Méridien (The Silver Ships Book 3) (47 page)

Tomas and Tatia glanced at Eric to check his reaction, but he appeared lost in thought and they were correct.

How many of us were part Méridien and part Independent but allowed only the one face to show in public?
Eric was thinking.

After the Ambassadors and Julien were excused, Alex met privately with Tatia.

Tatia finished, sympathetic to Alex’s pain. For the first time in nearly two years, Alex would be separated from his friend, whom he had come to depend upon and who had never let him down.

Alex said with emphasis.

Tatia inquired.

The next morning, the crew boarded the
Rêveur
. The liner’s original Méridien passengers, except for Renée, insisted on going. Their argument was that it added to the legitimacy of their visit to Méridien, and Alex agreed with their logic. The
Outward Bound
would stay behind, and Tatia kept her Senior Captain, Edouard Manet. The night before, couples had tearfully separated, but in the cool morning air, professional demeanors seemed the order of the day.

Days later, the
Rêveur
neared its FTL exit from the Hellébore system, and Alex sent a signal to Julien.

Julien replied. It was 4.85 hours on Haraken, and FTL exit was in 0.15 hours. But if Julien could have been certain of anything in his ever-changing world, he was certain he would have received a final comm from his friend. He had counted on it as he had counted on little else in over a century.

Alex sent.

Alex asked.

Alex said.

Alex laughed.

They finished their conversation on an upbeat note, despite their true feelings, but they had wanted that for each other.

There was one final message for Julien which was received mere ticks before the
Rêveur
entered FTL, timing only a SADE could manage. It said simply, “Be safe and return to me.”

Alex headed for a face-to-face meeting with Little Ben. Captain Miko Tanaka landed the
Outward Bound
aboard the
Unsere Menschen,
stationed just sun inward from the system’s inner asteroid belt where Ben’s operations were focused. When Alex couldn’t locate Ben via implant, he requested Z identify his Minister’s location.

Z replied, including Alex’s companions, Mickey and Étienne.

Z replied.

“It’s hard to believe that’s Z, isn’t it?” Mickey said.

“Quite the change, isn’t it?” Alex replied. “Z is on the road to mobile freedom. He’s become a true adopter of the subtleties of SADE-human relationships.”

“I’m not following, Sir,” Mickey replied.

Alex stopped and regarded Mickey, then launched into an explanation. “You’re the Director of a nascent bank with little to show for your title. The first traveler has had a successful test flight, which you hope will lead to business contracts and depositors. The bank will flourish, and you will earn funds for your research and development. Someday the success of Haraken travelers will allow you to walk or fly instead of sit in a prison of metal alloy where you’ve been for more than a hundred years.”

“You know, Mr. President,” Mickey replied, running his hand through his short hair, “more and more often, when you talk like that, I’m very happy I’m just an engineer.”

“Don’t say that, Mickey. I was about ready to appoint you to a ministerial post,” Alex said with a straight face.

When Mickey stared at Alex in astonishment and denial, Alex said, “Just joking, Mickey. Come along.”

At Bay-8’s airlock, Alex found he couldn’t signal the corridor-side airlock hatch open. Alex sent.

Z, who could have wished for Julien’s support at this moment, replied,

Alex, who thought the safety routine a little overcautious since he only intended to enter the airlock, decided not to voice his opinion and waited patiently for the hatch to release once the bay was secured.

Z was reminded of the human expression “Fortune has smiled on you.” There were a good many new safety protocols in place—only, they applied exclusively to Haraken’s President.

Inside the bay, Alex waited for the crew to disembark from the shuttle.

sent Ben.

Alex smiled to himself. Ben had been an abysmal adopter of his implant. Thankfully, Simone, a sublime example of Méridien gene crafting, had taken pity on him one day and helped him. Now Ben had located Alex in his vicinity while he was still inside the shuttle.

Alex replied.

Alex almost asked if he could help, but like the new airlock protocol, he decided these things needed to be left in the hands of those who had jurisdiction. Ben was responsible for ore mining and ice water delivery to Haraken’s atmosphere, and Ben had delivered far above expectations on the latter task.

Initially Alex had expected Ben to employ the Librans’ ore transport craft to ferry ice water asteroids from the belt to Haraken. Instead Ben and Julien had communed over Alex’s g-sling program. The program had been transferred to Z, and he and Ben developed a system utilizing the
Unsere Menschen
as a delivery wheel. Mining transports moved small ice water asteroids from the belt to the nearby city-ship, which continually turned on a horizontal axis. The outer doors of six bays, whose locations were distributed equally around the giant city-ship’s mid-level, were always open. Beams inside each catch-lock tethered the ice asteroid of a mining shuttle, which had matched the rotation of the city-ship. Once the handoff was complete, Z would measure the mass, set up the trajectory profile in relation to Haraken’s position and rotation, and release the asteroid in the g-sling program’s cue. Where Alex had expected a delivery rate of ice water on the scale of one asteroid about every twelve to fifteen days, Ben was delivering an asteroid every one to two days.

Ben’s huge mass pounded down the shuttle’s gangway ramp at a run.

remarked Mickey privately to Alex.

Ben had no sooner come up to Alex than the two of them received a priority message from Z.

Alex heard Ben reply,

Z sent.

Ben said, turning away from Alex to focus.

Alex sent an image to Mickey and Étienne. “Rainmaker” was stenciled across the back of Ben’s environment suit as only the Méridiens could achieve. It was no mere alpha label. The letters glowed delicately in blues and whites with dark blues near the bottoms. A sweep of rain fell from the bottom of the lettering to fade into the black of his suit. It reminded Alex of a summer rain shower.

Ben sent.

the Captain replied.

Ben sent.

Z replied.

Ben replied, the authority evident in his thoughts.

The New Terran Captain eyed his attractive ex-Libran copilot, Svetlana Valenko. She returned his stare with one of her own. She was perfectly willing to jump into the Captain’s chair, even eager to do so.

replied the Captain.

Ben asked.

the Captain replied.

Ben dropped the shuttle pilots off the comm.

Z replied.

Ben echoed, and cut the comm.

When Ben turned back to Alex and company, he found the three men staring at him as if he had grown a second head.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Rainmaker,” Alex said, “but weren’t you the reluctant individual who couldn’t manage an implant comm to save his life and who near fled at the prospect of ministerial responsibility some eighty days ago?”

“That would have been me, Mr. President,” Ben replied with a good-natured grin.

At that moment, implants chimed with notice of midday meal, and the three New Terrans only had thoughts for food. “Shall we join the crew for meal, Rainmaker?” Alex suggested.

“You read my mind, Mr. President,” Ben replied.

“Careful, Ben,” Mickey said jovially. “He can do just that.”

“I had heard that, Mickey. Is that true, Mr. President, what they say, that you can slip past our comm security protocols and read out thoughts?” Ben asked.

“I’m here to discuss reprioritization of your efforts, Minister Diaz,” Alex replied formally.

Ben took Alex’s answer for an affirmative and was reminded of the rumor—not New Terran, not Méridien, not Haraken.

“I’m at your service, Mr. President,” Ben replied carefully.

Conversation was subdued until they made the meal room chosen by Ben, who scanned the room briefly and then led the group toward a corner table near the food dispensers. Since Ben led and blocked the view of much of the room, Alex never saw Simone until a pair of small arms and legs attempted to wrap themselves around Ben’s neck and waist. Simone’s radiant smile dissolved into a neutral expression when she noticed Alex. As Ben set her down, she tucked herself inside his protective arm and said in quite passable Sol-NAC, “Greetings, Ser President.”

“Greetings, Ser Turin,” Alex replied. “How fares the Rainmaker’s partner?”

The use of Ben’s pseudonym brightened Simone’s face as she hugged his waist. “He’s doing a wonderful job for our planet, is he not, Mr. President?”

“Simone …” Ben interrupted but stopped when Alex held up his hand.

“He is exceeding my wildest expectations, Ser Turin,” Alex said, shifting his gaze from Simone to Ben. “The SADEs project rain will soon be falling over 38 percent of the land, enough to support forest growth before our second year. By then, I will need to appoint a Minister of the Interior who will have the responsibility for water resource management and tree planting in the mountain valleys.”

Ben ducked his head, embarrassed by the compliment. Simone hugged him tighter, staring up into her Little Ben’s face in adoration.

“Well, shall we eat, Sers?” Alex offered.

“Please sit, Sers,” Simone replied, directing the group to a table that was set up primarily for New Terrans. The seats easily accommodated their bulk and were placed farther apart to allow more room at the table for them and their meal. Several attendants hurried to help Simone with trays and drink. When the food was placed before Alex’s party, Simone hesitated.

Alex sent privately.

Simone acknowledged Alex’s courtesy with a nod of her head before she sat in one of the New Terran-formed chairs, almost disappearing beneath the table. She giggled self-consciously before her seat began to elevate and its sides folded inward to meet her slender hips.

“That’s new,” Mickey said.

“One out of every three meal rooms has been updated with these adaptations to accommodate mixed parties. People love it, but we can’t accommodate all the rooms yet—too much drain on our resources,” Ben said around the mouthfuls of food he was shoveling. Simone acted as a conveyor belt, swapping out empty serving dishes for fresh ones, supplying more bread, and refilling Ben’s cup. No one had ever had the time to create a separate food service system for the New Terrans. They were still eating and drinking out of the frugal, Méridien-designed dishes and cups.

“You just hit on the subject of today’s discussion, Minister Diaz,” Alex said.

The use of his title caused Ben to pause and set down his utensil. Simone’s subtle moue telegraphed her annoyance at anyone interrupting Ben’s eating time.

“Are we talking shifting priorities or curtailing processes in favor of others, Mr. President?” Ben asked.

“Shifting priorities,” Alex said. “Mickey has met with the other Ministers and Admiral Tachenko on their needs for the next year. With the success of our traveler tests, we need to accelerate ore production.”