Chapter 34

The worm hole from Sigma Draconis to Mountserrat only saved on fuel and time as the transit fees were such that is was actually more economic to space the distance. The justification of the USN was that their people needed experience in translating as worm holes were elsewhere a rarity. Of course, the ability to map the approaches and environs of the northern end of the Junction might have had something to do with the decision. It was fortunate that the Solarian mapping equipment was automatic.

"Sundowner" burst into the outer harbour at Settlement junction and was directed to the passenger terminal. Charles was familiar with the terminal and had no trouble berthing without shuttle tugs. Air bridges were established to the decks and harbour and custom officials entered the middle deck via the portside boat bay.

Morg and TJ had arranged leave for the duration of the stay in Settlement. The duo were very surprised when their PDAs had beeped with incoming calls as soon as "Sundowner" had cleared the Junction.

Pat and Ivy were waiting for them and had opened the Hobson residence for them to stay. The duo's arms were filled with a tightly clinging female as soon as they exited the arrivals' tube dirtside; TJ and Morg were led, dragged, guided to a ground car, pushed inside and found their laps full of derriere as a grinning Bill Sorensen drove the party to the Hobson's. Bill courteously dismissed an invitation to join them muttering something about a 'third wheel'.

The pairs quickly separated to the bedrooms where the men were brought up to date — among other things.

Pat had returned to Settlement to become Mountserrat King at arms to cover for Austen Neville who had gone on a tour of duty on HM Tender 'Tangerine' which would take him away for about three years.

Ivy had bought her discharge from RMN and was to begin the year long Police Academy course.

The Palace and the Navy were nearly recovered from the disaster of Brown Hollow's time of influence and Sir Jonathon and Rupert Logan both sent their regards — they would see them when they completed the voyage back here before finally heading back to Old Earth — a month long show was planned then.

TJ and Morg both made it clear to their paramours that they were effectively in the service of the United Solarian Navy and they liked it that way — whilst there was politics galore in the Solarian Worlds, the triumvirate were keeping the Navy out of local disputes. The four had gathered for refreshment and were chatting away when Pat mentioned that Marine 737 was now a static display as P.T. Numbar wouldn't keep up the maintenance costs to keep her flying in the face of a dwindling market. Ivy mentioned that Sally McGraw was at Warminster doing an officer course. Morg's forehead furrowed and he looked at TJ,

"'Tangerine' would just fit in the starboard boat bay and we could work on her while the conventions are open — depending of course upon how much demand there is for the House"

"Er, ah" TJ stuttered "could you two keep yourselves busy while we have a look at 'Tangerine'." And then gathered pace "You could go up to "Sundowner" to see the Tulips and the Windsors for a couple of hours."

Ivy and Pat exchanged a humorous glance, nodded and Pat smiled evilly and said,

"We'll invite Sally over this evening so we can get to meet her. Suits. Off you go."

Later that afternoon, Charles was advised that an antiquated assault shuttle was being towed up to "Sundowner" to be squeezed into the starboard boat bay to be followed by some stores for use in getting her spaceworthy again; 'Nita James had some familiarity with 737 and would know where to put the stores (Morg hoped).

A drawn Sally McGraw joined them for the evening meal and some coffee. She didn't say much about what she had been doing (but would have been surprised at just what TJ and Morg had guessed about GmBH) other to say that she was on the officer course to be commissioned and return to Second Space Lord's domain and that Denny and the others were now Grenoble officers attached to 119 DD Squadron which had just departed to Raffles for convoy duty in Paracelsus. Some tall yarns were exaggerated about the exploits of 737 during the "Naseby" days and a pleasant night was had.

They saw Sally into a ground taxi and then headed for their bedrooms which they didn't leave much for the next thirtysix hours — and only then for sustenance. An exhausted but happy Pat and Ivy saw TJ and Morg off at the departures' tube an hour before "Sundowner" was due to space.

A refugee ground taxi driver gaped in amazement at the sight of two women who had just seem their men off capering around together with excreta eating grins meeting around the backs of their heads. He didn't hear Pat say to Ivy when they began walking sedately back to their ground car,

"You know Sally is just pregnant, too; I know that appearance only too well — I've seen it too often on maids in waiting. Odds on she will do what we are going to do — tube the babe while getting on with life. Ain't science grand. How well do you know Teddy Nolan?..."

"Sundowner" translated into n space from the Junction into the busy outer harbour of a small orbital at Almond Marzipan (no one could ever give an explanation as to how the system got its name). It was a major transhipment port for goods to the Southsentry junction with that port's connections to Midsenttry and to the eastern Amaranti empire at Durander. The convention opened and a small steady stream of interested company representatives moved through the demonstrations.

The system was ruled by the 'Patrican' who appeared to be the latest of a long line of self appointed despots most of whom were good rulers — those who weren't benevolent seemed to attract fatal accidents — and the population got on with earning a living. It was generally self sufficient but was lacking a technological base importing what it needed from Mountserrat.

Julie had made it her business to find the current values of all the local currencies before leaving Old Earth and was able to make an estimate of the standard of living; her assessment was that there would be slim pickings for New Harriers and the House of Tulip at AM but even slimmer pickings at the 'Sentries. 'Gene Thorogh was interested in Julie's thoughts as if she was correct then the sales on the other decks could reflect this. It certainly proved true on AM as the Patrican had not lined his pockets nor did he keep a large defence force, either on the planet, or local space. Morg and TJ had a long talk with the Patrican when he visited New Harriers — his survival depended upon excellent intelligence and he made it his business to gather as much as possible from every source however unlikely. The Patrican was interested in their views on the conflict raging to his south and as much of the history of its origins to compare with his knowledge.

TJ found a kindred spirit in the Patrican's entourage and some private negotiations led to several circuit boards changing hands. Another contact to TJs net.

Despite much interest in House of Tulip, the sales just broke even with the expenses.

The relative lack of interest allowed TJ and Morg to get into skinnys and work on 737. 737 was a topic of conversation at the evening meals and the coffee afterwards which were becoming the focus of social life on the middle deck. (Charles had his wish to have a 'wet' ship but there was very little consumed apart from an occasional glass of wine at a meal when a bottle was cracked and shared.) Morg was bemoaning the effort that would be needed to shuffle 737 in and out of the boatbay; as was usual in merchantmen, the doors were smaller than the compartment (warships usually had very large doors fitted with a force field to allow of much traffic). Colin again came up with a solution,

"Rebuild the entry port to fit 737's horizontal profile and use her as the 'door' when not in use and a force field when she is being used. We can do that using our present equipment."

"You might want to lose the impellors" Orville suggested and went on hurriedly when confronted with Morg's elevating eyebrows "I mean replace them with top mounted pods. (sigh) Morg, those power pods are older than you are; probably as old as I am and stuck out the sides makes profiling her more difficult than it needs be. We are going to be in Amaranti in about two months time and if I send an order back to Old Earth now, they can ship it Amaranti by fast shipment and it could be waiting for us at New Breslau when we arrive."

"Order what, Orville?" TJ interjected.

"New power pods, of course. The lot who built the power plant on "Sundowner", Adama Wartzsilo are an amalgamation. Before Adama amalgamated, a largish group who wanted to stay in small power plants broke off and have stayed small — production models and company size both but they are still afloat and manufacturing. Point, they have a booth on A deck now and have a couple of examples of the pod I am thinking of. Tomorrow, TJ, you and Morg can suit up and pay a visit."

TJ and Morg did the EVA and passed through the force field into A deck. There were a few curious glances at the armoured trio as Orville led TJ and Morg to the booth. The company was now called "Podmounts Inc". The sales representative did know his product and he and his colleague turned out to be production engineers using the convention as a grand tour of the galaxy. Tom Exter and Dennis Purleigh knew their stuff and a very serious discussion ensued as to how to retrofit the power pods to 737. TJ's PDA was used to throw a holo of 737 and then a schematic of her systems. With an excuse to the Sundowners and an invitation to inspect the exhibited pods, Dennis pulled Tom away for a private discussion. Dennis returned and invited the Sundowners into the cubicle which was their office. Tom and Dennis had a proposition to put which they admitted was off the tops of their heads and hadn't been fully worked out. Part of the sales pitch for their pods was the ability to retrofit the new pods to old hulls which were still in good condition — the power plants usually were the major factor in sending a ship to the wreckers as the cost of replacing a power plant outvalued the ship in many cases. But external pods did not cost much to fix to a hull and an old power plant could be shut down and the hull still used with pods as power plants. The determining factor was the hull size / available power ratio. An assault shuttle was an ideal size hull for their pods and the company representatives offered a deal — take two of the working pods off the floor and fit them to 737 (Tom and Dennis volunteered to help — they had heard rumours about the middle deck and wanted to check them out as well as smelling a good deal for their company). This way, Podmount would have a live 'demo' parked outside A deck for potential customers to inspect and be the centre point of sales discussions. The Sundowners would get a 'deal' for the pods. Morg commed Charles using his PDA and Charles sent the matter down the food chain. Clare moved into New Harriers to appraise Julie of the situation. Julie asked Clare to com Morg to get all the financial details of the pods and to return to middle deck for a briefing conference. New Harriers was open for business to support House of Tulip but that early in the day, things were slack so Julie sent Ally and Dell back to the quarters to confer with TJ and Orville.

As the convention closed at end of first dog equivalent for the local planetary day a dinner invitation was made to Tom and Dennis for that evening which was gladly accepted.

The exhibitors had pooled resources on each deck to provide catering but it was basic; the USN had organised their own catering which was considerably better and invitations to exhibitors in rotation were eagerly awaited. Some of the exhibitors had 'discovered' New Harriers and availed them selves of its hospitality — at some cost to their pockets but a few considered it well worthwhile. Invitations to middle deck quarters were unheard of and Percy Gantry's alacrity in returning to middle deck each evening had been noted.

The offer of transport was declined as Tom and Dennis had their own shuttle scooter (used for touristy things). It was made plain that the invitation included a night's bunking as the convention decks were shut down and the airlocks sealed. The casual mention of their destination by Tom and Dennis as they logged out of A deck flashed about A deck quicker than it took the pair to 'scoot' to the portside boatbay.

Tom and Dennis were taken to the starboard boat bay to superficially inspect 737, shown their cabin next to Percy's, and then guided to the 'upper deck' for pre dinner drinks and then the meal. Julie sooled Ally and Dell onto the two unfortunates and the ladies used every skill they had learnt from Aunt Gabrielle in negotiation — it was more like sheep to the slaughter.

They returned to A deck the next morning very much the worse for wear much to the envy of their fellow exhibitors and clutching signed and sealed documents covering the agreement. What agreement? Neither of them remembered making any agreement but there were the documents. Their signatures were on them, witnessed by the Master of "Sundowner" who had no interest in 737 — it was owned by TJ and Morg personally and those were the other party's signatures. Tom and Dennis were hesitant to read the docs but finally plucked up the courage — they had been shafted but not viciously. 737 got two brand new pods at Old Earth prices (Tom sent an order for immediate replacements and they were available when "Sundowner" reached New Breslau). When "Sundowner" arrived at Southsentry for a two week opening, 737 would be move alongside A deck. Orville and his black gang under the supervision of either Tom or Dennis would remove 737's existing pods and while that was going on, the positioning of the top mounted pods would start. "Sundowner" would provide the tools to do the job. Hull mounted vids would record the work in progress and other vids would record the interior work. The vids would be the property of Podmount but "Sundowner" would retain a copy for her records.