BeyHop Chpt 10

==Beyond Hope- Chapter 10 - The Big Show==
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
----
"...one of the most important social events of the year happens annually at the Archon's Christmas Ball, where recently ascended Nobility, and those Heirs whom have reached majority, make their proper debut into Lyran Commonwealth high society with their first swearing in…"
Drakau and Holst:
"A Guide book to High Society in the Inner Sphere"
Federated Press Interstellar, 3005
----
===New paint scheme===
----
Spider's Moon Shipyard
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth
3054
----
"How do you like the new paint job, Jane?" Bianh Vu Dao asked, "I mean, it's not proper Star League livery, but it's also not pretending to be a Lyran Commonwealth Navy ship…"
“It’s lovely. Strange how I enjoy the experience of being painted. Almost reminds me of getting my makeup done by professionals.” Jane smiled.
"Well, when Lizzie sees it she's probably going to freak." Commodore Li stated, "That particular roundel hasn't been used since the Amaris War, and you're sporting the 1st Squadron's checkerboards. How is Helena going to take you signing up?"
“They were a fun bunch so it seems appropriate. She has accepted that it is our best option to keep me from being press ganged or cut out and put into a research lab somewhere.” Jane commented
"You're a flagship...now, we just have to figure out how to get you a fleet." smiled Bianh
“If I know my sister, she’s already scheming up something to help with that.” Jane chuckled.
----
===Negotiations===
----
Donegal, Federated Commonwealth
3054
Max Haranshire sat across the table from Elizabeth Ngo. "You're offering to reduce the price?"
"In exchange for considerations." Liz said, and laid out a series of papers. "These are patents owned by Lockheed CBM, for systems that are considered obsolete. I want them in exchange for the reduced pricing on your shipyard refit…and I want to ask you to give me a reference when I go talk to Ioto tomorrow night."
"What do you want me to 'refer'?" he asked.
"I want you to confirm the price reduction on my bid, and why." she told him, "the money is going to be fantastic even at the rate reduction, but I want the patents on some systems they have the rights on that nobody is using."
"You're working on a project?"
"More like helping a start-up out on the Periphery end, they won't be competing with your business, it's more of a…a niche market thing…and kind of a vanity project."
Helena observed from under a white wig, in a white suit, pretending to be 'Ms. Whyte' for this meeting.
"That's right, Ngo Industries stays out of the Arms trade, but not out of financing startups…" he nodded sagely, "cut half a percent more and they're yours."
"Done." Elizabeth didn't blink.
Helena waited until they were alone. “No counter? Really?”
"We'll still pull a five percent profit off the deal, and this way, the rumour mills will cover your sister's debut." Liz said.
“You’ve already padded enough to give that much.” Helena commented.
"Always ask for more than you expect to get, sometimes you get it." Liz said, "Grandfather's seventh rule, and the eighth rule about Lostech-everyone will pay more if they think it's really old."
“Ugghh this wig is itchy. I’m not sure why you need me to pretend to be Miss Whyte.”
"So you can see them when they aren't in front of the media." Liz explained, "you're going to be in with the brassfish once you're debuted, knowing tells and habits early will help, I just wish Grandfather could have been here to teach you instead-I'm not sure how much of this is going to help."
“No, I get that part. Just not sure why specifically Miss Whyte. Like I said, this wig itches.”
"Everyone looks at the suit and the hair and has certain expectations, and because the role goes back to the 28th century, all they see is the suit and the hair, they don't get a read on YOU."
“I suspected as much. There is no actual ‘Miss Whyte’, just some unfortunate lawyer who has to suffer wearing this wig.” Helena chuckled.
"Actually, most of them bleach." Liz told her, "The wig is for when I need someone who maybe doesn't do the role all the time-like certain bodyguard jobs that I need a Coastie Marine doing in formal situations…and the role pays really well. In the last three hours, you've made 300,000 Kroner."
“Right, so I should keep studying the law books.”
"A good lawyer can write her own ticket, if I were a bit smarter, I'd be trying to become one."
“Yeah, I had dreams of being an explorer.”
"Like in the Star Cadet books?" Liz asked.
“I even cosplayed as Callie the Navigator one Halloween.” Helena admitted.
"I used to write terrible fan-fiction where Callie became Die Kapitain." Liz confided, "When I was…not being the duchess."
“Mine had her hook up with Professor Lewis and have the most adorable explorer astophysicist babies.”
"Lukas for me, the ground team leader." Liz admitted, "I would imagine them 'proving' a world together…with lots of shuddering sighs and moans of passion."
“Mine didn’t get quite that far developed…” Helena admitted.
"I was going through puberty, so sue me…wait, don't, you're being my lawyer today." Liz laughed.
“Hehe and this time is billable.” Helena laughed.
"I've created a monster…" Liz chuckled
“Yes, and a hungry one. Lunch?”
"Yeah, lunch, there's this lunch-truck that runs on Heerestrasse about half an hour from now, the best tacos in the Province. Greasy and spicy and bad for you…"
“Sounds perfect.” Helena smiled. “Of course I’m going to expense this.”
"It's my treat." Liz said, "gotta keep those expenses down."
“That was the joke, Elizabeth. If I expensed it it would still be your treat because you pay me.”
"Yah, but if I pay directly then it doesn't cost the processing fee from the corporate accounts. That's like fifty Phennigs."
“That rough of a fee even for a lunch?”
"Accountants gotta have their cut…"
“We’re both wrong. Accounting is where the real money’s at.” Helena laughed.
"Why do you think I spend all that time learning to do the books?" Liz asked with a laugh. "Got my mind on my money, don't you know?"
“Yeah. I guess despite all my admin work I’ve just never really grasped some stuff for myself. All my life I’ve never had to worry about my personal finances before I met you.”
"Economics is a black art, 'Miss Whyte', the secrets of it are that which ordinary men are not meant to know!" Elizabeth couldn't stop laughing, "We who do the accounting just pretend it's dreary, drudgery and crippling long hours…"she couldn't stay composed as she tried out the lie.
"It's really that bad, isn't it?" Helena asked.
"Yes. I have accountants whose sole job is keeping track of the accountants whom are keeping track of the accountants that actually keep track of my various interests. It's a ****** nightmare."
“Sounds complicated.”
"You have NO idea…yet…but you Wiiillll."
“Yeah, fair. The admin work I did for the 171th and 90th was during a really strange time in SLDF history.”
Elizabeth hoisted the thick sheaf of contract, put it into the briefcase, and handed it to Helena. "Next stop, lunch." she said, "After which, the magickal world of filings. The true master of Noble and Commoner, is the Bureaucrat."
“May they ever be benevolent.” Helena commented
"Hallelujah and Amen." Liz responded
----
===Economics of JumpShips & Small Craft===
It was evening and their shuttle was already lifting for the next leg in the trip, catching a ride on an Ore-Hauler headed back toward Coventry.
"I don't understand, Lizzie, I've seen you cow a dozen CEO's and minor nobles, but you're riding in this tiny shuttle, instead of a proper Jumpship."
"Speed." Elizabeth said, "Collar spaces are a premium, that means they're expensive, more expensive than passage for a shuttle, it's easier to FIND open shuttle bay spaces, or half-empty storage bays that have the right D-rings, than to arrange an empty collar, and airsickness bags are cheap. I can move faster when I'm on-the-move this way, allowing me to do more business per flight hour…" Elizabeth settled back in her acceleration couch as the shuttle lined up with the dropship. "It also lets me buy passage on the route if I need to arrange a divert. We spent forty hours in miserable flight, if I'd used a jumpship of my own going to Donegal?"
"Yeah?"
"We'd still be just nearing Coventry on our way here."
"I'm aware of how Jumpship chains work."
"Then you're aware that I can't afford to idle that many ships just to carry me. The family's got investments with a dozen shipping outfits, most of them medium to small. Those people have to have paying work, and need it all the time, They can't afford to be waiting at a point on the off chance Elizabeth Ngo's dropship needs a ride, or that I'll even be going in that direction, and they can't, for the most part, afford to have that empty collar if there's a ship that's paying rate coming to hook up…but I still need to be able to move quickly. Thus, time-tables and insurance reports, lots of planning, and a good fungible cash reserve on-hand, all of which can be carried in a small aerodyne shuttle with a pile of airsick bags."
"Have your family done this always then?"
Elizabeth laughed as the deck crew secured her shuttle between rapid-offload cargo pallets. "No. Great Grandma Zoe had a dropship that was converted from a passenger liner, and Great-Auntie Mai had an tiny Explorer class JumpShip of her own, that she took with her when she left to go exploring-that was before my father was even born. She never came back."
"Then…you got the idea where?" Helena asked
"Needs must when devils drive, Helena, you know I'm sick, I have to make maximum use of every hour until I can't anymore. I can't do that if I'm waiting for weeks at a jump point, and travel is miserable, sure…getting it over with as quickly as possible helps. Suffer more now, but it ends sooner, or suffer less, over more time. I don't have oodles of time…though I'll have to spend the time when we're on the way to Tharkad for Christmas, we'll still be getting couriers moving information I don't trust Comstar with at every stop. I mustn't stop working. Too many people depend on me getting things done."
“You could still have your own dedicated ship. Just for you. You’re rich and important enough.”
"Time is a factor. We'll be using one ship for the Tharkad trip, but that's because it's a social expectation." Lizzie adjusted her seat and readied the sickness bags for easy access, "but it's seven days at the point to charge a drive, nobody can do it faster, that's a week between jumps, and that assumes prime charging conditions at each stop."
“Guess I’m just used to an age where charging stations were more common and that there were ways.”
Liz inclined her head, "if we could build them, I'd be pushing to build them. That kind of network would speed up commerce and make everything more efficient. Trade would boom."
“Why not? If you can build JumpShips you can build charging stations.”
"We lost the knowledge of how to do it." Liz told her, "It's one of those areas where the idea is known, there are relics here and there, but the key components that make them work?" she shook her head, "So long out of production nobody remembers how to make them."
Helena's eyes widened, "The patents!"
Liz gave her a sly smile, "Maybe. It's a bet on whether they're going to be the right ones, but we dissected a dead charge-station out by Herbania in my Grandfather's time, and looked for stock numbers and patent dates. I may be gathering a bunch of useless information…when I have the University finished, and we have staff, we'll be able to do the hard-core research we need."
“The Helm Core. You’ve got a copy?”
"That would be me possessing classified data without authorization, Helena, I would never admit to it if I had it…but I don't. I've got excerpts they've released to select contractors who needed me to make tooling to use it."
“I wish I was more of a tech head. Then I’d be more help on that front.” Helena said.
"You're fine where and who you are." Lizzie told her, "I wish I had the grasp my grandfather had as an engineer…but I don't. I'm good at math and seeing systems, but I get lost in the details, I have to hire people who understand those details or I'll get nothing worthwhile done in the time I have."
“I was barely into college but I had aspirations of becoming navigation qualified. Everything else I learned was because I was trying to be useful with the 171 and 90th.”
"You and me, and Jane." Lizzie said, "My grandmother Lia was from Sithers-Deen, she was a Pathfinder rating like Great Auntie Mai, but she died a few weeks before Grandfather gave up on living and followed her…she was beautiful and when I was seven I wanted to be just like her. She started me reading with the Star Cadet books."
“As the youngest I did get a little more leeway in my education but my first books were a bit more, shall I say ‘thinly veiled life lessons disguised as fairy tales for future nobles’. But I did manage to get the Star Cadet novels smuggled in by Uncle Alyks.”
"Ouch…so you had to find the good stuff on your own…"
“Most of it, yeah. Besides Uncle Alyks helping me out now and again I had a nanny named Felicia that also snuck in a few books. But as I got older and Richard, well things did change.” Helena shook her head.
The panel lighting flashed gold up front, then red.
"Looks like we're jumping soon." Liz grabbed her sickness bag and brought it up to the ready position.
The red flashed green.
///////Discontinuity\\\\\\\\
Helena quickly grabbed a hold of Elizabeth’s hair. It may have been short but there was still enough in the microgravity to potentially cause a mess.
In the well practiced ritual Helena then waited for Elizabeth to stop vomiting while using her free hand to grab a face wipe.
"One…thing…I…wished for…" Liz huffed. "When I wished I was Callie-she never got sick in the stories!!"
“Completely unrealistic. I knew plenty of people who didn’t peg as having TDS that got sick after jumps anyway.” Helena grabbed the bag carefully with the hand that had been holding Elizabeth’s hair. “Here’s your wipe. I’ve got this.”
"Thanks."
Helena smiled as she disposed of the bag.
She returned with an electrolyte drink and handed it to Elizabeth. “Sorry. They only had purple flavor left.”
"Purple's fine." Liz said, "does it really taste like a grape?"
“It says so on the label but I’ve never had one of these actually taste like what the label says.”
"Good, it's not just me. I've never tasted a grape that tasted like purple."
“The lemonade actually almost comes close. Almost.” Helena smiled as she drank from her own bottle of electrolyte drink.
“Hey! What you meant to say is that they only had enough red flavor for you!” Elizabeth saw the different color liquid in Helena’s bottle.
“Hehe. Here.” Helena produced another red bottle. “You stocked the shuttle. Of course there’s still plenty of red flavor. But you looked like you could use the distraction from your misery.” Helena smiled.
“I hate you.” Elizabeth mocked.
“We’re even then. What you didn’t think I wouldn’t find out you had a not itchy Miss Whyte wig I could have worn instead?” Helena laughed.
“In my defense it did give you something to focus on besides your own misery.” Elizabeth sipped the bottle of reddish liquid.
“I guess it did but like I said we’re even now. But we really should talk about how we’re going to handle Tharkad.”
“I know. My best idea is at the after party, should be able to arrange a private meeting for our big reveal as the Archon makes the social rounds.”
“Yeah. That’s probably the latest we can push it without risking a treason charge if I’ve been reading the law books correctly.”
“You probably are. The longer we keep you and your sister a secret the worse it is going to be. This is of course assuming LIC haven’t already figured everything out and she busts us both before we even get a chance.”
“Which is why we’ve been building your political clout. So worst case scenario you’ve got enough to buy yourself an audience and a chance to explain yourself.”
"The one thing I'm certain of-Her Majesty the Archon is going to want explanations from me over a great many things besides you or your sister." Elizabeth confessed. "It's a certainty given how I chose to assume my responsibilities. As Maggie would say, 'proper noble ladies don't carry out their own public executions'...they order them and have lackeys carry it out."
“Well why did you?"
Liz finished sipping, "Because I won't ask someone else to do what I don't want to. Not what I literally can't, but what I just don't…want to. It's not fair to anyone else if I ask someone else to do a thing I won't."
“Responsibility, loyalty, whatever you want to call it, it all works both ways.” Helena nodded.
"Grandfather would call it 'integrity'." Elizabeth said seriously, "If I have to order an execution? Then whoever gets the job knows I'm not asking more of them than I'm willing to do. They cut the cameras before I puked…the second time. Her Majesty's going to have serious questions about that."
“Well then she better make them good questions. She put you in that position.”
Elizabeth grunted, and looked out the windows at the cargo bay as the shippers moved crates out of the way. "I'm not sure she had a lot of better options, Helena. I've already run into situations as a mere Duchess that have been no-good-options situations. I can't imagine it's easier higher up the chain."
“It’s not. Even as shielded as I was by the SLDF high command. Uncle Alyks didn’t want me to know the full horrors of the war but I found out anyway. You know I actually managed to get over my traumas long enough to learn to set IVs and work a shift doing so at Running Deer before anyone found me and hauled me out of the medical tent.”
"You know how I feel about him." Liz said quietly. "He gave up on you, then he gave up on the rest of us, and now his descendants are invaders under a psychotic system of slavery."
“I know. I wish I could reconcile the two vastly different men. But I can’t. So I’ve had to force myself to consider the man I knew dead and whatever it was that carried on using his name a fraud.”
Elizabeth didn't contradict, as the mooring lines released and the pilot took them on the thirty minute flight to the next ride they were hitching.
----
===Haggling for Old Equipment===
Coventry, Federated Commonwealth
3054
----
Coventry is one of the nicer worlds mankind found in the age of exploration and colonization, as a result, it's a well-developed and beautiful place.
This time, Liz didn't make Helena pretend to be Ms. Whyte. 
"You're offering sweetheart deals, Liz, expired patents, obsolete systems, and rights? What are your people financing?" Duke Bradford was direct, and met with them in a reserved room at the Hotel Elizabeth chose to spend the layover at.
"I was approached by some folks who think they know how to build a Charging Station." Liz said bluntly, "they gave me the list of what they needed, and I'm doing my part to see if it's true, if it is, it's going to be lucrative as hell, sir."
"Any room for investors?" he asked.
"Yes." she nodded. "You know any?"
Bradford laughed, "Cagey..?"
"It could still fail, your money might be lost, given you still owe me sixteen billion Kroner, that means I lose money." she answered, "of course, if you do buy in, you can pay me back a lot faster if it works out…"
“Some would argue that’s a bad bet, asking someone who’s already in debt to you to risk money that you could just ask for via the debt.”
Elizabeth nodded, "I know, that's why I waited to see if you were interested on your own." she said, "I'm willing to talk terms if you want to bring Coventry Metal Works into it on a limited partnership with Ioto and Lockheed."
“My board will probably have kittens but yeah, I’m interested.”
"Buy in is fifty billion, hard cash." Liz told him, "if that's too much…I'll understand, but I'm willing to knock off what you already owe as part of it."
“Fortunately we’re getting all sorts of government contracts and subsidies to upgrade the tooling in some of our factories. So I’ve got a bit of spare cash and idle workers that could use a side project. My board will still have kittens but I think I can sell them on this.”
"Just remind them how much of your expenses are wrapped up in your corporate shipping." Liz noted, "also you'll want to reserve a position for your station-the buy in includes getting one of the first test facilities."
“I can definitely sell them on that. Next meeting is a week from tomorrow. Probably take a couple weeks after that to get the funds moving.”
Elizabeth slid the contract across as the current 'real' Miss Whyte handed her sections on the contract to hand over. He had his own lawyer examine the document before looking himself.
"When can we expect to see the first one?" he asked.
"Eighteen months from now." Elizabeth told him, "We were already starting work when I began this trip, getting the approvals and the licenses was necessary to move forward past initial prototyping and building the production lines. I bet nearly a trillion Kroner of my world's money on this program, and Her Majesty's going to want to see how I did it without shorting the tax-man."
His eyes shot wide, then he laughed. "My god, that takes absolute stones!!"
"It's mainly an off-shoot of the Alarion and Lockheed shipyard contracts we were already working." Liz confessed, "We have to prove every component before delivery…but I'm doing this to deal with unemployment and underemployment issues, we're trying to replicate the miracles of the past…and as I said, it can still fail."
“Okay, Liz. I’m already sold. We’re talking billions of Kroner, it takes the banks a while to move that cash and I need my board’s approval but I’m confident I can get it.”
"Today, it is a pleasure to do business with you, Your Grace." she said, "Shalt we have a drink to seal it?"
“It would be rude not to.”
Helena carefully poured the champagne then handed a glass to Elizabeth. She set the other down in front of Duke Bradford.
He took the snifter and raised it, "To good business."
She clinked her glass to his, "and better prospects."
The sparkling wine was low-alcohol, more ceremonial than something you drink on purpose, both finished their glasses.
“A shame you’re a bit young for the real stuff.” Duke Bradford smiled.
"Yeah, but that isn't forever." Liz grinned. "Look for the first assembly crew and deliveries next year about this time."
“I look forward to it.”
Helena took Elizabeth’s empty glass. Duke Bradford was still holding his. She reached for it carefully and took it with a slight shake in her hand.
The business completed, they packed up to leave. Polite dismissals on both sides and it was already time for him to return to his own duties.
"Notice anything?" Elizabeth had waited until Bradford was gone.
"What?"
"He's got an heir about my age, he didn't mention him once." Elizabeth stated. "What does that suggest to you?"
“Well, you do have a certain public reputation. But that doesn’t seem right. Maybe he has another lady lined up for his heir?”
"New word for you, Helena. Hassenfanger." Liz said, "I'm technically a peer, and he owes me a huge amount of money…but I'm a Hassenfanger-a 'hare catcher'. Low status, his boy would be taking a hit to his prestige if we dated."
“For marrying into one of the biggest tooling suppliers of his nation?” Helena asked.
Elizabeth nodded. "Yes. it would be a financial boon and he could write off the debts, but my family are still seen as little more than jumped-up periphery rats in the social circles of traditional Lyrans of his rank and station…on the other hand, once you're known? You'll have margraves trying to pawn their sons, or even daughters on you. Social Status is something very rigid."
“Heh. I’d marry you just to spite them.” Helena smirked.
"Please don't." Liz said, "We're friends, but I don't…that is, it's not…" she sighed, embarrassed to even discuss such matters.
“Oh, I’m not either. Like I said it’d be for pure spite.” Helena smiled.
"Jane is. I swear she's going to propose to Bianh Vu Dao." Liz commented, "Or Linda Sithers, but maybe that's being a pure intellect-no biological hardware to get in the way."
“Knowing her, she might try for both.” Helena nodded.
"A triple? They'd have to do it in a reform EllDEE and find a cosmetic boy to make it 'legitimate'." Liz laughed.
Helena laughed too.
“Seriously you did good there.” Elizabeth smiled.
“Yeah Duke Bradford was not wanting to set his glass down at the end there but I managed to take it from him without jumping or dropping it, just a minor hand tremble.” Helena nodded.
"Which he probably marked off as being in awe of his social status. Don't underestimate what you can get done when they think that way about you." Liz advised, "Maggie used to lecture me and Daffy and Penny about that, when she visited the rehab."
“Well I’m just glad he didn’t say anything when I handed you your glass and set his infront of him.”
Elizabeth flagged a cab out front, and they were off to the spaceport.
"You have offices on Coventry, why the cab?"
"Company cars are better used by employees." Liz explained, "If a competitor's looking to hit me, he's going to watch the corporate fleet and my body-double, not me."
“Yeah, I guess there is something to be said for just hopping into a cab, I mean who would believe I’d do such a thing by choice?”
"Exaclty, driver! Gate sixteen and there's a hundred Kroner extra if you get there without hitting a red light."
The cab rammed forward like a greyhound, swerving like a maniac, and Elizabeth crowed and cheered as the vehicle blasted through an intersection mid-light-change.
Helena meanwhile unprepared bounced into the door panel but quickly recovered and grabbed the nearest secure bit to help steady herself.
"Isn't it fun?!" Lizzie's eyes were wide with excitement and her face was pure delight as the driver savagely broke traffic laws.
“Fun shouldn’t leave bruises.” Helena answered cooly.
"It does when you do it right!!" the girl enthused, as the cab slewed onto the ramp into the port, and began to slow.
"This is the real reason you chose a cab-your own people wouldn't do it, would they?" Helena groused.
"Nope, but cabbies are small owners and every phennig helps…" she dug into her handbag, and paid the driver before they were even stopped. "Thanks, that was fun!"
----
===Check up before Flight===
Helena examined her bruise as she held her shirt up. All the other old injuries that covered her torso were also on display. She never once considered a cosmetic surgeon to conceal them, not that Kerensky ever had many on staff.
"Huh, Helena, that's…you should get checked by a doctor at the next stop." Liz said, "I don't think he exceeded three gees on that turn."
“For now an ice pack would be great.” Helena said.
Elizabeth seemed to have a light come on, "Corpsman!" she said, "Come here, look at Helena's bruising…"
The corpsman aboard the shuttle hurried over, he knelt and looked carefully, then brought up a portable medical diagnostic aid and began giving Helena a hands-off physical. "Eyes mum…" he said.
The light was bright.
"Tongue out please, and say 'ahh'."
“Aggghhhh.”
The corpsman muttered something in yet-another-dialect, then, "Vitamin deficiency, you're lacking Vitamin D, Vitamin K, and E, and probably short calcium as well. You're going to need to adjust to a proper meal plan, Mum..in the meantime…" he dug into his bag, and came up with an auto-injector, several vials, and a small device that he used to mix them before loading the injector, "Here, stick this in your upper thigh."
Helena grabbed the injector and stabbed it into her thigh.
"Now, Your Grace, it's your turn." the Corpsman stated, "Usual drill, please."
Right there in the shuttle, Helena watched the corpsman giving Elizabeth a series of examinations, including pricking her finger and testing her blood.
"Shorting your meds." he judged, "How bad is it on the scale?"
"Two?" Liz said.
He nodded, and mixed a different cocktail, this time using a much larger injector assembly, "position, please, Your grace?"
She lifted her skirt, exposing her inner thigh, and he applied it, "Let me know if you get a high, because that means I made a mistake."
"I know! It's fine." 
"Sedative this time?" he asked.
"I can go without it for now."
“Maybe you should do it now so that when we get to the Tharkad leg you won’t need it then and be clear.” Helena offered.
"That's weeks from now." Liz complained, "the less I use, the longer it takes to build up a tolerance. I'll deal with the discomfort for now, if it means when it's an emergency it works."
Helena nodded as she started toward the galley.
She dug around the sweets storage and found a package of candied fruits before closing up the galley and returning to her seat.
“Those are terrible for you, you know.” Elizabeth said.
“Then you shouldn’t have stocked them.” Helena smiled.
"Me, it doesn't matter. They're terrible for YOU." Liz corrected, "I'm not going to live long enough for the cumulative residues in my heart to create problems, you will."
“How do you just…internalize like that?" Helena asked, "I knew Tranh Truk Ngo, and he did the same thing…and I didn't get it then either-you're dying."
"Everyone's dying. It starts when we're born." Liz said offhanded, "I just got stuck with 'dog years' is all. I can either feel sorry for myself, or I can recognize that I've got deadlines."
“Too many people around me seem to have that happen to them. My mom died shortly after I was born and she was only 38.”
"Hmm and a Terran." Liz noted, ":ow mortality rate and long life expectancy, I wonder if she wasn't 'helped along' by a rival."
“I don’t know. I just know for whatever reason despite the fact Terrans could live to be 200 no one in my family ever seemed to reach the triple digit mark and all had kids young by Terran standards.”
"Huh. New data point there I didn't know about, Helena, I guess I should've paid closer attention to history outside my own…anyway, if you're going to raid my junk food, better be ready to share."
“I only did because it was MY history and of course I’ll share.” Liz commented.
"Corpsman says the pilots picked up the latest releases for our in-flight movie. They did a new remake of 'Planet of the Dead', the first Star Cadet book. This time they hired tech advisors for the special effects scenes…"
“Well at least it’ll look pretty and if you’d said something sooner I would have grabbed popcorn too.” Helena chuckled.
Elizabeth joined in the chuckle.
----
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
10