Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072J6YML1
Books2Read link: https://www.books2read.com/u/4AwOxA
So when am I going to get to hold my grandson?” The first words out of Mom’s mouth were precisely what you’d expect from a Mexican mother. To be fair, we had been married fourteen Earth years. To her point of view, it was even more urgent because we already had a son in stasis, waiting for us to have time to raise him.
This had to be my battle alone. Asina was still on eggshells with Mom. They’d gotten off to a rocky start, and we’d had precisely one short visit in all the time we’d been married. “Mom, we’ve already submitted another proposal for a contract on Calmena. If we don’t get it, fine. Otherwise, we’re going back and it’s not going to be a good place to raise children.”
“I’m not getting any younger. I’d like to have grandchildren before I die.”
“Mom, you have eight grandchildren already, and you’re barely sixty. You have at least ten times that in front of you.” Due to operant healers, even natural state humans lived hundreds of years if they took care of themselves. Nobody knew how long operants like Asina and I could last if we used the healing discipline correctly. There were living operants over 80,000 Earth years old, and the techniques and knowledge had massively improved. The last known operant death for natural causes was almost 120 Imperial years previous – and there were roughly twenty twelfths operants in the Empire.
“You never know how long you have. That’s in the hands of God.”
“Yes, Mom. We’re going to do one more contract period if we can. After that, we’ll discuss getting some sort of regular job for a while so we can raise some kids.”
“I don’t know why you can’t get a job running cargo like your aunt did. It pays good money, too.”
“It pays good money because Tia Grace has the money to post most of her cargo bond herself. Not only do we not have that, but neither one of us has Vector or Interstitial qualification. We’re thinking about it, but training is expensive and wouldn’t serve any purpose if we get our new contract. We’re going to take a semi-vacation. I’m going to get my credential as a full Second Order Guardian, Asina’s going to work on some technical subjects where she can’t get hands on practice on Calmena.” Well, not practice where we could afford mistakes, anyway. “We’ll probably need to go to Indra to get all the teachers we need. And in a few months when we’re done, we’ll head back to Calmena for another contract.”
“Alright, I’m sure you think you know what you’re doing. But you know you’ve got a job here any time you want it.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Okay, that was intended to be a little bit double edged. “But we’re making good money doing what we do, we’re both moderately well off, and we’re doing something we believe in that will make a difference to millions of lives. We’ve already made a difference to millions of lives, and we’re looking to improve things at least that much again, planet-wide.”
“You know this dog business won’t last forever. Maybe another eighty to a hundred years before the market is saturated.” She was talking Earth years.
“And this vacation plus the next contract will be fifteen of that,” I replied, “If we need a job, it will be after our next contract period. Speaking of which, do you know any good investment managers? We’ve got three cubes we can put to work for us, and twenty points each.” Renting out your service points to a civil contractor could be lucrative. Pretty much all the soldiers did it. Renting your points allowed contractors to bid contracts they otherwise might not have enough points to guarantee. You could lose them (which was the point of requiring them), but the income from twenty points would likely be another thirty or forty prime per year. Each. Not nearly what we were making for our labor, but you could live pretty decently on less, and there were generally penalty clauses for large monetary rewards if a contractor who rented them lost your points for failure to perform to standards. You could rent them out for more without the penalty clauses, of course, but that was a sucker’s game.
Mom gave us the name of one investment manager, but it was an American firm. They might have been decent at managing the money; they wouldn’t have the client base to manage the service points. We could go down into Mexico, or wait until we got to Indra. I sent Tia Grace a message asking if she had a recommendation on Indra; that’s where she was based. It wouldn’t go out until the shuttle run, and wouldn’t be back until the one after that.
“How’s Dad doing?” I figured she’d have news more recent than mine.
“He’s still a Team Private, but he’s hoping to get a promotion soon, or transfer to Space, probably Strategic Space. He’s stationed at some place called Trune, out at the rim of First Galaxy. He’s working a homecoming leave into his re-enlistment in a few months. Earth still only gets one class two run per week, which really means seventeen of our days with the time differential. That’s fine for the dog business, but not when he’s coming home on a short leave.”
“Meneas still doing those in Earth and Indra? When’s the next run?”
“Joey you just got here. You can’t be leaving already!”
“If you tell me when it is, we might be persuaded to wait until the next one. When is it, Mom?”
“Six days.”
“Sorry, but we can’t afford to wait twentythree days, Mom. Six days is going to have to be enough!”
Asina interrupted me, Joe, she’s your mother. You haven’t seen her in twenty Imperial years. Enough with the tough guy act – we can wait until the second run. If she’ll pay us to work the dog farm, that is, since I presume she wants you to spend time with family.
Okay,I told her, I just thought you wanted to get with Tellea sooner than that. Her biological daughter Tellea was now an almost adult young woman, and her adoptive parents were off in Second Galaxy. We hadn’t been able to see her the entire time of our contract on Calmena – it would have been too dangerous to leave our home there unattended more than a few hours. We got regular messages to and from, but it wasn’t the same thing. “Change of plans, Mom, looks like Asina is taking your side. We’ll stay until the second shuttle run if you’ll pay us for working the dog farm on the days we do.” That Asina was taking her side wouldn’t hurt Mom’s opinion of Asina at all.
“I don’t have any problem with that,” she said. And since most of the family that was still on Earth worked in one or the other of her dog facilities on Earth, that gave her everything she wanted.
Since we were going to be stuck here a while, I checked the internet for Guardian instructors, looking for someone who could help me finish off the last two requirements to be a Second Order Guardian. Asina’s instruction and everyday use had given me several years of experience with most of it, and being a Guardian herself, she could certify when I met standards. However, my wife was weak for even a Second Order Guardian, and had no confidence in her ability to teach or observe the last two items safely. I just needed someone strong enough to work me on teleportation and the basics of mental combat and I’d be done. I put a widespread ad up Looking for Final Instruction as a Guardian, pay to be negotiated. There had to be at least 216,000 Guardians here in Earth; someone was likely to bite. If not, there were organized schools on Indra, where there were trillions.
Copyright 2017 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.
Leave a Reply