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As soon as I got up the next morning, just after zero-four, I got breakfast for the three of us and loaded the dogs into the Interstitial Starbird I’d reserved from the Residence. Obtaining departure clearance from Sumabad control, I executed a short Vector to just outside the system, then a single Interstitial Vector transition that put me just inside the orbit of Saturn, albeit forty (Earth) degrees above the ecliptic. Earth was still a poor relation to the rest of the Empire, although it was both catching up and obscenely wealthy by pre-contact standards. When I contacted System Control, I got a fast flight plan to what used to be Camp Pendleton between Orange County and San Diego. They still called it Camp Pendleton but it wasn’t a Marine base any more. These days it was one of the most important commercial centers on Earth. It looked in some ways like a miniature version of Sumabad. The buildings were shorter and smaller, but shared a design philosophy and building materials. Surfaces of white framing and large windows dominated most of the buildings, not too different in style from a lot of the office buildings Earth had had before the Empire arrived, but taller, and it was nothing like my memories of Southern California suburban sprawl. The Empire designed its cities and the buildings in those cities to get the most out of the area available. They built up(and sometimes down), not out. If you wanted a large individual yard, you lived out in the country, not in a city. There were plenty of parks in the city, but they were usually private property in building interiors, with lights that simulated natural light right down to the sunburn you could get if you were careless. You bought a park membership much like Earth people had once bought gym memberships. The low range of hills between the coast and what used to be the I-15 corridor wasn’t solidly built in yet, but it was getting there. Which reminded me: I had vague memories of coastal scrub in the area. You know, dry grass, water conserving bushes, small, stunted trees separated by a hundred yards or so between them. That wasn’t the case any longer. Where it wasn’t solidly built over, there was plenty of water, and the open space was green, with well watered grasses and various trees growing tall and straight, even clumps where trees stood in each other’s shade. If I understood correctly, that was actually closer to the condition when the first Europeans came than what I recalled as a young girl. Amazing the difference not having millions of people overstressing a water table could make. The people were still there, but they were getting their water in other ways. Respectable small streams flowed out of the hills to the sea, and it was summer. The beach looked absolutely pristine from the air, and people were sunbathing along it like every other piece of coastal Southern California in the summer.
I landed the Starbird on the roof of a building that sold short term parking for visitors, grabbed my bag and the dogs, then sealed the ship. It wouldn’t keep out other Guardians, but it would deter casual vandals. An elevator took the ship down into the innards of the building, while we took a different elevator to street level. A local portal took me to the building housing the small administrative office my eldest sister maintained for the dog business, in the corner nearest San Clemente, although she still lived in Temecula.
“May I help you?” The receptionist asked. I could tell she was about to tell me that these were the administrative offices and they didn’t buy dogs at this location – her mind was all but shouting it. I don’t know why – I was still in Imperial uniform today, and would be for two more days.
“Actually, I’m one of the investors, and I’m looking for my sister Dalia. She should be expecting me.”
“And you are…?”
“Graciela Juarez.” She was skeptical that I was who I said I was. I looked like I was thirty Imperial (21 Earth years), and she had to know my eldest sister was about one hundred thirty. But my perception could tell there was exactly one person in the office behind the closed door, and the mind felt like what I remembered of Dalia. Still, I decided to make one more try, “I was the original dog lady. I was also Earth’s first Guardian – I’m older than I look. If you look at the photographs on the wall behind you, you’ll see me in several, including with these two dogs.” According to Earth’s calendar, I was 108. By my own sense of duration experienced, I was fifty-three Earth years of age. Earth’s years were longer than standard Imperial, but duration passed about four times more quickly here.
She gave me a look I recognized well – you’ve got to be kidding me. “But that was seventy years ago! And you don’t look like family!”
I got it. This young woman was a great grand-niece or something. “Who’s your mother? Mandy? Molly?”
I didn’t get any further, “My grandmother’s name is Mandy. The boss is my great-grandmother.”
“I just visited your grandfather yesterday on Sharanna, but how is Mandy these days?” Divorces happen. People drift apart. Mandy felt she needed to get away from the family when she divorced Peter.
“She’s well. She still breeds dogs, but she sells through Meneas.” Mandy hadn’t been one of the original workers, but she’d come to work for me part time when the Empire came to Earth.
“How is Meneas?” He was an old associate of mine. I brought him from the Empire to help me start the dog trade between the Empire and Earth. He now headed the family’s main rival in the dog trade, but it was professional rivalry, nothing personal and no bad blood. At least none that I was aware of. There was plenty of Empire to sell dogs in. Last I knew, he was still the pilot for the commercial run between Earth and the Empire that the family also operated. He was operant, but not a fully trained Guardian. At least the last time I knew. “Is he still doing the charter runs back to the Empire?”
“He talks about quitting, but yes. I think if he quit, he’d have to ride along anyway to know how many dogs to ship where. Might as well get paid for the trip. Okay, you know enough to maybe be my great-grandaunt. I’m Therese, and …”
“Marta is your mother. She was only two months old the last time I visited.”
She was thinking, that’s creepy,but to her credit, she didn’t say it. I suppose she had a point from the point of view of most Earth people. It had only been about fifteen years from my point of view. But the universe doesn’t care about feelings, only facts. Time in Earth’s Instance moved about four times faster than in the Imperial Home Instance. I suppose I could have visited to stretch out the leave time I’d taken, but I hadn’t.
She knocked on the door to the inner office. “Ma’am, your sister is here.” So Dalia had the family used to the difference between work and home. Good.
Copyright 2017 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.
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