View source for Keeping One's House in Order

Hub is Elizabeth Bartley's campaign set in the universe of James Schmidt's Hub stories. Players for the session:

1. Joshua Kronengold -- Jealousy Jones, psi resistant detective

2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

3. Matthew Stevens -- Jim DeGris, suave retired catburglar with telekinesis

The festival games that made up the competition that took place every 12 years on the planet Ivic were in full swing. The ruling families jockied for position in the top 21 families, as did a few independent groups and a couple of multi-system corporations. These latter sometimes despaired of ever figuring out how Ivic's government worked, though clearly, it did work. As many expansionist corporations found to their chagrin, Ivic was quite capable of keeping corporate activities firmly in check.

Perhaps this was because status on Ivic was less variable than an offworlder might guess. The top 10 families were never in danger of losing their general position, however much jockeying for position occurred. The Lecks family was one of these 10, its status assured, especially as it had come out slightly ahead in an exchange of agreed upon thefts. 

Ancus Lecks, the patriarch of the Lecks family, thoroughly approved of the competition. It encouraged ingenuity and intelligence. It was one of many ways to channel power struggles so that they did not lead to actual war. And, it was fun.

Most of the Lecks family enjoyed the competition. Most of it. Ancus summoned one of his grandchildren, Marius.

Marius had dutifully returned home for the competition. He had dutifully helped in the recent exchange of thefts. He had dutifully worn a plastic lei and dutifully sat in a public plaza for three hours, dutifully giving rival families an opportunity to attempt a theft.

"Marius, this is supposed to be fun," said Ancus, mildly, when his grandson dutifully appeared.

Marius sighed. He was trying, but he found the whole competition absurd after the real wars he'd seen. He understood that the point was to avoid such wars, and he wholeheartedly agreed that Ivic should avoid them. But, he still could not work up real enthusiasm for the competition.

Ancus waved his grandson's attempt to explain this aside, noting that Marius' performance, while dutiful, hurt morale.

"Since you are obviously not enjoying yourself, I have found something for you to do off planet."

"Yes, sir," said Marius. "It's a good idea. It's important for the family to call me back. And it's important for the other families to see that I do come back, and that you have me securely on the leash. But, once they've seen that, you probably do need to do something like this before it becomes obvious that you have to."

Ancus nodded. "We'll handle it better next time."

"Yes, sir." Marius realized in surprise and dismay that he'd just agreed to make sure he was on hand and cooperative for "next time". Worse, he didn't think Ancus had actively manipulated him into this. But his grandfather was speaking now, explaining what Marius was to do.

The Lecks family owned much property on the frontier planet Amon, including a hospital. It was intended as a teaching hospital. Lately, however, the Dean in charge of the hospital had fired many people and hired others. And, there had been several resignations. And, the Dean seemed to have decided to shift the focus of the hospital away from teaching.

"It may be that he thinks we are too pre-occupied with the festivities to notice that he may be using the hospital to fulfill his private agenda, said Ancus. "If so, you will show him that we are not."

"Yes, sir. Will Jim be coming along?"

Marius had met the suave Jim DeGris on a different planet where, as Jim later put it, they had shared quite the adventure." Jim had arrived on Ivic for the competition, offering his services to the Lecks family. He had been very useful.

"I have another job for Mr. DeGris," said Ancus. "But he and Ms. Jones may be able to provide assistance."

The other job involved one of Marius' sisters, Julia, who had joined a religious order, changing her name to Theodora.

"She's a fanatic," Marius explained to Jealousy Jones and Jim DeGris, not understanding why they exchanged amused glances.

Unlike Marius, Theodora enjoyed the competition a little -too- much. Her order had made sure to send her to Amon so that her enthusiasm could be kept in check. Theodora decided to look into the administration of a charity fund sponsored by her order. She discovered that some of the shareholders were embezzling money from the fund, and she was eager to rectify the situation.

Unfortunately, while Theodora had the power to dissolve the current board, she needed a quorum of shareholders to do so. The shareholders, understandably, refused to meet with her. Well, there was one shareholder who had not been embezzling, and who was quite willing to meet with Theodora, but that was not enough for a quorum. Theodora needed help in tracking down at least two of the recalcitrant shareholders, and that's where Jim and Jealousy came in.

Marius was surprised to learn that Jim used to be a notorious cat burglar. Amon's police already knew this, and they were skeptical about how retired Jim was. They monitored Jim, and this annoyed him.

He walked in to the police station and asked for recommendations of rich targets. Then, he ditched the plainclothesmen who were tailing him.

Next, Jim contacted a firm, offering his services to test the firm's security. His services were accepted, and a contract was drawn up specifying both his rates and that he was not to keep anything he stole. Then, Jim contacted his unretired friends.

"I have a special job for you," he said.

This job was to steal the house of one of Theodora's recalcitrant shareholders. The theft was timed to occur during Jim's security check. Jim made sure that the police found him and followed him as he fulfilled his contract. When he was satisfied, he swung through an upper story window to meet with his clients.

The police entered the room mere seconds later. They were dismayed when Jim's client assured them that the company had indeed hired Mr. DeGris, and that Mr. DeGris had done nothing illegal. The next morning, the police learned of the theft of an entire house, a stunt definitely in Mr. DeGris' style. However, Mr. DeGris had an alibi. At the time of the robbery, he was performing a security check for a client, his every move witnessed by several policemen.

Meanwhile, Marius went to the Kelsi Hospital and Medical Institute. The security guard at the front desk scrutinized his authorization disc thoroughly, then cautioned Marius to keep it safe and available, just in case. The guard did not say outright that someone might try to steal it, but Marius' little advertised empathy confirmed that the man thought someone desperate might try something stupid.

Marius put himself on shift, finding the hospital quite busy. The staff were stressed and overworked. Still, after a day or so, he felt some of their resentment at his presence fade, as they realized he was a competent surgeon, not just a hatchetman with no understanding of how a hospital worked.

While Marius made his rounds, Jealousy, under various pretexts and identities, interviewed some of the people fired by the Dean. More than a few acknowledged that the Dean was correct to ask them to leave.

"He thought I was snappish and irritable," said one woman. "I -was- snappish and irritable. And I was taking it out on the patients. He was right to fire me.

"But he should have had a replacement lined up first, and he didn't. So, the hospital was short another person, and everyone else was even more stressed."

After a few shifts and some sleep, Marius began some interviews of his own, within the hospital. He attended one of the Dean's lecture. It demonstrated that the man knew his medicine. It also focused on practical hands-on techniques which the Dean clearly expected everyone to make great use of. When the Dean went to give his next lecture, Marius went to the Dean's office and used his authorization disc to access the man's files.

An hour later, Dean Jope Korai made his way to his office, fighting a yawn. There was so much to do, and not enough resources. On top of that, the Ivic Inspector was --

-- in his office, in his chair, staring at his terminal screen. Dean Kobai let the door close, grateful that, at least, Dr. Lecks hadn't decided to Be Dramatic and position the chair facing away from the door, spinning it around as the Dean entered the room.

"Tell me what I'm seeing here," said Lecks, not looking up from the monitor.

Dean Kobai came around to the other side of the desk. Lecks had been looking at many things -- personnel records, monthly budgets, course schedules, and other files, trying to get an idea of the big picture. Dean Korai gave it to him.

Amon, he explained, was still a frontier planet. As such, all hospitals were needed in their capacity -as- hospitals. And, as a hospital, Kelsi was being overtaxed as it was.

"And other hospitals can't take your overflow?" asked Marius.

"Marymount is doing what it can," said Kobai. "And that does help. A little. But Sisters of Mercy isn't doing much."

"Sisters of Mercy? That's --" Marius broke off. "I'll explain that in a bit. For now, Dean Kobai, why didn't you ask us for help? Why didn't you tell us that a teaching hospital simply isn't practical. Maybe in ten years, but not now. Now, Kelsi must shift its focus, the way you've been trying to shift it."

Marius sighed. "Do you have any idea how this looked from Ivic, given the timing?" he asked.

The Dean looked puzzled.

"The festival?" Marius asked.

"What festival?" asked Kobai.

Marius began to laugh. "You really don't know?"

He explained about Ivic's festival and competition.

"Offworlders sometimes make the mistake of assuming we're off our guard at that time," he said. "That's what this looked like."

"Oh," said Kobai, comprehension dawning.

"And then, one of your own staff was afraid you might be desperate enough to try to separate me from my authorization disc."

"I see," said Kobai.

"And on top of that, there -are- people on Amon trying to take advantage of the festival on Ivic." Marius explained about Theodora's religious order, its charity fund, and the embezzling shareholders.

"I seem to recall that one of the shareholders is the administrator of Sisters of Mercy Hospital. This could explain why that hospital has been less helpful than it could be," said Marius.

Dean Kobai's eyes narrowed.

"I understand he's been hiding out in the hospital. You might be able to help us out there," said Marius, thoughtfully.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Dean Kobai.

------

Dean Kobai finished his luncheon with the administrator of Sisters of Mercy Hospital, having admonished the man to give a little more support to Kelsi Hospital. The two men left the building, passing the courthouse.

At the same time, two other men left the courthouse. One was the shareholder whose house had been stolen. He was accompanied by his lawyer. Their paths intersected with that of Dean Kobai and the administrator of Sisters of Mercy.

The quartet was now intercepted by Theodora Lecks, accompanied by her brother and Cousi Houton, the lone cooperative shareholder. Theodora carried a clipboard and a gavel. In the instant before the administrator and the house-bereft shareholders became aware of her presence, she banged the gavel sharply against the clipboard.

"I call this meeting to order. The board is hereby dissolved. The new board members are Cousi Houton, Jope Kobai, and Marius Lecks."

"Hey!" said Marius caught by surprise.

"Meeting adjourned!" Theodora banged her gavel again. As the two disenfranchised shareholders stared in dismay, Theodora and the new board walked off.

"It's only temporary," Theodora told her brother. "I'll replace you soon."

"Good!" said Marius. "You won't have to hunt me down to get me to form a quorum so you can fire me!"

------

Marius returned to his interviews at Kelsi. He was beginning to get a sense of who to keep, who to reassign, and who to fire.

"You're going to have to fire me," said Dean Kobai. "For morale reasons, if nothing else."

Marius sighed. The Dean was right, and he didn't like it.

"I need to find another place for him," he told Theodora.

"Well, Sisters of Mercy could use an interim administrator, as the old one was fired when proof of his embezzling my order's charity fund came out," she said, with satisfaction. "That wasn't the only place he'd done his embezzling, it seems. Dean Kobai isn't good at seeing long term solutions, so he'd only be an interim administrator, but he is skilled at finding short term solution."

"I'll suggest it to Kobai," said Marius.

"We failed him," he explained, when he called his grandfather. "He needed our help, and he had no evidence to indicate he could trust us with the truth."

Ancus nodded on the data terminal view screen.

Marius took a deep breath, then said, "Sir, I need to stay here a few weeks, to help with the transition. I know this means missing the closing ceremonies, but the hospital needs the family presence and --"

"Yes, yes. You've convinced me." Ancus considered. "I want you to send a note, in your best handwriting. I won't ask you to say you regret being able to attend --"

"Oh, I can honestly say that," said Marius. "I have to fire a good man."

"I'll leave the phrasing to you," said Ancus.

Kobai was hired as Interim Administrator for Sisters of Mercy, and he was far more willing to have the hospital take some of the overflow from Kelsi than the last administrator had been. Ironically, Kobai found himself hiring for Sisters of Mercy some of the people he fired from Kelsi.

Marius began keeping an eye on possible future postings for Kobai. He also began interviewing candidates to replace Kobai as Dean, and candidates for other positions at Kelsi as well. As this involved some travel, Marius decided that he could justify a short break to meet with Dr. Zy Blan and perhaps find out if she were interested in a relationship beyond that of professional colleagues. Alas, this time, Jealousy Jones would interrupt his plans with business.