April 4: A Different Perspective (27 page)

"I don't think I'm ready to deal with doing anything in zero G and I want to be back with my kids at lunch time," she paused, reluctant to speak.

"Do you have reservations about working in a club?" Susan guessed. "I assure you it isn't a front for a house of prostitution. They serve alcohol and they do have a gambling room, but that is perfectly legal here."

"Oh no," Linda said, flustered. "I didn't know if I could deal with the rest rooms. Down home we'll do just about anything to avoid going in a public restroom. Like at the mall," she actually shuddered. "People are just awful," she asserted firmly.

"I'm going to tell you something that may offend you. If I lose your business so be it, but you need to know. That is exactly the sort of thing that makes people on Home not want to visit Earth. They call it nasty names like the slum ball. In fact, I have heard people discuss this very thing and conclude you can judge a culture or civilization better by their public rest rooms, than high minded speeches or laws. If you find the restrooms disgusting at the club, I'd have no complaint if you quit after a day, but I'd be very surprised."

"It sounded really good, otherwise. How much does it pay?" Linda wondered. "How does it work? Do you get a cut of my wages or do I pay a placement fee?"

"One-hundred-seventy dollars an hour, plus you are granted a membership in the club and
they
pay us a onetime fee to find you, if you are satisfactory and stay at least a month. "

"I realize that isn't a living wage on Home," Susan said quickly, misinterpreting Linda's shocked look completely. "They know somebody will be doing it for extra money, not a primary wage. You log your hours by sending a text message when you start and stop. You might want to consider getting some spex. It makes things like that a lot easier."

"My last job I worked, well it
was
some years ago, but it paid twenty-two dollars an hour and tips. Not long after the switch to new dollars. This seems like a lot of money to me. I can get some spex, my son has quite a few pairs of them. I'll try the job, if they will take me doing the four light days, Tuesday through Friday and find somebody else for the heavy days. I'll try it on faith that you are right about people here not being pigs in the restrooms. I can't take offense at the truth that they
are
down
below."

"It won't seem like a lot of money, once you do some shopping on Home. They'll be delighted with whatever days you take, because the management and servers are staying over extra hours and doing it all themselves right now. Would next Tuesday be fine to start?"

"Sure," Linda agreed. "No reason to delay."

"Then stop by the club any day after 10:00 and they'll show you around and give you the address for logging your hours. I'll print out a map and contact information."

"Do you know how they will pay me?" Linda wondered.

"It says weekly. They do a lot of business in cash, so I imagine they'd pay you from the till at the end of the week. The owners include locals who use the Trade Bank so you could probably get paid in Solars if you want them for savings, but it would be a long wait to get paid."

"Why's that?" Linda asked.

"A Solar is running about seventeen-thousand USNA dollars so you'd be waiting about three months for a pay day, working part time. They haven't issued any fractional Solar coins. I wish they would really," Susan complained.

"Can you tell me what a Solar looks like?" Linda asked, remembering a silvery coin flipped through the air to her son, Eric.

"I can show you," Susan reached up, pulling the chain around her neck over her head and extended it for Linda to examine. The coin hanging on it as a pendant was gold and set in an ornate gold bezel.

"Do they make these in silver?"

"No, but they make them in platinum," Susan explained. "The gold ones are recent. All the early ones are platinum. They're about the same exchange value."

"Thank you. I didn't realize how valuable one small coin could be," she admitted.

"Most Earth coins are steel or plastic now. Even nickel is too valuable for coins," Susan said with a shrug. "An old USA copper penny is worth almost a new dollar USNA, just for the metal."

"Thank you," Linda said, standing and taking the printout. "I'll let you know how it works out with the job."

"If you get tired of it, or want to upgrade and they can't promote you in-house, come back to see me and I'll find something for you," Susan promised.

Chapter 25

"Give me your phone and pad," Everett Jones said. He pointed at his desk, leaving no doubt he meant here and now. Berry looked over his shoulder and the two beefy security men with Tasers left no doubt it was not a request. One had his hand on his weapon, which discouraged him from trying to activate either. He reluctantly put both on the desk.

"Search him," Everett instructed.

The fellow was thorough and laid another small phone on the desk and a thumb drive.

"I need those to do my job."

"You are finished with running IT on this base, Everett informed him, bluntly. "You are going to be on the departing shuttle in fifteen minutes. You are the sort of a warped son-of-a-bitch who would sabotage us if we told you that ahead of time and allowed you access to the computers. I'm going to make something clear to you. You remember what happened when you went off your nut back a year and a half ago?"

"The memory isn't very clear," he tried to say, but there was fear on his face. "I was told I had a concussion," he reminded Everett.

"Yes, because you were yelling and screaming and trying to kill the electrician and you didn't notice anything I was saying, until I banged your head on the wall and knocked you senseless. If I had known the stupid administrator would make excuses and retain you after that, I'd have killed you, he said bluntly. "Every day you have been here since has been a day we were all at risk you'd break again."

"I can't even pack my things in fifteen minutes."

"We have a crew packing your personal items in your room right now. There is no way I'd let you back in your room with a comconsole or any electronics you've hidden there. If you have contraband don't worry. I'll gladly ignore it to be rid of you."

"My door won't open to the master code," Berry assured him smugly.

"I told them to
cut
it open if it didn't. and anything they even suspect might be electronics is not going to be packed in your things. Just in case you have any nasty surprises for us on a timer, you should know the President's representative and I have an agreement. If I have an 'accident' here with the computers or com going down, he is going to have an 'accident' on the shuttle and shove your worthless butt out the airlock without benefit of a pressure suit."

"You'll never keep the systems up and running without me," Berry sneered. "They don't need to be booby trapped. There isn't anyone else here competent to run them."

"I'm going to nominate Chad and Paul for sainthood. It must have been impossible working with you. Yet I've heard neither complain."

"Chad has kept himself busy with
com
," he said, voice dripping disdain at that menial task. "Paul hasn't had anything to do with either of us in ages. He made sort of an unofficial lateral move to planning and scheduling."

"To get away from you," Everett understood, nodding. "But you see, you abrogated your responsibilities as department head. One of the things you were responsible to do was assure continuity.  Saying nobody can handle it but me, is something that should have had you standing in front of the administrator's desk. You should have been telling him it was something that needed corrected. Not glorying in it as a boost to your grand ego. You should have been
training
people to do everything you can do, so if you drop dead it's covered."

"You assume I had somebody trainable," Berry sniffed, still in full snit.

"I hope somebody forces you to get some psychological counseling back on Earth," Everett told him. "Although the case could be made you'll just fit right in," he growled. "Put him on the shuttle. Remind them at the lock to deny him access to com and check his suit like a newbie when you take him out. I want him to safely be somebody else's responsibility."

* * *

"I've got a job," Linda informed her children at supper. "I'm going to go to an orientation tomorrow morning and then the next day I'll go out early and work before you get up. I'll be back and have breakfast with you before you go to school. and Eric, I need a pair of spex and for you to show me how to send messages, so I can clock in and out of work."

"OK, I'll get you a system ID and show you how at home," Eric agreed.

"What are you doing?" Lindsey asked.

"I'll clean up a private club to get ready for the next day's business," her Mom said.

"You're a cleaning lady?" Lindsy asked. Her face and voice said it horrified her.

"I
picked
that, over several other jobs," her Mom informed her. "At least partially for your benefit, so I could have more time at home with you two. I could have had a job in pharmaceuticals that was clean and easier. I'm a hundred-seventy dollar an hour cleaning lady."

"Wow, that's good money," Eric said. Lindsy said nothing, but still had a pouty look.

"It was never beneath my station to clean up after
you
, Your Highness. Perhaps it's time and past, for you to see what you'll have to do when you are on your own. It's your job now to clean the bathroom. Working outside the home I deserve a little support. You tidy it up every day and do a thorough scrub of every surface, once a week. Eric can wipe the surfaces in the big room as needed and clean the floor once a week too."

"OK," Eric agreed, unconcerned. That left Lindsy in an untenable position to complain. She elected not to say anything. That was still an improvement over past behavior.

* * *

"April? I think you should look at this Earth news item," Gunny said in a funny voice.

"What craziness are they up to now?"

"It's about the Spanish couple you showed around Home and then took to the club with your grandpa and me that evening. It's really worth reading."

"Oh, the Alphonses, sure send it to my screen."

"Madrid – (EFE, translated) James and Helena Alphonse, distant members of the extended Royal Family, are wanted for questioning in connection with terrorism, by propagation of infectious biological agents. They are missing from their customary city home as well as their country cottage. Ms. Alphonse was last seen at her position with the Antiquities Authority four days ago. Her husband James was reported to have arrived at his office with the Royal Charities Commission the next morning, but when agents of the CNP arrived he was not to be found in the building."

"There is much speculation that they were involved in the reported illness of the King and Queen, that has kept the Royal Couple out of the public eye the past month. This affair may also be related to the reported infection of Cardinal Gasco, which resulted in expulsion from his office. Despite it being involuntary, he is charged by Church authorities with unnatural impurity, due to abominable genetic alterations. Discussions of going further to excommunicate Gasco are apparently on hold as the whole College of Cardinals is reported to be in an uproar in seclusion and even the Holy Father has not been seen now for the last three weeks. Questions from the press are refused."

"The Alphonses are reported to drive a white Mercedes sedan license ECS9173AJT. Reports of their whereabouts are solicited by the authorities."

* * *

"Oh my God. They came up here to get some gene therapy from Jelly. It sounds like they did a viral transmission and somehow broke isolation," April speculated.

"That's how it sounds to me. Helena seemed pretty sharp to me. I can't believe she'd be careless about transmitting it."

"Yes, she seemed like the brighter one of the two. He wasn't stupid, he just didn't have that little something extra she did. But obviously she sees a great deal in him. They seemed very devoted to each other"

"They seem to have been on top of things enough to disappear before the police arrived. I wouldn't be surprised to see them turn up here again," Gunny predicted.

"I've got to tell Jelly. He'll want to be very careful about any liability and he may want to change his protocols. It's
crazy
to complain about something that makes you healthier and lets you live longer. People pay big bucks for this and they're mad they got it free."

"I almost said they are Earthies," Gunny said, dismayed at himself. "I'm so new I still have Earth dirt on my shoes and already feel they are Earthies, so of course they are nuts. Doesn't take long up here to get that attitude does it?"

"No, you have to stay immersed in Earth Think every day, or you lose the conditioning and notice it is all crazy pretty quickly. That's the real horror for the authorities down there, the possibility that the population might see things from a detached enough viewpoint and realize how absurd it all is. That could get ugly for them quickly."

* * *

"Ms. Paddington, I'm Phillip Detweiler. I'm the
maitre
d' and schedule all the personnel. I'm responsible for the immediate smooth flow of operations on the floor during serving hours. I also have a small ownership interest in the business, which is good, it keeps my interest keen and personal. The serving staff are charged with keeping the serving area presentable during operations, but necessarily there will be some deterioration that can't be dealt with while our guests are here and it becomes more evident when the facility is empty and the lights turned up. I saw on your application you have not worked in a fixed service location before. What do you anticipate will be most difficult?"

"It's distasteful, but I'm concerned the restrooms may be very difficult to clean. The lady at the employment agency assured me that the public on Home is much less inclined to vandalize the facilities than I am conditioned to expect on Earth. If that is the case I can only welcome it, because our family would go to great lengths to avoid using a public restroom on Earth."