Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet (26 page)

"Be sure to send them Spam," Lee suggested. "Even the Hinth buy Spam."

"What is Spam?" Lucky asked.

"Mentioning mystery meat made me think of it," Lee said. "It is a meat...product. You can probably sell it to the Bills with no problem, if they can digest it. It is square and in a metal can and now they make a Derf sized can," she said demonstrating with her hands, "because the Human sized cans are so skimpy you need four cans to make a decent Derf sandwich."

"We'll send samples to our testing labs," Lucky promised.

"Some of these things, like the liquor, are luxury goods and I can see us doing an actual trade in them. High cost won't matter with them because they are a novelty. But some things like food plants we are going to have to trade seeds or starter plants and hope to get something in return we can take back home and grow. We can patent plants, but I understand you can't here," Gordon said.

"Any one plant may not be worthwhile," Lee pointed out. "Safer to trade ten of our common food plants for ten of theirs. Chances are out of ten
something
will have value."

"Do you have somebody who is a farmer? Who knows food production?" Gordon asked.

"We can get such a person up from the planet," Stubborn assured him.

"How about you get that guy and I'll find somebody in our fleet who is a farmer, or at least a gardener and we'll let them negotiate separately from us to pick ten plants to trade?"

"I'll have him up here tomorrow. Where will this take place?"

"I'll rent another hotel room for the fellow and they can meet there or here in your bar. Whichever or both they like. Does that work for you?"

"Sure, we'll have him here tomorrow and he'll stay with my family while he is on station. We have a big place and Badgers have family in and out all the time. It's our nature. In fact he will probably be family. We do business that way too. Lucky here is family."

"That's interesting. Our whole expedition is basically a family business so I understand."

"It is? How many members have ownerships?"

"Why Lee here owns two thirds and I own a third. But everybody who came along gets paid shares from whatever profits we show. They are not liable for any losses however. If we don't make anything she and I would have had to bear the loss. We are already assured of gains however from claims we made before we ever got here."

Lucky looked at Lee and looked at Gordon. He looked at Stubborn who looked away and refused his stare. "But Lee is Human and you are Derf, do I understand that correctly?"

"Yes, but she's my adopted daughter, so she'd family. Do you not have adoption?" he asked.

"We do, but not across species. I mean..." Lucky had a wide eyed look a little different from any they'd seen before. Gordon suspected it was confusion and maybe a little consternation. "I don't know of any law
against
it, but I've never heard of one happening before. I think many of our people would have a hard time understanding why you'd do so."

"I grew up away from all other people on an exploration ship, but not in a fleet like we are doing now, just my parents and Gordon," Lee told him. "When my parents died he was the only adult I knew. The only other person I'd ever been around. Would it have been a kindness to give me away to strangers?" she asked.

"Apparently not," Lucky said. "I will have to take some time to think on that to not feel uncomfortable with it. I ask your patience. It is a very hard new concept to absorb."

"No problem," Lee said. "Some Humans had a hard time allowing it. Some Derf too."

The owners pressed another bottle of vodka on them when they left.

* * *

"Do you want to rent a different room, since the negotiators are in ours, or go back to the ship?"

"It was interesting, but I'd be happy to be back in my cabin," Lee told Gordon. "I don't care about the gravity and it was almost like camping out. I'll feel better being able to speak freely too."

"Good, I'm happy to go back too. I wasn't comfortable being away from my command so long."

When they got back to their lock some of the excitement over the new aliens had died down. There was a single Badger talking at length with both guards. As he suspected the Badger was a reporter when he asked. He thought the Bill standing off had equipment that looked more professional than the people had before. They begged off an interview claiming to be tired and hungry.

As they walked along Lee decided to tell Gordon what she'd been thinking. "If you want Ha-bob-bob-brie to be available for others to see, I think you should train him to a bridge job. Running him up to the flight deck for a video and then right back to doing maintenance... It doesn't feel right to me. Also, when we get back are you going to try to recruit more Hinth for our ships?"

"I don't know. I don't know what we are going to
do
with our ships when we get back."

Lee looked like she was going to say something, and then changed her mind. "Well they'll be used for something. Starships are too valuable to sit idle." He didn't argue that.

"Why? What does that have to do with Ha-bob-bob-brie's duties?" Gordon asked.

"Well if you were going to send him to recruit among the Hinth it would look a lot better to have him say he had a more responsible position. Do you think their top people will get all excited at the possibility of doing suit maintenance? I can speak to the others on the
Retribution
. I haven't even asked what they are doing over there. In fact you haven't mentioned
how
they are doing, if they've fit in and adapted OK. I guess they might be possible recruiters too."

"They might be the better ones to recruit," Gordon allowed, thoughtfully. "They seem to think Ha-bob-bob-brie is insane by their strictest standards, so maybe he wouldn't be the best recruiter. Triads like them would likely be turned off by a solitary Hinth."

"But there must be other single Hinth," Lee guessed. "Maybe working with Humans and Derf would be a great opportunity for singleton Hinth, who don't fit in their own society."

"That's an interesting idea. Ha-bob-bob-brie seems able to discuss his status without getting upset. Rather he seems amused at the other Hinth's discomfort. If he's insane I find insane Hinth much more adaptable. I'll just ask these things of him directly and see what he says. Maybe he doesn't
want
a command job or to recruit. I'll put it to him before I ask Captain Aristotle to quiz the other Hinth."

"Good. I feel better about it already," Lee said.

There were lots of messages and Thor waiting for them at the ship.

"We have some people lobbying really hard to have some liberty. Trouble is I don't trust a number  of them to have the sense to interact with strange new races. I was very careful in setting up who would go on the dock. That worked out really well. I don't need people going on station who were probably well known back home to the Bunko Squad. They'd set up a table and start playing Three Card Monte with the natives and make us a stink to them for a few coins."

"How did we end up recruiting this bunch?" Gordon asked.

"Well, we picked them for skills, I guess most of the people who wanted to come are naturally risk takers. And I didn't realize Fargoer's are as fanatical about gambling as humans are about football. But it isn't something I want to expose our new friends to this early. Maybe we can find some way to warn them about it and ease them into it."

"I think it's the sort of problem that will fix itself," Lee said. "After a few Badgers loose the rent money and can't figure out how it is done so slick, word will get around."

"That doesn't spread a lot of goodwill for the fleet though," Thor objected.

"I'll think on it," Gordon told him. "I'm on good terms now with a couple bar owners. Maybe we can provide a destination sort of leave without letting them all run wild in the corridors."

* * *

Prosperity White and the Third Mother of Red Tree settled into the suite and invited the Badgers to call whenever they wished. They came very quickly and they found they could drink the vodka without any problem. They spend some time asking what Prosperity did on his ship and at home as well as Madonna, which was the Third Mum's human name.

That led to the Talker and Trader explaining their personal life in some detail. Both sides felt better to try to understand the others personalities. They sat relaxed, holding hands.

They finally arrived at lunch time for all of them without doing any real business. It was interesting everyone got hungry again in about five hours.

The Human and Derf shared dishes, which was of some interest to the Badgers. They admitted the Bills had quite a few foods they could eat and Sasquatch just a few.

"What about the Biters?" Prosperity asked. That got a dark look from the Badgers.

"They would never think to share. Neither do we like to play with our food in making it dead."

"Oh," was all Prosperity could say. It seemed a good subject to drop.

The Badgers were set against making a border. At least one that was a plane they'd agree not to cross. It took a bit, but the idea formed in back and forth that they could enter Human Derf space for commerce, but agreed to avoid a cone aimed at the home worlds for exploration. Further refining defined the cone as sixty degrees. They'd come so far that easily defined everything in the present globe of exploration and then some. They didn't admit that to the Badgers, who seemed pleased with talking them down from a ninety degree cone of exclusion.

Thor or Gordon would have balked at telling the Badgers what direction they'd come from, but what other choice was there if they were going to define a border and encourage trade? They did however demand reciprocal information.

When the dinner hour approached they agreed they had discussed enough business for the day and everyone was tired. The Little Fleet team said they didn't understand enough of the local language or culture to appreciate the video entertainment. They set up to make their supper from their supplies and urged the Badgers to stay if they wished and order in from the hotel.

"I should have brought my blocks," Talker said, waiting for their food.

"I have the mutual word for block," Prosperity said, looking at his pad. "But I think I'm lacking context for what specific form of block."

"These blocks are square, but thinner the third dimension and have a number on both faces." Talker found a picture of them and showed them. "The square has a prime side above the number and a secondary side under it. There are several ways to play, but usually you play off a center line and block the other player from reaching a line closer to you. You can only block with a higher number, so there is much thought well ahead and constructing lines to go around is expensive and often futile."

"Oh, it's a
game
," Prosperity exclaimed. "Much thought, well ahead, we'd call
strategy
."

"We have a similar game, but the spaces are more numerous and defined for value and the pieces plain pebbles," Madonna said.

"That sounds like the Human game of Go a little," Prosperity said. "I like card games, because a deck is so easy to carry in your pocket," he said, producing one himself.

"Really? Is it a simple game or complex?" Trader wondered.

"There are
hundreds
of possible games using just the one deck and some using combined decks. There are fifty two cards in four groups called suits. I'll show you the values," he said starting to sort them out on the table. "Fargoers play a lot of poker. There are a variety of poker games, but let me show you a simple one..."

* * *

The third Mum and Prosperity White called that they were coming back to the ship to report on their progress. They turned down the offer of an escort, saying they felt perfectly safe. They didn't say, but Gordon assumed they were returning to the ship so they could report in privacy. He'd suggested that to them but got no clear agreement, just a nod that wasn't the usual clear acknowledgement he got from crew, but then they weren't acting as his crew right now.

Gordon, Lee and Thor went back to the ward room to speak with the government envoys. On the flight deck they couldn't sit facing each other, none of them were very good at ignoring it when any communication came in or the screens showed action. The control room was their place of authority too. It seemed a bad idea to talk with them where the setting reminded them there was a divide between their duties and missions that way and the coffee urn was there.

"These are the stars and vectors of the stars inhabited and worked by these races," Prosperity told them. He laid a physical print on the table, some sort of plastic material or paper encapsulated in protective covering. The model was artfully drawn, like a representation of a molecule, with bars connecting spheres. The bars had lines of data and the spheres had symbols relating them to text on the side. The system they were in right now was number 80 and they had entered from number 81. Basic numbers of each star appeared beside the sphere representing it. The chart was pretty big, near a meter on the long side and viewed in landscape mode.

"I don't know how it looks to anybody else," Lee said, "your color perception may be different, but it's
pretty
to my eyes, bright and they did the illusion of depth really well.

"They didn't make it specially for us. Talker said this is a well known chart used in classrooms and little ones interested in space like to hang it in their private rooms."

"Perhaps..." Thor allowed. "I'll believe they handed the location of all their worlds to us on a platter when I send a ship along some of these routes."

"What advantage to lie about it?" Prosperity asked. "They obviously don't have any great military ability. Their only space military force seems to be the Biters and it isn't like they'd act on behalf of the others. At least not without a huge price for their service."

"That's how it looks to me too," Thor admitted. "But I won't bet the future of my race and culture on my perceptions after such a limited encounter. We've only seen one of their systems."