"Well of course. What do you do if a ship four times as big as any you've ever seen stops to say hello? You just automatically shoot at him if you are a Biter," Fussy said.
"Apparently the ship leaked ammonia when they shot it. They are appealing to us as fellow oxygen breathers," Chance said. "I think that's a bit much to assume. They might have hit some system that uses ammonia. It could be a refrigerant or any number of uses rather than crew environment. "
"I'd be much more impressed if they could plead their case based on courtesy instead of what they breath. I don't care if they breath chicken soup if they have some manners, but wait... we're talking about Biters aren't we?" Fat Ortega growled.
"Snatched how?" Lord Byron asked. "Are they so big they stuffed them in a hold?"
"It doesn't say. I'm having trouble dredging up much sympathy," Chance admitted.
* * *
"My sons are not going to be happy that their little sister was the one who got the gifts and the attention," Talker told her.
"How old are they," Lee wondered.
"Twelve and fifteen."
"Where were they when Tish was throwing herself in my arms?"
"Watching stickball on the screen," Talker admitted. "It was a big game today."
"Sure was, game on hard, across the room. She won't ever be the heir will she? Assuming you had an estate to pass on like your father."
"Some Badgers would take offence at that, as a dig on not being the first son. I'm not sensitive about it and don't think you meant it unkindly but be aware. But you are asking about being an heir for the land? Not unless every male cousin was dead and she was the last choice to keep it in the family. She can own her personal property like the necklace. In fact it would be easier for her to own ships than land. Except if she were a city Badger. She could own lots and buildings and businesses in town. That's been different as long as I am aware of, far back in our history."
"That stinks. She is wasted on you people," she told him.
"That hurts."
"The more for being true," she said not backing down a millimeter.
"I hope to someday do just the same as my father and go to a new world and establish an estate for myself. Even if I expressed it as my will to leave an estate to her, my society would never allow it."
"I may gift her an estate from one of my plots on Providence." Lee told him. "Not my main valley I'm going to keep for myself, but I have several others. She wouldn't be bound by Badger law or custom there. I wouldn't worry about her actually. I think she'll do just fine even without my help or yours. But I think she'd make a good neighbor."
"I thought we were going to have an exclusion zone where we don't make claims in a cone off towards your worlds?"
"Claims no. But most places anybody can buy land, and I can give what's mine to anybody I please. Don't you folks buy and sell real estate?"
"In the cities, but the countryside is almost all in large estates that are very hard to break up, on purpose. It takes a catastrophe to remove an estate from ownership. Some severe genetic fault in the bloodline or in the past some plague or natural disaster. There is almost always intense pressure for the cities to expand and when an estate does open up to add on to a city the parcels sell for ridiculous prices. What good would land do Tish? She still needs a husband, or is she going to live away from Badger society?"
"I don't know. I'm pretty happy without most of Human society. Last time I enjoyed the pleasure of Human society they called my father an animal and a furry freak and locked me up. Do you really think that if she had a big tract of fine land and the wealth and income from it the fourth or fifth son of some fine Badger family wouldn't look at that and decide it would be a comfortable life being her husband and never mind it was under some alien law where he might have to leave some things to a daughter?"
I'm a third son, so I understand the frustration of never being heir. I've done pretty well by myself, but yeah, I can see some fellow who will never have the funds or connections to get an estate on a new world being very happy with a rich wife and damn the inheritance laws," he agreed.
"Talker, be honest with me. How often do second or third sons murder their brother to get the estate?"
"Probably less than you think. I know of only three instances in the last hundred years, and one of those he was declared innocent because he had cause."
"What sort of cause? Self defense? Lee asked.
"No, he showed in court his elder brother was mentally defective. He was just plain stupid, unable to run the estate and he wouldn't take advice of either his brother or his hired men. His tutors testified he was innumerate, and he could barely read simple things. He was giving crazy orders to plant things unsuited to their climate and spending money they weren't earning. It was going to dissolve the estate as a functioning business in another season or two."
"There is no way in your law to have him declared incompetent and a guardian appointed?"
"None. It's too readily subject to abuse. It's much easier to attack with a lawyer and a pliable judge to gain control of an estate than to shoot the idiot dead."
"Well, I liked some of your law. I guess I can't expect all of it to please me."
"Why do I have this horrible feeling you will make it a project to change any of the parts that displease you?" Talker asked.
"Not for awhile," Lee promised. "I'm sort of busy right now chipping the rough spots off Derf society and redefining the relationship of the Mothers and town people."
"Are they aware of this?"
"Some," Lee admitted. "Especially my bank. I'm not around when I'm off like this, so they are using my money to quietly bankroll cultural subversion. Nothing illegal or violent. Just a little assistance to people doing the things we want encouraged. If somebody needs a little money to go to school or start a business the bank can give them support and no need to say why they are treating them so well. A few of them were already basically working on it themselves, but they have my leave to fund little things that help at a higher level. It's not like I'll miss a few million here and there and won't be able to buy lunch tomorrow."
"You are a very dangerous person," Talker told her. "You'd upset ways of doing things that are stable and have worked for a long time."
"Worked for you. Did you not just tell me it fails sometimes to the point somebody has to be killed to repair its failure? I doubt Tish would tell you it's a wonderful system if she is tossed aside like a piece of trash for some distant cousin who was lucky enough to be born male. I did get just a hint there when you said you didn't have any choice to favor Tish that maybe you'd want to. I don't object to how Trish would be treated with any prejudice against Badgers. My mom taught me that Human societies who threw away half the resources of their culture by not valuing their women stagnated and declined too."
"She's my daughter. Of course I'd favor her some way if I could. Maybe not over her brothers. I'm not sure I'm ready to be that radical. But right now Badgers have one big winner per family, and everybody else is pretty much out of luck. I don't have it in me to challenge the whole system," Talker admitted. "I'm just glad we have our one winner instead of being like Amiable, from a family that lost all their land and status and has had to work for others for three generations."
Lee nodded, deep in thought. "OK, I see several problems. It's complicated. I need to study it quite a bit and talk to people. It may takes years just to figure out what to do. And it has to be a solution that uplifts everybody," she decided, "not just changes the winners. I don't think I can even expect to see it happen in my lifetime, but maybe I can get the ball rolling."
"You are what, fourteen years old?"
"Closer to fifteen," Lee objected.
"And as young as you are you can think of starting changes you won't be alive to see?"
"Well sure. We're seeding water worlds and Terraforming them, that won't see a Human able to walk around without a breather mask for hundreds of years. "I'll be buying into a few of those too.
"
"That is a noble cause," Talker had to admit.
"I mean you no harm at all," Lee assured him. "People are often their own worst enemies. It can take a view from the outside to see what's wrong sometimes."
"That's a very presumptuous attitude. Give me an example of somebody who needs rescuing from themselves," Talker challenged her.
"The Biters. They could play at all that haughty aggression when they kept it at home, but Gordon isn't going to put up with it, and I suspect if we hadn't come along you folks would have got fed up with it and decided to spend the blood and money to put them in their place, eventually."
"That is something our governments were discussing," Talker revealed. "It was going to be expensive."
"Our technology will trim the bill some," Lee predicted, "if not the cost in money at least the butcher's bill."
Talker looked at his pad. "That's been our government's biggest tax, the service of extra sons. Butcher's bill... What a fascinating horrible language you have."
* * *
"Entry radiation , same rough direction as the Biters came in," Einstein noted. "This is on the system scan relay Fussy showed us."
"Big sucker," Fat noted. "Bigger than the other ship we saw maybe. Who do you think that is?"
"Somebody the Biters won't be happy to see," Chance predicted.
"Station refuses docking to the Biter vessels. Told them not to bring their troubles here," Einstein read off scan.
"Good for them. I'm not sure how that will stop them, but nice to see a little backbone," Frost said.
"Gordon, Chance here. We were going to assume a similar parking pattern to when we left. Dart going wherever he pleases of course. We are about an hour out. Do you wish us to make any adjustments to that plan?" he asked.
"Nope. If that entry burst is one of the big boys you saw then nothing we have could beat it to jump from orbit here. Running just looks bad, like we are guilty of something. Let's wait and see what they want. If it's the Biters they are welcome to them. If they want to touch one of ours we'll see if that big a ship can eat a dozen X-heads all at once. That big a target, how the hell could we miss?"
"You people are insane! With all due respect sir... "
"What are the alternatives Fussy? We can't talk. We can't run. Might as well be crazy."
"My pardon sir. I have no missiles so I should stay silent. Who knows? Maybe I wouldn't be afraid to shoot at a ship that big if I had some."
"Without going into too much detail, Fussy. If I could get twelve weapons on that target I might be able to vaporize it completely despite the size and not leave anything but the grit that condenses back out of the plasma ball."
"I believe you. I'd rather not see it happen if we can avoid it."
"We'll try to avoid it. I never even wanted to shoot any Biters, and they keep making that a harder attitude to retain all the time."
* * *
"We have a little situation here," Gordon told Lee. "The Badgers are going to suspend shuttle flights in a few hours. You read the after action report Chance sent in when he reentered the system yesterday?"
"Yes, I thought he did well. I took his apologizing as tongue in cheek. He might need to stop doing that with a different commander though. Another commander might think he lacks confidence. I just take it as a sign he is so confident he isn't afraid to criticize himself in after-action, and a little black humor perhaps," Lee said.
"I will probably warn him about the dangers of too honest a self appraisal sometime, after enough time has passed to soften it a little. But it looks like we have a system entry of one of those big ships he saw. Possibly chasing some Biters. Any sort of movement might be upsetting to those folks, we have no idea what they are like. That's why the Badgers are grounding the shuttles. I agree with that. I don't want ours flying either. I'd be just as happy for you to stay down there another day or two. It's probably safer down there on the planet too."
"It's pleasant here. That's no burden. I can wash a change of clothes. Can I still get the data stream? I haven't been following it, but nothing has been happening. If you have a bigger ship than I've ever seen maneuvering up there I'd love to follow the action."
"You can't see much on a com pad. But yeah I'm not shutting down our local net."
"I have my spex with me. I'll go off to a dark room somewhere and see it just fine."
"That's fine. You can even talk to me, just don't distract me if things go all hairy."
"I wouldn't think of it. Just be careful, OK?"
"As much as I can, yeah. Love you too," he replied to the real implied message. "Out."
Lee walked in the other room. "Talker, I was wrong. It looks like the Biters may have bit off more than they can chew without either of us needing to rein them in."
He lifted his muzzle from his screen, interested, then frowned and looked at it again. "This is a reference to horses? Does anyone ever finish learning this language?"
"Honestly no, I don't think so, if that's a serious question. There are antiquated forms, regional dialects, and all the technical jargon of a hundred thousand professions. You could probably spend a month just learning all the terms they use to describe sailboats and seamanship. Some of which we still use for starships."
"I was afraid of that... "
Chapter 23
"If I've fulfilled my duty I'd like to be released," Captain Fussy of the Dart requested. The Dart, Sharp Claws and Roadrunner were all back at rest with respect to the station and their other ships again.
"I'm done with you and satisfied, thank you," Chance said on the command channel. "Gordon should release you though."
"Thank you for your service. I'll ask through your command if we need you again. Are you going to stand off?" Gordon asked.
"No actually I'm going to dock," Fussy told him. "As you said. We can't run and we can't talk. If they are the sort to fire on an unarmed civilian station I guess we're all screwed."
"We won't initiate it," Gordon promised.
"I had no thought you would. We haven't seen your fleet be the aggressor once. By your leave, we are proceeding to dock."
"Have a cold one for me," Gordon said. If Fussy didn't understand that he could ask the software.
"The one Biter coming in insists he is going to dock," Captain Frost noted, monitoring station com. "They told him plainly they can't stop him from grappling the collar, but the dock doors are hardware locked from the inside and won't open to their air lock."
"OK, station scan has detail on the big entry," Gordon announced. "Another one of those seven hundred meter ships. Those must be their scouts or destroyers. The two behind it are twelve hundred meters long. Impressive isn't it?"
"I can't imagine why you'd need a ship that big," Lord Byron complained. "Nobody is going to do bulk hauling between stars. I don't think it could ever be made cheap enough."
"Bocce ball court off the ward room mess?" Fat Ortega quipped.
"Swimming pool on 'C' deck?" Chance added quickly.
"Think big," Parsimony Cho challenged them. "Polo fields in the middecks," he suggested. "And of course that means you need stables."
"I'd like that," Thor agreed. "When I ran out of filter duty I could assign mucking out the stalls."
"I'm sure our Commander Gordon is already thinking how he might steal one," the usually quiet Captain Priceless Fenton told them from The Champion William. That was super chatty for him.
"Perhaps just borrow one," Gordon allowed modestly.
"System scan indicates they are skimming the star much closer than I'd ever care to at a sedate ten G. My system reports the numbers faithfully but tags them with an error message because it doesn't believe the numbers," Einstein reported. "We have to modify the code."
"Their course and acceleration extrapolated indicates they intend to come to rest here or make a very slow pass, which is interesting because they set the course when they were blind behind the star. That means they know what is here on the other side of the st
ar. Could they have put a drone in without making enough entry radiation to call attention to it or have some other way of spying on us? I'm not at all sure they can interpret system scan yet," Gordon said.
"Perhaps they are masters of the miniature as well as the colossal," Frost speculated. "They may have tiny stealthy jump drones we can't see."
"That's a possibility," Gordon acknowledged. "When they are a half hour out I want everybody at battle stations and damage control positions. All crew will be in suits with helmets on, even off duty in their bunks. Brownie will assign fleet targets as I direct and if we are fired upon we shall return fire on the offender with every missile we have in a tube. Greasers and peashooters will cover the pause while missile tubes are reloaded. Are there any questions?"
"Do you intend to reply to them if they fire upon the station or Badger ships?" Lord Byron asked.
"No. They have not asked for a pact of mutual defense with us or with our nations. Perhaps because they don't have the means to hold up their end, but who knows why, really? The Dart was under our protection, but he is dismissed now. I will not risk our civilian ships and people without being offered a signed on paper wet ink treaty, with spelled out terms and obligations, and I might not take one offered even at our governments' urging if I don't really like the terms."
"Do you intend to object if they fire upon the Biters?" Ho'omanawanui on the Sharp Claws asked.
"Hell no... I may give them supporting fire as needed," Gordon made clear. "Unless they take out a big bite of station where that idiot Biter insists he'll dock. They need to know to talk and understand what's happening before they use weapons indiscriminately. It looks like they had the brains to do that with Chance's group. At least one of their commanders did when he fail-safed his missiles. Any reasonable intelligence should not assume alliance based on simple physical proximity. Life is complicated and you don't use a nuke and then say oops."
Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet Page 36