A Hop, Skip and a Jump (Family Law Book 4)

by Mackey Chandler

  "This is Captain Dixon of the Nation of Central ship Fastfoot. I am holding station forward along your entry corridor with Captain Janet Irish of the vessel Spring Moon. We have intercepted your Cruiser Indianapolis commanded by Captain Mahoney and his two escorts. They have been transported to the gas giant spin-ward in system at about eleven light hours. This is an inhabited system with a widespread population on a living world and space facilities. You are not free to enter or traverse at will. Captain Mahoney refused to voluntarily come to system rest and I disabled his vessel. A hostile alien vessel in pursuit of them was destroyed. If you wish to make a reply within two minutes, the drone transmitting this message will record it and courier it to us. If you start a burn to join your countrymen around the gas giant, which is named Albert, you will not be molested. Any aliens in pursuit of you will be my problem with which to deal."

  "There, I think that covers the essentials," Dixon said. "I'm sending the new drone in with a few seconds overlap, so we don't miss anything. Ah, here we go."

  "This is Captain Aiza of the North American Heavy Cruiser Calgary. I'd certainly need some proof for such outrageous claims. I'm not prepared to surrender my command on a tall tale. I've lost the destroyer Walker to alien attack. Where the devil are you? I keep seeing weird mixed jump emissions in front of us."

  "Alas, nothing can ever be simple," Dixon said.

  "My dear fellow, I need to prove nothing to you. Simply look down your entry vector and tell me where the drive signatures of your other ships or the aliens are? Your brothers at arms are orbiting the gas giant. The alien is an expanding cloud of plasma. I believe you jumped inside the wave front of its destruction and missed the event. I don't really want or need your surrender. You are not under arrest. I just want you to accept simple traffic instructions to proceed to the gas giant. It's our system and I thought we asked quite nicely. If you refuse, and are as obstinate an ass as Captain Mahoney, I'll put a hole through your engineering spaces and then I'll ask your surrender. I'm not of a temperament to beg, nor so bloody minded I want to make you an expanding ball of plasma. Now be a good fellow and tell me you are both burning for the gas giant or I'm going to ding your pretty ship."

  "There, and sent. I hope I set the proper tone."

  "Loosey, for you it was positively diplomatic," Janet assured him.

  "We are accepting traffic instructions," Captain Aiza said very carefully. "Do I need to contact local control around the gas giant?"

  "There aren't any local control areas," Dixon said. "We run the whole system with central real time scan, but after we deal with the aliens we'll be along and help you sort out if you want to press on or need help to return home. I'll see they know you are coming."

  "Thank you, Aiza out and maneuvering."

  The system scan showed the vector arrows on the two vessels changing.

  "Amazing, I think he was attempting politeness," Dixon said. "Janet dear, would you pop a messenger drone in on his friends and tell them he's coming? That used up about a month's worth of chit-chat for me."

  "OK, no need to follow sending that message. Then nothing new happens for about ten minutes," Heather said. "I'll go forward."

  "Multiple entries, Janet said, "too close to number."

  "Um-hmm," Dixon said, unsurprised. "They have good clocks to jump that close."

  "Want to do anything differently with this batch?" Janet asked.

  "Why not? Let's see what it takes to rattle them," Dixon said.

  "Your privilege," Janet said. "I was never one to taunt a bear."

  "I am the bear," Dixon asserted. "I'm going to do a random walk of jumps around them thirty light seconds out, and ping them hard. But to avoid endless lectures about risk taking I'll send a drone to do it. When it has sat there twenty seconds I'll move it again. Perhaps we'll get some clues about their way of thinking." You could hear Dixon's smile in his voice.

  "How many drones do you have left?" Janet asked.

  "Four, were you looking to borrow one?" Dixon inquired politely.

  "I have three. Why don't I send you two and you can walk all six of them around them at different intervals and maybe have a couple shout at them to stop?"

  "Janet, that just doesn't sound like you. Have you been around me so long you've been corrupted? I like it."

  "It is flashy and rude, isn't it? Sending two bot drones over to you now. Do it please."

  "Ah thank you, a moment please, checking the programming. I don't want to lose any more of these drones. OK, looks solid, initiating," Dixon told her.

  On the screen icons appeared and then changed color to show they'd jumped out, until they started to overlap and Dixon told the display to drop marking previous locations. The alien ships fired a steady barrage of beam weapons at the targets. After several minutes of missing they started shooting every direction at random, trying to catch one emerging.

  "Well, that's novel, but as likely to work as shooting your pistol at the moon," Dixon said. "Let see if they have good computers and fleet weapons control. They fire too fast for biological responses, but if they can tie their ships together to fight as a unit it would tend to indicate they've fought some serious fleet actions against other groups of ships."

  "How are you going to do that?" Janet asked.

  "I'm getting one of the drones ready to jump in exactly between two of the ships. They're pretty tight so I'm only going to leave it there emitting for about ten milliseconds. OK, ready. Let's see how they respond."

  An icon winked into existence briefly in the midst of the alien formation. The two ships in line with it immediately shot each other with beam weapons.

  "Oh my, this is absolutely an amateur hour performance," Dixon said. "I'm suspending the ones harassing them to see how they deal with this."

  The undamaged ship started braking hard, but before it pulled very far away from the other two, they both launched missiles on it. Then, after they watched it die, they both self destructed.

  "It would seem their overriding directive is never to be captured, or leave anything for others to analyze of them or their ships," Janet said.

  "Yes," Dixon agreed. "I'd say they either had a horrible, horrible experience with others capturing them, or they are all mentally ill by Human standards."

  "Or both. I don't ever want to find a world of these creatures. I'd be afraid the entire world would commit suicide as soon as they saw they were found, and I wouldn't want that on my conscience, even if they are crazy."

  "Let's go talk to the Earthies," Dixon proposed. "I shall offer to grapple the Indianapolis and run it back to Earth, since I put it out of commission."

  "Do you need me?" Janet questioned.

  "There are five of them together again. They may get brave and do something foolish."

  "You have a point," she agreed. "I'll come along and stay back, out of beam range."

  "There isn't much more of interest," Heather said. "The Earthies, already somewhat sobered by their own experience, asked what happened to the aliens. Captain Dixon supplied them his log record of the entire encounter, including his interaction with them. He felt it would encourage them not to trespass our territory again, and be much more effective than sending them back with just their eyewitness testimony to offer back home. Of course their own logs, limited to what they could see with speed of light lag would have been hopelessly missing vital information and outright confusing.

  "He also added a warning, in his usual blunt language, that if they showed up again in force he'd assume them hostile and waste little time or breath on them since they now knew the system was owned and closed to them. He made a point that he expected that to be issued as updates in their hazards to navigation."

  "They might censor the first part of the record," Sally speculated. "Just erase the log up until the second set of aliens."

  When people from both groups looked surprised she explained. "I'm a banker. I'm qualified to do a forensic audit. I'm very familiar with how people commit fraud, fami
liar with their convoluted thinking."

  "They might do that," Heather agreed. "But to do that they'd have to either edit portions of what Dixon said or eliminate all his remarks and just present the truncated log with no remarks. That would look suspicious."

  "Then I suspect his remarks were calculated that way," Sally said, "not fortuitous."

  "I'm not sure Captain Dixon ever says anything uncalculated. This was, as he intimated, a lot of speech for him," Heather said, with a wry twist to her expression. "He and Janet are of a rank. If you sense she deferred to him it is because when they run exercises he leaves the other naval commanders crying foul and insisting nobody else has such a devious, cunning mind. So they tend to respect him. They're extremely happy he's on their side."

  "We don't know anyone like that," Lee said, accusing eyes darting towards Gordon.

  "So We have heard," Heather admitted. The way she held a word and shifted the emphasis to fall back into the plural was very interesting.

  Chapter 26

  "This entirely explains why the Earthies are careful not to directly challenge you," Lee said. "It isn't a mystery if you've seen that video. They'd be fools to argue with you over any substantive issues, knowing they can't fight you."

  "This just reduces the risk they'll fight," Heather said. "Some of their politicians are fools and will order their military to do the impossible despite any protests, because they don't have any depth of understanding how things work, and can engage in magical thinking."

  When Lee didn't argue but looked skeptical Heather didn't let it pass.

  "I need you to believe this . . . is at least possible. I'll tell you something our intelligence services discovered to illustrate it.

  "During your war with North America, when you destroyed the Cruiser St Louis and captured her drop shuttles, the North American government issued orders to the ranking admiral in orbit, an Admiral Vicks, to proceed to Derfhome and bomb Red Tree and any other Derf clan that didn't bend the knee. Vicks called for every reactor injector on his battle plate to be brought to him and damaged all of them with a hammer. He told his staff he wouldn't follow an order to bombard a civilian population. Then he ordered his two escort cruisers to keep anyone else from breaking orbit to follow those orders. Indeed, to fire upon them if necessary to accomplish that. Say what you will, he wouldn't do what your Mothers were willing to do."

  "You're right. I don't find them perfectly analogous," Lee said. "As far as he knew then, Admiral Vicks was not faced with the complete destruction of his nation, and the Mothers were not going to attack civilian populations unless Red Tree was treated that way first."

  "I do see there is a shade of difference," Heather admitted.

  Gordon did a little cough of disbelief. "If national survival is not such a terribly important consideration, does this mean you'll be noble and contribute your superior drive to everyone? I figured you are selfishly keeping that secret because it's the only lever you have for your own survival."

  "We won't," Heather said, flatly. "Jeff is the holder of that secret, and I doubt he'd release it if I ordered him to do so. It would be national suicide at this time."

  "I can believe your story but not the conclusion of equivalence," Lee allowed. "What does it matter if I believe it or not?"

  "Because I want you to realize you are getting something of value for us to support you. It isn't a risk free gift we offer at no hazard. Therefore I want something in return."

  "Of course you do. That's reasonable. We're the weaker partner here at this time so speak plainly. What do we have to offer, that you want? I'll give it to you if I can."

  "Jeff is supposedly convinced you may not be able to develop a drive like ours, or even a similar technology. I look at the history of invention and am convinced you'll succeed eventually. I want your word your Mothers won't let the Earthies have it. Not now. Not until we agree it won't unleash a catastrophe on all of us. That's my largest concern."

  "It's not the Mothers' to give, or even the Exploratory Association's to give yet. As I said, I'm negotiating for them, and myself. I'm personally funding and directing the research. I have not involved the Mothers or drawn funds from the fleet accounts to date. I'm in a similar position to Jeff. If they knew I held the tech and insisted I release it I would not. Likely I'd see to a change of administration," Lee said ominously. That made Gordon stir, because that was traditionally a male prerogative.

  "And I have no trouble with that request at all. Deny Earth? I'll throw in Japan and Fargone for free until I think long and hard on what I'd be doing there. I think the technology loose on either world would quickly find its way back to Earth. They simply don't have a tight group, with narrow enough common interests, to keep a secret like your peers or like my close people," Lee said.

  "That's a relief," Heather said. "A better agreement than what you said before, a pact to agree to all negatives. To just stay isolated from each other. I'm willing to send our representative and protector to Derfhome for that promise alone. Let me have Dakota print a hard copy document between me, signing Kingdom of Central for everything, your chop on behalf of all the shareholders of the Exploration Association, the Mothers of Red Tree seal, and your personal signature or chop, whatever you use, to guarantee mutual aid and support where possible, and agreeing to respect each other's claims in the heavens, support each other and offer mutual aid where possible, and not release the secret of gravitational quantum drives when known to third parties before getting an agreement from the others to do so. Will you put your Mother's chop and your personal one on such a document?"

  "You're offering a treaty with a full balance of equality all around?" Lee asked carefully, because she could present that to the Mothers with no shame.

  "Yes. As a signatory to a three party contract, we also apply all the terms equally. I'm willing to credit and assume you will figure out the drive details in a reasonable amount of time. Jeff doesn't agree, but he was unwilling to wager a single Solar that you wouldn't. The Mothers and the Exploratory Association may not be doing research yet, but I'm asking you to bind them on the matter too. It's the key issue to our agreement. You have the Mother's authority. Can you bind the Exploratory Association by your word?"

  "Yes, I'm the largest shareholder and officer," Lee assured her. But was a little overwhelmed and Lee was confused. "This is almost like me being sworn to you isn't it?"

  Heather smiled. "Not at all, my subjects are not my equals. We are swearing to each other."

  The enormity of it hit Lee and she was speechless for a moment. Heather was swearing to her personally. She would be equals on documents with a queen and the Mothers. She just hoped the Mothers wouldn't regard it as arrogance.

  "Yes, have Dakota prepare that and I'll sign it," Lee said, the words heavy and unreal. "The public and Earth in particular should be served notice there is a new arrangement."

  "Agreed, but let us keep the details to ourselves for now, and just notify the Earthies of the aspects which are their concern," Heather suggested.

  "True, they don't need to hear us speaking about drive tech," Lee said. "So have Dakota prepare a press release too."

  "You take my point exactly," Heather said and took a moment aside to instruct Dakota. When Dakota went off to prepare the documents Heather turned back to them. Gabriel was waiting for that to speak.

  "If you are sure now that such a protective delegation will be sent, I would volunteer to be your first ambassador," Gabriel volunteered.

  "No," Lee said. That sent a stir through the room.

  Heather looked surprised. "I thought you two hit it off just fine. Did something happen to put you in . . . dislike?"

  "No, not really, but I want an ambassador I'm sure will be impartial," Lee said.

  "Has something happened to prejudice him against you, or yours?" Heather continued.

  "No, quite the contrary is the difficulty," Lee said in a carefully neutral voice.

  "Oh . . . "

  "I'll wit
hdraw my offer then," Gabriel said, poker faced.

  "It was never accepted anyway," Heather reminded him. "I'd already determined that the Foys are going. So there was no possibility."

  "You already knew who you'd be sending as an ambassador? So why all the needless talk-talk if it was a done deal?" Lee demanded.

  "Far from a done deal," Heather denied. "You could have easily killed the whole thing and gone home empty handed for all your effort, or quite literally dead if the catering service hired better assassins."

  "In fairness I doubt if they qualified him for that," Gordon said.

  "One hopes, but point taken."

  "So, we scored a peer for our ambassador," Gordon said, looking for a bright side.

  "Don't make a big deal of that to Fargone," Heather begged. "I don't want to have to lose another peer to an ambassadorship. They could demand equal treatment."

  "When is this going to happen?" Lee wondered.

  "Well, not to rub it in that we're faster, but small as it is, Eileen's ship we have prepared has room for both Victor and you if you don't mind snug. You can beat everybody back if you want and Derfhome will be quickly protected and the Foys can set up shop."

  "I'm a spacer, snug is fine," Lee said, "room to get to an itch is a luxury. I accept."

  "Let me look at what Dakota prepared," Heather said. "I had her working on it so she should have been able to flesh it out quickly." Apparently she had forwarded the press release to Heather's pad already. She sat and read it unhurried.

  "I think this is a good balance. Less details than I would have been tempted to stuff in it, stronger words to make intent clear. See what you think," Heather told Lee and passed the actual pad instead of sending the file over, and Lee read it aloud.

  "The Kingdom of Central, by the Word of the Sovereign, wishes to announce She will be placing diplomatic missions, with a Voice of the Sovereign, in the star systems of Fargone and Derfhome. While resident as guests they will contribute to the system security of our friends. They intend to promote and preserve cultural ties, encourage trade and lend support to the new relationship of Human interest systems with the Badger civilization at the other end of their new claims string. Protection for the claim systems of this new trade route will be made available from these forward resources. Military vessels are informed to seek clearance before making port calls in these systems, or in the Beyond as far as the Badger civilization. Released to Earth news-nets 6-11-2197. Propagated by ship mail to all open worlds in the Human sphere."