by Peter Rhodan
He sent word back to members of his family and some of his friends, and using his severance pay from the exploration company he had worked for, he started the colony. His family had originally come from the large island called Australia back on old Earth. They had carefully kept their national history alive over the generations and he christened the new system using a name from their original homeland. The capital was named after the capital of their ancestral home state of Victoria. They had tried to use as many Aussie cultural traditions and names as possible to keep their history alive, given that only a couple of the people on the Gravesend had actually been of Australian ancestry. Today the planet was home to nearly two hundred thousand people. The government tried to keep their planet unattached to any of the major galactic powers, which was not an easy task, while at the same time they were encouraging immigration and investment.
Gizel had not been on watch when they entered the system, but it was only a short time after their arrival that her watch began. They were not that far from the planet and she was put on sensor duty for this shift, being supervised by Ensign Griffen. Studying the various bodies and the somewhat limited space infrastructure in the system helped make the watch pass quickly.
She was getting to the point of expecting to be relieved by C watch when she was called to the Captain’s cabin. She left the bridge to various snide comments, mostly about what nefarious actions she had been caught at to warrant being sent for by the Captain, and walking down the corridor she did start to feel a little concerned. After wracking her memory, the only thing she could think of that would have gotten her into trouble was the weekly poker game with some of the Marines. But those games were an open secret, so hauling her over the coals now didn’t seem to make sense.
On the other hand, she had been called to the Captain’s proper cabin, not the small duty cabin attached to the bridge. This seemed to indicate she was indeed in trouble rather than it being a simple duty matter. Apart from the general dinners with her fellow officers she had not had a great deal of interaction with the Captain during the voyage. She had overheard Lieutenant Tremaine and Lieutenant Lars discussing a few things about her, and she gathered the Captain was being regularly updated on her performance.
She found herself experiencing mild butterflies in the stomach as she rapped on his door. The Navy maintained some very old customs, which she had taken some time to get used to. In normal circumstances, doors would query a person’s ID chip and then report your approach to the door’s owner before you were anywhere near the door. The person inside could then order the door to open as you approached, if they wanted to see you, or remain closed if they didn’t. The Navy, at least aboard its ships, required you to politely knock and then wait for the command to enter before proceeding. It was all a bit old-fashioned and she wasn’t sure about the need for such archaic traditions, but she wasn’t the boss. Or at least not yet, she grinned to herself.
Be that as it may, she heard the command to enter and after closing the door behind her, marched the two paces to the desk and coming to attention, saluted her commanding officer. He quickly returned the salute and indicated a chair against the bulkhead. “Bring that over and sit Midshipman.”
“Aye aye, sir,” she replied and did as he ordered while relaxing slightly, the chair meant it was not a disciplinary thing then!
The captain eyed her for a few moments after she had sat as if weighing her up.
“Midshipman Desnoute. So far on this cruise you have performed your duties in an exemplary fashion. I have also been impressed with the way you have not tried to throw your Imperial rank around with your fellow shipmates, the way you have treated the ordinary crew in a proper manner, and your diligence in learning how to perform your duties.”
Gizel could feel her face turning red at this praise from the normally taciturn Captain and could only mutter an embarrassed
“Thank you, sir.” in response.
Captain Deltron smiled at her obvious self-conscious discomfit.
“You will not get any praise from me that you have not earned young lady. I was not happy with you being assigned to my ship Midshipman. Members of the Imperial family normally serve on the much larger capital ships; not destroyers, but I have found no grounds for complaint with your time aboard this vessel. Now, however, I need you to put on your Princess hat, so to speak.”
“Sir?” she asked, looking up.
“I have received a communiqué from our Consul on New Melbourne, one Harkon Liddell, who has informed me that myself and as many of my officers as can be spared from their duties are invited to a formal dinner at Government House in Melbourne. The pirate problem in this region has been growing and apparently our sending a warship out this way is a major diplomatic coup for the Empire. What I intend to do is to add to our diplomatic success by informing the New Melbourne government that Her Imperial Highness, Princess Gizel will be attending as part of our party. That should provide a certain additional luster to the dinner party. What I need from you is your thoughts on precedence and the best way we do this. I know this is your first duty posting, but you must be used to Imperial activities. Your brother has been in space for some time now and he has perhaps told you of how things worked when his ship visited port?”
Gizel waved a hand in negation as she considered the question.
“Not a great deal sir. He tends to recount the funny things rather than the long boring speeches and equally boring formal dinners. And the Imperial events I have attended at home were all rather different to being out here on the fringes of civilization, sir.” She paused, thinking about the situation before continuing.
The Captain nodded. “And these people are some sort of democracy. Whether that means they will depreciate your rank or alternately go over the top about it is something we will have to wait and see. In my experience either reaction is likely. For our part, my intention is that you will be included in the shore party, treated by us as any other Midshipman. At the same time, we will emphasize your rank and position in the Imperial succession while showing that our Royal family is willing to mix it with the plebs in the name of duty. Do you have a problem with this?”
She shook her head. “No sir. That actually sounds like a good tactic with a democratic-type state, sir. I will endeavor to put on my best, Imperial Princess doing her duty attitude, sir. Is there anything I need to know about the political situation out here, sir? Any opinions I express will carry far more weight than those of the other officers I am afraid, so knowing what opinions I should be expressing would be a help, sir.”
The Captain sat back in his chair smiling to himself, but not letting anything show on his face. He and Halfron had watched surreptitiously and had been impressed with the way Midshipman Desnoute acted pretty much like any other junior officer, most of the time. She was more, hmm, dominant when training with the Marines, but having watched the footage of several of her training sessions he had to admit she was pretty capable and tough too. The Marines gave her no leeway, and while so far she hadn’t had any bones broken, she had sported several quite impressive bruises now and then as a result of mixing it up with the Marines.
The business between Desnoute and Bone he had let slide without comment. The Bosun had reported to him what she had said about the Petty Officer either being an idiot or a plant and he had authorized Halfron to run the recorders in the sickbay. They wanted to monitor Bone and any accomplices, if indeed there were any, just in case he was more than simply a sailor with a huge chip on his shoulder. Bone would not be laid up in sickbay for much longer, but he would not be fit for duty for another month and he was going to be watched the whole time from now on. So far there didn’t seem to be any indication of anything other than he was the idiot he seemed to be!
“There are no real matters relating to the political situation out here that are critical. Or at least so I have been led to believe. We are trying to woo these independent planets out here, more to keep them out of the Lotharian Sphere or to a
void letting them get tied to the Brythons. But other than that, there is not much else. Or at least the Consul has not mentioned anything. Dress uniform of course. Is there something you can wear to reflect your Imperial rank?”
Gizel nodded. “I have a rather elaborate clasp with the family coat of arms on it sir. I could wear that on my right breast if you like.”
“Yes. That would be good. Not that we will treat you any different from the other officers, and you will be positioned in the group according to your military rank. The locals will of course seek you out, and I imagine the local press will be all over the place, but you must have had some experience with that sort of thing?”
“Yes, sir. I have no problem doing the diplomatic, non-committal, friendly thing, while smiling for the cameras at the same time, while not actually saying much routine, sir. I have a lot of experience with toad eaters and the media, sir.”
This last was said with a grin.
Deltron found himself smiling back at the young Princess.
“Good. Good. Right. Well, we shall not make orbit for a few hours yet despite how close the warp point was to where the planet is in its orbit currently. The Dinner is not until tomorrow their time so you will have plenty of time to prepare.” He made a small gesture with his hand.
“Aye, sir.” She realized this was a dismissal and stood. “If that is all, sir?”
He nodded. She saluted. He returned the salute.
“Carry on Desnoute.”
She remembered to return the chair to where she had found it and left his cabin. She trotted back to the wardroom; as it was now well past shift change, with a head full of thoughts about the joys of having to be diplomatic! She grabbed a coffee and took a seat at one of the mess tables. She supposed she had been lucky to have avoided any diplomatic functions so far in her deployment. Certainly, Lucas complained about them often enough! At least he had given her some pointers on how not to upset her superior officers, who people were often prone to ignore, as they homed in and tried to speak to the Royal. He had also given her some advice on how to handle several other tricky situations he had encountered during his service. Hmmm.
“So, reamed out by the captain, were we? What did you do?” A voice next to her said and she looked around to sea Lieutenant Tremaine sitting down with a coffee.
She shook her head. “No, sir. It was nothing like that. He was just letting me know that we’ll be doing the diplomatic thing on New Melbourne and I’ll have to do double duty as both a Midshipman and an Imperial Princess.”
“Ahh. No wonder you look so glum.” his smile bordered on evil, she decided.
“All right for you, sir. You’re not the one who will have the cameras and microphones pointed at her the whole time she is ashore!” She tried hard not to snarl at his obvious subdued mirth.
He laughed at her. “And a good thing too!” he offered and looked over her shoulder as Allen Griffen sat down on her other side.
“You seem to be enjoying yourself, sir,” he said.
“Just giving young Desnoute here a hard time Allen.”
It was interesting, Gizel thought, that the whole crew called her Desnoute, either with her Midshipman title if she was on duty, or just her surname if she was off duty like here in the mess. No one seemed willing to use her first name. She presumed they were afraid she would get upset with them being too familiar. What was rather odd was that she hadn’t really thought about the way they all addressed her before now. It was strange she hadn’t noticed it up until this point in the cruise. She would have to discuss it with her brother the next time she saw him. No one ever called her Gizel, like say Lieutenant Tremaine had just called Ensign Griffen by his first name, Allen.
“Oh?” Allen queried, leaning around Gizel a little to look at the still smiling Lieutenant.
“Yep. She’s going ashore as Her Imperial Highness, well, as Midshipman Desnoute as well of course, as far as we’re concerned anyway, but she’ll be the center of attention down there, especially so, being out here in the fringes.”
Allen considered this and nodded.
“Damn. You’re right. It’ll be a circus!” Gizel put her head in her hands. “I think our resident Princess is not looking forward to going ashore, Lieutenant. Thought she was tougher than that.” he laughed.
“Keep it up laughing boy.” she whispered. “I know where the dungeons are under the Imperial Palace, you know.”
Tremaine tried to put on a straight face. “If I didn’t know better Allen, I think she just threatened you.”
“Is she allowed to do that?” Allen asked, looked more amused than scared.
“Hmm. Good point. Threatening a superior officer, perhaps. That’s mutiny isn’t it?”
Griffen considered this. “No, sir. I don’t think so. She’s not refusing to obey orders, sir. She’s simply threatening to have her ImpSec minions throw me in the Palace dungeons at some point for excess levity at her expense. Not sure she can carry out her threat, sir, at least not out here in the boondocks. By the time we get back to civilization, I am hoping she’ll have forgotten, or been transferred to another ship when she makes Ensign.”
Gizel was having trouble trying to keep a straight face. She sat up and said with the most dignity she could muster.
“My best friend is Baron Travgar’s daughter you know. I don’t need to wait at all. A simple note sent to her should do the trick. A quick word in her father’s ear, and it won’t be long before you’ll be getting a knock on the door in the middle of the night.”
She said this as evilly as she could manage while trying not to laugh.
Allen and the Lieutenant looked at each other.
“Do you think she’s serious?” Griffen asked, not exactly looking worried and trying to sound nonchalant.
Tremaine grinned. “I wonder if they let the prisoners have any visitors? Do they still chain the prisoners to the walls these days?”
He tried to sound as if he was genuinely curious, even if the question was getting to the too lame to be funny stage.
Allen choked. Gizel couldn’t help herself and laughed.
“I know what I can do. I can appoint Allen as my footman to follow me around all night at this function to add to my consequence.”
She stroked her chin as if seriously considering this course of action. Allen looked like he couldn’t decide if she was serious or not. The lieutenant decided that enough was enough and changed the subject to something more practical, in this case, ship handling tactics in combat, which distracted Gizel from elaborating on her planned revenge against Griffen.
In the event, the downside function was not as boring as she had anticipated. The Prime Minister, who was the elected head of government, proved to be an intelligent man of dry wit, and his wife was an interesting person in her own right, being a professor of History at the University of New Melbourne. The planet was sparsely populated but economically sound, which surprised Gizel somewhat. A lot of the growth of the big powers was through absorbing colonies that were struggling.
Growth by the big powers could happen in several ways such as by direct takeover, although that tended to be frowned upon by the other big powers these days. Economic absorption was another method, through cultural dominance, or most commonly, as part of a deal to rescue a colony that was failing. Many colonies found it hard to retain people, particularly those with valuable skills who could earn much higher wages while enjoying a better lifestyle on a more civilized planet. And then there was the natural drift of young people away from the provinces to the big planets where opportunities abounded, supposedly. It was a common story, one that had been repeated since the dawn of history when the first cities grew by absorbing much of the local rural population and smaller nearby villages.
New Melbourne was not struggling with those problems. Well, not so you would notice. It formed one of the local major hub planets and the economy was thriving. They had even started building their own intra-system spaceships and were gearing up for their
first inter-system ship. They had a small but broad industrial base and Earth-type crops had been introduced successfully, with large tracts of the planet given over to agricultural activities of one sort or another. Providing fresh food supplies to passing spaceships was one of the planet’s main sources of foreign exchange.
On the way back up to the ship the Captain asked what she had gleaned from the visit. She debated about what to say but finally decided to put her Imperial hat on.
“They are looking for a military alliance with one of the big powers, but they are trying to do it in a way that will avoid them being absorbed by that power as a result. I would guess they would prefer the Brythons to us, the Brythons always seem a lot less Imperialistic than us or the Iskander Republic. Not that Iskander is a likely option in this area of the galaxy, but we instill the same wariness into our neighbors that Iskander does.”
A couple of the officers nearby, who heard this bristled at her comments, but the Captain raised a hand and spoke before they could say anything.
“She is right, people. Just because we think of ourselves as the Good Guys doesn’t mean that is how others see us. Most systems are very wary about getting cozy with the Empire you will find, if you look beyond the rhetoric. The more experience you have with people from outside the Empire, the more you will realize this is true.”
He paused and waited until they subsided.
“I find it interesting that you are aware of the perception people from other systems have of us. Your views about the New Melbourne situation shows a depth of analysis I hadn’t expected, I have to be honest. You picked up on them feeling us out without committing to anything, as well as their preference for dealing with the Brythons. Interesting.”
He smiled at her, which both surprised her and caused her no little gratification.
Gizel shrugged, playing down the praise.