The Good Ship Bison

The lawyer said, "We could ask for Net-15 payment terms for the first payments, you're not rich."

I read on.

"Tasks are as follows:

Water ice, at least several tons, or up to 50 meters in diameter. Payment $1m per ton, maximum 300 tons. Delivered to a 405 km orbit at 28 degrees inclination. Ice should be in a lump-mass and not subject to fragmentation or dispersal, which would threaten other satellites. POC: NASA administrator. If needed, a bag or other container will be provided to you free of charge to ensure it remains contained.

Liquid oxygen containers, full, delivered to the ISS. NASA standard connectors, insulated for long-term on-orbit storage. Delivery fee to you would be $1m per five 1000 L containers. POC: NASA administrator, pick up location tentatively NASA-Kennedy SLC-40. Prefer 12 hours notice before pickup for preparations.

Nuclear waste stored outside various US nuclear plants in CASTOR concrete/metal casks. Delivery to a location of your choosing on the Moon, all casks together in an area no larger than 50 km square. Coordinate with the DOE Secretary. Must be accompanied by and supervised by 3 DOE personnel and under constant video surveillance with high speed data downlink. $150m for each 200t cask. Limit: One cask until safety review complete. POC: US DOE Secretary or Japanese PM's office.

Any amount of contaminated water from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Destination, any off-earth location guaranteed to not re-enter Earth's gravity well in the next 100k years. POC: Japanese PM, details to be negotiated.

Bulk rolled aluminum, 3 mil, 20t each roll, delivered to same 405 km x 28 degree orbit, contained / tied-together. $100m per load limit 10. POC: NASA administrator.

Retrieval and clearing of orbital debris from orbits above 500 km, $1m per item over 10 kilograms. Or, $1000/item if the item is large enough to pierce the ISS or other spacecraft hull, max $2B until an internal review of progress is completed.

Pre-assembled sealed metal enclosures approximately the size of four shipping containers as 2-up/2-down arrangement. Delivery intact to South Polar region of the Moon, your discretion of location. Each enclosure, $100m cash on delivery. Enclosures will not be available for at least 30 days. POC, NASA administrator.

Contact info is below, with kind regards, cordially, President Ortiz, etc."

We talked for a while and he promised to set up a corporation to handle the transactions, pay my employees, handle HR concerns, etc.

About that time we got to the Boston area and picked up our last crewmember, Willa Johnson, a Black gal from Louisiana attending MIT. She wanted us to pick her up at the center of the Harvard Bridge on the Charles River, right out from campus. I found out later she wanted to make sure there was video coverage of a Black woman getting on the flight of 'very smart' and 'very attractive' women. I had to agree with that.

She'd already seen the news footage of the Bison picking up people in California, so she was excited.

Jan handled the comms with the FAA and the Boston police, who were very unhappy about having no notice to prepare for crowds. Jen made a case that had we told them earlier, word would have gotten out, and they'd have had much bigger crowds, so it was better this way.

This didn't convince the police chief.

I dropped the ship so it was hovering over the water with the lip of the cargo bay just over the railing, so she could throw her backpack and bag in, climb over and be inside. It was hard to not bump the bridge - I didn't want to cause damage.

Once inside, we closed up again and took off, very slowly, and headed out to sea away from Boston.

== CHAPTER: Swan's Island ==

I was going to put us into orbit, but I figured that if we did that, we'd be weightless and that'd mean all the stuff that Pat (and then the girls) had organized into piles in the other room would be weightless.

Plus, we might puke.

We rose to about 90,000 feet, and I decided to head for Maine, as a nice place to set down that had a restaurant where we could have lunch.

Doing some searching for a good spot and a restaurant that was open but remote, we set down on Swan's Island near a quarry.

I said, "Jan, call all the cellphones on this island as one giant conference call, and mute their end, so I can speak. As soon as they pick up, play the message on a slow repeat, 'Please hold for an important public safety, civil disturbance announcement'. "

"Working.... Done." A display showed how many people had picked up; I waited until the number got to about 60% and leveled off.

"Hello! This is a conference call, I'm speaking to lots of you on Swan's Island at once. Yes, really. I'm very sorry to bother you this fine morning. This is Kevin Cooper. I'm visiting your island, and I really do apologize for any inconvenience this will cause you. If you want to see us, we're going to land right near Quarry Wharf, and maybe get some lunch. If you work at Tafton's, please make some nice salads and soups for us? We'd like a mix of stuff, maybe cut sandwiches, that kind of thing. If you can. We'll be over in about 20 minutes, ish. There's ... about fifteen of us? If you're not open, sorry, maybe we'll stop by later. Again, sorry for the inconvenience, everyone. We can't let you onboard, sorry, but you can at least see us from the outside. That's all. Again, sorry for the inconvenience, but we figured it'd be good to call and let you know. Thanks! Bye!"

We landed where I'd promised.

"Pat, put a sign on the side of the ship that says, 'Caution, Please Stay Back 100 yards', okay?"

"Done."

The views out the "windows" were fantastic! It was almost March, so there was snow on the ground in places, but there were shoots of green past just some pine trees.

I got up from the chair and wandered into the hall. The ship's bots had created a wall right outside of the bridge in the direction of the sleeping rooms, so we couldn't walk that way.

Everyone was walking around, talking, speculating, etc.

It was time to have a meeting, I thought.

We tried to go to the storeroom, but it was too crowded, so we pulled some of the mattresses back to the bridge and sat on them in a circle.

As we were starting to sit, Alice came up and wanted a hug and a kiss, and I gave her one, somewhat self-conscious in front of everyone, not for myself, but knowing she was shy. I was a little confused that she'd do something so forward, she was really conservative usually. We had hugged in public lots of times - in front of her parents that morning - but not too many times had we kissed in front of others - never at school, at least. Sometimes at the movies we did.

Mads sat on the edge of the bed on one side of me, and Alice on the other, and I Just Knew there'd be tension between them, and I didn't want that, but at the same time, I figured we'd work it out eventually.

When I didn't talk immediately - I was thinking - apparently Mads took that as permission to lead the meeting, which was great by me. She was more outgoing anyway.

She said, "So, let's do a little coordination here. We've got a lot of equipment, you saw that, that means we have to unpack and set up, or store it all away somehow. The 'bunk room', or rooms, are being rebuilt in the next room, that way [she pointed], and the ship's robots are doing that. Kevin has asked me to help get you all comfortable."

I had, but in passing, and I didn't know I was giving her a task. Apparently she thought so, and I wasn't going to object. She was really organized generally, so it made sense.

She continued, "We'll do a quick intro, then get lunch. Introduce yourself - name, age, interests, languages you speak or skills, hometown, that stuff. Some of us know each other already, some not."

Pointing to her left, Mads pointed to everyone, one by one, and got them to fill in the blanks. After the first person, she broke in and responded with a super-over-enthusiastic, "Hi, ___name__, Super-Glad to Meet you!!!" Then, she had all of us repeat that, too. It broke the tension and I liked it, as a kind of camp counselor style as a thing to do.

Alice even complied, and then I went. They knew me, but it was good to be included, just one of the group, sorta.

After me, it was back to Mads, so she continued, "Okay. So, ship rules. We have some already, and if you don't like them, you're welcome to disembark, like Kevin said."

Mads' face was frank and in-charge. "First rule is, since we'll be putting on spacesuits and be naked in front of each other, we need to be used to it, so it's nudity anytime, encouraged. Not demanded, but strongly encouraged. Once we're used to it, it won't be a big deal, and safety means, we need to be comfortable with each other, like, Really Comfortable, so we don't hesitate when there's a safety thing going on."

No one said anything for a minute, but kind of considered it, thinking about it, like.

Alice broke the silence - and it surprised me - by taking an informal tone (maybe that we'd known each other helped). "So, some of you know, Kevin and I dated, for, like the past year? He really likes to see boobs. So, set the girls free, I say. He'll get used to it eventually and we can go back to a normal life."

They all laughed. This was apparently funny. I was just embarrassed, on one level, and utterly excited on another.

Mads took the floor back.

"So, yeah, thanks, Alice. Yeah. So, the second Ship Rule is, he wants this... ship, this ...situation, to basically be a harem anime, slash, harem free-use hentai. Lots of sexy-time. He's going to be trapped in this ship most of his life, is my read on this, since the ship won't work without him, and if he's off it, he could be hurt. There's a lot of people that might want to do that, so ... yeah, we've got to make sure he likes it here. Be ready to give him blowjobs, or sex, anytime. If he's happy, we're happy. And, if we're happy, we get to ride around in a spaceship, so, that's good."

I was freaked out by this language, but managed to keep my composure and just kind of nod at it.

The girls? For No Apparent Reason, they seemed to accept this like it was a normal way to talk!

I didn't know where ANY of this was coming from, from Mads. She and I hadn't talked about this as 'spaceship rules' or anything....Oh... wait.

Yeah! It had taken me a minute, but I realized I'd said something when we were having sex, before we got to the moon, about 'it's always good to give me blowjobs.' Then, later, I'd said something about harems and free-use being kind of my kink, so that was probably where it was coming from.

That had been in-passing comments, said in fun, but she had taken them seriously. Huh.

"Third Rule is, you work your butt off and anticipate needs. Really, you're a crew, so this is work, a Serious Job, with visibility to the Entire Human Race. We're not here for fun, we're here to do Literally Anything that keeps humanity going."

They all nodded, seriously. Even I was inspired a little.

She continued, "Remember that we're here to do good things, and to help Kevin do good things. There's going to be a lot of that, I think, even if we're just watching out the windows, taking pictures, translating into other languages for him. He's going to have ideas, but we are, too. There's, like, almost no limit to the good we can do for the world with this thing." Her hands indicated the ship.

She looked at me, and a silence fell in the room.

I had to say something, so I did.

"I don't know what's in store for us all. I think there'll probably be lots of situations where we need to be able to look up information, or talk with a lot of people at once? Mads is right, we'll need to be on the same page. That means getting very comfortable with your fellow crewmates, know what they're like, their expertises, their interests, all that. I'm sure there will be work, full time and challenging, in a good way. I have some ideas for first-good-tasks, but I'll need LOTS more. You're all pretty smart, so we're depending on each other to use our talents."

Mads was nodding, "So, in line with Rule Two AND Rule Three, we're going to have to be Very Very open with each other. Again, nudity all the time is good. Lots of sex is good. Go wild on that front. Let's be freed-up. We're young and Flying in a Fucking Spaceship!'

They laughed, as did I.

This was beyond belief! I hadn't intended this to happen. I NEVER would have said this to a group of women, like, EVER, and here she was saying it? AND, beyond that, they were just accepting it and going on like it was a normal thing to say.

"Fourth rule is really, Be Helpful. If you're not helpful, you don't need to be here. He's invited us to be a crew, to help him, however we can."

"Now, those are mostly _his_ rules. I have some rules, too. That is, I'd like to propose some? But, as a group, we crew need to agree that we'll abide by them. Not as spacecraft rules, more as roommate-agreement stuff, if you want. I propose that Rule A is, we keep the place cleaner than we normally would keep any apartment or room we live in. Rule 2, we share chores like food prep, garbage, all that. Rule i-i-i, keep time in the bathroom short because it's shared and stuff."

Everyone was smiling at her 'A, 2, iii' sequence, but were looking around at each other and nodding. Mads held up her arm and said, All those In Favor Say, 'Aye'?"

"Aye!"

"Against, say, 'Nay'?"

Silence.

"We'll address further rules together later, maybe tomorrow? Like, limiting what photos or vids we take of each other, not sending them off-ship without explicit permission, etc.?"

I nodded strongly, and she raised that as a vote and everyone agreed.

Looking over at Alice, I could see she was half-sad, half-hurt. I wanted to ask and get a conversation going, but then decided it'd be better to let things play out.

With several other suggestions about cups with names on them (requested of Pat), who would sleep with whom (deferred), they settled in on them, and it got around to me, for 'anything else'.

I said calmly, "This is my spaceship. I own it. I am literally the only human who can control it, and if I die, humanity loses out on this chance to get a bunch of stuff going. I don't know what this ship can do, or not do, what it costs the ship in energy or resources to build something, whether we have any long-term constraints on power or whatever. We might have constraints. Please ask Pat any question you want. Pat, please answer their questions and do any simple request they have unless it conflicts with something I've said or compromises safety, ethics, etc."

Pat's disembodied voice came through with, "Understood."

Mads turned to Alice and said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Alice, I know you've been dating Kevin for a while, but since I've been onboard, I've had sex with Kevin several times. He's _amazing_ in the sack. I had ... unbelievable orgasms. I don't want that to be a secret. So, you should try him again."

Alice seemed hurt by this, but nodded. She had to know already. "Okay."

I asked, "Pat, when will the bedrooms be ready?"

"Approximately 4 hours."

"Do we deplete any fuel reserves by lifting mass, of any size, into orbit?"

"Tiny amounts of fuel. These amounts are replaced if I can be in or touching an Earth ocean for 10 minutes or so."

"What is the maximum mass we can lift to orbit, with a 20% safety margin?"

"Volume is the limiting factor, a sphere about 1 km in diameter, of any substance or mass. Or, a set of spheres of volume adding up to that size. Some exceptions can be made to these limits by throwing these balls at high velocity upwards. Power expenditure graphs and equations are available on bridge consoles."

This was huge, obviously.

I was hungry, we'd been talking almost an hour instead of the 20 minutes I'd promised the restaurant people. "Let's go get lunch."

We all trooped downstairs, putting on our light jackets and some of the ball-cap hats they gave us in the duffle bags.

There were quite a few people (for a small island), maybe 60, waiting outside already. Before we left, I said, "Pat. No one should be able to come onboard, as a general rule, unless I invite them. Any crew already here can re-enter without worry. Keep the cargo door shut and shields on or ready in case someone decides to try, or to hurt the Bison."

"Done."

There was a steep hill towards the houses and wharf, and a bunch of people. I shook some hands. It was the first time I'd seen random people in over a day, non-military at least.

They wanted to know why we'd come, and I said, 'Lunch." This generated a laugh, but I was serious and they accepted that. I added, "Pretty location, too. You've got a beautiful island - from above - at least deserves a visit."

We all went down the hill to the pub.

The proprietor was waiting outside, staring up at the Bison behind us, several hundred meters away down the road. I turned around to look back and it inspired me a little to be part of the action.

Some of us were dressed in civilian clothes and just a few in military cammies.

I smiled and all the girls were grinning their asses off. We were celebrities.

The owner, a man in his 50's, came up to us and said, "We've prepared some food for you, would you like to stay and eat, or take it to-go?"

"We'll sit down, if you don't mind. We'd like to have a private chat, so please tell people we'd like to not be disturbed. I'll answer questions after, if that's okay."

"As you wish! This way."

He ushered us inside. It was a fairly upbeat bar / diner, a building of newer construction so drywalled with a suspended ceiling, comfortable and clean and not the old-school tavern look I was expecting. Quite a few people were there already, but a big set of long wooden tables had been cleared out by the windows where we could see our ship.

He brought us pitchers of pop and lemonade, and trays with the food already prepared. I leaned over to Jan and said, loud enough for the guy to hear, "I'm not sure I have enough cash. I'm only in high school, and..."

"Don't worry, Mr. Cooper, it's all on the house. We'll get customers for years from this. I hope you enjoy your meals."

"Still," I added, "Give Maddie here a copy of your menu and what we ate. Politically, I don't want to be seen as a freeloader, so please let us pay something."

"Very well."

As soon as he left, Kara, sitting next to me, asked quietly, "So... y'all want to see my boobs now?"

Everyone burst out laughing, even Alice.

We got to eating, and since I was hungry from not having too much breakfast, it really tasted good. I had a half a fish sandwich (perch, fresh-caught and fried), some really good coleslaw, and onion rings.

I raised a point we'd been talking about before in the meeting. "I'm thinking, besides making money, we should do some things that are, like, altruistic? Abject-good-deeds for humanity, like, charity work. Dredge a river or a lake, move some dirt somewhere, put something in orbit... Whatever."

Chris, a redhead that had been in Chorus with me, said, "Maybe, if there's a famine, we could bring some grain?"

"We'd have to buy the grain, probably, somewhere."

"Maybe we could go fishing."

I thought about that. "Maybe. But, I think there's too few fish in the ocean already." I'd read some stuff about that recently.

Dana asked, "Can we go somewhere fun, like, famous, or exotic? It's a spaceship, right?"

"Paris!"

"Rome!"

There were different suggestions, I knew we'd have to vote somehow. Peru seemed like a good choice, it was exotic and far-away. Other ideas included South Africa, Angkor Wat, and Australia.

Tourism held some appeal, and I realized we were missing out on being tourists right where we were. Most of the rest of the bar was watching us and talking in low tones, pretending not to be interested, but it was obvious they were trying to figure out what was going on.