Robber Baron Read online

  "How many shares did you say your wife owns?" His eyes smiled at me.

  I looked back at the richest man in the galaxy, noting his athletic form and active manner. "About twenty, I think. Just the basic shares."

  He handed me the sheaf of papers. "Here's a hundred executive shares. Worth about a thousand newdollars apiece right now, but quickly rising. I was going to give them to Harry here, but that would be illegal, since he's the ruler of the planet. Someone might think it was bribery. But I guess it's okay to give them to his son." He signed over the shares, and gave them to me.

  *

  Throughout all of this, Destiny kept her job with New Planet, getting good deals on tickets for us, and making enough money to afford wherever we lived. We transferred to Turner's Planet, then to the NPS home offices on New Earth, in 2496. I was twenty-six years old, and Destiny was twenty-nine. That's when she suddenly decided to have a child. We talked about that a while, since I wasn't so sure.

  "So are you considering giving up our prime occupation, dear?" I leaned back in my deck chair under the bubble dome on the topside of our ship, looking into her still-beautiful eyes.

  "You mean robbing banks?" Her eyes twinkled at me from across the table. "I don't think I can give it up, Philipp."

  We just looked at each other for a while, the stars shining brightly through the reinforced plexiglas dome, dimly lighting our deck.

  Finally, she put her elbows on the table, and looked down through the glass table top at the deck below. "I guess there's just some instinct inside me that wants to raise a kid. You know, to bring a real, live miracle into existence, and raise him or her to maturity, teaching values, loving a vulnerable, helpless being, and helping to make it into an invulnerable, loving being in its own right."

  "You've obviously given this a lot of thought, baby. Have you given any thought as to what kind of parents we might be?"

  She sighed. "Philipp, you sound like you're starting to feel guilty about what we do. I mean, we've stolen half a billion newdollars, faked our IDs, falsified our ship's registration several times over, hurt people, killed people, falsified bank records to hide our money, lied to police investigators, carried illegal weapons, and other crimes I can't even think of right now. I guess you have a right to feel a little guilty. But I don't. Or, if I do, I suppress it really well."

  "Not guilty, really, Destiny. But I do wonder if it's right to bring a child up under that kind of environment. Of course, it would give me something to do, while you're at work."

  She laughed at that. "Yes, Philipp, you'll be the 'housewife.' And we don't have to tell our kids that we rob banks, do we? At least, not until they're older. And by that time, maybe we can retire." She winked at me. "I still remember all those times you talked about wanting to move with me to some empty planet, where we can raise our children and homestead in peace."

  *

  Ten months later, in the middle of 2497, Destiny took a week off from work to bear our first child. A lot of clinics on New Earth were offering minor genetic manipulation, to make sure a child would be born healthy and strong, and giving choices of eye color, hair color, etc. We just did it the old fashioned way, the way our bodies were intended to reproduce.

  Our son, to whom we gave the name Philipp Howard Dester Kaplan, was born weighing nine and a half pounds, and was twenty-three inches long. He had dark brown eyes like my own, and brown hair.

  A month later, we took him to the Hollis System, so his grandparents could dote over him like grandparents have a habit of doing, and he even made a planetary newscast there. He was descended from the "Monarch" of Persiphone (legally), through my relationship with Harry. Not only that, he was the grandchild of the Desters, one of the richest families in that star system. Besides, he was unique in the sense that both his parents had been raised from childhood on Persiphone, and he had been born off-planet. The newscasters made a lot of supposed historical connections and showed live pictures of little Philipp for about ten seconds.

  Then we were off, back to New Earth, to our sprawling estate in the rolling hills of the Newer York region. Destiny returned to work in her office in Newer York City, while I stayed at home with my son.

  Shortly thereafter, we hired a full-time nursemaid (Destiny was a major executive by this time, and we could afford it, legally). Our son's caretaker was a small dark woman, named Isabelle.

  At first, she was just a single woman looking for a job, who answered our ad in the newspaper. After a while, though, we came to think of her as part of the family. When she had slept over at our house several times, Destiny and I invited her to move in with us, to take care of our child around the clock. For that, we increased her pay, charged no rent, and fed her for free. Destiny made sure that Isabelle got one full day off, every week, and at least one evening, during the week, so she could have a social life. That way, Isabelle wouldn't feel too tied down with us.

  *

  Three months after we hired Isabelle, I took the S.S. Baron to Justine's new shipyards, where I had her old nuclear reactor replaced with a fresh one, had new seals installed in the airlock, and got a complete inspection. Then I took her to Nubase, where a small shipyard helped me install several hidden compartments in her, for caching weapons or other valuables. Days later, Destiny and I robbed two more banks on Saivalaurie in the same day. On the way back to New Earth, I overtook and cleaned out an armored transport in open space. We had a lot of inside info on that one, for which we paid top dollar, but it was worth it, seeing that it was our largest cash score, up to that point.

  *

  Early in 2498, when I was twenty-eight, the war finally broke out between the Federation and the Sleebb Empire. The ten years of the popularly titled "War of Revenge" are what I'll call my "good ole days." Not only were they the best years of my son's life (toddlerhood, early childhood, first day of school, etc.), but a lot of the best cops and security guards joined the Federation military forces. That left a lot of banks wide open.

  In addition to all this, with a good private space ship like the Baron, I could make my own forages into the Sleebb systems, and bring back valuable information to the Federation. I found a willing officer in the ranks (Jason Quivers) who was authorized to pay for any information that resulted in successful military action. I had found out from Harry where Jason was stationed, and contacted him myself. I never told Jason how I received my information; I just told him to trust me. If I told him I had a private ship, he would wonder how I had gotten enough money for it, and I didn't want to lie to him. So I just told him that my sources were confidential. That was true enough.

  Those trips were the most dangerous enterprises that I ever engaged in, but I found that it got my juices flowing, just like robbing banks. Not only did I make a little money from selling information to the Federation, but I also destroyed a few Sleebb ships of my own. And twice, I made bombing runs on one of the Sleebb home worlds.

  *

  The spaceliner business had a hard time of it during the war years, so Destiny had a lot more time off from work. We spent a lot of time with little Phil and, and robbed quite a few banks. Toward the end of the war, I got a part-time job with the Federation forces on New Earth, teaching hand-to-hand combat, again through the influence of Jason Quivers. He sent a letter of reference to the base there, telling them that I was completely learned in all of the necessary fighting skills. By 2500, partially due to the unified war effort, the Second Galactic Rim Federation had encompassed most of the colonized planets, and the war was going well.

  I spent two years in part-time employment with the Federation, from 2502 to 2504, then quit, to enter full-time criminal enterprise. When I was at home, I taught little Phil (who was seven years old, already) some basic self-protection moves, and we went camping on a few weekends. I found I enjoyed being a parent more than Destiny did. Even with my lack of higher education, my son asked many questions to which I actually knew the answers. He liked to talk about guns, cars, rocks, farming, animals, vide
o shows, his friends' pets, food, and a lot of other things that I knew a lot about. At least, it seemed to him that I did.

  He was beginning to look a lot like I had, at his age, and it made me proud. I assured him that I had been just as skinny when I was younger, and that he would fill out soon enough. I think he had his mother's brain though, because he caught on to most things more quickly than I had.

  In 2505, Destiny and I had our second child, a daughter, which I insisted on naming after her mother. Destiny Samantha Bates Kaplan was born on my birthday. Little Phil, then almost eight years old, helped out a lot with Sam's care, and our nursemaid, Isabelle (who was still living with us), took a big raise to stay on and watch both of them.

  *

  I picked the right time to buy my own planetoid. It had been popular for years for a rich man to build his own space habitat to retire into. Others, like Michael Cyr, had bought a small continent on a new planet. But selling used-up asteroids became a wholly new market.

  I saw an ad in a newspaper, from a mining company that was selling hollowed out asteroids, small ones for twice the price of a new home, and up to a million newdollars for a big one. The add read:

  Buy Your Own Planet!

  CHEAP

  If you tire of the Colonial Commission's offers...

  If you realize that every empty planet will soon be full...

  If you don't want to pay income taxes ANY MORE...

  Then...

  Buy Your Own Planet!

  The advertisement gave the mailing address of the company, and the galactic coordinates of their home office.

  I went (in my own ship) to the space-based offices of this company, and told them I was the representative of a certain well-known business executive in that system. They really didn't care what name I gave - they just had to fill out a receipt. Once the planetoid was mine, they didn't care what I did with it. I selected a large planetoid, almost perfectly spherical, and about forty miles in diameter. It had already been completely drained of every mineral known to be worth mining, Gravity generators had been installed on it, for the comfort of the workers, as well as a small living quarters, with a kitchenette, a bunkroom, and a supply room. The office manager said that all the quarters and equipment would be left on the asteroid, for the buyer. It would have cost the mining company too much to clear all that out.

  I accepted the offer of one of the company big wheels to ride through the asteroid in a small maintenance craft. He had the pilot show me through several immense caverns from which iron ore and other minerals had been extracted, and the maze of tunnels that connected the caverns.

  For two million newdollars, I bought the whole planet, lock, stock, and barrel. Of course, in the past, the mining companies had always just abandoned their used up asteroids, leaving their living quarters in place. Now, with a higher percentage of the population looking for a way to get away, and more people coming up in the financial ranks, the mining companies had seen another opportunity to make money.

  When a mining firm sets up camp on an asteroid, they are required to set up a "planetary charter" with the local star system's government. That charter says that the company in question owns the planetoid, and can do with it whatever they wish, except move it or destroy it. Moving the larger asteroids can cause orbital problems, and destroying one creates millions of tiny asteroids, which are dangerous for passing ships. Otherwise, the rock is theirs.

  I thought it would be a wonderful place to retire. For once, I saw the big picture in my head. I envisioned the planet after I poured some more money into it. There would be lakes, parks, farms, animals, houses, etc. And it would all be mine.

  I bought several spare gravity motors from shipyards on Mouwor, and installed them on my planet, which I named Destiny's World. With the help of a computer expert at Destiny's office, I selected a good computer to use on Destiny's World, and bought it, getting the same man's help to install it for me. He then helped me to work the computer to set up the desired gravity fields. The reason I needed multiple gravity fields was this: I wanted a normal field for the surface of the planet, pulling toward the center ("down") at about 0.9 gravities. In this way, we could walk on the surface, and an atmosphere would stay around - if I could figure out how to acquire an atmosphere. But, for all the caves and tunnels inside, a gravity field pulling toward the center of the planet just would not work. So each tunnel and cavern had a gravity field of its own, not necessarily pulling in the same direction as any of the others.

  I bought three nuclear reactors and a large power cell unit, to power the gravity fields, the computer, the lights, etc. And I put in a hyperdrive motor: as far as I know, it was the first hyperdrive ever installed on a planet Then I pulled the greatest caper of my life, and one that no one else could ever explain. I had figured out how to acquire an atmosphere.

  The inhabitants of Jalla never knew exactly what happened A lot of them suddenly noticed a fifth moon in the sky, hanging just a few hundred miles above them. The Jalla Planetary Protection Service immediately dispatched interceptors to apprehend the inhabitants of the new planet. Then the new moon disappeared. Only the most astute and observant scientists noticed a very minute change in the air pressure of the planet on Jalla.

  From a full-sized planet, I had stolen enough air to coat Destiny's World to a depth of about two thousand feet. I then went to Astropolis IV and bought a load of seeds and farming equipment, which I used to seed DW. I bought animals: cows, horses, pigs, geese, rabbits, earthworms, etc.

  And I did all this without Destiny knowing a thing about it So, when the new Federation Investigative Bureau (FIB) announced on the galactic news service in the later days of 2506 that they were onto us, I had a place where we could go.

  *

  Somehow, several agents tracking bank robberies on different planets had collaborated, and decided that a lot of them had many things in common. A long-haired female, usually driving the getaway car. The getaway car was always either recently stolen, or bought used, the day before. And the car was always found abandoned the next day. A bulky male, sometimes alone, sometimes with a smaller partner, always wearing bulletproof armor. Every member of the team wore masks, gloves, armor, etc. Those banks with visible cameras always had the power cut first. Many times, the vault combination had been discovered through computer hacking; other times, the robbery had occurred when the vault was known to be open. Security guards were always hit with dart guns, and knocked unconscious.

  Then, these investigators dug into the old investigations, and found the names: Destiny, Philipp, and James Gwandon. Gwandon was out of prison by then, and still sticking to his story. He told investigators that the "Destiny" he knew had worked for one of the Spacelines. And they plastered it all over the evening news, on New Earth. The Second Galactic Rim Federation had been our demise.

  I began to wish that we had never found the Sleebbs. I thought to myself that if the Sleebb threat had never come about, then the Federation would not have drawn together so quickly. And if the planets had remained divided, their law enforcement agencies would not have been working together. Even so, it had happened, and we had to deal with it. But I was ready for that day.

  I watched Destiny cringe as the news anchor named Persiphone as the planet of the "Robber Baron's" origin. They posted a picture of both of us, from our high school days, and a computer enhanced photo, showing what we could possibly look like now. The new pictures looked remarkably like us. We would have to leave, and soon. The spacelines - Destiny's employers - knew where she lived, and they would soon turn the records over to the authorities.

  That's when I told her about my new planet, Destiny's World, that I had bought and fixed up for her. She looked up at me. "Philipp, have I told you lately that I love you?"

  "Yes, as a matter of fact, Destiny. I think you were hollering just that phrase late last night."

  She took a playful swing at me, which I parried, and then I took her down in a judo hold. We wrestled a little bit on t
he floor, and soon Phil and Sam rushed in, to join the fray. The happy bank-robbing family wrestled for a few more minutes, until Isabelle entered the room.

  Destiny extracted herself from the human pile on the floor, and held a hurried conversation with our baby-sitter/housekeeper/maid. She explained to Isabelle that we were going to move, and we were going to move now. She told her that she was welcome to come along, but that she would not have time to gather many possessions. When Isabelle asked where we were going, Destiny didn't tell her. Isabelle said she'd rather not go, if she didn't know where we were going.

  I continued to play with my eighteen month-old daughter and nine year-old son for a few minutes, during that conversation, then I got up.

  It took maybe fifteen minutes to dump our most important valuables (pictures, souvenirs, a couple of favorite weapons, and a couple of favorite toys) into bags, then we dumped the bags into the trunk of the car - my new Grumman Cruiser. As we packed, Isabelle helped us, then changed her mind, and decided to go with us.

  "I guess I don't have to know where we're going," she said to Destiny, as they piled my wife's clothing into a packing case. "I don't have a good reason to stay here, you know. And I love all of you." She was a selfless woman, that Isabelle.