Lord Banshee- Fugitive

by Russell O Redman

  She rejected all of what I said. “If you feel so badly about yourself, death is still the easy way out. Surely you can still hide until it all blows over. That is what you have been recommending for us. The Earth is big, the cities of the Moon are deep and secretive, and the Belt is distant. I do not know much about the people who live in the Belt, but enough to realize they must resent the Martians as we do.”

  I disagreed. “You can hide, because they will soon forget your role in their oppression, which was quite small. In time, they will forgive you. My role is legendary. I epitomize everything they hate about the Earth. Wherever I hide, they will find me, digging up my bones for desecration if I die before they do. Right now, I expect they are mobilizing death squads to scour the Earth for Ghost Followers. They will probably kill those people, after extracting everything they know about my current whereabouts. Thousands, maybe millions, will die needlessly if I hide too effectively.

  “I would not dare to hide on the Moon. If they even suspect I am there, they will dig through every Lunar city, inspecting every crack in the wall for hidden chambers, until they find me. They will exterminate everyone they suspect might have known of my presence.

  “The Belt would be even more hopeless. If Sergei is right, they are already kidnapping people from the Belt to repopulate Mars. They know far more about the Belt than I do and would surely track me without effort.

  “They will try to kill this entire team, and probably all the Ministers in your meeting, just because you have met me. That is why I want my trial to take place on the Moon, following the laws of Lunar justice. The Moon is mostly populated with former spacers. They value the free and open statement of truth, even if it is uncomfortable. If you turn state’s evidence against me, you will be automatically enrolled in the witness protection plan. Under Lunar law you can never be charged for any relevant, lesser offences that you confess to in your deposition. Everything is less of an offense than being the Ghost. Remind everyone of that fact, because it may be your only defence against the rigours of Martian justice.

  “Raul, to you and the other members of the team I will give one extra charge. On Mars, the spouse of a notorious criminal is held equally culpable and subject to the same punishment, since from the outside it is impossible to determine who holds real authority within a marriage. Leilani has worked closely with me for six years and has not rejected me as my former supervisors did. She will be convicted as the Ghost’s Wife. Alone out of all humanity, I love her with all my heart and cannot bear the thought that she might be executed because of me. I fear she loves me too well to turn state’s evidence. You must keep her safe, against her will if need be. Keep her deeply hidden, under heavy cover. Destroy her entries in the genetic database if you can. I know it can be done; it happens every time someone is certified as truly dead. Promise me that you will make her die in the database so that she can survive my execution. Promise me that much, and I will be content.”

  Singh looked sick. “I have been drowning in sewage this evening. I have to go.”

  2357-03-06 10:00

  Promotion

  Begum moved away from her work station. “I did not catch much of that, but it sounded serious and very depressing.”

  Raul stared at the wall, hardly looking at her. “Begum, you must not join us. Remain with the TDF. It may be your only hope of escape.”

  She smiled faintly, “Raul, sweet, it is too late already. Everyone on the ship knows I have been working with you. I made damn sure they know that you are a hero and my personal property, although they all laugh at that. Now it sounds like it might not be a laughing matter, but I joined the TDF knowing that I would serve in dangerous places. Let us fight this together.

  “Right now, though, I have to go to see the Cap. Do either of you have words of advice?”

  Gallows humour, but I laughed. “Same advice I give to everyone facing an awkward interview with authority. Tell the truth, and do not answer questions that were not asked. He did warn me that you were to be chastised and that he had a plan I would approve of. You should take both parts of that as warnings.”

  Raul looked at her with hopeless longing, but said only, “What Brian said. Anything more might be taken as coaching. The Cap’s questions for me were pretty sharp, but I think he is satisfied that there were no real issues regarding the Manila Bay. I have no idea what else he has in mind.”

  She nodded and took her leave alongside Singh. Molongo arrived back as they left, looking surprised to see Singh leaving in such distress.

  They had hardly left when Evgenia turned around and said, “Brian, get Com Thieu back again. I need help. AHQ has given up trying to revive the Admiral, who is too far gone in madness. Cap Wang is the only sane commander who understands what is happening up here, and every ship in the TDF around both the Earth and the Moon is turning to him for orders as the Acting Admiral. I cannot manage this system!”

  I tried to call Wang, but he just fired back, “Not now, Douglas. I have ordered another Com to be woken up and assigned to the MI office, which is now officially under the control of ACC since we cannot rely on MI any more. Ze should arrive shortly.”

  I noted that the message was directed to Evgenia and Molongo. I looked over to Molongo who nodded and said, “No point in us sitting here while the fleet is in action. Besides, Douglas, you have mostly used this room as a private office. There are better ways to get privacy, like asking for it. Mahatma, Ashura, Douglas, San Diego, as soon as we get a real Com back in this office, may I accompany you to dinner? I have already eaten, but I want to hear your explanation of why Anastasia looks so distressed.”

  Morris replied, “Douglas was giving her the facts of life in war. I am beginning to understand why his forebodings are so much darker ours. This boy is never going to challenge me or anybody else for high office. But, no dinner yet. Wang wants you, me and Douglas to meet with him as soon as he gets finished with Com Thieu. We should be ready to move.”

  I went over beside Evgenia, clipped into the chair Begum had been using. When I had first tried to sort out the message queues, the ship had been barely functional. Now, it was on active duty and the job was much more demanding. Most messages were directed to a particular role and the operator had to assign the correct person to that role. I had no idea how to set that up. There was a duty roster of people, but far more roles than people. Who was the “reactor loading eng”? Who was the “surgical oversight representative”? I started forwarding the messages for which I recognized the appropriate recipient. Evgenia knew even less about the ship operations than I did, and the two of us were falling farther and farther behind. Molongo came over and could direct a few more, but all three of us were so tense we jumped when the new Com requested permission to enter.

  He introduced himself as Com Kim Hajoon. I congratulated him on assuming control of his new domain. They were going to have to hire twice as many Com officers to staff both the bridge and the former MI office. He was the first of a new wave. He laughed that Begum had beat him to that honour. Every Com was trained in routine operations, but he would have to complete three more certifications just to catch up with her. I pointed out that Begum had been a substitute for a missing MI officer, whereas he was here as the rightful occupant.

  As casually as I could, I asked what the current nicknames for us were and whether Begum had received one yet. He hooted, and said the competition was still in play, but Begum was not likely to approve of any of the current suggestions. He allowed that none of us were likely to be pleased. A few of the musically talented crew members were starting to write ballads about our escapades, and spacer ballads tended to be either raunchy or sentimental. Neither type lent itself to complimentary names. I refrained from asking further but wondered out loud if the ballads would be too highly classified to be sung outside the Mao itself.

  He snickered as he clipped into the seat I had vacated and began attaching names in the duty roster to roles with a flick of a finger here and there across the scree
n. I had not even known that was possible. With each flick, the message queues shrank. I backed away to let the expert work.

  Evgenia also unclipped and came over. “Things are in a mess right now. Did you mean what you were saying to Minister Singh? About the execution?”

  She was choking up, so I tried to reassure her, “Evgenia, I deluded myself with hope until I realized the scope of what we face. I have been living with this as a possibility since I escaped from Mars. It is normal life to me, like someone with a wasting disease caused by an ancient gene. The last few days just confirmed that the disease is incurable. I take each day as a blessing and try to do the best I can in it. What I care about most is that the people I love live long, happy lives.”

  “Platitudes, Brian. I recognize the symptoms. I do it too. You are scared spitless but see no way to avoid the onrushing disaster. You tell us we will have to betray you by turning state’s evidence to save our own lives, but I also heard you find a compromise between yes and no, between defeat and surrender. If there is a way, you will find it.

  “Brian, I stopped working while you were speaking and just listened. I did not hear one word of anger against the Martian people, even when you described how they would hunt you down. You say you hate Martians, but what I heard was mourning that we should have helped them and did not even try. You were telling Morris and Singh how to preserve good government on the Earth, but I remember your five conditions for success. To save the Earth, we must bring good government to Mars as well. I do not know if you even have a plan yet, but from what you said I believe you have a vision of how that government might work. When you can, tell us, guide us, and maybe we can make it work.”

  It was astounding, but she saw me as strong and wise. I saw myself as broken and conniving, a murder dragging the weight of my sin behind me. I also saw the Mission, resolving itself from a bright haze back into a flaming path of golden bricks leading directly into the gates of Hell. It was where I belonged, the only place justice could be served. If I tried to preserve my own life, millions would die and I would be damned for killing them. If I accepted my death and submitted to Martian justice, I would be damned for my former crimes. She thought I could find a compromise between yes and no, but where was the compromise between damnation and damnation?

  Still, I breathed in and out, drank and urinated, ate and defecated, woke and slept. I lived under a sentence of death, but everyone did. Until my body stopped, I would live as best I could. It was one small virtue of a compartmentalized mind.

  She wiped her eyes, turned and worked her way over to Molongo. I heard her ask, “Minister Molongo, would it be brazen of me to ask if you could take me to dinner after you get back from speaking with the Admiral? I am no longer needed here since Com Kim has arrived and AHQ is confident that they can handle things now that Cap Wang is the Acting Admiral. I can wait for you at our room since I need to freshen up first.”

  It was time to learn what Wang had in mind. As we left in a group, I saw that Com Kim was still busily directing messages but had already popped up a book to read as things became dull again.

  We arrived at the Cap’s bridge office just as Begum was leaving, looking deeply worried. When she saw me, she raised a finger as if to speak, but saw Raul was still with us and hurried by silently.

  Morris, Molongo and I crowded into the office with Wang, while Raul and Evgenia headed back to our rooms. Wang looked tired, but I guessed would be getting little sleep in the next while. He started, “I need to brief you on the current situation and verify that your priorities have not changed. We are tracking what we believe to be the Martian fleet, a collection of over one hundred freighters that have probably been refitted with better engines and larger crew quarters than any valid freighter. They probably have missiles, bombs and lasers as well. Most of the ships left the earth stations in the last weeks. The rest are undoubtedly dedicated warships fresh from the Belt. MI did not inform us about any of them.

  “Our own ships are still in desperate condition. Most have cleaned out their glue bug factories, but the damage is extensive and most weapons cannot be deployed until the glue itself has been removed. If we had to take on the Martian fleet right now, it would be a humiliating debacle. In our favour, our ships all retain working engines and at least limited maneuverability. They look like they might be able to fight, even if it is mostly illusion. We also expect to have some of our weapons operational on most of the ships within the next few hours. Until their fleet arrives, restoring our weapons will be our highest priority. We should be able to put up a token defense. Let us hope they do not test it. What a mess.

  “Mahatma, your message has gone through the Council channels and is ready for distribution. I have been weighing whether it should be broadcast by the Mao, by the individual earth stations, or both. In the meantime, I have ordered most of the marines who are sane and are physically able to leave their ships to move onto the four loyal earth stations, as many as we can spare to help with patching the holes and to relieve station security of its guard duties on the docks.

  “The single worst ship left in Earth orbit is the Hammerhead, nominally a fast attack ship with larger than normal engines and a large complement of small, fast missiles. It is currently holding station close to the Gandhi. They were slow in addressing the glue bugs and had trouble breaking into their MI office to disable the emoji attacks. Although they have eliminated the bug factories, thick layers of bugs still coat much of the interior of the ship. They have no functioning weapons, although we can probably get a few working before the Martians arrive. Their comm only works through a single, damaged antenna. It is not currently possible to deploy additional antennae because the mechanism has been immobilized by the glue bugs. Notwithstanding, they have helm control and a good fuel supply.

  “The officers and crew are in poor shape. The Cap, one Com, and all three Navs were driven into mild insanity by the emojis. They are expected to recover, and the other senior officers were less badly affected, but for now are incapable of running the ship. Only a few of the crew had the recent comm units, but almost everyone suffered terribly from the glue and acid bugs, much like we saw on the Manila Bay. Some of them died, some are severely injured, all are traumatized. I have ordered most of them to be evacuated to the Gandhi. Getting off that ship will probably help their recovery all by itself.

  “The Gandhi is full of holes, but still has space in its airtight rooms, as well as hospital staff with very little to do but wait, since the rush of injuries during the emoji attack has largely been sent home to recover. I believe they had one or two fatalities during the iron rain, an amazingly light toll given the number of rods that banged into the hull.

  “My intent is to replace the Hammerhead with the Stingray, which is also a FAS. I have just detached it from the fleet near the Moon. They should arrive in about eight hours. The Hammerhead will be dispatched to the Moon for repairs, and as an example of what glue bugs can do. Lunar Recovery is quite interested in this new kind of weapon, which they fear might also be used by pirates.

  “Which leads us to a particular personnel issue. I have informed Com Thieu that she is on probation, but I am prepared to overlook her indiscretion if she performs well over the next month. I have offered her promotion to Cap of her own ship, a FAS still on station near the Moon named the Columbia, to be made permanent upon flawless performance during her probation.

  “To get to the Columbia, she will have to take temporary command of the Hammerhead and fly it to the Moon with a reduced crew. I am prepared to detach one Nav and an Eng familiar with glue bug control. Less than half of the original crew are still fit for duty, and they will be unstable. It will be a severe test of her ability to command under pressure. A week ago, I would have had no hesitation with this offer, and I still have confidence she will be up to the task. I have given her two hours to rest and have dinner before making her decision to accept this offer or accept a demotion to Nav.

  “The second issue is that we nee
d to rescue the delegates from the Khrushchev. I am sending the survivors of the Manila Bay to the Deng to free up space. The Deng is unhappy to accept such a liability, but have a hard time refusing after our assistance during the emoji attack and the loan of twenty marines. We will then swing past the Gandhi to drop off Thieu or one of our other coms along with the Nav and Eng and proceed to the Khrushchev where we will exchange most of the rest of our marines for the delegates. We will then make a fast run to the Moon, dump the delegates, and I will transfer to the Admiralty. Cap Zhang from the Columbia will replace me as Cap on the Mao.

  “I expect several of the Banshees will want to stay on the Moon, but General Molongo needs a ship to make a run to Thule Station in L2 to rescue from Valhalla the man we know as Pantocrator. Marcus tells me that Pantocrator is a critical asset to our development program. L2 has also been attacked and Valhalla itself is no longer secure. The reports are very confused. Pantocrator thinks he can hold out for another two weeks, and we must trade off urgency against secrecy for this mission. If we hurry too much, it will be obvious we are desperate, and that will draw unwelcome attention. We intend to take about eight days each way.

  “Marcus believes that Pantocrator is the only man alive who can fix the programming in your medical monitor, Agent Douglas. Mahatma trusts your judgement more than I do and wants you fully functional for whatever purpose you were intended to fulfill, ASAP. You must go to meet Pantocrator and begin the reprogramming on the way back. Agent San Diego must accompany you because he is the only one with the appropriate authority to fetch Pantocrator out of Valhalla. Doctor Toyami must accompany you to keep you stable. Doctors Marin and Toyami insist that Agents Pinter and Chou must also accompany you, although they would not explain why. That is more of the team than I had wanted to send, but it seems we have little choice.