Free Home: Interstellar: Merchant Princess by Ray Strong Page B

Meriel said.
    “Good. That’s the idea.”
    “What are you selling?”
    “Information,” John said. “It’s too expensive to ship finished goods, so we sell replicator data sets so partners can mass produce locally.”
    “Everybody does that,” Meriel said.
    “Yes, but ours mimic an individual’s genetic markers—implants are guaranteed nonrejection; drugs are guaranteed compatible; drug blends without contraindications. We just need to have our nanoscale replicators on site to execute the data sets.”
    “Why haven’t I heard of LGen before?”
    “The big corporations have a media blackout to keep LGen out of retail,” he said, “so we need to sell through channels. Even BioLuna sells our stuff. Actually, the anonymity gives us lots of flexibility.”
    “How does a small group like yours compete with BioLuna and the other conglomerates?”
    “They need us. We’re still a big part of their R and D,” John said. “Most of the technology, the research threads, started on L5. You know about L5?”
    Meriel raised her eyebrows, remembering that was where John came from. “Not much,” she said with a skeptical tone.
    “What’s the matter? Why the look?”
    “You look too normal, too healthy, to come from L5,” Meriel said.
    John stood up and grabbed a pool cue from the wall and then hit his leg with a loud whack without flinching. “Nobody’s perfect.”
    “Prosthetic?” Meriel asked.
    “That’s us—prosthetics, genomics, pharma. They built L5 for research and development of products that could be mass-produced back on Earth. Well, L5 got old and worn, and the residents, including my parents, took a chance and left for a habitat called Haven. Our station is called LeHavre.”
    “Haven’t heard of it,” she said. Sheesh, refugees from a condemned habitat moving up to a low-grav hellhole like Ceres . Meriel shook her head. “Rumor has it that L5ers were sterile from radiation and went extinct.”
    John smiled and shook his head. “Nope. We’re doing fine.” He reached for his link and pulled up a vid of two girls, perhaps nine and eleven, and a woman kneeling between them. The older girl had a patch over her left eye. “See? I got two of the sweetest and healthiest little girls in the galaxy there. Becky and Sandy.”
    Meriel raised her eyebrows and smiled. Good thing he didn’t surprise me about that , she thought. “They’re beautiful. Is that their mom in the middle?” Meriel asked.
    “Yeah. She died some years ago.”
    “Sorry,” she said and paused. “People out here don’t know anything about LeHavre either.”
    “Only LGen ships fly in and out. The catalog coordinates are wrong, and BioLuna keeps them wrong.”
    “How come?”
    “BioLuna thinks they still own us. They want to control immigration and don’t want squatters,” he said. “It’s just as well. The ecosystem can’t handle a large influx of immigrants.”
    Meriel nodded, only half listening. She was thinking about Haven and how impossible it sounded that a viable station and habitable body she’d not heard of could even exist. Before she could ask John about Haven’s location and livability, he interrupted her train of thought.
    “Back there,” John said, “what did you mean when you said you’d lose the kids?”
    “The kids from my ship when I was a kid.”
    “The Princess? ” John asked, but Meriel remained silent. “Sorry. Word gets around. I didn’t mean to pry.”
    Meriel did not hear a note of pity in his voice and gave him a friendly smile. “You’re not…yet. I try not to talk about them. What did you hear about the Princess? ”
    “Only the announcement. The story disappeared pretty quick.”
    “Yeah, instantly.”
    “You’re the kid who survived?”
    “One of them,” she said. “I’m trying to get our ship and the kids back together. There are lots of lawyers involved, and I need to act like I’m a good influence—or at least not a bad one.” Meriel finished her second drink