Yes, Aura, and I do know the only time she doesn't get distracted is when she's doing a library search."
"That's it! Somebody get that thing off Tommy before it flattens him!"
"Hold the plate, Lola! I'm the only one here with more muscle than Li who'll fit! Yipe! Boer, we'll try to pass it out, but you may have to move the unit off us!"
"Aura! You're right! I need more muscle!"
"Got it. Holy... You two are going to be sore."
"I already hear the spa calling, Boer. That's one of the nicest things about the house, Tommy. It was so nice, Boer had one built in the other ship and hunted a yacht with one in it, but it's a small one."
"I hunted one big enough for six, Jobe. That one said it was."
"It will be, Boer. Jobe and I are small enough to squeeze in with you and Aura and two middle-size people."
"That's you and Lola, Tommy. The six of us are basically the forward party, with the three of us being the physical investigators."
"Now wait a minute, Boer."
"Aura, I'm outsize, but women don't trip over their feet and run into each other when they see me and men do when they see you."
"She's trying to come up with an argument for that, Boer, but she can't. I can, though."
"I had both small ships built to be comfortable for six, Lola. There are just times it's going to make more sense to go in with three and Jobe, Tommy and I make the most sense as a physical team, especially on the trader. There may be times when you three do, but you need to learn a lot of what only Tommy can teach us all first. Anverd is an intelligence agent, not a spy."
"Makes sense, I guess, but if any of you get hurt when we're not there... "
"I know, Aura. It would be real hard to forgive myself if one of you did and I wasn't there."
"Explain small ships and trader."
"I had the ship we're moving all this to constructed to hold two smaller ships, Tommy. One is pure luxury yacht with unseen extras, like more speed, weapons, sensors and a comp with a lot more capacity than usual and programs Anverd is very pleased with. The other is a small luxury-goods trader with the same. It's designed to look like we make a reasonably good living trading very expensive fabrics and such. Both of them have a flyer and scoots in them and the yacht has a car. The flyer in the yacht is a roomy six-passenger custom beauty. The one in the trader is a compact six-seater with a bit of room for cargo when seats are pulled out. The trader has to have some cargo space because just saying we're traders isn't enough. Li's anticipating playing with all of them. The big ship has a standard exterior configuration and looks as much like a large trader as we could manage. It also has a shuttle that looks like it's standard personnel/light cargo. There are two yachts and crews that are based on Boniface and Valer for the family, as well."
"I don't think I'd have come up with the luxury yacht. Putting them in the bigger ship is a nice idea too."
"Basically a team effort. Jobe started working on the idea of ships and I added. I was a general. It's a habit."
"I think the two ships give us another option. Three assorted-size boys meet three assorted-size girls. Credit balance difference doesn't really stand up to humor at the match-up and luxury goods traders have very good taste or they're out of business. The physical match up doesn't really matter after they get acquainted because common interest takes over. Basically, Li and Tommy are going to start talking in specs and I like you all so I'm not bothered by it a bit. We can run that either way. I'm heiress with friends or ops on a trader. Aura is captain either way because she can get the license and I'm a long way from it."
"Why you heiress, Lola?"
"Because you obviously don't need me along to watch over you, Aura."
"Point made."
"Makes one for us I hadn't thought of too, Aura. Maybe the little guy should be the one with the credits when we run the yacht and I'm captain and bodyguard."
"There's only one problem I see with this."
"What's that, Li?"
"If you go places as single boys, all the single girls are going to be working to attract your attention. You and Jobe can carry off being lovers, but I'm pretty sure Tommy's not ready for the idea, even as pretend."
"Uh... I'm not sure I was. I think maybe wedding rings are in order."
"That brings up what world are wives on, Boer. Li, there aren't any vows of fidelity."
"Maybe not, Lola, but I know I'm married and they know it too."
"We have loves on another ship. They don't play around and neither do we. Call it marriage if you want. No vows of fidelity, but it's hard enough to maintain the special feeling when you aren't together without distractions."
"I like it, Jobe."
"That'll work for traders, Boer. Rich takes care of itself. The answer is you all have money and rich women friends. Frankly, we intend to go with you most of the time. It makes sense on the trader too."
"Comm Anverd."
"Yes, Boer?"
"Get me Tori."
"Secure channel. Transmission scramble. You've got her."
"Tori, we're working on 'Uh, even if you're interesting, we're not interested.' We've come up with several ways to play it, but the truth is we'd all rather say married."
"Group marriage isn't as rare in Yarrow and Forester sectors as it is this end of the empire. In some of the large ones, it's considered quite normal for small, single-sex groups to operate a business venture, such as a small trader, to add to the total income of the family."
"Give me a few seconds to bring her up to current on the discussion, Boer. All she needs is an outline of key words. Anverd, I'm sure you're monitoring. Stuff this somewhere."
"Stuffing, Lola. Cal's stuffing it at home."
"Lola, I've been dreaming of you most of my teaching career. I was sure someone who understood both the terms brief and useful when applied to information was a dream. Get licenses on Silvern and wear tiny hoops in your left earlobes."
"Shadill?!"
"The clan marriage structure is viable, Lola, because they intend to bring people in every generation. It's basically a financial unit established by families for their children. They are married. There might be three all of the same sex looking for three more and six of the other to marry, but they are married. The normal marriage is sex-balanced and close to it to start with, but sex balance is not usually in the contract. The number of people to be in it is part of it, always more than it starts with and only single people can be brought into it. Shadill have the highest probability of all current human cultures of parenting a true ship-dwelling society."
"Boer, as Shadill, it makes no difference which one of you owns either ship. One of the main reasons people choose Shadill marriage is financial. It would make sense for an older wealthy person to join one, especially a small one of young persons who have reached the age of adult and are now seeking to add the persons required by the marriage contract. It would make even more sense for a young wealthy marriage to ask an experienced person to join. If Shadill marriage didn't include fidelity, there would be a lot of Shadill. Family-owned and operated business tax rates are lower everywhere I know of. Even co-ops are higher. It would make financial sense for us if we ran a business or six."
"I'm glad you said 'financial sense,' Mim. I may believe the culture viable, but I don't want to pledge to conclude constructing a marriage contract for our children by the age of five. The hoop says you're married. It does not say it's a Shadill marriage. They adopted it as a symbol from the service techs on Asnear Station about a hundred forty years ago."
"The story goes a hubby had absolutely had it with fellows who saw his wife's name on her covalls and commed looking for a date. She reminded him she wore a ring. He yelled that didn't really help because she also wore gloves and some men wouldn't notice unless she wore it in her nose anyway. She told him nose was going a bit far but she was fed up with men off ships who had seen her and were 'just interested in a cup of coffee' and spent four or five minutes explaining it after she said she was married. Telling liner passengers to 'just go away' is frowned upon. She put her wedding ring in her ear. It worked and the other married techs, women and men, started copying when, more than once, men off the liners said thank you because they really just wanted an interesting companion to show them around and they'd been embarrassed they didn't catch a hint a woman was married before."
"Thank you, Lola. I didn't know how the custom had originated there, just it had. Where did you find it?"
"It was an anecdote in a cluster travel-liner guide book from about a decade later, Tori. All right. We can get documents on Silvern Docking and point to little rings and say married and never have to say we're Shadill. People are going to think it, but we don't have to say it."
"Why don't we want people to think it, Lola?"
"I can answer that, Jobe. Because a lot of people don't like the idea of families deciding who their children are going to spend the rest of their lives with when they're babies, as part of normal financial planning."
"Most clan marriages begin with about six, Aura, and add four to six. Most often, within those marriages, are pairings, or sub-family units. They're becoming more accepted than they were, because there are more of them and people are beginning to see the group marriages function as financial co-ops, but the marriages themselves are structured as individually as the people in them. Sexual experimentation causes absolutely no problems in the society. It's not rushed, but it is expected. Chemical contraception is not available until a physician approves, but physical is basically in every bedroom and most young pockets, just in case. Frankly, a wealthy man Boer's age might choose to start a Shadill clan, especially if he has children by several women. It's a good protection for all his children and their mothers can bring in men they love. The society is growing, Aura. If it truly narrowed the possibility of falling in love and having a life companion, it wouldn't be. As practiced, the marriages begin with stable friendships of years' duration and add those companions to it when the young people are old enough to choose them."
"What happens if the one you fall in love with is in another marriage, Tori?"
"They leave their marriages, taking absolutely nothing but the clothes on their backs with them, Boer, including their clan names, and those still in the marriages look for people to join them. It's called, 'contract rejection' and legally defined as divorce by the courts of the sector. If they're unhappy enough to just leave, for any reason, no one is going to force them to stay or go after them. And you named the only common reason for something rather rare."
"I changed my mind, Tori. I think I like them."
"I do, Aura. Macleigh Shadill and her followers were looking for an answer to families that fell apart, most especially those that couldn't support their children also supporting two homes, no matter how much both parents wished to do so. Young marriages begin working at their businesses whenever the individuals in them decide they're ready. Major financial decisions require an adult signature. Any parent of anyone in the marriage may provide it and Shadill children know exactly who will listen and give good advice, or take a risk on a new idea. The probability of eight adults being able to provide for twelve children is much higher than the probability of one adult being able to provide for one child, even if the business of that marriage is a fruit drink stand at the curb open on holidays and the rest of the time the adults are first-level clerks in a data pool."
"'Followers' says religion to me, Tori."
"Hello, Tommy. Welcome home."
"Hi, Tommy. We're fixing a special dinner. Cal has her pink swimsuit laid out."
"Mim, you can't convince me you'd rather fit in it. Welcome home, Tommy."
"You can skip the sexy swimwear 'til tomorrow, girls. We'll play in the yard and run through the fountains then. Tommy and Jobe are going in the spa to soak. We don't need them there."
"Actually, I think she was planning on wearing it to dinner, Aura."
"Oh, what a great idea! Let's have it on the pool terrace. I haven't worn my new one yet. It's about this wide and silver, Tommy."
"Aura, if you wear that silver suit to dinner, Tommy, Boer and I are going to forget we're eating."
"Thank you, Jobe. Work on it, Cal."
"Lay out my black one, Cal. Oh, Tori, your red one."
"Consider me enlisted in the conspiracy, Lola. Refine your question for me, Tommy."
"Uh... question. I asked a question. I don't remember what it was, but I remember I asked one. I think I'm surprised I do. Religion! Were Shadill's followers social experimenters or zealots? I refined a bit more for myself too. I'm more interested in that than a religious association."
"She was a bank mortgage loan officer on Urmanda, which is outside the empire, and a lay minister of the Matintown Universalist Populist Church, which had no sect affiliation, but a fairly large and moderately affluent congregation. She was eighty-six and recently retired when twenty-seven people of the congregation asked her to help form the society she'd proposed in her second level economics thesis sixty-nine years before. All of those people had children, nineteen were single parents, three were traders and five were farmers. Silvern accepted them as ethnic immigrants under their agra homestead act and the marriage contracts as valid according to their laws. That was one hundred eighty-nine years ago. There are over one hundred sixty thousand of them now."
"That's a successful plan. I had no idea there were t
hat many of them, Tori."
"They don't advertise it, Boer, but it's not a secret. Marriage contracts are filed and all you have to do is count them. The empire does. Over one hundred sixty thousand is a fraction of a percentage of the population figures of the sector and wouldn't be a real big percentage on Silvern if they were all there. It's only a surprising number when you know with how many and when they started. But I agree, around three hundred percent increase every generation is a successful plan. Is that it here?"
"Just move it there and put it back together, Lola."
"Ow. You're right. I'm going to be sore."
"The marriage must be consummated, Tommy. But when the girls give you a massage, you won't be thinking about the fact we're taking care of that little detail. You're married, Tommy. By tomorrow morning, you'll understand why we were hunting a way to just say so."
"And Dona, Barri and I aren't pregnant yet."
"I'm not either, Cal."
"You hadn't said if you wanted to be yet, Tori. We have and I'm getting frustrated."
"I'm not really sure if we want nine children born within a year, Cal."
"I'll tell Barri and Dona you think six are enough for now, Boer. You can explain your reasoning to Tori at the same time."
"I'll... ask Barri what she thinks, Cal."
"She thinks she's more frustrated than I am. See you at dinner. Out."
"Boer, we may have nine children born in less than a year."
"Yes, Jobe, we may."
"I'm... married."
"Thump! Hit me that way too, Tommy. It's the right marriage for you. That's why you're here, no other reason, and you're going to be very happy. Comm, Ven."
"Where's the rest of the unit, Boer?"
"Coming, Ven. We need little hoops in our left earlobes. Six of us. Find out how big and what of and make sure we have."
"Shiny silver in appearance, usually white gold or platinum, one millimeter thick, seven-point five in diameter, set approximately five above the point the lobe joins the cheek and guess a bit on that one because parents guess where it will be when children become adults, but usually get pretty close. Thank you, Anverd."
"You're welcome, Sweetheart."
"That's a little bitty tight thing, Anverd."
"It's intended to be, Boer. Visible, but very unlikely to get caught on anything. It stays right against the cheek."
"No kidding."
"We have it. I can do it. We'll discuss it when you get here with the rest of the unit. I'll be very nervous until it's reassembled and I check it. And I need to scan Tommy."
"It makes me a bit nervous too, Ven. The carts just got here. We'll be there after we very carefully load and transport it. Out."
"You all call me 'Tommy.'"
"We didn't until you got here. After that, it was obvious. This piece first, Boer. I'm headed that way. Tommy, come with the first cart."
"Yes, Li. She called me 'Tommy' first."
"She's the one who realized it was obvious first. Aura, make sure we have enough sunscreen for both of them on every ship and at the house."
"I think Ven put enough in the flyers, car and a couple scoot boots too, Boer. All the ships also have cream to treat it when they still get pink because something just happens and they end up in the sun without it."
"It really did just happen, Aura. We were talking to those people and... the shade just disappeared."
"It was only a few minutes, Boer. I was barely pink."
"It was close to an hour and you were fried, Jobe. I just yelped and smeared you with the burn ointment in the aid kit as soon as I noticed you were turning red very fast."
"It was still before it hurt."
"Sure it was."
"He's only a miasma of guilt because it happened the second day we were on Nunture, Tommy, and my skin was still new."