Harvest of Stars by Poul Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

Lee’s awed stare. But the idea was less to impress Guthrie than to give him an estimate of her potentials.
    “Whew!” exclaimed the artificial voice. “You’ve put yourself in my everyday memory for certain, Pilot Davis, and when I consult your file, that’ll also go permanently into this can. God damn, in the old days I’d’ve met you personally and congratulated you. In my flesh days I’d’ve given you a big wet kiss as well. Fireball’s gotten too mucking huge.”
    Virtually a nation in its own right, Kyra’s mother had remarked once. It
is
a nation, her father replied, more so than most that bear the name nowadays.
    Oh, yes, he added for the benefit of the child who was listening (as she understood later), legally it’s nothing but a privately held corporation, chartered in Ecuador, carrying on a variety of enterprises across Earth and throughoutthe Solar System. Their importance gives it nothing but enormous wealth and influence—legally. In fact, though, it provides most of its people with most of what they need, from homes and schools and medical care to help against the governments that claim them. If we choose to swear full fidelity to it, Fireball will pledge us the same; and then we are no longer just employees, we are consortes. That’s no mere contract, that’s a constitution. And think about our customs, generations-old traditions, everything we share, far over and beyond any material treasures—A nation, I tell you.
    That wasn’t quite correct, Dad, Kyra now thought. The nation, that’s us, and our sovereign territory is all of space.
    Yet through his computers and his communication lines, a single ghost was still able to rule it, keep it together, stave off its foes, set it reaching for the stars. How much longer could he? Already his grip was loose—No, wrong. He had always left the members as independent as possible. That was the real wellspring of Fireball’s strength.
    Guthrie recalled her mind to him. “Okay,” he asked, “what brought you to Earth this time? Vacation?”
    “Not really,” Kyra said. “I was in L-5 while my ship got a routine overhaul. A special cargo was going to North America, organic cryocells. That meant regulations called for a human pilot. The usual man had taken an accidental radiation dose and was in DNA therapy. I offered to substitute and they agreed.” Why not, given a person of her qualifications, humdrum though the flight was? “Turn-around time would be about three days, because unloading that stuff is finicky. It’d allow me to visit my parents or maybe get in some surfing.”
    “In short, you arrived by pure happenstance, and if the cops play back the log, that’s what they’ll confirm. Your family’s dossier might raise eyebrows, but I doubt they’ll check that. When you don’t report back for liftoff, they may wonder. On the other hand, they’ll have a lot else on their minds. Besides, once the clampdown on the company has been announced, it’ll seem perfectly natural for you to sit tight wherever you are.”
    “I’m safely anonymous?” Excitement fluttered. “I can walk right out of this place?”
    “Um-m, maybe not that easy. Let’s double check. How’d you travel here?”
    Led by sharp questions, Kyra described her itinerary. With dismay she remembered the bubbletrike, locked in a time-expired rack and traceable through her thumbprint.
    “What about the rental period?” Guthrie demanded.
    “I entered that I might return today or it might be tomorrow. I didn’t know which, you see.”
    “Smart girl. Well, if you can’t spring the vehicle tomorrow, I don’t suppose anybody will notice the unpaid meter right away, and then the matter will be for city maintenance, not the cops—at first, anyhow.”
    “You can do better than that,” Lee proposed. “Call on a public line once you’re outside, tell the agency you had to go elsewhere because of an emergency and they should send somebody to pick up the trike. It’ll