13 Degrees of Separation (38 page)

“When was this again?” Gwen asked, genuinely curious. Her
ears flicked along with her scut tail. They really did look like mythological
minotaurs, Mairi thought.

“Eleven and a half years ago. When I was six and a half,”
Mairi finally answered. She shrugged at the Tauren. “I'm a fast learner.
Graddad said good genes. I could read and write when I was 2. I had to do a lot
for myself when graddad was way.”

“What about your mother?” Harif asked, sounding subdued.
She glanced his way.

“What about her? She carried me. She was a kid, not much
older than me. Graddad raised me until...” she sighed.

“He didn't make it?” Gwen rumbled softly.

Mairi shook her head, and dashed a tear from her eye. She'd
be damned for crying over the past. There was nothing she could do to change
it. She felt Harif rub her shoulders. She patted his hand. “Yeah,” she finally
said, voice gruff. “I got the load in too late. He died before we could arrange
to have him transported to the only medic in the system,” she said roughly.
“They said he bled out internally,” she said, voice rough.

“I'm sorry to hear that,” Gwen said, voice modulating into
a soft rumble. Harif clenched her shoulders briefly.

“Mom sold the body before it was even cold. I turned my
load in to uncle Edgar, he took it and gave me a cut. I found out later he
gypped me. I was steamed for a long time until he told me that's how the
universe worked. He was 'teaching me a lesson'.” she said, using air quotes for
the last bit.

“Ouch,” Harif said, wincing.

“Yeah well, I made him pay double on the next load,” she
said, grinning.

“You went out again?” Gwen asked, massive eyebrows raising
in surprise. “Your mother let you?”

“She didn't have a choice. She couldn't do it, and she'd
blown through the creds for graddad's body as well as the creds my load brought
in. She said it was the grief,” she snorted. She knew better now. “She packed
me off as soon as she realized there was no alternative. But she 'worried about
me' … so much she ran up a fracken dept I barely paid off when I got back.”

“Ouch,” Harif said softly.

“Yeah well, the world and how it works. But I soaked uncle
Edgar double for my trouble. And I only told mom about the first part, I kept
the other part for food and to pay for our air and space and fuel. She'd of
blown through it if I hadn't,” she sighed.

“Ah,” Gwen nodded.

“Granddad left
me
the Bitch,
not
mom. When he
found out I was out there he cursed her and then changed the will. Said I
deserved it, a fighting chance. I've been using it ever since.” She didn't
mention that her mother had tried to take the little tug from her on numerous
occasions, even selling it behind her back. She'd had a hell of a time keeping
it in her hands, keying it to her ident code only was one way.

“Good for you, and us,” Gwen said nodding. “Enjoy your day.
I will see you tomorrow,” she said, nodding to each of them.

...*...*...*...*...

Interest in their manufacturing ability started to pick up.
With the station's industry saturated with orders but also strangled with a
lack of shipping to move freight and raw materials... along with the high cost
of materials a few of the other small startup companies who wanted equipment
and were tired of being on a waiting list came to Alice to barter over the next
month.

She talked with them but never agreed to anything. Many
didn't have the credit to burn, or had a high interest loan they were reluctant
to tap. In a feat of brilliance Clio worked out low interest loans for them
from the Yard Dogs to finance their purchases. Her bank was at first reluctant
to become involved, but when she showed them a profit projection the director
allowed a pilot project to go forward. It would be approved for 90 days and
then face a stiff review. Clio wasn't afraid of it, as soon as the loan program
was announced the Yard Dogs started getting hammered with interest.

“Build a better mouse trap and they'll beat a path to your
door,” Ralph grunted. Alice looked harried and just rolled her eyes at her
husband's whimsy.

“I'm dog tired,” she sighed, getting off her feet to rub at
her feet. “We need someone with sales experience. Someone other than me. I
can't be everywhere you know, and I don't know half the shit they are asking.”

“I'm gathering that,” Clio responded diplomatically.

“Gee thanks,” Alice growled.

“Sorry, being honest. I'll... I'll put out an ad,” Clio
sighed. “Sales reps wanted...”

...*...*...*...*...

It was incredible how the civilization on the planet was
changing and evolving, how they and their brothers and sisters on the station
were rapidly rising beyond steam technology. Some things like the great
Leonardo Vinnitelli designs were brought forth. The families threatened to sue
anyone who abridged or used the patents without their consent. Some had been
patented, but since most of it had been reinvented a judicial overhaul of the
patent system was requested.

Lawsuits by the Vinnitelli family to block the usage of
patents were thrown out of court. The family had no say in the patents nor any
income since Mr. Vinnitelli had donated some of the patents to charity or had
left them open. Those he hadn't left open had been managed by a trust he had
arranged prior to his leaving the planet years ago.

The family attempted to declare him deceased but the courts
ruled that a person couldn't be deceased if they left the system and the family
didn't have proof of their unfortunate demise. The family fumed but were forced
to concede that fact after some time.

There were growing pains in the sudden accelerated evolution
of civilization on the planet. Some business people embraced the changes,
investing heavily into them. Some made fortunes on new devices that were rushed
to market. A few were burned when devices that came to market too soon without
proper testing failed disastrously or didn't have the support structure to
sustain them and therefore their sales didn't bear out the hopes of the
investors.

The Governor and his wife encouraged change, especially
when it came to basic infrastructure, health care, and education. Tablets and
small personal computing devices had been promised during the Governor's
campaign, he made every effort to bring them into the hands of first the
children, and then the public at large. Unfortunately pilot programs only
worked where there was electricity to support the devices, so places near large
cities with a power surplus like Eternia fared well, but rural areas or farm
lands fared poorly.

Each month as infrastructure, education, and healthcare was
improved upon only accelerated the pace, and the demand for still further
change and improvements.

Chapter
9

Six months into development and investment backers
contacted Alice to look into a low interest loan for the company. They offered
a substantial loan with incredible rates as long as the shareholders gave them
shares in the company. Interested but suspicious they sicked Clio into looking
into it. Clio used her banking contacts to back track the investment group.

She too became suspicious, it was new, brand new, with no
history in the market. It also had no known assets, debts, or credits, which
rang alarm bells.

The AI was dismayed when she dug further. She discovered
the McDougall Corporation along with Morgan credit corp were backing the loan
and there were enough hidden time bombs to sabotage the dogs or to give the
corporations controlling interest in the company over time. Essentially they'd
be putting their shares up as collateral. Angry the group turned the deal down.
“We'll make do with what we've got,” Savo vowed.

...*...*...*...*...

Clio tracked the offer but it was in a series of shell
companies which dead end or turn in on themselves. Company A owned company B
which owned company C which owned company A. It was twisted and borderline
legal. Before she could get any more information the entire mess folded in on
itself in bankruptcy. It was over in a rather suspicious amount of time, but
the court records were a matter of public record. Her virtual eyes narrowed as
she got her hands on them. “Kennet again. Will he never learn?” she asked,
making a copy of the record as well as the offers and then sending them to
judge Brown, the district attorney, the Antiguan attorney general, and D'red...
and then to the bar hearing board. Let the little bastard get out of that, she
thought.

...*...*...*...*...

The Tribecca project was finally off the ground, the
Governor had stepped in and helped the project along. Of course the fact that
the Yard Dogs had stepped up with superconductor wire and a relay satellite
hadn't been mentioned in the news agencies. Nor did the company advertise it,
though they didn't deny it when someone on the Tribecca end let it slip and
thanked the Yard Dogs for going the extra mile.

Digging and burying the line took more time than just
hanging the lines from a metal superstructure, but when it was complete they
made a show of flipping the switch. The camera's recorded as the lights came on
slowly.

The relay satellite was in geosynchronous orbit over the
ground station. Each time it crested the horizon of the planet it received
power from the solar farm, which it then dutifully retransmitted to the ground
station, rain or shine. It gave the ground station 12 hours of coverage before
the planet rotated far enough for the planet to occlude the signal. Then the
microwave transmission was redirected to a pair of ground side locations for
other utility companies until the planet and satellite swung around once more.

It was an imperfect system, and someone in Tribecca
threatened to sue the Yard Dogs for 'stealing our energy' and 'not providing 24
hour coverage'. Alice sweetly informed them that neither was in the contract,
and that if they wanted 24 hour coverage they would have to pay for three
additional relay satellites. After of course they paid for the first which the
dogs had built out of pocket.

...*...*...*...*...

Mairi returned from a double shift exhausted to find her
mother mournfully waiting with an unknown tall but grim man. A creditor from
the look of him she thought in exasperation. When would she learn? Hell, when
would Mairi herself learn? She thought with a pang. She climbed out of the
bitch and ignored them while she handed a work tablet over to Jake the kid on
duty.

“You did it again didn't you?” she demanded, coming over to
her mother. Olga looked down and away.

“If you mean running up a hefty tab with my client I would
say yes,” the tall grim man said. She turned to him. “Aaron Hill, Bet your ass
Casino, loans, and collections. Fortunately for your mother she paid the
initial interest by pawning items. But that still leaves the principle to repay
and she doesn't have it.”

Mairi glared. Finding out her mother had taken everything
of value in the apartment to pay the debt but was still short wasn't all that
surprising. Her mother had done it before and Mairi had learned to keep
anything she wanted to keep locked up somewhere else. She was tired, she didn't
need this coming off a 16 hour shift and was justifiably furious.

Aaron, the debt collector threatened to have her mother
deported or spaced if Mairi or someone didn't come up with the credit. “The
interest is compounded hourly,” he said pointedly. Mairi turned on her mother
and informed her mother acidly she was tempted to let him. Her mother stared at
her aghast. She let her stare for a long moment before she turned to the
debtor. She agreed to pay on the condition that he
never
ever gave her
mother money again.

“Don't have to worry about that,” the man said shaking his
head. He held out a scanner. Mairi looked at the total and blanched, it would
wipe out her entire savings as well as next week's rent. Not good, but what
choice did she have? She pressed her thumb to the button and then hit the green
okay button sealing the transaction.

The man smirked and put the scanner into his pocket. “Nice
doing business with you.”

“I'm serious now. No more,” she warned. “You let her borrow
money from you it's on your own head. I'm broke.”

“Okay. Don't worry about it,” the man said, turning away.

“Yeah I do, spread the word she's a welcher. Black list
her, whatever you have to do. Whatever it takes. I'm not doing this again,” she
said, turning on her mother with a glare. “You hear me? Enough is enough!” she
berated her mother who shrank into herself, shoulders hunched, head down. “You
made me a promise! No more gambling! That was the only reason I brought you!”

“But it... I thought it was a sure thing!”

Mairi inhaled, nostrils flaring as she turned, arms
crossed. During her fit the debtor's had left. She looked around and then shook
her head. “Mother how often,” she shook her mother to make her look at her.
“How... hey. Look at me. LOOK. AT. ME.” Her mother looked up sniffling. “How
often have you told me, has uncle Edgar told us both! Never bet on a sure
thing? Never bet against the house? Never bet money you don't have?” she
demanded shaking her mother's shoulders with each point. “You fracked up
mother!” she let go of her and threw her hands up in the air in disgust.