Read Online April 6: And What Goes Around by Mackey Chandler - Free Book Online

ease up on the final numbers. It will alienate people if you set
it too high and then have to cut it to keep them from ruining you."
    "OK, I'm
thinking a payout and maybe some sort of convention every year. You play for
money but for rank and bonuses too. Besides the whole usual array of challenge
coins and t-shirts and crap. It'll need a really good title. Starship Commander
or Death Voyage Centauri or something. Jeff can have the core programming done
on Home or Central but let all the visuals and music and stuff done in Asia.
He  already has a lot of, uh... data work contracted out there."
    "Stumbled and
almost said a secret didn't you?" Deloris asked. She was entirely too
perceptive.
    Deloris got this
sudden shocked look.
    "What? Does
the concept offend you?" he asked.
    "No, no. It's
just that I remembered, I saw a really cheesy old classic movie that had almost
the same premise. In it there was a video game, an early free standing arcade
type game, that was a combat spacecraft. It had been put out to find somebody
with the right skills and reflexes to be a real pilot, but the kid who paid to
play it didn't know that until it lead to his recruitment." She looked
back down at her pad and tapped a few lines in rather than talk to it. "My
God, it's a hundred years old. The Last Star Fighter," Deloris read off
the screen.
    "I'll watch
that," Barak said. "I might get some ideas from it."
    "It's old
enough you won't understand some stuff in it. I remember there's visuals in it
I had no clue about. But there's a paper on it somebody wrote that puts a lot
of it in context. Neither are in our onboard web fraction, just a brief
citation. Which is reasonable. We are too busy running the Yuki-onna to
have much personal time to web surf. We don't need the expense of a huge web
fraction.
    "I don't
suggest you request it sent from Home if you want to keep the idea secret.
Somebody smart might be archiving our data stream. I know it's encrypted, but
it's not a random onetime pad so if it isn't easily breakable now it could be
given a little time."
    "No, I'll do it when we get back. Jeff will have some time before he
needs a crew." Barak grinned at her. "Besides, we have a couple of crew
already."
    *
* *
    The next day April
forced herself to take time and run. Mitsubishi was keeping up with the
increased population as far as adequate air systems and water recycling, but
some things got short shift. If she passed on her reservation somebody would
snatch it on standby and she'd be lucky to get one in another ten days. April
suspected somebody would open a gym soon if Mitsubishi didn't expand their
facilities. Maybe they wanted that to happen. They were hit with increased
expenses just like everybody else because of moving further from Earth. Maybe
I should open a gym, April thought. They already had a commercial zero G
handball court. It wasn't that radical of an idea.
    The run she chose
was an easy one since she hadn't been coming faithfully. It followed an Irish
country road improbably empty of traffic. When her time was up a lady at a gate
invited her to stop for tea. That was a cute way to end it before the illusion
turned off. She went, not to tea, but to breakfast after a shower. Several
people nodded or waved in the cafeteria but nobody joined her.
    At home she
studied for a couple classes, spoke for a half hour with a study partner in
Japan in Japanese, and then they switched and spoke English for a half hour.
She went most of the day without viewing any news programs or intelligence
reports. Earth was such a critical factor in their survival it needed constant
scrutiny, but it got old sifting through the whole mess. Instead of commercial
news or economic intelligence she chose Chen's radio intercepts. They were
edited, but still a bit different and she hadn't looked at many yet. After awhile
she felt compelled to call Jeff.
    "I'm seeing
some really bizarre things happening in North America. A few of them make the
news and some