Chapter 8: Lupina for Lupinans

Over the next few weeks Karina navigated the treacherous seas of young love. Some days it was smooth sailing; some days it was stormy weather. Either way, Jonathan and Korona could do little more than provide rough guidance and warn about impending crashes. Still, it moved forward. Karina was in love.

A week after Sunday dinner with the Sawbucks, Billy invited Karina to dinner at his house, so she could meet his family. That became the first argument with her family. Billy had his own bedroom and invited her to stay the night. His parents allowed boyfriends and girlfriends to stay over with their children. Unfortunately, Korona said no, Monday was a school day, and she needed to be home the night before. Karina considered this a terrible infringement of her adult rights and privileges. Jonathan considered that a bit much and told her so; his daughter wasn’t an adult and if she didn’t start acting like one, said privileges could and would be revoked.

There was a standoff for a few days until Billy invited her over Friday night. Korona accepted sleepovers both Friday and Saturday nights, since there was no school the next day. Bringing Billy over for a night was more problematic. “Where would he be staying?” asked Korona.

“He could stay with me in my bedroom.”

“Your bedroom? Is that the bedroom you share with your brothers? Or your old bedroom, the study room without a bed in it?” asked Jonathan.

Karina stopped mid-response. She really hadn’t thought about it. She wanted private time with Billy. A foursome with her brothers was not private, and while she knew about getting airtight, she’d never done that before and didn’t think Billy was up for it either. “Oh.”

Korona glanced at her husband, who shook his head and let her handle it. Korona turned to her daughter and said, “Listen, your brothers are going off to college in about six months. After that, it will be your bedroom, and you can invite the entire swim team over.”

Karina nodded thoughtfully. “That might be fun. Those guys are real jocks and some of them have really big muscles.” Then she grinned and said, “Really big!”

“Just let me know when they’re coming over. I’ll take the overload off your hands.” Jonathan just rolled his eyes at that. Korona liked sex in the swimming pool and the swim team might be a fun evening for her.

Janine knocked on her boss’ door frame. “Boss, I’ve got the Director on hold for you.”

Jonathan looked at her curiously. “The Director?”

“Yes. Director Hawksburg.”

Vladimir Hawksburg was the Director of Immigration Assistance, the senior administrator of the planetwide agency. “He say why?” Part of him wanted to ask what he had done now, but for the life of him, he couldn’t imagine what that was. There simply hadn’t been any problems in Caradoc since the Bossaman issue, and that was weeks ago.

“Nope. Sit and ask him yourself.” She tapped her macrolink and passed the comm to him.

Jonathan sat behind his desk and tapped his macrolink. “Jonathan Sawbuck. How can I help you.”

“Jonathan, it’s Vlad Hawksburg. How are you?” Jonathan’s macrolink put Hawksburg’s image on the holo screen in front of his eyes, just as Hawksburg’s showed Jonathan’s image.

“Good, sir. How can Caradoc help you?” It was unusual for the Director to directly call him. The Director normally dealt with the politicians in Lupina City; one of his executive assistants normally called with any special requests.

“We’ve got a problem here and it involves you. I decided I needed to give you a head’s up.”

“Sir?”

“Are you familiar with a Legislator named Demeter Rossembroski?”

Jonathan searched his memory, even going so far as to pass the name to his AI assistant. Nothing came back except that he was a Legislator from Base Station, the oldest city on Lupina. “Nothing’s ringing any bells.”

“No reason it should. Put bluntly, he’s a screwball from Base Station, just south of Lupina City, so he’s in my backyard, not yours. The problem is that he’s been in the Conclave since just about the first landing, is older than the known universe, and has enough seniority to be a pain in the ass. He has decided that the Bossaman Debacle - his words, not mine - need Conclave hearings and investigations.”

“What?” asked Jonathan. How did a minor immigration problem end up in the Planetary Conclave? He asked the Director specifically that.

“What can I say? The guy’s got a few screws loose. He thinks we’ve got too many immigrants and wants to shut down IA. Nobody wants to put up with him, but he’s been around forever, and they love him in Base Station. I’ve been putting him off for weeks now, but he managed to beg, borrow, or steal enough votes on the subcommittee to order hearings and issue a Planetary Summons. You and your people will be getting them tomorrow. He’s also going after the Municipal Police and everybody else who was involved in sorting it out.”

“You have got to be kidding me!” Jonathan protested.

“It gets better. You can’t do it remotely. He wants to publicly grill you on planetary holovid. You’ll need to come to Lupina for this.”

Jonathan shook his head in disbelief. “Director, I live to serve...” Hawksburg laughed at that. “ ... but I’ve never even heard of this guy. What’s he want?”

Hawksburg shrugged. “Nobody here is completely sure, but I have some people digging. Our best bet is something tangible, like some patronage jobs or a contract for his friends. I’ll let you know when we find out.”

“When is this going to happen?”

“He wanted yesterday but I said that current workloads required a delay of three weeks. He’ll try and cut that back, but when I hear something definite, I will let you know. You start sorting out your end.”

“Understood.”

Director Hawksburg said his goodbyes and ended the com. Jonathan rubbed his face and shook his head. He called up his report on the incident and began reviewing it. He was about to start comming a lot of people.

A few days later, Hawksburg commed again. By then Jonathan had confirmed that Planetary Summonses had been issued to just about every citizen in Caradoc. They had been issued to Jonathan, his administrative assistant Janine Heartwell, the original IA officer who had met with the Bossamans, and the IA officer’s supervisor. Every Caradoc Municipal Police officer who had been at the Bossaman home and at the police station, seemingly the entire Municipal Prosecutor’s office, and the Mayor of Caradoc and his staff. Jonathan thought it was a monument to overbearing political foolishness.