Rescue Branch (Kinsella Universe)

by Gina Marie Wylie

  The President looked at them. “Admiral Kinsella?”

  “It’s space, sir. The vast majority of debris from a nuclear detonation will be ejected at high velocity. Virtually none of it can come to Earth. Some, but a microscopic amount. More will impact the far side of the Moon. While the Moon is much smaller than Earth, it is not trivial in size. The addition to the background count will not be significant -- less than a mild solar flare.

  “We will have to announce that such an event is imminent -- the PR is not going to be good. Of course, you could blame it on the French. That is not likely to work, but it might help a little. In the long run, it’ll be forgotten in a week... depending on the outcome of the inquiry.”

  In her quarters later, Becky sat down with her computer recording a message to Anna. “When I was a little girl I used to actually love the days I was sick. My mother rushed to fetch me the things I wanted; I was given a great deal of latitude in what I could ask for. I was loved, and my parents made that fact very clear.

  “Since I left home for the Naval Academy, I thought I’d grown up; that I was past all of that. It’s not true, Anna. You never get over the need to be loved and cared for. I’ve told everyone I want to go out on the Southern Cross. Now, I’m more tempted to chuck it all and curl up next to you, content and happy with the simple joys of simple folk. I honestly am not worried -- at least not much -- about this inquiry. I know what I did and it’s nothing like they say.

  “I don’t know, Anna. I just don’t know. I never thought about anything like this before. What’s wrong with the pursuit of individual happiness? Sure, it’s nice to be able to do great things... but at what cost?”

  She sent it off; she and Anna were exchanging hour-long messages every day. About midnight she heard the message chime on her computer.

  It was the worst moment of her life, when she looked over the brief message. “I love you. If you hadn’t been there for me, who would have been? Maybe you don’t do great things, Becky, but you do good things. Don’t quit! Besides, never forget nepotism!”

  She felt hollow and empty the next morning. She went through the motions of dressing, of reporting to the review conference room.

  That status quo lasted only moments. “The rest of you, doughnuts and coffee in the mess. Lieutenant Cooper and I will join you shortly,” Commander Jacobsen told the others.

  Becky looked at the Commander and the woman smiled. “A mixture of so-so news and really good news, Lieutenant.”

  “Sir?”

  “The captain of the Southern Cross called me last night. I’m sure there is nothing but coincidence that his last name is ‘Cook.’ The politicians in Australia have finally put it together. Granted it’s because of the French request for this inquiry, which isn’t much of a good thing, but still...

  “The first Australian starship was the Matilda. Oh, she had another name, but that’s what everyone called it. They just got back a couple of weeks ago from their second voyage. A fan lost a bearing on the approach to Earth on their return. The fan simply smoked a lot and stopped. It didn’t even drop them from High Fan.

  “That, combined with the Orleans malf, has the politicians with their wind up though. They’ve ordered another series of tests for the Southern Cross; Captain Cook has deferred them until after I finish this -- more pressure to wrap this up promptly.

  “The second thing is that Anna Sanchez has asked for a personal favor. There’s no one going to stand in her way. She wants to go along on the next flight as an observer, to see if she can pick up any insights into design changes that would be good.

  “She is not, she reports, going to be able to do anything for the next three months beyond physical therapy. She feels that this is a unique opportunity to make a voyage and not have it affect her work. For the next couple of months, she says, all that will be happening is that a lot of Legos are going to be glued together and that a five year old could manage it.

  “She has, in short, applied for permission to accompany Southern Cross on her upcoming voyage. It’s been granted.”

  Becky knew it would be coming; it wouldn’t have been right to feign. “I heard she was thinking about coming along.”

  “She’s made a formal application. People are about as likely to tell her ‘no’ as they are ro say ‘no’ to one of Admiral Kinsella’s plans.”

  “Commander, I am nearly speechless.”

  Becky sent a message to Anna that included, “I never dreamed we could or would go out together.”

  The reply the next morning was quintessential Anna Sanchez. “Admiral Kinsella told me that Captain Cook would be amenable to performing the wedding before we got underway. You and I will set a new record -- the longest honeymoon cruise, ever!” All Becky could do was laugh. And, of course, Southern Cross would be departing from Earth orbit, so it would be far safer for everyone, not to mention less travel time. That was, she realized, quintessential Stephanie Kinsella.

  She saw more of that a few hours later. The “defense” team was gathered in their usual conference room. Commander Jacobsen had a few housekeeping things for them to look at, as well as the final report on the French reactor before it had detonated. It hadn’t been a huge explosion, and the media had pretty much ignored anything that happened on the backside of the moon that had no effect on Earth. “Not even the French have complained,” the commander reported.

  Still about 1000 she called them from their individual tasks. “Admiral Delgado and Admiral Kinsella will shortly meet with the leaders of the French team. We already know that the French do things very differently than we are used to. There is no discovery; you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent, and a host of other things.

  “Admiral Delgado told me that normally such a thing wouldn’t be allowed, but that since we weren’t permitted to even know who they’ll be calling as witnesses, that we should be permitted to overhear the discussion between the French officials and the two admirals. This is privileged information and isn’t to be talked about.”

  They watched through a large computer monitor, set to view the length of the conference table. The two admirals on one side, the two Frenchmen on the other.

  “I am Admiral Delgado, commanding the Federation Fleet. With me is Rear Admiral Stephanie Kinsella. She is here wearing two hats -- she is the personal representative of both the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Australia and she will be a member of the Inquiry Board, as will I.”

  “We are aware of Admiral Kinsella’s inordinate influence among political leaders,” the lead Frenchman said acidly. He was approaching sixty, with thick sandy-brown hair, blue eyes and trim body -- no American beer belly for him! He was slated to be the President of the Inquiry. His companion was younger, black-haired, intense and hyperactive, and even leaner than his companion.

  “If you wish to subpoena any witnesses, we will be happy to do so for you,” Admiral Delgado told them.

  “All of ours are French and it was handled internally,” the President of the Inquiry said, sounding haughty. “The schedule is absurd, however. It will take at least six to twelve months to prepare the case.”

  “You don’t have six to twelve months. You don’t even have six days. Perhaps the French military can have officers sitting around doing nothing for up to a year, but our officers we keep busy. Lieutenant Cooper in particular.”

  “Your excuses are meaningless.”

  “We have alerted a number of sovereignties and governments as to your proposed timeline in regards to ours. I don’t think you understand. Lieutenant Cooper is considered the foremost authority on rescue procedures in space. Two weeks from last Monday, a week after the Inquiry starts, she’ll be out at Ceres -- the Indian government has specifically requested her. As you may know, Ceres colony has suffered more than two hundred deaths -- there are questions in the Indian parliament about what’s being done to reduce that. The Indian government will not be happy with further delay -- Lieutenant Cooper was originally schedu
led there this week.

  “The week after that she will be joining Southern Cross, to participate in a voyage of exploration -- not to mention she’ll be spending the entire voyage training members of the crew in her specialty.

  “When she returns, she has named requests for her from the two Mars colonies, she has scheduled stops in China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Russia...” his voice trailed away. “She even had one scheduled in France, but that one’s been cancelled.”

  “A bureaucratic error that was corrected,” the Inquiry President said.

  “There are other requests from a variety of sovereignties and nations for her personally to come and train their people. They aren’t willing to experience a delay of more than a week from the initial schedule we gave them. Lieutenant Cooper’s training has already saved lives and will undoubtedly save many more.”

  “We need more time to prepare,” the President insisted.

  “And I speak for the Federation,” Admiral Delgado told him. “You either have evidence against Lieutenant Cooper or not. You can begin presenting it Monday next or not. On next Monday the inquiry will begin. Period. We held an informal inquiry of our own into the original malfunction aboard the Miracle at Orleans. We completed it in a morning.”

  “We need more time to prepare.”

  “I don’t like to needlessly repeat myself. You either have evidence that Lieutenant Cooper did what she’s been accused of -- or not. This Inquiry will listen to that evidence, if any is presented. Regardless, when the Inquiry is complete, the matter will have been resolved.”

  Stephanie Kinsella spoke up. “I have been informed by Poland, the current chairman of the Federation’s membership committee, that member sovereignties of the Federation have expressed extreme disapproval of the French government’s use of what amounts to a Bill of Attainder. If no evidence is presented by France at the Inquiry, the Federation membership committee will inform the government of France that Bills of Attainder are specifically banned by the draft Federation Charter -- a Charter that was signed by many nations, including France, as the initial framework to build the Federation. The membership committee will vote that France does not qualify to join the Federation, and that until such a time as France removes the possibility of similar Bills of Attainder in the future from their legal system, the membership application will not be approved. In any case, the reapplication would have to wait two years.”

  “Who cares about your stupid Federation and the inane concept of ‘sovereignties?’”

  “We do,” Stephanie told him levelly. “We would not recognize a French off-world organization. No Federation member would be advised to visit it... vehicles in transit in either direction to such an unauthorized colony would not be eligible to request aid in the event of an emergency.”

  “We care no more than Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and others about that.”

  “Ignoring the fact that Russia and Indonesia have signed statements of intent to join -- entitling them to assistance, while they adjust their laws. China is in negotiation to do something similar. It does not escape the peoples and governments of the world that the two biggest scofflaws in regards to the Federation have each lost more people in space than everyone else combined.”

  “That is beside the point. You’ve lost people; we’ve lost people. Space is like that.”

  “And I maintain the space doesn’t have to be like that, if you know what to expect -- if you’re properly prepared. No one with a French passport has qualified in space... although about twenty have tried.”

  “All of this is beside the point. If we cannot have more time, we’ll start, but it will be under protest.”

  Admiral Delgado thumped a coaster on the conference table. “This will be the last time I say this. You charged Lieutenant Cooper with a heinous, terrible crime. You thought so much of the charge that you passed it in Parliament and had it signed by the acting President at once.

  “It’s been repudiated by the actual President and the Prime Minister of your country. Except, as in my native country, it’s intended that legislative repudiation is very difficult.

  “You will either prove these allegations in the Inquiry or not. One way or the other, next week we will put this matter behind us.”

  “You would agree to turn over Lieutenant Cooper to French courts for trial?”

  “Are you mad? The Federation has the beginnings of a court system -- even so I expect that they’d turn the matter over to the US military for resolution. I assure you, if she is guilty of anything as heinous as she’s charged with, she’d be better off in a French court than a US military court-martial.

  “Frankly, I take your reluctance to promptly move forward as lack of faith in your evidence.”

  “You’ll find out in due time.”

  “Sir,” Admiral Kinsella spoke again. “You have expressed disapproval of the term ‘sovereignty.’ I expect you are suffering from misconceptions about the Federation and the governments that are forming.

  “In the Federation, there is a distinction between a government and a sovereignty. A great distinction. ‘Government’ in the Federation refers to the bureaucrats who administer the sovereignty. The sovereignty is the people of the sovereignty -- think of them as a ‘Committee of the Whole.’ Governments serve at their pleasure and whim.

  “It you were to examine the constitutions of the new habitats that have joined you will find certain commonalities. All of their elected officials are term-limited, subject to popular or public, i.e., the government, recall and have relatively short terms of office. Chief executives included. I grant you that so far there are just three, but I think they clearly show the way things are to go in the long run.

  “Even my own country has, in the last century or so, bowed to the obvious. Half a century ago we term-limited the President. In the last decade we term-limited senators and congressmen. Most states have done the same thing now as well, and where there is no push to remove term limits on the state level -- if the corruption becomes too blatant, it happens at the state level as well.

  “The new sovereignties in space are far more empiric than any group of people since the American Founding Fathers. They are too aware that a moron could kill all of them. They don’t treat morons politely. They respect competence more than any other trait. If you have it -- you can usually win through a mistake. If you don’t have it you aren’t likely surviving buttoning your shirt crooked -- not even once.

  “Lieutenant Cooper is a young officer of demonstrated competence. Certainly, if you can show that she deliberately sought the deaths of so many, that opinion will change. Remember, however, that you are talking to rocket scientists. You are going to be talking to people who met all or some of the principals in this matter.”

  “People threatened mass murder, actually did murder, one of the passengers.”

  “If you believe that, if you argue from that basis, you will make a serious mistake. If you have five hundred rioting visitors, said riot is a possible threat to your infant children -- to the children of all ages -- to the entire population of your habitat -- yes, you do what you can to regain control.

  “I seriously hope that a woman in France who faces a rapist is permitted to defend herself.”

  “Not by murder.”

  Becky blinked. Admiral Kinsella’s eyes did the next thing to flashing fire. “I’m tempted, sir, to invite you to see the rings of Saturn -- a billion kilometers from Earth. If a rapist was stalking you or a member of your family, the call home would take an hour or more just to arrive. And what would be the reply you’d receive? ‘Not my job! Not our jurisdiction! We’ve pissed off the Federation, so try whistling Dixie. Maybe the power of prayer will work! Sorry.’”

  “Suppositions and hypotheticals!”

  “You’re a simple moron. Never go off world. You won’t live a day.”

  “Don’t you dare threaten me! I’m an official of the French government!”

  “Space could care less. I won
’t have to kill you -- you’ll kill yourself. Less than a day.”

  She reached for the phone and said one word. “Sarkozy.”

  A few minutes later she said, “Bon jour, monsieur President. The man sent as head of the inquiry is unacceptably stupid. We told you we could deal with prejudice, if the man was intelligent. This one has trouble, I suspect, tying his shoes.”

  There was a pause, “He did what as a new enarque? Like I said, Mr. President, he isn’t suitable.”

  She put her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. “Your President feels that it would be better for all concerned if you were suffering from l’grippe. A horrid case. Geronimo’s revenge. Feel free to blame it on the horrid cuisine of the barbarian Americans.”

  “This is a trick!”

  She passed the phone to him. “Explain to Nick that you think that I’m putting you on.”

  Everyone, even in the room with Becky, heard the voice on the other end screaming angrily in French. Even though Becky had taken French in high school, she recognized very few words.

  The meeting was over, with the French former head of the Inquiry stalking out, furious.

  Commander Jacobsen grinned. “It all depends now. These two guys and their staffs arrived via a commercial flight. If the new guy they send flies via suborbital shuttle, he’ll be here in two hours or so. If he flies by military jet, he’ll be here around breakfast tomorrow. If he comes commercial again, he’ll be here Friday evening.”

  About four, Commander Jacobsen answered a call and reported that the Fleet had loaned the new French official a shuttle for the flight and that he’d arrived and was adjusting to traveling halfway around the world in less than an hour.

  The next morning they were once again privy to be spectators on the Admirals’ Conference with the French.