Silk Road, page 15
“Very well. And we’ll carry them on the books in kind until exchange rates get sorted out, is that right?”
“Yes. I think it’s going to take a while for prices to settle out. There are a lot of other colonies still to come on line, and we just don’t know where things are going to settle out.”
“Understood. But in the meantime, let’s not let that keep us from forging ahead, ChaoLi. We need to get this interstellar economy going, to the benefit of all.”
“Thank you, Oliver. I agree completely. Let’s get it done.”
The first eight new orbital shuttles came on line in the nick of time. They spent two weeks loading Star Runner with two thousand containers of tea and spices bound for Earthsea and Playa.
Despite the relative inexperience of the new shuttle pilots who had moved up from atmospheric shuttles, there were no accidents. They had each spent the prior month co-piloting with the existing pilots in orbital operations.
While this was under way, Star Singer showed up from the Beacon shipyards. Star Runner, Star Tripper, Star Gazer, Star Dreamer, Star Rover and Star Singer were all now in orbit about Arcadia. The open factories in Beacon were now duplicating themselves.
When Hyper-4 showed up in Arcadia space with Jeong Minho, Loukas Diakos, and Bob, ChaoLi had an assignment for them on the way to Arcadia: drop Bob off on Star Singer. That completed, they made re-entry and landed at Arcadia City Shuttleport. Jeong and Diakos went straight home and to bed.
Following instructions, Bob walked about Star Singer, inspecting the interior spaces of the big ship. This was the way the ship arrived from the shipyard, with outfitting not even begun yet. He was then shuttled to each hyperspace liner in orbit in turn, inspecting their interior spaces through the process of outfitting, ending up on Star Runner.
During the shuttle transfers from one ship to the next, Bob inspected the outside of the ships.
When his inspection tour was completed, he reported to ChaoLi, as he had been instructed to do by Diakos.
“Do you understand the outfitting process now, Bob? What it is we are doing at every stage?” ChaoLi asked.
“Yes, ma’am. It is straightforward construction and detail work, of the type we already know how to do.”
“And have you worked out how to fly one of the orbital cargo shuttles? How to do orbital pickup and delivery of containers?”
“Yes, ma’am. The flight data was complete, and I was able to add the appropriate portions to our existing shuttle flight programming.”
“So you would be comfortable doing surface-to-orbit and orbit-to-surface delivery?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Very well, Bob. You should remain on Star Runner, and you will go with her to Earthsea and Playa. You will be flying an orbital cargo shuttle taking containers to the surface and back on both stops.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So we’re sending four orbital cargo shuttles along with Star Runner?” Bellamy asked.
“Right,” Gannet said. “And three pilots.”
“Three pilots?”
“The fourth cargo shuttle is going to be flown by the one robot we already have.”
“OK,” Bellamy said.
But she didn’t sound sure.
Once loaded, her skeleton crew transferred aboard, and the three shuttle pilots camped out in mostly completed cabins, Star Runner accelerated forward in her orbit, leaving her companions behind. It took two days for the massive ship to reach the hyperspace limit.
Then her crew turned on her hyperspace field generator, and Star Runner disappeared from normal space. She made her turn in hyperspace, and started for Earthsea.
The crew was running her hyperspace field generator in screw-drive mode, and the counter-torque started the big ship spinning. As she spun faster, the internal apparent gravity gradually came up to one-half g. The captain switched the hyperspace drive to ripple-drive mode.
Star Runner had entered hyperspace for the trip to Earthsea on Thursday, October 23, 2369, two months ahead of ChaoLi’s most hopeful estimate.
Then again, Star Runner’s interior spaces were not yet complete. She had dozens of containers of outfitting supplies in her aft containers, though. The containers that were accessible during the journey. With short staffing and no passengers – without the need to carry a full complement of food and waste containers – there were plenty of container positions for supplies.
During the trip, Bob worked on completing Star Runner’s outfitting. In twelve weeks, even working twenty-four hours a day, he would not finish the work by the time they reached Playa.
With ten thousand robots on the way back, however, they would probably finish the work in a day or two. The biggest issue would be not getting in each other’s way.
Finishing Star Runner would be satisfying. Bob liked to work, and he liked finishing a project.
It was good to be useful.
After six weeks in hyperspace, Star Runner appeared in the Earthsea system and made her way toward the planet, using her thrusters to brake the big ship all the way.
Blazoned along her bows was her name, and under it, two Chinese characters:
Star Runner
吉星
Ji Xing.
Lucky Star.
Ensuring The Future
Jessica Chen-Jasic’s display in her tea room had become her window onto the wider world beyond her gardens. She increasingly communicated from here rather than from her desk.
In one such call, she spoke to Chen JuPing on Tahiti.
“Hello, JuPing. You are looking well.”
“I’m feeling very well, Jessica. My apparent physical age is going down with the treatments here.”
“When do they say those will be completed?”
“Another month or two. I would be happy to be done with them. I would like to go back home. Back to the mountains.”
“How is Paul doing?”
“Also very well. His heart is strengthening as well.”
“All this is good news, JuPing, and has relevance to me as well.”
JuPing nodded in the display.
“Yes. You and Paul are almost eighty now, Jessica. They could take perhaps fourteen or fifteen years off your apparent age, to sixty-five or so. You would then have seventy years before you were a normal hundred years old.”
Jessica nodded.
“That was the direction of my thinking, JuPing. But I think David Bolton and Chen YongLin should go to Tahiti first. Slow down their aging first, before they become Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu. They will not be able to travel during that period, as the Chen should be here. Once Paul and I retire, we can go.”
JuPing nodded.
“Do not wait too long, Jessica. You’re aging now at twice the rate you need to, and only half that difference can be clawed back. That said, you are probably correct on the best course.”
“Unless you would wish to step back into the leadership, JuPing?”
JuPing shook her head.
“No, Jessica. I was happy finally to set such responsibilities aside. I am pleased to be able to consult from time to time, but the leadership role belongs to someone younger. There is something you might do, however.”
“Yes, JuPing?”
“Encourage JieMin and ChaoLi to come here. They would not get much younger, but they would age much more slowly going forward. They can conduct business from here as well as there.”
Jessica nodded.
“That would allow them to play an active role in the family business for a much longer time.”
“It would preserve what has been a valuable resource for the family well into the future. See to it, Jessica. Perhaps they can come with David and YongLin, on the ship that takes Paul and me home.”
“I will take care of it, JuPing.”
“I spoke to JuPing this morning, MinChao.”
“How are she and Paul doing, Jessica?”
“Very well. Their age is being reduced to an apparent eighty years old. They will have forty more years before they reach one hundred again.”
“Amazing.”
“Yes, and it brings up an issue we need to address. I would do the same, you and I, but we must transfer leadership to David and YongLin first. The Chen belong here.”
“That means David and YongLin should go first, Jessica.”
“That is correct. They go, they come back, and we retire. Perhaps on the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary. Then we go. On Tahiti, they can reverse us back to perhaps sixty-five, and we then have seventy years to an apparent age of one hundred.”
MinChao nodded.
“And without the responsibilities of leadership.”
“That would be welcome at this point. And I think JieMin and ChaoLi should go with David and YongLin.”
“She will resist that. She will think she must stay here.”
“Yes. I may need you to help me with that, MinChao.”
MinChao nodded.
“I will put in a word once you have hit her resistance.”
ChaoLi continued to report to her superiors periodically. She met with Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu every two weeks. They usually met in Chen Zumu’s tea room. These meetings were usually routine.
The meeting ChaoLi had with MinChao and Jessica the week after Star Runner left for Earthsea and Playa most definitely was not.
“I noted the departure of Star Runner, ChaoLi.”
“Yes, Chen Zumu. She will stop at Earthsea on the way to Playa, where she will pick up ten thousand robots so we can outfit ships faster.”
“And the Beacon Shipyard is now gearing up for faster production, as you mentioned last time?”
“Yes, Chen Zumu. We will soon have a dozen hulls under construction at once. We may speed it up further in the future, but I want to take it a step at a time. As it is, we are speeding up production four-fold with this one move.”
Jessica nodded.
“The robots are a critical step, then,” MinChao said.
“Yes, Chen Zufu. Without them, we simply cannot outfit ships fast enough. With them, outfitting will be at least six times faster, plus they can finish outfitting ships while under way. The passenger spaces take the most work, and passenger traffic will likely build up slowly.”
“Six times, ChaoLi?”
“Yes, Chen Zufu. They work twenty-five hours a day, plus they do not need food service, which takes additional manpower and shuttle services, to bring up food and remove waste containers for emptying.”
“They do not need time to, I don’t know, charge up or something, ChaoLi?”
“They use fast-charge batteries, Chen Zufu. It takes about five minutes for a twelve-hour charge.”
MinChao nodded.
“I see,” he said.
“The early ships will be able to handle passengers, however?” Jessica asked.
“Yes, Chen Zumu, just not at their full capacity. But we do not need to push their full capacity right away. I expect passenger traffic to grow slowly. Freight traffic will be as large as we can carry from the very start.”
“I see,” Jessica said. “Well, I have to say, this is all going very well. Using robots from Playa for outfitting and piloting work was a splendid idea.”
“JieMin’s idea, Chen Zumu.”
Jessica nodded.
“But that ability to carry passengers has brought some long-simmering decisions to a head, ChaoLi. I need to bring you up to date on those.”
“Of course, Chen Zumu.”
“MinChao and I will retire next year, ChaoLi, at the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the colony. David Bolton and Chen YongLin will become Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu.”
ChaoLi nodded. As expected.
“Yes, Chen Zumu.”
“At that point, MinChao and I will go to Tahiti for anti-aging treatments. In the meantime, the Chen belong here.”
“I understand, Chen Zumu.”
“Similarly, David and YongLin cannot go to Tahiti after becoming Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu, so they must go before we retire.”
“That makes sense to me, Chen Zumu.”
“You and JieMin will go with them, ChaoLi.”
ChaoLi’s mouth opened, but no words came out. She shut it. How could she explain that she couldn’t possibly go to Tahiti now, with everything going on?
“I cannot possibly go now, Chen Zumu. There is too much going on.”
“You expect things to slow down, ChaoLi, with ships coming off the line four times faster, and with QE radios being delivered to another fourteen colonies in the next several months?”
“No, Chen Zumu, of course not, but how can I possibly go now?”
“You can conduct business all the way there and back via QE radio, ChaoLi. How much of your business do you do now on your display rather than in in-person meetings?”
ChaoLi was thinking furiously, running through scenarios in her mind. This couldn’t work.
“Consider, ChaoLi,” Jessica said. “You are coming up on forty years old. You are actually forty-two in solar years, due to the mismatch in calendars. On Tahiti, they can set back your apparent age to thirty-eight, and you would then have a hundred and twenty-four years until you turned the apparent age of a hundred. You would live to a hundred and sixty.”
“But how do I do everything that needs doing now?”
“To mortgage the future in the name of the present is not a winning strategy, ChaoLi,” MinChao said. “We must ensure the future.”
“How?” Jessica asked. “You will plan. You will delegate. You will challenge people within your staff to step up. In short, ChaoLi, you will manage.”
“You and JieMin will ultimately become Chen Zumu and Chen Zufu, ChaoLi,” MinChao said. “To be able to one day handle such responsibility, you must learn the subtleties of power. This is your assignment.”
Chen Zufu had spoken. There was no argument. ChaoLi bowed deeply in turn to MinChao and then to Jessica.
“Yes, Chen Zufu. Yes, Chen Zumu.”
After the morning meeting with Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu, ChaoLi went downtown. Not to her own office in Four Charter Square, but to JieMin’s office in the Chen Hall of Science at 100 North Arcadia Boulevard.
“Hi, what’s going on?” JieMin asked.
“JieMin, we need to talk.”
ChaoLi closed the door behind her and sat in one of JieMin’s side chairs. She related to him the conversation with Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu.
When she completed, JieMin nodded.
“All of this makes sense to me,” he said.
“But how can I possibly do this, JieMin?”
“As Chen Zumu said. Plan, delegate, challenge your staff, and do it all by display rather than in-person meetings.”
JieMin thought about it, and ChaoLi waited.
“You know, you have an advantage in that it’s still several weeks off,” JieMin said. “Start delegating more. Use the display to attend meetings more. Smooth the transition, so there is less of a jolt when we depart.”
“So you’re on board with this whole plan?”
“Sure. Why not? Sounds like fun.”
“What about Chen Zufu saying you and I will become Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu some day?’
JieMin shrugged.
“I’ve known or suspected that for a long time, ChaoLi.”
ChaoLi felt like she was the only one who hadn’t known, at least until recently.
“You have?”
“Of course. Who sat with Chen Zumu and Chen Zufu at the centennial fireworks.”
“That was twenty-four years ago. You’ve thought this that long?”
“Yes. That we were on the short list, at least. I became certain when they made you head of the hyperspace project. That was always very important to both JuPing and Jessica. Regaining the stars.”
“So we go to Tahiti?”
“Yes. Of course. Would you defy Chen Zufu?”
“All right. I better start training people to be more independent.”
“Much as Chen Zumu did with us.”
ChaoLi started at that, but then she nodded.
“Yes. Yes, I see that now.”
ChaoLi sighed.
“I’m going to need you to put together a freight route that runs through Tahiti and still makes a profit. Running tea and apples back and forth won’t cut it by itself.”
“Of course. Probably through Earthsea in one direction and Amber in the other. I’ll work on it.”
Once Star Runner arrived in orbit around Earthsea, it was time to begin transferring containers in both directions. They had a thousand containers of tea and spices to go down to the surface and twelve hundred containers of cheese to come back up. While the tea and spices weren’t very heavy, the cheese was.
They unloaded the tea and spices and transported it to the surface a dozen containers at a time, but only brought the cheese up eight containers at a time. This opened up the cargo area a bit as time went on, and made it easier to maneuver in the shuttles.
They didn’t unload and reload the forward half of the forward cargo compartment. Instead they emptied eight of the sixteen rails all the way to the back of the compartment, with the ship pushing the stacks of containers forward. They then filled those rails back up, with the ship pulling the stacks back in as they filled. The result was that they could unload either cargo or tea at their next destination, not just the last thing loaded.
After eighty-four trips down and back, the tea was all delivered, but they still had sixty-six more trips to make, deadheading down and bringing cheese up.
The three human pilots managed four round-trips in a twelve-hour day. They could handle that because most of it was being done under complete computer control.
Bob ran twenty-four hours, making eight round-trips a day.
Between the four shuttles, they managed to make all one hundred and fifty trips in eight days.
With all her cargo transferred, Star Runner set out for the hyperspace limit. With the trip to the planet, the cargo transfer, and the trip back out to the hyperspace limit, she was in normal space-time twelve days before transitioning back into hyperspace and setting off for Playa.
“Yes. I think it’s going to take a while for prices to settle out. There are a lot of other colonies still to come on line, and we just don’t know where things are going to settle out.”
“Understood. But in the meantime, let’s not let that keep us from forging ahead, ChaoLi. We need to get this interstellar economy going, to the benefit of all.”
“Thank you, Oliver. I agree completely. Let’s get it done.”
The first eight new orbital shuttles came on line in the nick of time. They spent two weeks loading Star Runner with two thousand containers of tea and spices bound for Earthsea and Playa.
Despite the relative inexperience of the new shuttle pilots who had moved up from atmospheric shuttles, there were no accidents. They had each spent the prior month co-piloting with the existing pilots in orbital operations.
While this was under way, Star Singer showed up from the Beacon shipyards. Star Runner, Star Tripper, Star Gazer, Star Dreamer, Star Rover and Star Singer were all now in orbit about Arcadia. The open factories in Beacon were now duplicating themselves.
When Hyper-4 showed up in Arcadia space with Jeong Minho, Loukas Diakos, and Bob, ChaoLi had an assignment for them on the way to Arcadia: drop Bob off on Star Singer. That completed, they made re-entry and landed at Arcadia City Shuttleport. Jeong and Diakos went straight home and to bed.
Following instructions, Bob walked about Star Singer, inspecting the interior spaces of the big ship. This was the way the ship arrived from the shipyard, with outfitting not even begun yet. He was then shuttled to each hyperspace liner in orbit in turn, inspecting their interior spaces through the process of outfitting, ending up on Star Runner.
During the shuttle transfers from one ship to the next, Bob inspected the outside of the ships.
When his inspection tour was completed, he reported to ChaoLi, as he had been instructed to do by Diakos.
“Do you understand the outfitting process now, Bob? What it is we are doing at every stage?” ChaoLi asked.
“Yes, ma’am. It is straightforward construction and detail work, of the type we already know how to do.”
“And have you worked out how to fly one of the orbital cargo shuttles? How to do orbital pickup and delivery of containers?”
“Yes, ma’am. The flight data was complete, and I was able to add the appropriate portions to our existing shuttle flight programming.”
“So you would be comfortable doing surface-to-orbit and orbit-to-surface delivery?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Very well, Bob. You should remain on Star Runner, and you will go with her to Earthsea and Playa. You will be flying an orbital cargo shuttle taking containers to the surface and back on both stops.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So we’re sending four orbital cargo shuttles along with Star Runner?” Bellamy asked.
“Right,” Gannet said. “And three pilots.”
“Three pilots?”
“The fourth cargo shuttle is going to be flown by the one robot we already have.”
“OK,” Bellamy said.
But she didn’t sound sure.
Once loaded, her skeleton crew transferred aboard, and the three shuttle pilots camped out in mostly completed cabins, Star Runner accelerated forward in her orbit, leaving her companions behind. It took two days for the massive ship to reach the hyperspace limit.
Then her crew turned on her hyperspace field generator, and Star Runner disappeared from normal space. She made her turn in hyperspace, and started for Earthsea.
The crew was running her hyperspace field generator in screw-drive mode, and the counter-torque started the big ship spinning. As she spun faster, the internal apparent gravity gradually came up to one-half g. The captain switched the hyperspace drive to ripple-drive mode.
Star Runner had entered hyperspace for the trip to Earthsea on Thursday, October 23, 2369, two months ahead of ChaoLi’s most hopeful estimate.
Then again, Star Runner’s interior spaces were not yet complete. She had dozens of containers of outfitting supplies in her aft containers, though. The containers that were accessible during the journey. With short staffing and no passengers – without the need to carry a full complement of food and waste containers – there were plenty of container positions for supplies.
During the trip, Bob worked on completing Star Runner’s outfitting. In twelve weeks, even working twenty-four hours a day, he would not finish the work by the time they reached Playa.
With ten thousand robots on the way back, however, they would probably finish the work in a day or two. The biggest issue would be not getting in each other’s way.
Finishing Star Runner would be satisfying. Bob liked to work, and he liked finishing a project.
It was good to be useful.
After six weeks in hyperspace, Star Runner appeared in the Earthsea system and made her way toward the planet, using her thrusters to brake the big ship all the way.
Blazoned along her bows was her name, and under it, two Chinese characters:
Star Runner
吉星
Ji Xing.
Lucky Star.
Ensuring The Future
Jessica Chen-Jasic’s display in her tea room had become her window onto the wider world beyond her gardens. She increasingly communicated from here rather than from her desk.
In one such call, she spoke to Chen JuPing on Tahiti.
“Hello, JuPing. You are looking well.”
“I’m feeling very well, Jessica. My apparent physical age is going down with the treatments here.”
“When do they say those will be completed?”
“Another month or two. I would be happy to be done with them. I would like to go back home. Back to the mountains.”
“How is Paul doing?”
“Also very well. His heart is strengthening as well.”
“All this is good news, JuPing, and has relevance to me as well.”
JuPing nodded in the display.
“Yes. You and Paul are almost eighty now, Jessica. They could take perhaps fourteen or fifteen years off your apparent age, to sixty-five or so. You would then have seventy years before you were a normal hundred years old.”
Jessica nodded.
“That was the direction of my thinking, JuPing. But I think David Bolton and Chen YongLin should go to Tahiti first. Slow down their aging first, before they become Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu. They will not be able to travel during that period, as the Chen should be here. Once Paul and I retire, we can go.”
JuPing nodded.
“Do not wait too long, Jessica. You’re aging now at twice the rate you need to, and only half that difference can be clawed back. That said, you are probably correct on the best course.”
“Unless you would wish to step back into the leadership, JuPing?”
JuPing shook her head.
“No, Jessica. I was happy finally to set such responsibilities aside. I am pleased to be able to consult from time to time, but the leadership role belongs to someone younger. There is something you might do, however.”
“Yes, JuPing?”
“Encourage JieMin and ChaoLi to come here. They would not get much younger, but they would age much more slowly going forward. They can conduct business from here as well as there.”
Jessica nodded.
“That would allow them to play an active role in the family business for a much longer time.”
“It would preserve what has been a valuable resource for the family well into the future. See to it, Jessica. Perhaps they can come with David and YongLin, on the ship that takes Paul and me home.”
“I will take care of it, JuPing.”
“I spoke to JuPing this morning, MinChao.”
“How are she and Paul doing, Jessica?”
“Very well. Their age is being reduced to an apparent eighty years old. They will have forty more years before they reach one hundred again.”
“Amazing.”
“Yes, and it brings up an issue we need to address. I would do the same, you and I, but we must transfer leadership to David and YongLin first. The Chen belong here.”
“That means David and YongLin should go first, Jessica.”
“That is correct. They go, they come back, and we retire. Perhaps on the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary. Then we go. On Tahiti, they can reverse us back to perhaps sixty-five, and we then have seventy years to an apparent age of one hundred.”
MinChao nodded.
“And without the responsibilities of leadership.”
“That would be welcome at this point. And I think JieMin and ChaoLi should go with David and YongLin.”
“She will resist that. She will think she must stay here.”
“Yes. I may need you to help me with that, MinChao.”
MinChao nodded.
“I will put in a word once you have hit her resistance.”
ChaoLi continued to report to her superiors periodically. She met with Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu every two weeks. They usually met in Chen Zumu’s tea room. These meetings were usually routine.
The meeting ChaoLi had with MinChao and Jessica the week after Star Runner left for Earthsea and Playa most definitely was not.
“I noted the departure of Star Runner, ChaoLi.”
“Yes, Chen Zumu. She will stop at Earthsea on the way to Playa, where she will pick up ten thousand robots so we can outfit ships faster.”
“And the Beacon Shipyard is now gearing up for faster production, as you mentioned last time?”
“Yes, Chen Zumu. We will soon have a dozen hulls under construction at once. We may speed it up further in the future, but I want to take it a step at a time. As it is, we are speeding up production four-fold with this one move.”
Jessica nodded.
“The robots are a critical step, then,” MinChao said.
“Yes, Chen Zufu. Without them, we simply cannot outfit ships fast enough. With them, outfitting will be at least six times faster, plus they can finish outfitting ships while under way. The passenger spaces take the most work, and passenger traffic will likely build up slowly.”
“Six times, ChaoLi?”
“Yes, Chen Zufu. They work twenty-five hours a day, plus they do not need food service, which takes additional manpower and shuttle services, to bring up food and remove waste containers for emptying.”
“They do not need time to, I don’t know, charge up or something, ChaoLi?”
“They use fast-charge batteries, Chen Zufu. It takes about five minutes for a twelve-hour charge.”
MinChao nodded.
“I see,” he said.
“The early ships will be able to handle passengers, however?” Jessica asked.
“Yes, Chen Zumu, just not at their full capacity. But we do not need to push their full capacity right away. I expect passenger traffic to grow slowly. Freight traffic will be as large as we can carry from the very start.”
“I see,” Jessica said. “Well, I have to say, this is all going very well. Using robots from Playa for outfitting and piloting work was a splendid idea.”
“JieMin’s idea, Chen Zumu.”
Jessica nodded.
“But that ability to carry passengers has brought some long-simmering decisions to a head, ChaoLi. I need to bring you up to date on those.”
“Of course, Chen Zumu.”
“MinChao and I will retire next year, ChaoLi, at the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the colony. David Bolton and Chen YongLin will become Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu.”
ChaoLi nodded. As expected.
“Yes, Chen Zumu.”
“At that point, MinChao and I will go to Tahiti for anti-aging treatments. In the meantime, the Chen belong here.”
“I understand, Chen Zumu.”
“Similarly, David and YongLin cannot go to Tahiti after becoming Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu, so they must go before we retire.”
“That makes sense to me, Chen Zumu.”
“You and JieMin will go with them, ChaoLi.”
ChaoLi’s mouth opened, but no words came out. She shut it. How could she explain that she couldn’t possibly go to Tahiti now, with everything going on?
“I cannot possibly go now, Chen Zumu. There is too much going on.”
“You expect things to slow down, ChaoLi, with ships coming off the line four times faster, and with QE radios being delivered to another fourteen colonies in the next several months?”
“No, Chen Zumu, of course not, but how can I possibly go now?”
“You can conduct business all the way there and back via QE radio, ChaoLi. How much of your business do you do now on your display rather than in in-person meetings?”
ChaoLi was thinking furiously, running through scenarios in her mind. This couldn’t work.
“Consider, ChaoLi,” Jessica said. “You are coming up on forty years old. You are actually forty-two in solar years, due to the mismatch in calendars. On Tahiti, they can set back your apparent age to thirty-eight, and you would then have a hundred and twenty-four years until you turned the apparent age of a hundred. You would live to a hundred and sixty.”
“But how do I do everything that needs doing now?”
“To mortgage the future in the name of the present is not a winning strategy, ChaoLi,” MinChao said. “We must ensure the future.”
“How?” Jessica asked. “You will plan. You will delegate. You will challenge people within your staff to step up. In short, ChaoLi, you will manage.”
“You and JieMin will ultimately become Chen Zumu and Chen Zufu, ChaoLi,” MinChao said. “To be able to one day handle such responsibility, you must learn the subtleties of power. This is your assignment.”
Chen Zufu had spoken. There was no argument. ChaoLi bowed deeply in turn to MinChao and then to Jessica.
“Yes, Chen Zufu. Yes, Chen Zumu.”
After the morning meeting with Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu, ChaoLi went downtown. Not to her own office in Four Charter Square, but to JieMin’s office in the Chen Hall of Science at 100 North Arcadia Boulevard.
“Hi, what’s going on?” JieMin asked.
“JieMin, we need to talk.”
ChaoLi closed the door behind her and sat in one of JieMin’s side chairs. She related to him the conversation with Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu.
When she completed, JieMin nodded.
“All of this makes sense to me,” he said.
“But how can I possibly do this, JieMin?”
“As Chen Zumu said. Plan, delegate, challenge your staff, and do it all by display rather than in-person meetings.”
JieMin thought about it, and ChaoLi waited.
“You know, you have an advantage in that it’s still several weeks off,” JieMin said. “Start delegating more. Use the display to attend meetings more. Smooth the transition, so there is less of a jolt when we depart.”
“So you’re on board with this whole plan?”
“Sure. Why not? Sounds like fun.”
“What about Chen Zufu saying you and I will become Chen Zufu and Chen Zumu some day?’
JieMin shrugged.
“I’ve known or suspected that for a long time, ChaoLi.”
ChaoLi felt like she was the only one who hadn’t known, at least until recently.
“You have?”
“Of course. Who sat with Chen Zumu and Chen Zufu at the centennial fireworks.”
“That was twenty-four years ago. You’ve thought this that long?”
“Yes. That we were on the short list, at least. I became certain when they made you head of the hyperspace project. That was always very important to both JuPing and Jessica. Regaining the stars.”
“So we go to Tahiti?”
“Yes. Of course. Would you defy Chen Zufu?”
“All right. I better start training people to be more independent.”
“Much as Chen Zumu did with us.”
ChaoLi started at that, but then she nodded.
“Yes. Yes, I see that now.”
ChaoLi sighed.
“I’m going to need you to put together a freight route that runs through Tahiti and still makes a profit. Running tea and apples back and forth won’t cut it by itself.”
“Of course. Probably through Earthsea in one direction and Amber in the other. I’ll work on it.”
Once Star Runner arrived in orbit around Earthsea, it was time to begin transferring containers in both directions. They had a thousand containers of tea and spices to go down to the surface and twelve hundred containers of cheese to come back up. While the tea and spices weren’t very heavy, the cheese was.
They unloaded the tea and spices and transported it to the surface a dozen containers at a time, but only brought the cheese up eight containers at a time. This opened up the cargo area a bit as time went on, and made it easier to maneuver in the shuttles.
They didn’t unload and reload the forward half of the forward cargo compartment. Instead they emptied eight of the sixteen rails all the way to the back of the compartment, with the ship pushing the stacks of containers forward. They then filled those rails back up, with the ship pulling the stacks back in as they filled. The result was that they could unload either cargo or tea at their next destination, not just the last thing loaded.
After eighty-four trips down and back, the tea was all delivered, but they still had sixty-six more trips to make, deadheading down and bringing cheese up.
The three human pilots managed four round-trips in a twelve-hour day. They could handle that because most of it was being done under complete computer control.
Bob ran twenty-four hours, making eight round-trips a day.
Between the four shuttles, they managed to make all one hundred and fifty trips in eight days.
With all her cargo transferred, Star Runner set out for the hyperspace limit. With the trip to the planet, the cargo transfer, and the trip back out to the hyperspace limit, she was in normal space-time twelve days before transitioning back into hyperspace and setting off for Playa.
