They Also Serve: A Jump Universe Novel Part 10

"Jeff Sterling's with you. He'll tell you."

Jeff looked like he could, and might enjoy it, too.

Right now, Ray needed time and information. "Ms. San Paulo, I'll see what help I can get moving and call you back." Ray closed down the commlink, gave it to Rose, and turned to his team. "Folks, we have a problem. Mary, have Ca.s.sie get the metal back to base. Mary, Jeff, we've got to talk."

"Yessirs," answered Ray as he acquired a mule for immediate return. Ray tapped his commlink, got Barber. "h.e.l.l's apopping. They've got riots in Refuge. We've got some interesting stuff here at the mine, and I want to see you as soon as I get back."

"Gosh, and I've had such a quiet day," the chief laughed. "Doc said he had something for you as soon as you get in."

"Great," Ray sighed. "I'll stop by the hospital first. Ca.s.sie'll have you a half trailer of metal in an hour."

"Good. I'll get the factories going."

"We'll need to talk about what you produce."

"I knew you'd say that," Barber groaned. "Base out before you ruin my day worse."

Ray chuckled grimily at the commlink, then turned to Jeff. "What's your sister up to?"

"Running for empress of the world. What do you know about economics, Mr. Amba.s.sador?"

"About as much as an infantryman needs to," Ray said pointedly as Mary put the mule in gear.

"Then I'll be fast and simple. What you don't have is worth more than what you do. Gold was rare on Earth, thus valuable. Here, copper is both rare and in high demand for every tech application. You can use aluminum or iron, but copper's better. h.e.l.l, we use salt water for some stuff. My grand-something Jason staked out the only copper mine we've found. Best iron ore as well. As soon as the original salvage from Santa Maria ran out, we Sterlings became the only game in town. And since Dad died and Mom decided she'd prefer praying to running the business, Vicky calls the shots. Following me so far?"

"I think so."

"Now then, brother Mark locates a hill just full of bauxite up north. The psalm singers are none too happy to have us hard-drinking, going-to-h.e.l.l miners show up. Big sis is even less happy. Mark's compet.i.tion. Not only on the raw metal scene, but also bro Mark sets up factories, makes electric motors, communication gear, all kinds of things that compete with Vicky's one-hundred-percent market share."

"No monopolist welcomes compet.i.tion," Ray nodded.

"That's the background; now we get to today's riots. We Sterlings run both the business and the financial life of this world. Copper is not only the critical feed for industry, it's also the basis for our money." Jeff fished in his pocket, produced two coins. "Most of this is ceramic. However, its center slug of copper makes it money. We've always had some aluminum-based money in circulation. That wasn't a problem until Mark struck it big time. Mark starts minting money, and the price of everything went up. p.i.s.sed off Vicky big time."

"Inflation," Ray nodded.

"Right; too much money chasing too few goods. Before we had deflation, a very limited copper-based money supply and a growing population producing more and more goods. Result, the value of everything went down. Except for what Vicky made. She kept her prices up or higher. The value of the goods and services used to pay for her products decreased. She got more for the same product. She loved it."

Ray folded his arms. "And the farmers hated it."

"Cost of a village phone system went from half a year's production to two years' worm of work in one generation, a generation that added a million more people. Old folks remember how far a copper dollar used to stretch. Grumble to the kids. Everyone gets mad," Jeff sighed. "Then along comes Mark's aluminum dollar. Folks have plenty of money. Deflation stops. Sis gets the same, maybe less value for the same product. Boy, did she squawk. As much as she could, she demanded copper coin for her stuff. Yesterday I guess she made it official. You want copper products, you pay in copper coin."

"Seems like your brother Mark would love it. Step right in and grab Vicky's market."

"He would, in another couple of years. He's not ready yet."

"A preemptive strike." Ray scowled. Economics might be economics, but he knew a war when he saw it. Still. "People are reacting awfully fast, taking to the streets and burning things when all they've been told is there might be problems."

Jeff nodded. "There's been a lot of talk lately. Your people and what you're going to do. Jonah's crazies. I don't know. Maybe this was just the straw that broke the bridge."

"Maybe," Ray agreed. Or maybe there was something more? The rational part of his mind had only scorn for the very question. The part he dreamed with was none too sure.

"Step on it, Mary." Ray hung on and wondered what Doc was so excited about. He also wondered what they could do to help Refuge. Twenty years of soldiering had taught him to look for his opponent's center of gravity. Ray still wasn't sure who his opposition was, much less what was important.

Mary followed Ray and Jeff into the hospital. The doc took one look at Ray walking in with a single cane for support, and waved him toward the scanner in Med Bay One. "What happened?" Jerry asked as Ray settled comfortably on the table.

"You tell me, Doc, and we'll both know."

"Looks like you've had as intriguing a day as I've had."

"Doc, you tell me your tale, then maybe I'll tell you mine."

"That bad?"

"Maybe that hard to believe," Ray growled. "Talk to me, Doc. Make me happy."

"Let me get this going," Doc said, worked his control board for a long minute, then came to stand beside Ray. "I've been taking blood from people all day, like a hungry vampire. Locals, first group down, latest arrivals. All have varying levels of virus in their blood. The longer down here, the more."

The control station for the scanner beeped happily that it was done. Doc returned to tap it, "hummed" noncommittally several times, then asked Ray, "You still need help off the table?"

Ray swung his legs over the side, positioned his cane as a safety measure, then eased himself off. "Not bad," Doc noted and glanced at Jeff. "Does he go everywhere you go?"

"Jeff has just become my chief of local intelligence, mores, rumors, and other duties as a.s.signed." Ray frowned at the young man, raising the question with an eyebrow.

"I'm in," Jeff agreed.

"The smell that just got real thick in here, Doc, is Jeff's burning bridges," Mary laughed.

"Gosh, and I didn't bring any marshmallows. Welcome to our happy bunch of campers, Jeff." Doc offered his hand, then brightened. "Does this mean I can get a complete set of tissues and liquid samples from this man?"

Jeff yanked his hand back.

"Down, Doc," Ray chuckled. "I'm your guinea pig today. What kind of rumors is your meticulous scanner handing out?"

Doc got serious as he turned back, to his a.n.a.lytical readouts. "Your back has knitted almost completely in the past twenty-four hours. I suspect I surprise you in no way when I tell you it shouldn't have happened. Wonder why?"

Ray shrugged, not yet willing to talk about his day.

Doc moved the scan results up to Ray's skull. "Brain ma.s.s has expanded downward. That might take some of the pressure off your skull. Let me check something." Three other images appeared. "Compare tumor ma.s.ses against the brain's total ma.s.s," Doc ordered, then pointed as numbers appeared beside all four.

"Right. You and the kids have the same ma.s.s per brain weight, to within the third decimal."

"Any idea what that means?" Ray asked.

"d.a.m.ned if I know." The good doctor shrugged. He called up a dozen different skull scans. "Anybody came in here today got a brain scan. You got a cold. You got hemorrhoids. You got a skull scan," Jerry chuckled. "Last was a bit hard to explain. Anyway, based on my incomplete random sample, you will note something interesting. These are organized by age, youngest at the top." He let each scan run for fifteen seconds. The ones at the top showed brightly colored patterns. The ones at the bottom showed significantly less.

"And that means?" Ray said.

"I haven't found a pattern to the size of the ma.s.s. Some have only a small one, others more. None has one anywhere near as large as you and the kids. However, there is a clear pattern by age. In older samples, activity is reduced. In the younger ones, that thing, whatever it is, is active as the d.i.c.kens."

"Something is in our brains?" Jeff asked slowly.

"Some of us. Seems to depend on how long we've been down here," Jerry answered.

"What's this planet doing to us?" Mary breathed.

"That is something we'd better figure out before Matt gets back," Ray growled. "What do we do now?"

Jerry shook his head. "I can chase after what we've got here,"-he waved at the lab-"but I think Mary hit the nail on the head. What is the planet doing to us? We need to know a lot more about this place. What's its geological record? Where did it get three evolutionary tracks? Where do we fit in?"

Ray tapped the table. "We've got to start drilling rock cores. Is there a geologist on the planet?" he quipped. "Your people done any anthropology, dug up old bones?" Ray asked Jeff.

"Only geology we've done is for mineral surveys." Jeff seemed pained. "This has been our home. It just is. I guess we didn't question it much. Or maybe we just couldn't afford to question it." He ran down slowly. "There is Harry. He worked for Mark on his surveys. Spent a couple of weeks telling me all the different names for rocks and minerals. A bore...or so I thought at the time. Harry the Flak, we called him."

"And we can find this flak?" Ray urged.

"Lives outside Richland, in an old place full of core samples that he collected when he was working with us."

"How far is Richland from Refuge?"

"Couple hours' train ride. Less if you're driving a mule."

Ray nodded, tapped his commlink. "Kat, we're about to set up a temporary base in Refuge. I want you and Jeff to make a fast run up to Richland to see if we can hire a geologist. Draw weapons with sleepy bullets."

"Think that will be needed?" Kat answered.

"I hope not. I'd rather you took too much than too little."

"Yes, sir."

Ray stood. "Any more suggestions?" No one had any. "I better go see the chief."

Ray had forgotten how much fun it was to walk, just walk rather than hobble. He relished each moment of the jaunt over to the HQ as the afternoon cooled and evening came on. Mary strode along beside him, beaming from ear to ear.

The talk with Barber went quickly. He gave a stoic sigh when Ray told him a security system for the base was his first priority and Ray needed the factories up yesterday. The chief was already working on that and had come across something interesting. "Mary got a surprising mix out of that hill. There's nothing in my manufacturing feed-stock database about so many minerals in a single batch except when you recycle electronic gear. Was that an electronic center, Colonel?"

Ray shrugged and added another piece to his puzzle. "Chief, go through your stores to see what we can use to help Refuge."

Barber rewarded that order with a twisted scowl. "And *nothing' is not an acceptable answer."

"You got it in one."

Ray and Mary waited for Ca.s.sie in front of the HQ as twilight deepened. It was hard to believe, among the familiar smells of a cooling summer evening, that he was halfway across the galaxy on a world doing strange things to the innermost part of him. When Ca.s.sie parked, he and Mary settled into seats and launched right in. "Mary, I want you running the base. Ca.s.sie, you ready to help the Refuge security folks update their equipment and procedures?"

Ca.s.sie nodded. "Surveillance is what they mostly need. The communications gear will let them use what they learn. Pretty much what I helped Mary do back at the pa.s.s."

And Ray knew very well how good they'd been there.

"Mary, got any thoughts?" His chief of security shook her head. "Okay, Ca.s.sie, tell me what you'd want."

"How many mules can you spare me?"

"I think the chief said none. I'll get you at least two for starters, although I may be loaning one of them for a quick trip to Richland. Weapons?" Ray went on to the next issue.

"Usual load out of personal weapons. I'll leave the heavy stuff behind. Maybe a few charges in case we have to blow a bridge to keep things from spreading."

"Personnel?"

"I'd like two squads, mine and Tico's plus Lek. If we're setting up a communications and command network, I want Lek."

Mary was unhappy at that. "I need Lek here if anything goes bad on the manufacturing side. But I'll loan him for a while."

Ray nodded agreement to both, but refused to let something just as important get lost in the rush. "Tico's? She heads up the other street kids' squad. Why not Dumont's?"

"Both squads know their jobs." Ca.s.sie spoke slowly, seemed to weigh each word. "Maybe I want someone a bit more reluctant to shoot. It is peacekeeping you want?"

Ray eyed Mary. She shook her head. "It's their security service I think we have to worry about. They have no capability for lethal force. We do. I'm not sure we shouldn't have someone like Dumont available if we need them."

Ca.s.sie started to say something, swallowed it, and sat back in her seat to digest it. "Okay."

"I'm issuing you a case of sleepy bullets," Ray offered. "It'll take us three seasons to grow the feedstock to make more, so we'll have to be sparing with what we've got."

"Thanks," Ca.s.sie said.

Ray drummed his fingers on the seat beside him, balancing a.s.signments against time. He tapped his commlink. "Chief, how soon can you have our spare gear loaded on the shuttle?"

"Give me an hour. I'll have an inventory in thirty minutes."

"Shoot a copy to Ca.s.sie as well."

"Fine. I've put the shuttle crew on notice for a thirty-minute launch."

"Good; I expect we'll be away in an hour, two at the most. I need two mules."

"I'm loading you three. I can stretch the product from Mary's work today to replace most of what I'm sending. Probably in the next week."

"That fast," Ray whistled. "I'm going, too. No use being an amba.s.sador if you sit home all the time."

The shuttle circled Refuge, taking pictures, feeding them to Ray and Ca.s.sie's readers. Ray scowled and made a note to get the sky eyes back up. With the local survey done, the remotes had been put in storage to save wear and tear; Ray hadn't expected to need them. Expectations were rapidly changing.

"New fires," Ca.s.sie said, circled them on her display, and stored their address for when Lek got the network up between them and the locals. Ray eyed the fires. The city below was changing from lovely to war-torn. It made his blood boil.

"There are three blimps parked at the port," the shuttle commander reported. "We can set down, but it's gonna be a bit tight. Seat belt sign is lit. Cinch 'em in, boys and girls." The shuttle bucked as full flaps were applied. Ray switched to the live feed from the shuttle cameras. An unlit greensward lay dead ahead; looming bulks swayed in the gentle wind off to the left, near the hangars. The field looked clear until the camera zoomed in. Sheep grazed placidly up and down their runway.

"Didn't somebody tell them we were coming?" the shuttle commander growled into a hot mike. Ray had. Some idiot hadn't pa.s.sed the word...or someone had ignored their orders. No SAMs today, but sheep could wreck a shuttle just as well.

"Let's see if we can send those critters elsewhere" came from the c.o.c.kpit. Flaps and gear came up; the engines switched to full power.

Five minutes later, no sheep interrupted their landing roll. "Never seen four-legged critters exceed the speed of light before. d.a.m.n near left their wool behind," Ca.s.sie quipped.