In A Starship's Wake

Chapter 48: Wanderers' Problems

"I first thought I'd like to own a mine of my own when I was eighteen. I started work in an asteroid mine around then, one in an older and well-populated system. Go figure, I met my wife at the same time. Our courtship went rather quickly, we were married a little after my ninteenth birthday, and Savannah arrived a few weeks after our first anniversary.

"Our own mine was a goal that seemed pretty unlikely after that, and to be honest I didn't mind. I barely thought about it for a few years. I had a family instead, and I was content with that. My wife and I had set aside some money with that plan in mind before we found out Savannah was on her way, but even then I figured we'd use it for a house or something along that line."

"I remember you almost did that a few times too," Savannah interrupted with a look at Joseph. "It seemed like every time they were about to do that we got moved to a different station."

"I think it was only twice, but she's right. They offered me promotions to management jobs in both cases, and those jobs were how we met the families who became our business partners. We'd discuss opening a mine from time to time amongst the eight of us, usually when we were annoyed about some decision in the ones we worked for.

"We started to call our occasional gatherings 'mine plan meetings' as a joke. After a few years of that we realized we actually had the skills and could get the resources we needed to do it. The meetings became serious instead of facetious, and someone ran across this system while they poked through survey data."

"Sounds like you've smoothed out the difficult parts of the story," Joseph grinned. "My business partnership has involved a lot more arguments than that description implies."

"Well yeah, I did. I don't think you want me to drone on for an hour after all." Savannah nodded fervently, and Rhett scowled at her in feigned affront. "It's worked out better than we could have hoped, honestly. Everyone's kids came along, even the adult ones, although they're obviously free to leave and pursue other careers. I'm sure they will, but for now they're all still here." "It's a pretty impressive place, especially when you consider it's only a year old." Joseph took another look at the common area. He had no idea how they'd managed to cut such smooth floors out of rock.

"Well, we're on the verge of having a successful business, and I certainly don't regret a minute of the time that led up to it." Rhett said. "Still, I think you and your partner were wiser in how you went about it. I tried to save to start a business while I provided for a family. It's not the most efficient way to do either, and probably not the most efficient way to use money. You two had the better method, you built a business before either of you started a family."

"Happy as I am about our ships, I think you're wrong about that." Joseph shook his head with a faintly regretful expression.

"Why is that?" Rhett asked.

Savannah looked at him with a curious smile. Joseph hesitated and rapidly revised the contradiction he'd been about to offer. A significant part of the reason he disagreed was that he was still single himself, and he didn't want what he said to sound like complaint. To complain about one's single status wasn't a good way to change it, and that was doubly true around an attractive girl.

"You're right that it's easier to do when you don't have the expenses of a family," Joseph admitted. "The thing is, I don't think there's a 'right' or 'wrong' time to have a family. Not in relation to other life events, at least. The right time to get married is when you've found the right person to marry, not after some arbitrary life event like a business or career is built.

"My disagreement isn't that I think either of us was right or wrong in how we started our businesses. It's more that I think you and Tyrone were both right about when to get married and start a family. Myself too I suppose; I don't have one because I haven't found the right person, not because I was waiting until I had my business to look."