We still had military aboard, so Jen backed us out as soon as all the team's gear was off the ship. A safe distance away, and I jumped us next to Bentley's ship, which was back on the other side of the jump point. The shuttles were loaded with people and gear, and moved to each ship, returning crew to where they came from.
Next stop was the homeworld, where we said goodbye to Bill. I put him back in his office, with a copy of everything he'd built and done. Now his office looked like I'd thought it would. I'm not sure he even noticed the move.
On an afterthought, I took a marker pen to the outside of his door, scratched out the current graffiti, and wrote 'Bill rocks alien tech'. Which was pretty true.
He was about to become a very rich person, mainly off the royalties for the new translator modules he'd designed. Two different versions for two variations of tech, being government ordered for rushed manufacture. Every trader ship was going to need one. Every tourist destination would as well, just to ensure people without pads could still communicate.
But the royalties on the pad translator alone were going to make him super rich, and this was already available for download.
I poked my head around the door of his boss, and made sure she knew he was back ahead of schedule. And warned her he was likely to leave, since he'd soon have the money to fund his own company. She wasn’t happy about it, but admitted it'd always been just a matter of time.
Back on the ship, I took us home, and we spent the afternoon on the beach.
Tasha was quiet, so I gave her space. I could tell leaving her team for good was a big deal for her, and just made sure she knew I was there if she needed to talk.
The five of us watched the sun set, lying on the sand. When it was dark, I let them listen to the whale song out in the ocean. The volcano was still erupting, but the whale song accompaniment turned it into art. I wondered if the whales knew that.
The sound of all our pads chiming at the same time, destroyed the moment, so we called it a night, and went inside. We all had the same message.
"You are invited to an end of the war celebration…"
Tuxedos and ball gowns, oh joy. Mine had a request attached. I did a check on times, and found us almost in sync with the homeworld, which was very convenient. It gave us a good night's sleep, and time tomorrow for the girls to shop for gowns.
Fifty Three
I'd only been in a ballroom once before, but it didn't count.
Pirates are no fun. But end of the war celebrations most certainly are. Even dressed up as we were. I wasn’t wearing the standard monkey suit, having gone for a red shirt under the black suit, and an emerald green bow-tie. I felt totally foolish, but you adapt, which is easier when you see so many other people feeling just as foolish. Or maybe it was just me, and I was broadcasting it. I tried not to.
Tasha dragged me out onto the dance floor, and began teaching me how. I'd learnt a sort of solo expressionist style of dancing in my second life, but this was more formal. It actually involved touching. And a good deal of paranoia about not treading on her feet.
Jen and Jess, resplendent in contrasting ball gowns, waltzed past us laughing. I wasn’t sure if they were laughing at us, or just me, or laughing in general. Paranoia didn’t apply only to feet.
Lea and Sasha waltzed past after them, also laughing, and I started to relax, as it obviously wasn't me. Maybe it was the simple joy of dancing somewhere with no likelihood of being shot at. Or the total lack of responsibility for anything in the moment. Whatever it was, it was good to see the girls laughing, and genuinely happy.
Bentley and someone I assumed was his wife waltzed by as well. They were smiling at each other, but Bentley took a moment to nod my way. He was in dress uniform, with junior admiral insignia. I nodded back, and they were gone. The momentary distraction was all I needed to step on Tasha's foot again, and she stopped, looked towards the drinks table, and pulled me that way by the hand.
Drinks being sipped, we moved to a quiet spot, and watched the crowd. Tasha nodded to several people she knew, but didn’t introduce us.
"You never learnt how to dance?"
"I did. Just not this kind. No-one thought teaching parentless kids how to do upper class stuff like this, had any point to it."
"So you can dance other ways?"
"The music needs to be a great deal faster."
"We could ask."
"Hell no, don’t do that."
She laughed. Time passed, we danced again, nibbles from passing waiters, new drinks, more dancing.
Finally, the band stopped, the prime minister stepped up onto a rostrum, and took her place at a bank of microphones.
"The war is over!"
The crowd applauded, and she waited for them to settle down.
"The war is over for good!"
The crowd applauded even more loudly, and again she waited for them to settle down.
"I personally have learnt a lot over this last week. I’d like to share some of it with you. For centuries, we've had an on again off again war with aliens. Or so we thought. But then I met someone, who explained what was really going on. I don’t know where he's from, but he put it like this. Both sides of this war are long lost cousins. I didn't believe it. I was standing there talking to one of them, and I still didn’t believe it. He didn’t either. We received proof. From our own doctors. They are our cousins."
The room was dead silent now.
"We live on different planets, and have different coloured skins. Now I know they live on a planet where their skin developed a very different colour. But underneath the skin, we are all the same!"
Some clapping started, and it gathered some momentum for a minute or so, and stopped.
"We made war out of fear. We developed a military to keep us safe. We thought we were doing right. No. We were locking ourselves in a box, and have been too afraid to come out."
She held up her glass.
"How many of you have been enjoying this excellent wine? Hold up your glass."
Most of the room held up their glass, me included.
"This was not our wine. Our past enemy made this wine, and I had it brought back to show you what we've been missing for centuries in the way of trade. At this very minute, a similar celebration is happening, and they have been drinking our wine."
"Your doing?" whispered Tasha.
I nodded to her.
"Not many people know this, but war drove many of our military leaders to treason." There were shocked exclamations. "One of them committed unspeakable crimes as well as treason, was tried in front of a group of ship captains, and executed. A second covered up these crimes, and is also now dead. Instead of paying attention to what happened to these two men, most of the rest of the military leadership began a military coup."
Shocked looks, but silence.
"They are now exiled to a penal colony. With them are a similar group of military and civilians from our ex-enemies, and we have proof they were communicating with each other, and have been for a long time."
She paused, and looked around the room, and into the place where the cameras were located.
"We enter a new era, and from today, we concentrate on trade, and getting along with our neighbors. Evidence of other life beyond our space has been there for centuries. Instead of hiding from it, and keeping it away, we will now embrace what we find out there, no matter how different, or the same, we find it to be. We will no longer be afraid!"
There was sporadic cheering, and more applause, but the crowd seemed to be a bit confused. This wasn’t what they expected.
"I'd like to introduce you to someone. Thorn, will you join me please."
I groaned quietly, and Tasha kicked me gently in the ankle. I took her hand in mine, and she escorted me through the crowd, which opened to make way for us. I left her at the edge of the rostrum, and stepped up onto it.
"Very few people have formally met this man. Most of those who have, were guilty of some crime, and are no longer in our society. Durin
g the last week of the war, he acted as both a civilian judge, and as an admiral, even though he was neither. Yet he is the reason the war is over. He took it upon himself to find out why we were fighting, and to stop it."
She looked around the room, and then at me, before looking back at the cameras.
"He succeeded, where every single politician, admiral, and general has failed. He made peace happen. So you know what I did? I offered to make him a king. He has a unique skill set, and had he wanted to, he could have taken leadership from me, and set himself up as a king. But what did he do? He refused. Not only did he refuse us, the military dictatorship which has ruled our cousins for centuries, is gone, to be replaced with civilian elections."
She looked at me again. She could see I wasn’t very happy, but she grinned at me anyway.
"This man standing here isn’t used to the limelight. He's not a politician, or career military. He is however, an excellent judge. The cabinet, and what few senior military we have left, met yesterday, and decided to make this formal. Mr. Thorn, you are confirmed as Judge Thorn, with a roving bench, and Colonel Thorn, Military Justice Office."
From a pocket, she removed a small box, and handed it to me. She held out her other hand, and we shook. She motioned me to the microphones.
"Thank you. No offense, but I hope to never meet any of you face to face after tonight."
I stepped back, and the crowd laughed. She was grinning as well, but stepped back to say more.
"Judge Thorn has no office. He needs no office. He comes and goes as he wishes to. His only concern is the guilty. Don’t be guilty."
She said it with a menace in her voice, but spoiled it with an extra-large grin, which she threw all around the room. I couldn’t help but grin with her. She continued when the crowd had settled down, and I was standing with Tasha again. I idly slipped the box into a pocket, unopened.
"There will be a campaign medal presented to combatants soon. This will be awarded to military and civilians who fought to keep us safe. It will also be awarded to the next of kin of those who died to keep us safe."
She paused.
"And I sincerely hope we never have to make another one. Thank you for coming, and please, enjoy the rest of the evening."
Tasha must have seen my expression.
"What's wrong my love?"
"I never did find out why the war started."
She laughed at me, and dragged me back out onto the dance floor.
Fifty four
I woke slowly, like climbing up from a dark abyss.
I wasn’t on the ship. That much was obvious, even to a brain barely functioning.
My eyes wouldn't focus, so I wasn’t sure where I was for several minutes.
I'd taken Sasha back to her command, and Bentley back to his ship, at the end of the ball. The girls waited for me, and I took us all back to the ship. We locked the ship up, and went to bed.
But bed wasn’t where I thought it was, and Tasha wasn’t with me. My head throbbed, like one of the migraines I used to have. There were still bottles of the tablets in my stateroom, so I moved a tablet bottle to my hand, followed it with a bottle of water, and took a tablet. By the time my eyes had focused, my head was settling down.
There was actually nothing to focus my eyes on. The room was dark. I could feel the confines of a single size bed. But nothing much else.
My mind went to needing a lit candle, and one appeared on a small table next to the bed. The dim light showed a very small room, with only the bed and table in it. There was a door, but it was closed. No light showed around its edges, which meant it was designed to be fully sealed.
So, where was I? And why?
The how was pretty easy to guess. Sleepy gas introduced through the station air connection was the most likely. Knock us out, cut out the airlock, take us at their leisure.
Bad move. Someone was going to regret this. The next question was, why did they think they'd get away with it? Did they actually think they had me contained?
Answer, yes. The how was easy when my sight looked through the walls. They were lead lined. Someone thought lead would stop me being able to do magic? I couldn’t stop myself chuckling for a moment.
So where was everyone else? My sight found a passageway outside the door, and I randomly chose right. The next cell was empty, as was the next five. The one after had Tasha in it. She was sitting calmly on the bed, saying something over and over.
"Stay calm Thorn. Stay calm Thorn."
I moved her to the beach outside my house.
"Thanks Thorn. Stay calm, will you please?"
I wrote 'I'm perfectly calm' in the sand in front of her.
"Good, stay that way. Get the others out too, and come join us."
I brought my sight back, and continued exploring. Several more empty cells along, I found Jen pounding on the door, and swearing away at it. I waited until she hit the door next, and moved her to the beach a short way away from Tasha. She promptly fell over, but a smile lit up her face.
Two more down, I found Jess. She was doing pushups next to the bed. I moved her, and she lost her rhythm, and ended up face in the sand. Jen helped her up, but she and Tasha were laughing.
Predictably, Lea was several more along again. She'd partly dismantled her bed, and was standing waiting for the door to open, ready to brain whoever came in. I moved her to the beach, without the improvised weapon, and reassembled her bed.
With nothing to see, I removed the candle, and lay back. Comfortable wasn’t an option, but I did my best. If they thought I couldn’t do magic behind lead, I wasn’t going to give them any warning they were wrong. I really wanted light, and my reading tablet, but, it would give the game away. So I zoned out, and let time pass. It remained to be seen if they came for me first, or one of the girls. I’d hear the commotion if they found them missing, at which point, they'd know.
With nothing better to do, I examined the people airlock for the ship. They had in fact, cut the entire hatch out, both inside and outside. The airlock was totally open now, which besides being illegal, was incredibly stupid. If for any reason the ship undocked, the station would decompress before the station side airlock doors could close.
Just for a moment, I was sorely tempted, but I managed to control the thought before something bad happened.
Instead, I replaced the hatches, triggered the station airlock to close, and moved the ship to my ship parking area.
Getting bored by the minute, I sent my sight left, looking for an entrance. After a time, I found an elevator. It took a while to follow the shaft to the surface, where I found a military base. A largely deserted one.
So I was deep underground, as well as behind lead. I had an inkling of where this was going. One of the girls had actually warned me of this, but it being more than five years ago, I couldn’t remember who. But I did recall the bit about a cell somewhere isolated.
I'd known all along this was likely to happen, which was yet another reason for putting myself out of stupid's way.
I sighed. At the gravesite, I added several things.
In the distance, the elevator shaft hummed. I waited in the dark to find out who the stupidest person on the planet was. The whine stopped, and the clomp of boots on the metal floor began. They came progressively closer, as if the owner of the boots was in no real hurry.
Before they arrived outside the door, bright light flooded the room. Eyes adjusted to the dark, were scrunched tightly shut in order to not be blinded, and I had to make an effort to not do something about the lights. I finally opened my eyes, and adjustment was swift.
The boots made it to the door, it opened, and he walked in, pushing the door behind him. It thunked closed with a satisfying echo. I knew him.
"Hello major. I ordered room service. Did you see them at all? I'm starving."
It was the same major who'd tried to force the girls back into military service, and failed. The first time.
"Cut the crap Thorn."
"So no br
eakfast?"
"Only if you co-operate."
"What with?"
"Undoing what you've done."
"Ah."
I let the word hang there in the air, to see how he'd react. He didn’t, just waited for me to react. I finally gave in.
"And why would I?"
"Because we have your crew in the next cells."
"And?"
"You really don’t want to find out."
"I really do."
"You have a day to agree to work with us. If you don’t, one of your women friends will be shot."
"That's it? One will be shot? And presumably for each day I refuse, you'll shoot another one?"
"Yes."
"And what will you do when they're all dead?"
"Rough you up."
"And when that doesn’t work?"
"We'll bring random people here, and kill them until you give in."
One track mind. Almost logical too. Except logic has a fatal flaw. If the premise is garbage, the entire logic structure is meaningless. I changed tack.
"On what basis do you shoot war heroes?"
"Heroes? You're all traitors!"
"Are we now? We stopped a senseless war. That makes us traitors?"
"Yes. Now are you going to agree to work with us, or do I send in someone to rough the pretties up first?"
"You didn't learn anything, did you? I really should send you to them, so they can beat the shit out of you, and prove just who the 'pretty' is."
"You can't send anything anywhere. We know what you are now. And your magic won't work in here."
I grinned at him.
"Major, you have never been more wrong in your entire life. I find you guilty of treason, kidnapping, and threatening death on others. Sentence is death. Do you have any last statement to make?"
He laughed at me.
"The admiral said you’d be like this."
"Which admiral?"
"You'll see."
"Good. You can watch each other die."
Today's Spacemage Page 17