Chapter Nine
Rentals did fill for the season, rather quickly around the lakes. Harvest crews did come in to house hunt on the west side, but five or six sharing was more common than three or four. Dayton's house was finished, but didn't fill immediately. The condo complex where Tate lived did. There weren't many one-bedroom units and most two-bedroom were less expensive. Most three-bedroom condos were about the same, for half-year leases. Many more residents than summer people moved into them in the early part of the season. A few had been on the when-available list, but many regular summer tenants chose not to pay the rent increases and new residents, and a few new seasonal renters, filled condos as fast as furniture was moved out.
The used furniture store began to have a wide selection of nice and some items went back into the places out of which they'd come. Because turnover was fast, the people who purchased furniture, and paid a third the damage deposit for furnished rentals, didn't pay much more than the store had paid for it. The best furniture that came out of rental units usually went into others that didn't have best.
Knight, Blade, Nev, Case and Stats finished the blue house, now "soft bronze-brown," with darker trim and Case and Stats moved one over. Nev had three other houses nearing completion and several boat stalls rented. The two maintenance businesses didn't get slack, but demand for services eased. The programming business had a referral list for contracts which it couldn't schedule.
Many companies wanted the in-operation-tailoring option that no other programming contractor had qualified personnel to do, but most programming jobs didn't need it, and were referred. The referred programmers began returning the favor, referring contracts they thought would need tailoring.
A large boat storage stall began to fill with furnishings for two more houses as the girls dropped by the used furniture store, or noticed something perfect in a window.
Knight, Blade, Nev, Case and Stats had much more time to work on houses after the influx began. They had all three unsold houses done before it began to taper off to short-lease out-and-in. It didn't take long to sell them. Kendra chose one. Mike and Loren decided they'd "find restaurant work for more than the season" and bought one. Chal made recommendations and they got jobs with assistance for chef training in Mountain City, starting after season.
Dayton suddenly got three young women who had party plans and general harvest jobs, as roommates. There were a number of those jobs open. The best-trained were doing wild harvest and establishing forest cultivation. The young women, Essa, Kady and Reesa introduced other harvest-hires to Mike and Loren and they got two harvest-season roommates.
Kendra 'found' a roommate, Marie. The other home buyer was Elise. She had the right resume for a prac position in Public Works street maintenance. Kendra decided she didn't need a whole season off, when the position for an analyst opened in the town Planning Commission office. Marie got a prac job maintaining harvest equipment, and IS didn't get someone in the Forest Growers Association, either.
The people of the area were why twenty-nine days after a hole had been made where a splotch of the yellow marked the spot, the mine was empty of residents, though never empty. It was a busy place, headquarters, training area and equipment production center of the only rebel organization that could have come into existence, freed by tech that everyone else was still sure couldn't exist.
The one named as bard had been knighted by the corrupt bureaucracy, anointed in his own blood. They'd known they couldn't make him into a servant, so they'd isolated him and contracted superb professionals to conduct his child-genius life. Learning had already been his passion. He just didn't believe they knew everything about physical law.
The professionals had never hidden the profit motive in his education. He could see it clearly. He also saw the hope in the eyes of teachers, that a new discovery would excite the field of physics and bring new things to learn.
There were exceptions. There were things unexplained, even if complex explanations for them existed. He didn't think the explanations should be that complex. He'd begun "taking them apart to make the pieces shorter," when he was seven.
IS wanted a secret weapon. Neither the oligarchy's plan for interplanetary wealth, nor the science educators' dreams of being at the birth of a new era of physics suited their plans at all. Nev began to snicker and heads turned all around the pool, nineteen of them.
"We're currently blocking the IS takeover of the gov, but I just don't think the bureaucrats would thank us for our counter-coup efforts."
"We should make them start the game over. I'm not interested in a pogrom, or punishment for most. The rest should be exiled, with standard settlement equipment."
"Essa, the isolation here doesn't exist on most new-settled worlds."
"I know, Kendra. Give them equipment to go to one. Don't let them come back. Their survival depends on them. They're products of a warped culture, and they built it. Give them what every person is determined to need to begin a new life. We're going to have to fight IS. The gov just needs to be pushed over or evacuated. I really don't think trials and prisons are worth the expense, but we don't want them among us."
"Kill the ones too poisonous to turn loose and dump the rest of the animals back in the wild?"
"They didn't build the oligarchy, Blade. They don't have the mental capacity of the monsters who did. They don't have a power base. They're unskilled labor, desperately in need of remedial training in social skills and community interdependence. Put them, spouses, children and grandchildren on liners with standard extended-family supply. They took care of their families. Their families can take care of them. It's the only way the children won't be punished, too."
"Thank you, Essa. A practical solution to what to do with all those people who stole from the people, because it was established government method, is nice."
"I like it too, Knight. They're a faceless blob of disgusting. I don't want to put faces on it. They don't need me to watch over them. They get a good wash. If they crawl back into disgusting, it won't be while holding the purse strings of a world."
"Elise is much less disgusted than I am, but I think spending money on them, the expense of humane care and attempt at rehabilitation, is silly. We yank them out of the toxic environment and completely clean them. They are not forced to carry the past with them. A settlement package isn't cheap, but it's not as expensive as the cost in labor and social adjustment problems on this world. If they're given fresh starts elsewhere, we don't have to try to teach our kids not to blame the kids who knew they got cars because their parents stole money from the people."
"I like it too, Day. Some won't leave. They're too diseased to turn loose and their families deserve a chance."
"The warden is dead, Blade."
"I heard him defined, Knight."
"Nev, buy us spaceship, please."
"I looked, Ronnie. There aren't any for sale, not even ships that don't work. There just aren't any."
"We could put them off the planet tomorrow if there was."
"Right now, they're keeping IS preoccupied, Elise."
"Dear other worlds, these are the members of the ruling oligarchy. Put them where they can start over. We're busy fighting the zealots of the would-be police dictatorship they engendered, and the brutes they hired. We'll convey our thanks, personally, when you come to trade for the new tech they're looking for so fervently."
"Good note, Dawn."
"Nev, your roommate has a glazed look."
"Computer, Knight. This way. I can't see what we're doing in your head."
The seven still at the pool decided what to have for dinner where. They used the 'hall' through the boat storage building to get to their side. The "exterior of the neighborhood" had been finished. Trees had been shaped and more planted. A hedge circled the block. It obstructed the view in, but not the view of the mountains from windows designed to frame it.
Gates and fences weren
't considered. The hedges were for privacy. Security was normal, locked doors and neighbors watching over the neighborhood. Fences and gates didn't invite other neighbors to check in back for friends. The tennis court/health club would be a social gathering area in the winter. In the summer, it was an open court with a shed enclosing the health club area and social gathering was in whichever yard it happened.
Knight blinked and realized he was sleepy. He remembered two terrific meals, so it was probably late. He checked, then walked to the kitchen. Stats was making sandwiches and Blade was on the kitchen computer.
"I got Blade's computer when he finished, Case took it over and Dawn left an assignment and left. He got the sandwiches started."
"I got stuff out of the keeper. 'Started' gives the impression I had time to organize it. That one's done. What are we doing?"
"Filling a spaceship, Blade. There's an ore barge up there. It's the only thing no one would take note of going from here to a non-habitable world. It would carry everything needed to set up mining operations. 'Personnel area' just needs to be a container of people. Gravity and life support, food and cooking equipment, break a connection and everyone dies. You can't reach the guards."
"So how are we filling it?"
"With something that can't exist and can only work from a world to a point outside its gravity well, but within its star's. Basically, a door to the space portal you can probably carry in your pocket, though you do have to assemble it. It will take three power sticks to open it and keep it open a quarter-hour. We need four hundred thirty-nine extended-family settlement packages and a destination."
"We know everything that goes in one. Most of it can be found in a 'standard' house."
"True. We need to finish the girl's houses."
"You need to eat and go to bed. So do I."
"We need to finish the houses. It won't be odd they move, even though the lease has more to run. I want them here where no one notices they're here, or not."
"Some people should not get to go."
"They won't."
"You need food and sleep, too."
"I'm going with you. Wherever you go."
"It's mutual."
They fell on beds as they finished pieces. Knight and Blade, on Knight's bed, awoke first. It was thirteen twelve. By fifteen, everyone was awake and working on a house. There were seven others aiding. They worked two days to finish three houses. The next day, all the employees went to work and the eight put the finishing touches on the houses and began moving furniture.
Danny changed the address on her business license and informed the property manager they'd decided to move into their completed homes, but did not expect refund of rent, though the house would be empty and ready for inspection the next day. Gen Millert told her he understood completely and they'd get a rent refund if the house was leased.
She got off the comm and got out of the kitchen before Nev got to it with the extractor. He backed out the door to the garage, closed the door, loaded the extractor and shut the garage door behind the LH. He pulled the LH into the parking area in their part of the boathouse and joined Knight, Blade, Case and Stats on not-surprisingly-nice couches from the charity store.
"I'm part owner of one house and a happy entrepreneur. No, I don't plan to do it again, soon."
"Danny went straight for the spa, Nev. I think you're expected."
"Thank you, Case. I'll be home… sometime."
"Ow?"
"Yes, Blade, but he's the buddy for whom there's always a chair in the kitchen and a place in the spa."
"And Ronnie has been strongly hinting it to Knight and Danny."
"She got my attention."
"I noticed the thank-you kiss for tilling her flower beds was an attention-getter. It took me a while to refocus after I got one."
"A reminder they all three said they had fun plans for both of you, Blade. The houses are done, and this end now has a single-vehicle door in the big door and personnel entrance off the passage hall."
"Yes, Stats, all done here. Let's go, Blade."
"Good time. I'm in the mood for fish for dinner."
Day, Elise, Ronnie and Dawn were already in the mine when Knight, Blade, Case and Stats got there. They learned Mike and Loren were when they got dinner. Essa had left a great-beach-party message on Day's comm. Three had gone to it.
Over the evening, the mine filled. Doc Larry gave Knight and Blade a list of who wasn't going. At twenty-three sixteen Danny and Nev arrived. At one, all the work-tomorrow people were sent home. At five thirteen, Tate came in with a trailer full of elements from waste recycle bins, had breakfast and went to work. He hadn't collected elements all night. His bunch had unloaded their collections in his garage. Other collections had been arriving all night. They were well-stocked by five forty when the eight went home.
Knight, Blade and Nev, and Case and Stats, did 'jobs' that day, starting at ten thirty. Both businesses finished two and had slightly late dinner. In the morning, both worked, finished two and were in the mine by fourteen. At twenty-three seventeen, they looked at a portal corridor through a doorway. Knight and Blade stepped through and turned on their shields. Nev dove through behind them, just before the door was shut, until scheduled to reopen. They knew he was there. He'd hit their shields as he got his on. Knight flickered, then Nev saw Blade and turned his shield off. They were all under Knight's.
"The habit took over. It wasn't a conscious decision."
"I realize that, Nev. I don't think there's anyone here."
"There's a staff, but they only exist in the comp and IS doesn't know it, or they'd be here."
"Let's look around. Shields on."
They explored the portal and confirmed staff quarters were empty. Nev saw something out a viewport and ran for the traffic control office. A few moments later, he'd established contact and was bringing it in. Knight and Blade appeared beside him and began helping figure out how to dock it. Ore barges weren't designed for it. Getting a docking arm 'bent' the right way was finally accomplished and a hatch seal finally made. They walked down the arm and through the hatch to the crew area and into a luxurious treasurehouse.
"Definitely high-grade gems and ore."
"Yes, Blade, very nice quarters and seed to attract investors. They've got a shuttle down there and it's made many trips."
"They go first."
"How did you find this?"
"I wanted to see the third moon come from behind Gradelode, Knight. It shouldn't have had a speckle there."
"Let's go find the shuttle that's made many trips before IS decides it would be convenient."
When the door opened, they handed bins of gems and ores through, then walked through behind them. When the door closed, all three got dizzy. The reason was in the math. The door could be used both ways, but it projected from world to space. It was going to make them "at least dizzy."
They went home, filled the keeper in the car, put the pad and pillows in and left the house at two oh seven. Nev drove. When he began to get groggy, he pulled off and changed places with Blade. They rotated through the drive the length of the continent. They all had about five hours sleep when they got to "mining corp city," Highgrade.
It took them until late afternoon to locate the shuttle. There were three, in assorted sizes. None were ore shuttles. All were sealed. They used the magic sword to make holes, disconnected comps and hardwired a-grav. They laced them together, attached the 'lace' to their tow unit, then Knight turned on the car shield. It covered the odd trailers in the too secure 'deserted and run down' equipment shed. They got them out and headed home fast. They were close on the length of time the auxiliary power would keep them afloat.
It wasn't a fun drive. The gravway was busy. They dodged a lot of haulers. They "finally!" got back to the mine. They drove into the central cavern and chose a place to put the shuttles. They didn't make it. The big one dropped loudly and jerke
d the car.
"This looks like a good spot."
"Yes, Blade, they add nicely to the decor here. Hi, Ronnie."
"That was close timing."
"If we'd dodged one more hauler, we'd have been trying to find a way to get them off the adit road."
"Most of us think bringing them, because you couldn't think of anything to do to them you couldn't fix, was excessive caution, Nev, but we agree it won't occur to them they were towed off. Get back in that car. You're unhooked. Go home and lounge by the pool. It'll need cover in about twenty minutes. Go put it up."
"On our way."
People went to Case and Stats' house, then made 'downpour-dashes' to the boathouse hall, then to the garage of the big house. All were in swimwear, but they were handed towels to dry off cold rain. Cars were already parked along the street. Nev had decided to have "a rainy night pool party."
All had slept again, but driving had been tense work a long way. They'd all fully recovered by the time the party really got started. Very few of the many people had to work the next day, and it was pouring. Many more found flat places than they had beds that night. The padded pool deck was a favorite, and no one stepped on fingers. Nev was pleased. They'd finally had a real body-count party.
They reset their door to the dome on the ore ship. Knight and Blade had turned on the systems from the bridge. It was just an enviro dome. They began preparing it for over three thousand people, for a twenty-two-day journey. Over the seventeen days it took five hundred forty-eight people to pick up the supplies the 'families' ordered, and keep IS from learning it, relations between IS and the gov departments became more strained. Teal Valley and the other towns weren't pleased with IS either, but no one touched anyone. Other places, other people were beginning to disappear.
The nineteenth night, two hundred fifty people rode into Water District One, in invisible cars, and into the area of mansions without vast yards, where the families of the ruling oligarchy lived. Each had a 'door.' All were preset for the dome. Each also had tools, and a supply of power sticks and gas pellets. They turned on personal shields. It didn't take teams long to clear a house, uninstall the required household equipment and pack the rest.
Many people from the mine were in the dome. They pushed carts through to be loaded and moved what was on them to 'family packages,' when they were pushed back through. People were last. Each family was put in their semi-enclosure. It only took four hours, thirty-three minutes, to move them all, or all who were being moved. Some members of some families didn't go and some who didn't go didn't have families.
People from the mine cleared the dome. Many grabbed basins, but the dizziness and nausea quickly passed. Three reset a doorway, walked onto the portal and prepared the ship for a long journey. They'd already emptied the luxurious quarters, so there was nothing left to do, but check everything again. The ore barge was built to make comp-controlled journeys.
When they left the bridge, they weren't worried about the ship or the people in the dome. They couldn't get to anything that would damage the dome and nothing would go wrong with the systems. They undocked it from the portal, lined it up on its course and sent it on its way. They walked through their door, waited for dizziness to pass, then turned on their shields, and left the dark house. Theirs was the last car nothing saw leave the enclave, including the police and IS, which both patrolled the area. They were nearing home when thirty-seven people began to awaken and discover their houses had no comps and they were the only ones in the enclave. They ran for their mining corporation friends.
IS didn't realize there was no one in the enclave until midafternoon. The takeover was scheduled in two days and there was no one to overtake. And level eight maintenance continued.
The 'rebels' watched IS shock and turmoil by comp. They waited for the high command to develop a plan of action. The houses weren't empty, but some appliances were gone, and some clothes. Not every house comp was gone, but those remaining were systems with nothing in data banks. They couldn't decide if secret tech had been used, or the oligarchy had learned the plan and run.
Knight, Blade and Nev built scooters. Workout equipment and workouts with Knight and Blade were changing Nev's shape quickly. He'd had to buy 'between' clothes. They practiced on their scooters in the mine. Nev knew he wasn't ready to go all the way with them, but he was driving when they towed the invisible boat to Shimmer Lake. IS had located the warden for them. He was on the not-gone list. So was a specific guard.
It was three K from the darkened dock to the place the warden was playing. They waited for him to come out thirty-nine minutes. Nine seconds after he did, he died. They went point eight K past the boat. They didn't wait there. They went in. The guard didn't die in his sleep. He woke when the thorn from the blowgun hit him. It was a short scooter ride back to the boat. They got there as the sky began to lighten with approaching dawn.
They crossed the lake and had the boat loaded on the trailer before the sun lifted above the hills, but barely got out of the way of early fishers, and a woman widely maneuvering her boat around to launch it. They wished her, an older woman and a small boy luck, as they hurried to get off the drive down to the launch. They put the boat back in storage, hooked Nev's boat to the car and pulled out.
They went in the house and called to see if anyone wanted to go along and got a beach party rendezvous time, but no company. They took the boat to Veil Lake. They made breakfast, sat and ate on the deck, then waved hello to people on the shore and in boats, on a leisurely cruise around the lake.
The last group they waved to was theirs. They followed a guide on the shore, with a 'boarding plank' under his arm, to a place deep enough for the boat, close enough to shore for the plank. Late afternoon, they took the boat back to the boat launch, loaded it, took it home, and got food to go back to the party. It was the first time Dayton got to use the party tent. They left the lake side open, but the shelter from the somewhat chill breeze was welcome and so were the food and drink.
The warden who died in a paid playmate's drive wasn't mentioned on the news. Blade said she actually got a service for all the protection she'd paid.
The next morning, government center opened and people went to work. IS watched and waited. None of the low-level employees noticed their bosses were gone, or more frequently, did and didn't do any work because they weren't watched. Late afternoon, they all went home on time.
Congress had session the next day and there was no congress present. Eventually, all the other people left. An IS observer reported newscrews complained they hadn't been notified the session was canceled. That evening Warkerdoll held a news conference.
"The government of this world is corrupt and the bureaucracy greedy. IS has ended that. We will be collecting evidence for trials when judicial benches are filled. All lower-level government offices are functioning and no services have been interrupted. IS officers will be covering supervisory positions beginning tomorrow."
"They didn't change a line in the speech."
"Not a one, Nev. What would you like to do this evening?"
"Thin IS ranks a bit."
"Do you have a list?"
"Yes, Blade, I do. It begins with the one who ordered us murdered, but I still don't have a name for that one, so I'll skip him and go to number two, Hakin Bremp."
"The comm monitor commander."
"He's just number two, Blade."
Knight sent a message. "Starting IS list, Bremp. Stop. Personal favorite recommended. Stop." People smiled and got their blowguns or slingshots.
Nev was good with his slingshot. He was also good with the shield control under his fingers in the hand that held it. Bremp left a banquet. In the 'flicker of an eye,' Nev put a rock between his eyes, as he waited for his car door to be opened. Nev had never gotten off his scooter, so he wasn't in the parking lot when Bremp's escort yelled for assistance. He touched his controls for a finger-hole
gap. He saw two quick spots of light. It wasn't as odd-looking as seeing a finger appear.
They went to two other places that night. Knight and Blade each had a 'favorite.' None of them were just killing IS. Each person, who decided to go out that night, knew without doubt the person killed was too dangerous to others to live.
The next morning, they learned they hadn't been the only ones who decided there were some in IS who wouldn't be given more power to abuse people. IS officers and 'helpful' people were found dead on every continent. Poison thorns, rocks, spears, a few arrows and one strangulation with a vine were cause of death.
If someone had disposed of a body, IS hadn't learned of it. They were just left where they died, often in parking lots or driveways, often not in uniform. Several died while with other IS officers. No one picked up an IS or police weapon and no one was caught.
Six hundred forty-two died in one night, over half on the center continent. Four thousand two hundred seventeen quit that day. A few sent resignations. The rest disappeared off the streets or didn't report for duty.