Chapter 24

When we arrived at Agriculture, we met a lady that looked to be in her mid-30’s. The striking thing about her was her clothing. Usually, the standard attire for both men and women is coveralls, pants, or shorts. The exceptions are the kimono’s and ao-dais that are reserved for showing status. Usually, particularly in zero-g, a dress or kilt could be a liability. Arabella was dressed in a wildly patterned and colored blouse and a full equally colored skirt that almost reached the deck. Her blonde hair was tied into a ponytail, and a bandanna was tied around her head.

Arabella Thorne didn’t follow convention or custom. She laughingly called herself a free spirit. Raised on Earth, at a real dirt farm, one of the last and designated a cultural treasure. The community she was a part of was a holdover from an earlier time and philosophy. When Arabella completed her government-mandated education, she was called to the community council. They informed her that it was time for her to choose a husband and start a family.

Arabella had no intention of marrying or having children. She asked the council for time to consider who her spouse would be. They agreed and gave her til the end of the week to make that decision. Late that night, when her family was fast asleep, Arabella left home. Never to return.

Once she was free, she started working on her real education. A passion for plants and animals drove her to botany and biology. Using government grants, she was admitted to university, and, as the saying goes, she was off to the races.

She quickly advanced through her undergraduate courses and advanced towards her goals. Arabella worked hard and achieved those goals. But just as she was within reach of her Doctorate in Biology, fate stepped in. Fate in the form of a government desire for research into biological weapons. Once again, Arabella was asked to do something she had no intention of doing.

Arabella had seen this coming and had prepared herself. The primary need was identification. At her first opportunity, Arabella Thorne disappeared, and Marylyn Dylan rode on the shuttle to the LaGrange 2 station. At LaGrange 2, Marylyn Dylan disappeared, and Louise Anderson signed on as a cooks assistant, on board a troop transport to Mars. Before docking at Mars station, Louise Anderson also disappeared, and Arabella Thorne reappeared on the station. Within the week, Arabella had signed onto the Seward’s Folly, which was hiring on people for a mining operation. She started at the low end of the agriculture section and worked her way up. She found that life on the Folly was just what she wanted, and she decided that this would be her home.

Arabella was waiting for us when we came into her office. “Captain, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Juan Garcia called and said you would be coming by. He said that you would be bringing me a present?”

“Ms. Thorne, glad to meet you. I don’t know if this is a present or not.” I pulled the vial from my pocket and handed it to her.

She looked at the contents carefully. Then pulled a jewelers loupe from her pocket and looked closer. “Mmmm, interesting. I wonder”

She turned to her computer and started typing. Then rechecked the seeds. Several times she alternated between the monitor and the vial. Paul and I were forgotten entirely.

While working, Arabella was muttering to herself. “Could be, might be.” then “That is, if they’re fertile. Won’t know till they germinate.” she finally leaned back in her chair and looked up at me.

“Captain, I doubt you know what we have here.”

“Seeds of some kind. Mr. Garcia seemed to be pretty excited to have them.”

“I don’t doubt that, sir. I think that what we have here are pepper seeds.”

“Pepper seeds? why should we get excited over pepper seeds?”

“I think these are jalapeno peppers, sir. They have been outlawed off-planet for centuries.”

“Ms. Thorne, I have had meals with jalapenos in them. Granted, they do add to a dish, but they aren’t unknown.”

“What you have eaten is a processed version of the peppers. They have had the seeds removed or irradiated and made sterile. I hope that these are fertile. That we can get them to germinate. What we have here is a chance to break the embargo. But we need to keep quiet about this.” she turned and opened the wall safe behind her. She put the vial inside and shut the safe.

“We need to keep this very quiet, Captain. We need to wait and see if they’ll grow first. Then we’ll need to wait until we have enough for trade. If we do this right, there’ll be peppers throughout the system, and Earth will be out of another monopoly.”

“Interesting little conspiracy you’ve thought up. But I guess, Paul and I could keep quiet for a while.”

For the first time, Arabella noticed Paul. “My goodness, Captain. Is this young man, the orderly I’ve heard about?”

Paul was trying to figure out whether to be impressed or intimidated. He held out his hand, and Arabella took it. “Ma’am, I’m Paul Holt, Captain Sullivan’s orderly. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“A polite young man, I’m impressed. Well, Mr. Holt, would you like a tour of the area?”

“Yes Ma’am, I would like that very much. That’s why I’m tagging along on this inspection.”

“Inspection? Gosh, we’re certainly not prepared for an inspection. But that would be the point, wouldn’t it? Well, come along, Mr. Holt. Let’s see what we can find what needs fixing.”

She took Paul’s hand and led him out of her office. Me? I felt like her tag along.

The first room we came to, we had to go through an airlock arrangement. It wasn’t really an airlock, but you couldn’t open the interior door until the exterior door was closed. The room we entered was large. Not so much high as long. On one side of the room stretching out in front of us were rows of racks, they ran the room’s length. Each of them held different plants. In between the racks were columns. Thousands of them, with plants growing from the sides.

Arabella was smiling with pride. “Well, Captain Sullivan, welcome to Sherwood forest.”

I noted that there seemed to be a lot of unused space. “You look to be underutilized here, Ms. Thorne?

“Well, sir, we are only serving the onboard family and temporaries. This is the production necessary to satisfy that need. We can and do sell our overproduction. But the return on our cost is negligible. Most of the ships and the station, have hydroponics in use. It’s hard to sell lettuce when everyone has lettuce.”