Family Law 3: Secrets in the Stars (51 page)

"For some weird reason that makes me feel better," Singer admitted, confused.

"Well sure. Nobody with any self respect wants to be a freeloader," Lee said.

"I'd say we need to speak to some of the life extension people on Home," Gordon said. "Maybe even go there. Why don't you ask April if she would recommend one? I bet an introduction from one of the peers of Central is a good way to start a business relationship."

"I'll do that, but I'm not going to keep calling her to the com," Lee said. "I'll drop a text message on her, without tagging it as urgent, and see what she says."

"Sounds good to me," Gordon agreed.

* * *

April called her back on com rather than text her. Lee was embarrassed she seemed to be bothering her a lot, but April seemed relaxed and friendly.

"I suggest you get an appointment with an outfit called Custom Tailored Genes. They're in the newest hab, number three. Not Mitsubishi Three, that's actually Home One. It's kind of confusing. But make sure you are going to the newest one. That usually clears things up if there's confusion. You can get the basics in one day, but if you want the whole deal and modifications it will take three days, last I heard. It used to be a lot longer with pauses between treatments."

"I wasn't setting an appointment to get treated," Lee explained. "We want to buy the information on how to do it, so we can start on altering it for the other species.

"Well sure, do that too," April agreed. "But you're here, at the best place to have it done. I know you can afford it as easy as a new pair of footies. Are you going wait and take a long star trip back later to have it done when you're already here? Or is a quick natural death suddenly looking more appealing to you for some reason?"

"Uh... "

"You know, you're really no more attractive than anyone else with your mouth hanging open," April advised her. "The only reason I can think of to put it off is if you haven't had your fill of the slumball yet, since it will make you unwelcome most everywhere. Planning on going down?"

"While I agree with you about the natural treasures of the world, the Earthies and their customs and governments can go to hell on the slow elevator, screaming all the way," Lee said, heartfelt.

"Oh, that's right, you
have
been down there," April said, dripping sarcasm.

"I do see your point. I'll get treated while I'm here. Who knows, maybe we can get it cheaper as a package deal," Lee hoped.

"I have no idea if he's on station, he's got a half dozen working for him and isn't always there, but if you talk to a Gerald Ames he's called
Jelly
. He's the owner, and he'll do deals like that. I've done quite a few trades in goods and services with him, instead of cash. He's a dear, but older than me, and smart. Don't try to slick him or he's resent it."

"I wouldn't think of it, but thanks. If we do trade in kind I'll make sure he's treated well. What kind of modifications are you talking about? Something more than just longer life?" Lee asked.

"I had a whole group of modifications in vitro," April said. "Then my mom carried me normally to term. I have a modified metabolism that runs at a higher rate and gives me more energy. It would be almost impossible to induce diabetes in me. However if food is not available make my metabolism shut down to a much lower level temporarily. I had a number of recessives edited that might lead to disease. They made sure my vision and hearing were optimum and my teeth straight. I'm optimized for long distance running. A lot of that stuff is illegal again down on Earth.

"Then when I was a little younger than you I got what would be regarded as basic life extension therapy today. I've gotten a couple tweaks of that since to make it work better. They thought after the initial work I'd live to a hundred and thirty to a hundred and fifty years old. Now they are guessing at three hundred, but nobody really knows. Anybody familiar with the history of technology expects that number to be bumped up before we attain it.

"But the sort of mods you are asking about I bought well after I had basic LET. I had my reaction time boosted significantly. My strength was increased without damaging my endurance. There is also a genetic oddity that allows multi-tasking I acquired. A minor one I picked up is the ability to synthesize vitamin C in my body. It was cheap, and if I'm ever stranded somewhere it may be handy. I've turned down some modifications."

"Why would you reject any improvements?" Lee wondered.

"There's a mod that greatly increases your memory, alters you time sense, and gives you perfect pitch. It also subtly alters your personality. I don't want anything that changes what makes me... me. I don't count that an improvement. There is also a mod that reduces the sleep you need by about half. But when you do sleep it is very deep. You can't be roused from it and function. It seems a safety hazard for a pilot to me. Also every person I've met who had that mod seem...
off
to me. They seem to me the sort who don't get jokes, and have a hard time sorting fiction from reality. I think they are more suggestible. So it's a what makes me, me issue again."

"Did Dr. Ames warn you about those side effects?" Lee asked.

"Heh, Jelly isn't a doctor, the way you mean it. He has several doctorates, but he's not an MD. Actually he's a veterinarian. He won't sell anything he won't take himself. And the memory mod he tried and removed. He says he likes himself better without it. I also wonder how having
that
good a memory is going to work, if you live a couple hundred years too. The sleeping mod he won't sell at all. He won't make anything without an undo procedure either. He's got pretty strict ethics," April said.

"Ah, that may be useful if he's a vet," Lee said.

"Most people get upset, and don't like the idea of a veterinarian practicing medicine," April observed.

"Gordon was treated by one once, here on the moon actually. The only two docs with any experience treating Derf were on Earth, and she came in to assist a Human doc when he got shot. So I'm used to the idea. He later hired her to go and offer modern medicine to his clan."

"Why her instead of an MD?" April wondered.

"They had some doctors visit the clans, but they were so disrespectful of the herbalists and traditional healers that the Mothers booted them out. Gwen isn't quite so full of herself," Lee said.

"I can picture that," April said, nodding. To Lee's surprise April added – "Call me before you go out-system and tell me how things went."

"I'll do that. Thanks," Lee said, and April disconnected before her again. She'd been worried she was making a pest of herself, but apparently not. That made her feel better.

* * *

"Gordon, I have Custom Tailored Genes on the screen and the man is offering me an appointment for nine in the morning, day after tomorrow. Would you go with me?" Lee asked.

"They on the same clock as here?" Gordon asked.

"Yeah, I asked and he told me they've been on the same clock as the moon almost since their independence. He called it Zulu time," Lee said. "Damned if I know why."

"That's why we buy web updates," Gordon reminded her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll look it up but he's waiting. Want to go with me?" Lee repeated.

"Sure, what else am I going to do that would be half as much fun?" Gordon said gravely.

"Yes, I'm confirming that appointment," Lee spoke at the com and ended the call. She stayed there however. If she didn't look up Zulu time Gordon would bug her to death.

"You can never learn just
one
thing," Lee said much later.

"You said that like it's a bad thing," Gordon accused.

"Once in awhile a simple answer would be nice. How am I going to remember everything if I live
hundreds
of years? We'll all go crazy. No wonder April worried about it."

Gordon looked tempted to speak, and then looked away. He was being polite today.

"I know, you have to assume we aren't
already
crazy for that to happen," Lee said, before he could.

"You're having this conversation fine without me now," Gordon observed.

"Here's the deal. Zulu time is the same as Greenwich Mean Time, which is the time at the observatory in England where they established the zero meridian for Earth," Lee said.

"They got all the Earthies to
agree
on something like that? I'm amazed," Gordon said.

"Not at first," Lee agreed. "But this was at just the right time when sailing ships needed such a standard for navigation, and about the time they had clocks good enough to help navigate. But England was apparently a very big deal right then, and had the biggest navy. I guessing here, but I bet they made a lot of the charts too.

"But the Zulu time is from
zero
, since it's the zero meridian. But I tell you... nobody
ever
does things the easy way and just says zero time. It seems they used something called an acrophonic alphabet when radio was new. If it was all scratchy and garbled you'd spell out the message letter by letter with an agreed upon set of easily recognized words. So Zero Time became Zulu time. Doesn't seem like much of an improvement to me, but it was faithful to the system."

Gordon looked up scowling. "They have better radios now. They have satellite relays and fiber optics and digital processing. Why wouldn't they drop the acrophonic stuff?"

"I suspect they think it sounds suave and military," Lee said.

Gordon nodded. "They'd probably say it's
cool
. I read that phrase has come back for the fifth time recently. Slang is like that. It recycles."

"If we go off really far away and live for a couple hundred years, I wonder if we'd be able to make any sense of their English if we come back to visit?" Lee worried.

"You're giving this a lot of thought, aren't you? There will be problems if you live longer, but don't you think it beats the heck out of the alternative?" Gordon asked.

"You sound like April! I'm going to do it, but it's a big mental adjustment."

"It's funny, I thought being younger it would be easier for you," Gordon admitted.

"It's not. But I don't know why. Maybe it isn't my age at all – just
me
," Lee suggested.

"No point in me pondering it too deeply until we know they can do it for Derf," Gordon said. He seemed much calmer about that than Lee could understand.

"We'll see to that," Lee said, firmly. With her resources that meant something.

* * *

The shuttle was so luxurious it shocked Lee. The deck was carpeted in a dark grey with little yellow diamonds. Then when she boarded and looked closer they weren't diamonds, they were little stylized spaceships like the company logo. The seats were covered in leather that Lee was pretty sure was real. The bare mechanisms of conduits and ducts were not visible anywhere. Everything was covered or enclosed with custom panels and housings with texture or deeper designs.

The entire surface of the bulkhead beside them was covered with rounded off square indentations with a raised center bump like a crater on an airless world. There was a band of soft material in the deepest part. Lee knew because she reached over and poked it with a finger. She figured out pretty quickly that it absorbed the sound instead of reflecting it. The hush in the cabin just added to the sense of luxury. Everything was in different hues of gray, but with shocking yellow accents here and there.

They had an open space for Gordon with a pad and back-rest fancier than any accommodation for Derf she'd ever seen. It even had a single restraining belt like her seat, but four times as wide to take his mass into account. Lee wondered if they installed that when a Derf made a reservation or if they had enough Derf traffic to leave it installed all the time? She wasn't entirely comfortable with just a lap belt and no shoulder straps or leg restraints. But then they weren't wearing pressure suits, so any real crash would kill them before the lack of serious restraints.

When she was seated Lee was happy to see a space suit symbol and a recessed pull on the bulkhead below their screen. There were emergency suits if you could get one on in time. That made her feel better. There were privacy panels fore and aft of their seats, that curled around them a bit, but no doors; they were open to the aisle. However the sets of seats were staggered so the seats opposite were not easily in their view.

Gordon turned around to face her. She hadn't realized the low seat moved. There was no obvious switch or keyboard so he reached out and tapped the screen. It came to life showing the flight deck. The crew were busy doing some sort of preflight. Probably getting clearances too, Lee guessed.

In the bottom corner a window said SERVICE, and showed the outline of a drinking glass and a cocktail glass. A line drawing of a balloon figure showed it bent slightly at the waist offering a generic box to a seated figure. So there must be food and maybe other stuff available too.

"Would you like something to drink?" Gordon asked, finger poised over the little window to tap it.

"I'm not sure. Is there a head in this can?" Lee worried.

"Not only a head, but handicap sized, so I can use it if I turn around very carefully," Gordon said.

"Fine, order me a Mocha then, please," Lee asked. "Where's the delivery port?" she asked, looking under the screen and finding nothing.

"You didn't read the company site after making reservations," Gordon said with certainty. "They have a Human flight attendant on each vessel over twelve seats, to serve refreshments and any other service you require."

"Oh my God, servants. Now I know we're rich," Lee said. "Can I get a manicure or my hair cut?"

"Only if you tell them ahead. They invite you to let them know if you require 'special services'."

Lee just looked at him like he'd gone around the bend. This was hard to believe.

"You can also reserve a 'suite' on the larger shuttles that allows you to recline, but not in this smaller shuttle, and I hardly thought we'd need that.”