Take The Star Road (The Maxwell Saga) (6 page)

"Yes, Bosun."

"Good. Give a copy to Agnetha here. She'll enter it in the League's records, and use it to set up DNA-verified access to your account." He did so as the Bosun continued, "You have all your other documentation with you?"

"Yes, Bosun." As he tapped his belt pouch, data chips rattled.

"Once Agnetha's set up your personal file in the League's electronic vault, copy everything into it - and I do mean
everything
. This branch will send the info back to Head Office on Lancaster. From there it'll go out with the next monthly update cycle to every planetary office. Within three to four months you'll be able to get a certified copy of any of your documents from any League office, in case you lose the original or don't have it with you when you need it. The copies are legally recognized throughout the Lancastrian Commonwealth, and by many other planets as well. I've had to use that service three times so far. It's a life-saver!"

"Er... is the information secure?"

"Oh, yes!" Agnetha assured him. "Our data vault is triple-enciphered, then quantum-encrypted. Over and above that, access to anything you designate as confidential is restricted to our offices, with DNA verification of your identity every time. Your mail is different, of course, as you may not be able to get to our offices during a brief visit; so you can send a signal to one of our planetary offices, asking them to forward it to your ship. Your message has to contain a prearranged authentication code, of course."

"What if I'm on a planet that doesn't have a League office?"

"We have offices on every major planet, and affiliates on more than half the minor worlds. You can authorize us to forward funds, mail and documents to you on planets where we don't have offices. You do that by sending us a specially formatted request that includes a prearranged authentication code, plus a DNA sample for verification of your ID. Of course, after it leaves our custody or that of our associates, we no longer accept responsible for your property's safety or security."

"That's fair."

It took almost an hour to complete all the formalities. At the end of that time, Steve had been registered as a spacer apprentice in terms of the laws and regulations of the Lancastrian Commonwealth. He was issued a merchant spacer's ID for use when visiting orbital facilities, reserving his passport for travel planetside. He signed a copy of the ship's articles, to signify that he agreed to observe and be bound by them during his service aboard
Cabot
. The League set up his personal file in their electronic vault, provided him with bank and mail accounts plus health, disability, life and piracy insurance coverage, and verified and logged his spacer theory courses and examination results.

As he and the Bosun left the League's office, he asked awkwardly, "Er... please excuse me if this is a stupid question, but - "

The spacer interrupted him. "Stupidity is not asking a question when you need to know something. What is it?"

"What's 'piracy insurance' all about?"

"Let's hope you never need it! Basically, if your ship is taken by pirates, the League insures you against the loss of your personal possessions and gear, plus lost income while you're a prisoner and for a few months afterwards. They'll pay the ransom to free you, plus transport from wherever you're released to wherever you want to go. That insurance alone is worth every credit they charge!"

Steve winced. "I should hope so! Their dues of twenty per cent of salary seem awfully expensive. If you hadn't said it was so important, I'd have passed on membership."

"Look what you get for your money. A spacers' guild is a bank, insurer, notary, co-operative, trade union and postal service, all in one institution. When we're hundreds of light years from those services on our home planets, our guilds are essential. Local banks don't know us from Adam, so they won't let us draw against accounts on other planets; and local service providers want to be paid up front before they'll help us. Planetary guild offices bypass all those problems. If our guild doesn't have a local office, it'll probably have a mutual aid agreement with a guild that does. If you add up all you get, a levy of twenty per cent is cheap at the price - and that's only charged against your salary, not income from private trading or other sources."

"If you say so, Bosun." Steve still couldn't help sounding dubious.

"You'll see for yourself soon enough, 'specially if you're ever in deep trouble out in the back of beyond. You'll find out it's better to have those services on tap than not have them when you need them! Now, let's buy your gear."

"I don't think I've thanked you yet for all you're doing to get me squared away. This must be keeping you from all your other duties."

"Not really. I'm on liberty for the next two days. This will only take a couple of hours. I'll get things moving at Spacer Supply, then leave you to get on with it. I'm going to do a little business with Louie over lunch, then indulge myself with wine, women and song while you sort, clean, wash and pack everything. Meet me outside Louie's place at oh-seven-hundred, the day after tomorrow. We'll travel back to the ship together."

"Aye aye, Bosun."

"Do you have anywhere safe to keep all your gear until then?"

"No." He hung his head, embarrassed. "I'm sleeping in a flophouse. Can't afford anything better right now."

"I've been poor a time or two myself, son. There's no shame in honest poverty. OK, we'll ask Louie to let you use one of his storerooms to sort out and stow your gear. It'll be secure enough there. No-one on this Terminal is fool enough to try to steal from
him!
"

Steve grinned. "Apart from the Lotus Tong, you mean, Bosun?"

"Ha!
No, by now you can include them, too. The surviving members - if any - have surely learned that lesson the hard way!"

The older man hesitated, then went on, "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I'm curious. You've given me two examples of really dedicated behavior. One was making up your mind that becoming a spacer was your ticket off Earth. You studied spacer theory for a couple of years on your own initiative, even taking the online exams, then came all the way out here to the Cargo Terminal, living on a shoestring while waiting for your chance. Most young men wouldn't have the self-discipline and drive to do all that on their own initiative. The other is karate. It's very unusual to find a second
dan
black belt who's not yet twenty years old. What made you work so hard in both cases? What motivated you?"

Steve's instinctive response was to withdraw, avoid the question, evade any revelation of what he felt inside. He'd learned the hard way, over more than a decade in the orphanage, that to expose your innermost thoughts to someone was to risk them being used as fuel for mocking jibes. It might even lead to outright rejection. In such a setting, privacy had to be guarded jealously, one's motivations and aspirations hidden from others.

He forced himself to relax.
He's not out to get me
, he reminded himself mentally.
He's my boss. He's got a right to ask questions - and he was upfront about my not having to answer this one. I think I can trust this man. If I can't, I'm in deep trouble anyway! May as well take a chance, and answer honestly.

"I've had to fight to defend myself, and make a place for myself, almost as long as I can remember," he said slowly, unaware that the pain of his memories was leaking into his voice. "Orphanages can be merciless, even if the people in charge do their best to make them as humane as possible. Put a bunch of boys together, and they're going to establish a pecking order based on physical size and aggression. That's just the way it is. My first years there... let's just say I learned to hate bullies and sadists with a passion. I started karate as a way to defend myself against them. It wasn't taught in the orphanage, but at a nearby gymnasium, so none of my tormentors bothered to go out of their way to learn it. I figured, if I knew a way of fighting that they didn't, I'd be better equipped to take them on."

The Bosun listened without comment, but could sense what these revelations were costing Steve. He mentally compared them to his memories of growing up in a comfortable family atmosphere, knowing he'd been very fortunate by comparison. He tried not to let his instinctive sympathy show, and had to restrain himself from patting Steve reassuringly on the back. He figured the youngster wouldn't take it very well.

"It wasn't easy," Steve continued. "I managed to stop one bully, but then some of the others ganged up on me, so I had to work even harder and learn even more to protect myself against them. I took several bad lickings - I even ended up in hospital once - but the time finally came when I could hurt them as much as, or more than, they hurt me. I also taught some of the others how to defend themselves, and to stand together with me against the bullies. After that, they left us alone. I hope those I left behind will pass on what they've learned to future generations. That'll make the orphanage a better place for everyone.

"That taught me you've
got
to stand up for yourself, and you've
got
to persevere. If you don't, if you just take it passively and knuckle under instead of resisting, you'll be a victim forever. That helped me when I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I didn't want to stay on Earth, where rights and freedoms that used to be normal have been forgotten or ignored. Everything's geared around conforming to the group. There's not much tolerance for individualists. There's an old proverb that says, 'The nail that sticks up gets hammered down'. Down there, if you try to live your own life, if you want to rise as high as you can on your own merits and in your own right, you're going to get hammered down by the bureaucrats who administer the system. They're like the bullies in the orphanage. They want obedience and conformity, not initiative and drive. The only way to get out from under them is to join 'em, and I wasn't about to do
that!
" His face twisted sourly.

"I had to find something better, and that meant going somewhere else. I read as much as I could about the rest of the settled galaxy. The place that seems to put the most emphasis on individual rights and responsibilities is the Lancastrian Commonwealth, so I started to look for ways to get there and earn citizenship. Its Fleet's Foreign Service Program seemed to offer an opportunity. It'd let me earn citizenship without needing qualifications and experience I can't get here without surrendering my right to emigrate. Problem was, I couldn't afford to buy passage to the Commonwealth. Becoming a merchant spacer was the lowest-cost way I could think of to get there. I'd also get training and experience that'd make me more useful to its Fleet.

"I couldn't afford spacer training at vo-tech school, so I knew I'd have to try for an apprentice berth. That's why I studied spacer theory on my own, then spent everything I had in the world to come up here and wait for a ship with a vacancy. It wasn't easy. There's been times I haven't eaten regularly, because I couldn't earn much by doing odd jobs; but if I wanted to get off-planet, I knew I had to be up here, ready to grab any chance that came along. If I wasn't on the spot to take advantage of it, I'd miss it. I never expected my chance to come in the form of a fight to the death in front of the saloon! I guess everything came together at the right moment - my karate, my studies, being up here, and then Mr. Brackmann knowing you. Without all those things, you'd never have heard of me and you wouldn't have considered hiring me."

The Bosun nodded soberly. "You sure grabbed the brass ring when it came around! Don't think your struggle's over now, either. I'm going to ride you hard, and not cut you any slack - that's my job, after all. Still, on the basis of what you've just told me, I reckon you'll do all right. Keep working as hard as you have to get to this point, and we'll make a spacer out of you in no time!"

Three assistants converged from different directions as they strode through the doors of Spacer Supply, all drawn by the Bosun's badge of rank. He selected the most promising-looking and handed him a data chip.

"This young man is Steve Maxwell. He's joining my ship as a spacer apprentice, and needs a complete outfit - the works. That's a list of what I want for him. Payment will be made by Louie Brackmann, owner of the Horseshoe Saloon two decks down. We'll call him to set that up before I leave."

"It'll be a pleasure to serve him - and you, Bosun!" The salesman's eyes glittered at the thought of the commission to be earned on so substantial a sale. He slipped the chip into a reader and scrolled down the list. A furrow appeared on his brow. "We may not have some of the exact items you list. We can supply equivalents, of course - "

"No!"
Steve and the salesman looked at the spacer, startled by his vehemence. "When I specify a brand name or manufacturer or model, or if any item is preceded by an asterisk, you'll provide
exactly
what I list. You do
not
have discretion to substitute anything else. If you don't have them, either get them here by tomorrow morning, guaranteed, or tell Maxwell at once so he'll have time to buy them from another vendor."

He turned to Steve. "I've learned to trust what's listed there, and you will too. If you can't get something here, look up other suppliers in the Terminal and order it from them. Remember the old saying: 'Buy cheap, pay dear'. In space, your life quite literally depends on your gear, so buy the best, no matter what it costs. In this case, thanks to Louie's generosity, I've specified a very comprehensive outfit, far better than most spacers start out with. You'd take several years to put it together using only your salary."