Freelance On The Galactic Tunnel Network by E. Foner (best beach reads of all time TXT) 📗

notice. I checked with the Vergallian travel agency that we normally use and commercial service to Aarden required a minimum of two connections.”

“I’ve never flown commercial. My first experience in space came after I signed on as an apprentice with a trader who visited the world where I grew up.”

“I hope it was a good experience,” Hildy said, glancing over at the reporter. “I’ve heard some unfortunate stories, though I don’t recall if they were from the news or an EarthCent Intelligence briefing.”

“I was lucky,” Ellen said. “I originally signed on with a woman whose husband had been her partner, but he decided he’d had enough of living in Zero-G and wanted to settle on a planet. They had already paid off the mortgage, so she took an equity loan to buy out his share, and was almost finished paying it down when I came along. I didn’t receive any wages, but she gave me a percentage of the new stock to trade on my own account, which was the best education a trader can get. Then she got remarried and I did the last year of my apprenticeship with a man I met. We still keep in touch, and I hope to see her at Rendezvous.”

Hildy took advantage of the opportunity to ask an unending stream of questions about the trading life, stopping only when they reached the ship and strapped in for departure. Ellen requested the minimum G-force lift-off from the controller, not wanting to take any unnecessary chances with her passenger’s health. It was a costly move, in terms of her fuel pack, but probably no worse than if she had been stuck carrying the ore shipment she had convinced John to take for her.

By the time they reached the tunnel entrance, Hildy had shifted to questions about the news syndicate Ellen had just helped establish.

“So your paper’s primary interest is expanding investigative journalism on Earth?” Hildy asked, and then added hastily, “Please stop me if you aren’t comfortable answering.”

“Not at all,” the reporter said. “I can’t believe I’m speaking with somebody so high up in EarthCent that she calls the president by his first name. It makes me feel like I have access or something.”

“You do have access unless you lose our phone numbers, and then you can just contact the president’s office. There are only a half-dozen of us working full-time on Earth. We rely on the tunnel-network ambassadors and their staffs to handle most of the diplomatic legwork, and EarthCent Intelligence is headquartered on Union Station.”

“I just spent a month on your planet meeting journalists all over the globe and I still don’t get how the government works. It seems to be a crazy patchwork of old nations and new city-states.”

“That’s a fair description,” Hildy said. “I don’t know if you’re interested in history, but the bottom line is that when the Stryx opened Earth, they basically broke the historical power structure. The Stryx didn’t attempt to dictate new laws to the existing leadership, but they made clear that interfering with emigration wouldn’t be tolerated. When alien transports from different species began landing all over the world and recruiting contract labor, people realized they could vote with their feet, and they did.”

“Well, Earth wasn’t as bad as I expected, other than those irritating phone things. And now that I think about it, I didn’t have a single contact with government at any level.”

“That’s pretty much how it works unless you’re a resident,” Hildy explained. “Then they start hitting you with fees for services, though technology has greatly reduced the number of government employees at all levels. Where Stephen and I live, we pay a monthly fee for public safety and education, but in less populated areas, it’s common for children to study with teacher bots and only spend time in classrooms if there’s parental involvement.”

“I’ve heard that most of the governments went broke in the years after the Stryx opened Earth because their populations fell but the pensioners stayed.”

“Yes, the first few decades were tough for people who remained behind. Remittances from family members working on alien contracts helped, and a combination of inflation and defaults eventually cleared away the debt burden. Some people think that conditions are only improving now because of all the alien businesses operating on Earth, but things have actually been on an upward path for decades. It’s just a shame that a new concentration of wealth and power is leading to corruption.”

“That was the conclusion of all the journalists I met with,” Ellen agreed, stifling a yawn.

“I take it politics isn’t your thing.”

“What? Oh, I’m sorry, it’s the tunnel,” Ellen said. “For some reason, it always puts me to sleep. The boyfriend I finished my apprenticeship with had the opposite problem. As soon as we landed on a planet or docked with a spinning structure that gave him weight, he was falling asleep.”

“You left him to buy your own ship?”

“I was freelancing for the Galactic Free Press by then, and when I left to chase a story, we just sort of drifted apart,” Ellen said. “I think I’m going to pass out for a few hours. Do you know how to use a Zero-G bathroom?”

“I’ve traveled on Sharf traders before. I’ll just hop on the exercise bike for a while if it won’t bother you.”

“Not at all. Feel free to eat anything you find.”

By the time Ellen woke up, Hildy was passed out in her chair. The two women turned out to have completely opposite biorhythms, and they were only awake at the same time for around six hours of the trip, though part of this was due to the older woman’s ability to sleep more than ten hours at a stretch. Coincidently, they were both up when the ship emerged from the tunnel and they were hailed by Aarden traffic control. After a brief negotiation, Ellen