Pohlstars by Frederik Pohl Read Free Book Online Page A

said, "I like things to get better, not just different.
    She sighed and pulled Jimmy Rex back from the rail. "And isn't this better'?
    "It is in some ways.
    "Name one it isn't!
    I pointed over the screen, at the open ocean waters. "We didn't see dead squid floating around the old boat.
    "Jason, be fair! That's not the boat's fault. There are fish kills all over this part of the Pacific- And then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the boy had climbed up onto the rail to get a better make-believe shot. "James Reginald Appermoy! she yelled, and dragged him back just as he was about to go over.
    Well, it wouldn't have hurt him much, a twelve-meter fall into a warm bathtub, but he wouldn't have liked it, either. He was good for almost a minute, and even let me put my arm around him for almost that long. But I was still worrying about the squid. A dead fish at sea is a curiosity; as soon as anything slows down enough to be dying, something else is sure to eat it. "I hear they're worse off on Hawaii, I said, and May said:
    "Oh, that reminds me. Jimmy Rex is going to see his grandmother next week.
    I said nothing, but I didn't have to. "It's all right, she reassured me.
    "It's all right if he can take Pan and Jeremy along, I bargained-they were the two security men Jimmy Rex hated least.
    "Well, if you don't think Grandma's feelings will be hurt- She saw my eyes and dropped it. ~They'll go, she promised. "But after all, the Appermoys are family. And so's Betsy, and when Jimmy Rex comes back from Hawaii, I'm thinking of inviting some of her friends over.
    "Betsy's family, I admitted, "but the trash she keeps around her are not.
    "But they're amusing, Jason. With all the space we've got now, it's no trouble to have a few guests.
    "That, I said, "is another way the old boat was better.
    But I could not really argue against family. And if we entertained Betsy and her friends, then Betsy must entertain us and ours, so May and Jeff and the boy and the four Mays and I flew over to visit good queen Betsy. Our flagships were not usually very far apart-I speak geographically. With the scouts for both our fleets getting better at finding the best delta-Ts and the hydrologists improving their predictions about how stable they were and the navigators getting more skilled at plotting courses that would graze where the deltas were greenest- well, there are only so many optimal solutions to a problem, especially as we each copied the other's technology as soon as it was proved. It was no wonder that we often came to the same solutions. And the same problems, for looking over the side of Betsy's flagship with Havrila by my side, I said, "I see you've got dead squid, too.
    "The fishing fleet's complaining, too. He nodded gravely and then laughed. "Best thing we ever didn't do, he said, "was diversify into fishing.
    "We thought about it for a while, too, I said, "and decided to stay out of perishables. There are plenty of other fields!
    And there were. We were getting into dozens of them. Mining the hot heavy-metal brine from the springs of the East Pacific Rise. Scooping up manganese pellets from the ocean bottom. The only "perishable we got into was fresh water-we built two experimental sailing tugs, huge devils with revolving masts to catch the winds, and used them to tow icebergs from Antarctica to the Persian Gulf.
    All the ventures prospered-though nothing more than the ocean-thermal that was our core money spinner- even the icebergs. They were Jefferson's own pet. He was land-born and land-oriented, and he could not resist something that would make things better for people on land. He went off to supervise the project now and then, a week at a time. I didn't like his leaving May alone. I liked it least when it began to be so that, as Jeff was leaving, some of Betsy's giddy friends would arrive. The one who came most often was Dougie d'Agasto.
    There was bound to be trouble, and it came. Dougie stayed a day too long. Jeff came home, and