Stranger in a Strange Land

«Hand the lady a cigar! Dr. Mary Jane Lyle Smith. She had it worked out before she left even though development remained to be done. So she applied for basic patents and placed it in trust — nota non-profit corporation, mind you — then assigned control and interim income to the Science Foundation. So eventually the government got control — but your friend owns it. It's worth millions, maybe hundreds of millions; I couldn't guess.»

They brought in dinner. Caxton used ceiling tables to protect his lawn; he lowered one to his chair and another to Japanese height so that Jill could sit on the grass. «Tender?» he asked.

«Ongerful!» she answered.

«Thanks. Remember, I cooked.»

«Ben,» she said after swallowing, «how about Smith being a — I mean, illegitimate? Can he inherit?»

«He's not illegitimate. Doctor Mary Jane was at Berkeley; California laws deny the concept of bastardy. Same for Captain Brant, as New Zealand has civilized laws. While in the home state of Doctor Ward Smith, Mary Jane's husband, a child born in wedlock is legitimate, come hell or high water. We have here, Jill, a man who is the legitimate child of three parents.»

«Huh? Now wait, Ben; he can't be. I'm not a lawyer but — »

«You sure ain't. Such fictions don't bother a lawyer. Smith is legitimate different ways in different jurisdictions — even though a bastard in fact. So he inherits. Besides that, while his mother was wealthy, his fathers were well to do. Brant ploughed most of his scandalous salary as a pilot on the Moon run into Lunar Enterprises. You know how that stuff boomed — they just declared another stock dividend. Brant had one vice, gambling — but the bloke won regularly and invested that, too. Ward Smith had family money. Smith is heir to both.»

«Whew!»

«That ain't half, honey. Smith is heir to the entire crew.»

«Huh?»

«All eight signed a “Gentlemen Adventurers” contract, making them mutually heirs to each other — all of them and their issue. They did it with care, using as models contracts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that had stood up against every effort to break them. These were highpowered people; among them they had quite a lot. Happened to include considerable Lunar Enterprises stock, too, besides what Brant held. Smith might own a controlling interest, or at least a key bloc.»

Jill thought about the childlike creature who had made such a touching ceremony of a drink of water and felt sorry for him. Caxton went on: «I wish I could sneak a look at the Envoy 's log. They recovered it — but I doubt if they'll release it.»

«Why not, Ben?»

«It's a nasty story. I got that much before my informant sobered up. Dr. Ward Smith delivered his wife by Caesarean section — and she died on the table. What he did next shows that he knew the score; with the same scalpel he cut Captain Brant's throat — then his own. Sorry, hon.»

Jill shivered. «I'm a nurse. I'm immune to such things.»

«You're a liar and I love you for it. I was on police beat three years, Jill; I never got hardened to it.»

«What happened to the others?»

«If we don't break the bureaucrats loose from that log, we'll never know — and I am a starry-eyed newsboy who thinks we should. Secrecy begets tyranny.»

«Ben, he might be better off if they gypped him out of his inheritance. He's very … uh, unworldly.»

«The exact word, I'm sure. Nor does he need money; the Man from Mars will never miss a meal. Any government and a thousand-odd universities and institutions would be delighted to have him as a permanent guest.»

«He'd better sign it over and forget it.»

«It's not that easy. Jill, you know the famous case of General Atomics versus Larkin, et al.?»

«Uh, you mean the Larkin Decision. I had it in school, same as everybody. What's it got to do with Smith?»

«Think back. The Russians sent the first ship to the Moon, it crashed. The United States and Canada combine to send one; it gets back but leaves nobody on the Moon. So while the United States and the Commonwealth are getting set to send a colonizing one under the sponsorship of the Federation and Russia is mounting the same deal on their own, General Atomics steals a march by boosting one from an island leased from Ecuador — and their men are there, sitting pretty and looking smug when the Federation vessel shows up — followed by the Russian one.