Crossways by Jacey Bedford Page B

anyway.”
    No station in space, especially one the size of Crossways, was entirely self-sufficient, despite intensive food production. It would take a while for shortages to kick in, probably nonessentials at first, but once it started to hit the staple food stocks it wouldn’t be pretty.
    â€œHow long before supplies run out?” Ben asked.
    â€œA couple of weeks before people start to notice they can’t get everything they want. A couple of months before supplies get dangerously low. We could introduce rationing, but that’s going to cause unrest.”
    â€œYou don’t need this,” Ben said. “Forget the warehouse, we’ll go.”
    â€œWhere to?” Garrick gave him a level look.
    â€œFair point.” Ben shrugged.
    â€œBesides, Alphacorp has always wanted an excuse to stick it to us. You could leave tomorrow, but they wouldn’t lift the embargo. We have to change our trading patterns to deal with the independents only—build up new networks.”
    â€œWhere are the nearest independent planets?” Cara asked.
    Mother Ramona hit a panel on the desk and a holographic galaxy materialized in the center of the room. It was very like the one Crowder had in his ops room, and for a moment Ben was back to being a young ex-copper staring at Crowder’s favorite toy in amazement as colonies twinkled in front of his eyes. In the intervening years he’d helped to put more bright white dots on the map. He located them: Rostov, Occania, Kemp’s World, New Canada, Eyonore . . . and there was Hera-3, glowing blue to designate it as a platinum planet administered by the Trust.
    Alphacorp’s colonies were green, Arquavisa’s yellow, Ramsay-Shorre’s red, and a number of others glowed in shades in between. Dotted among them all were worlds he didn’t recognize, picked out in violet.
    â€œThose are the independents,” Garrick said.
    â€œI didn’t realize there were so many.” Cara stepped in past Ben to get a closer look. “That’s quite a network.”
    â€œPlentiful, but not close,” Garrick said. “In the past it’s suited us that Crossways is off the beaten track with only one jump gate, which we control. A lot of the independents have picked their locations carefully, far enough away from a jump gate that transit is going to take anything from four to twelve weeks. Many of them are happy to trade with us,but we have a logistics problem. Did you enjoy your coffee this morning?”
    â€œMmm, lovely,” Cara said.
    â€œVery kind of you to send it, thank you.” Ben tried not to look at Cara as he sidestepped the question smoothly.
    â€œFrom here.” Mother Ramona pushed her arm into the hologram and brushed her finger across a violet world in the Perseus Arm of the galaxy. “Blue Mountain, the ultimate coffee-producing planet in the Tegabo system. Settled by a breakaway bunch from Drogan’s World. Their nearest gate is fifteen weeks out from the planet.”
    â€œAnd while coffee is not an essential . . .” Garrick said. “Well, not to me at any rate.” He took a sidelong glance at Mother Ramona and gave a twitch of a smile. “Cereals would take eleven weeks’ transit from Prairie, bulk protein powders five weeks from Massukos, even supposing they have the surplus to help us. If they don’t, then the next nearest producer of any size is Keynes, which is nine weeks from its nearest gate.”
    Ben stared at the hologram. “The megacorps don’t have quite the monopoly on fast transit that they think they have,” he said. “But it would certainly help if we had a few more jumpships. That would solve a lot of transit problems.”
    â€œYou said ‘we,’” Mother Ramona said.
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œYou said ‘if
we
had a few more jumpships.’ We, not you. Does that mean that you’re with us?”
    Ben