Family Law

by Mackey Chandler

  * * *

  Acting Secretary for Interstellar Affairs Mel Swenson was pleading. "Mr. President, we have lost two freighters with cargo, a DSBP, a heavy cruiser, two conventional cruisers, two destroyers, a number of shuttles and been declared unwelcome at one of the most advanced human worlds. We have been handed back a liner, Thank God, which had on board two trillionaires, thirty-two billionaires, the head of a prominent religious organization and two well know video stars. Apparently Derf have no appetite for kidnapping and ransom, or we'd have an even bigger problem than the fact our naval fleet has been reduced by somewhere over a hundred and twenty billion dollars in vessels. We are coming up on five hundred killed in the hostilities and merchants are reflagging their American vessels to avoid being at risk. Worse, explorers are reflagging, which means we will be unable to receive originating nation Claims Commission shares for their new finds. Our economy depends on those finds. Otherwise we are in the same class as Monaco or Somalia if we are not a space exploring nation."

  He regarded the stony faces looking at him and despaired. "All over one adolescent tourist, who was none of our affair. The polls show our own world and the other worlds of Man all condemn us as child thieves and liars. That the nation did not repudiate the horrible things Judge Morse said and restore Lee Anderson to her father the very next day is inexcusable. We are labeled racist and worse. This morning I received notice New Japan advised its citizens to avoid travel to the USNA, because it was in a state of war and subject to bombardment. They also said the legal system was inconsistent and subject to local abuse and prejudice to foreigners. People are canceling vacations, canceling whole conventions. Is this what you want?"

  "If I'm racist for not kissing their furry little asses I can live with that," the Secretary of War told him. The Secretary just gapped at him. The silence grew long. Nobody raised an objection. In particular the President was silent.

  Mel was shocked to the core. He hadn't believed hatred of aliens was common. He thought it was the uneducated and the crazy religious extremists, arguing if dogs or Derf had souls and whether Halal applied to egg laying aliens.

  "I see the rot goes all the way to the top," Mel said softly. "I won't be party to this. You will have the janitor as Acting Secretary pretty soon, if he'll have the job, because I quit. You people are not worth writing out a formal letter, I just quit." He walked out, wondering if they would arrest him. They had to know he was going to call a press conference.

  Chapter 45

  The crate came apart easily enough. Clare was on her back. She could only straighten her legs if she sat up. Laying down they had to be bent. She had a light inside and a com pad with music and stuff to read. When they pulled her out she was stiff standing up, but immediately staggered in the head. They gave her adult diapers, but she was still stubbornly holding it when they uncrated her.

  The Lunar Republic had no customs or immigration control. They had an information booth and a sign detailing restrictions and prohibitions for possession or passage in Public Pressure, at the entry from the Public Field. Lee had never seen that when they entered from the Commission field. It listed loaded firearms without frangible ammo, compressed combustible gases, including spray paints, primary explosives over one hundred grams, open sources of combustion, unleashed pets in excess of thirty kilograms, insects, reptiles and flight capable birds of any size.

  The shuttle crew walked them to the curtain to public pressure and Jesus and Diana were standing waiting. Both had odd weapons slung. Lee let out a whoop and ran to them, she wasn't sure who to hug first but Diana stepped forward and grabbed her off the ground and squeezed her back. She introduced Clare with an abbreviated explanation.

  "We have an appointment with the Swiss Embassy here," Diana told her, "they act for Fargone, as well as several other worlds who decline to have an embassy on Earth. There is an embassy row where all sorts of worlds and nations have embassies and consulates and interest section offices for the entire Solar System. Fargone has a fast courier in system and they made it known to your attorney they would put it at your disposal within the next few days to leave the system, if you wished to return to Derfhome via Fargone. After we get that settled, is there anything you need?"

  "By then we'll be hungry and we need at least a change of clothing, we have nothing," she told them. "Oh and can we stop and buy frangible ammo for a nine millimeter pistol?" Lee asked.

  "Trade me," Jesus said with a wicked grin. He had three magazines in his hand, with an odd dull copper bullet showing at the tops.

  "I left them on the shuttle," Lee confessed. "It seemed safer coming in public pressure."

  "I told you she would unload it," Diana told Jesus.

  "How did you beat me up here?" Lee wanted to know. She jammed one of the magazines in the pistol, chambered a round and safed it before returning it to her bag. She finally felt safe enough to put her earring in.

  "I was lifting while you weren't halfway across Canada on your long air trip."

  "Somebody has told my dad, I hope?"

  They reached a taxi waiting for them and got in. It pulled away without instructions.

  "We sent word to Derfhome and Fargone and a couple other places he might show up. He's been moving around so much we aren't sure where to contact him until he checks in," Jesus explained. "He's been very active in prosecuting the war."

  "How?" Lee asked, surprised. "I read they captured a cruiser, but I figured he'd send it somewhere with a human crew and lay low until they could trade it out for a Derf capable vessel. He could barely get in engineering in the High Hopes and just about had room to turn around to get back out. I figured maybe they'd sell it to Fargone."

  "You underestimate your kin," Jesus told her. "The USNA sent an expeditionary force to subdue Red Tree. A cruiser, the St. Louis, with four shuttles and a short company of Space Marines aboard."

  "Oh no," Lee was horrified. "Did they bomb the clan? Is the Hold damaged?"

  "They did not bombard, they landed. And one Derf did die," Jesus admitted. "However he killed all the Marines and captured three shuttles intact. It was not a glorious day for the Corps. The St. Louis was also destroyed in orbit by the captured heavy cruiser Cincinnati. They've renamed it Retribution and it really does matter it is a heavy cruiser, Lee. They mass about half again what a light cruiser does and have much heavier armament."

  "Oh man, they'll send a stinking fleet now," Lee predicted. She also had a gut sinking feeling which Derf she knew could take out a company of Marines. She refused to ask.

  "Out of the mouths of babes," Diana said. Lee looked at her funny.

  "They did send a fleet," Jesus confirmed. "They'll even get some of it back soon according to the Fargoer. About a quarter of the tonnage they sent out."

  "Oh."

  "A DSBP, two cruisers and two destroyers, gone" Jesus elaborated and made a short >ppritt< raspberry with the tip of his tongue. That wasn't very nice. "The news has not hit the public yet, but when it does the USNA is going to look pretty bad. They have also been told they are not welcome in Fargone and now New Japan. We got this from the Fargone envoy."

  "I never asked anybody to die for me," Lee repeated, deeply upset.

  "It's not just about you Lee. It's the principle of the thing. You don't snatch children and you don't crap on your solemn treaty and show yourselves liars to the world. Wars have been fought for much less. How can the other treaty holders trust them now?"

  * * *

  "New Japan control, this is the Nation of Red Tree Heavy Cruiser Retribution. Requesting docking and we will be seeking repair and fueling. We request ground liberty for our crew and landing rights for our shuttles." There was still considerable light lag.

  "Retribution, This is Traffic Control. You may enter trailing orbit on our station. We are not certain we can offer docking and other services due to your at war status. We will consult with political authority. We also have very limited facilities for Derf. What is the credit source of your ship pleas
e?"

  "We are charging all ship services to my personal accounts, Gordon of Red Tree, Bank of Derfhome, or The Bank of Ceres at Sol. I will stand bond for the behavior of my crew on liberty. We have a majority of human crew, but the Derf crew are why I wanted shuttle landing privileges. They can carry us more comfortably."

  "And if the authority says you are not welcome?" Control asked.

  "It is your home," Gordon said in Japanese. "We would not presume to intrude unwelcome," he assured the man. He switched back to Standard and said in English, "We have fuel sufficient to jump to another system with fueling services. We need not put you in an embarrassing position with the North Americans by pleading necessity," he concluded.

  The controller didn't react to his own language at all. But he made a small bow for the first time and assured Gordon he would relate it all to his superiors.

  "I thank you," Gordon said and bowed exactly equally, as near as he could judge.

  "You are playing him like a harp aren't you?" Thor asked, making little plucking motions. "Now if they turn you away the implication is they are afraid of offending the Americans."

  "Do you think so?" Gordon asked, innocently. "Interesting."

  * * *

  - Media Headlines –

  New York Times/web - Admiral Benson dead - fleet disaster.

  OutSystem Gazette/subscribers - Fargone sends envoy over hostilities in system. Destroyer Twelve Palms reported seized. - Second warship lost to capture.

  Jane's Weekly / Deep Space - First Deep Space Battle Platform lost. – Expert doesn't believe reports of Battleship loss. Destroyer crew await repatriation – Three elect to not return.

  Beltway Reporter/web - Third Secretary quits in huff – quotes officials racist remarks.

  * * *

  "This is infuriating," the President raged, looking at the media summaries. "We are styled the bully and inept in all the foreign press. The domestic press are just ignoring it except printing official press releases carefully labeled as such without comment. We cranked the pressure up and can't get a single apologist. It is not worth one young woman and appeasing the state of California. We need to burn the judge on this with civil rights charges and send this girl back. Get the whole affair concluded as expeditiously as possible."

  The Attorney General looked like a deer in the headlights with no verbal response. DoD was a poker face opposite him refusing to look at the President.

  "OK, what is going on?" he growled.

  "The judge is dead," the AG admitted. "Two days ago, he ate his pistol at home in his condo. We didn't know it but he was a terminal cancer patient. He was in a lot of pain."

  "Who discovered him? Did he leave any kind of note? Especially anything bearing on the case? Was the girl an issue?"

  "He was found by an FBI entry team, but they got there about ten minutes after an Office of Naval Intelligence team left, with the memory module from the judge's computer."

  "That is based entirely on testimony of the doorman," Defense said. "We have no records of a ONI team being ordered there."

  "What about the FBI? What did they say?" The President asked scowling at them. "What were they doing there?"

  "They were trying to find out where the California system fostered this girl. They have been very obstructive and refuse to release juvenile records. Apparently they found out she was sent to a very rural area in northern Michigan. They proceeded to try to find her and take her into custody."

  "And…Do I have to order every new tidbit until I have the whole story?"

  "The girl was getting along with her foster family extremely well. The agents went to their home. The girl was said to be at a neighbors. When they checked that address the family didn't exist. By the time they returned the foster home was empty and it appeared they abandoned all their possessions and fled. They are still missing. A great deal of footwork by agents found she was with another family who traveled to the Detroit metro area for several days. They were traced and intercepted on the way back north at a fuel and convenience store along the highway." He stopped and took a drink.

  "So, she is in custody now?"

  He swallowed and looked uncomfortable. "No, the FBI team blocked their vehicle in and were going to arrest them when an unknown force intervened. The FBI team was all killed. Evidence at the scene indicated they were attacked with a heavy machine gun, small arms fire and grenades, probably launched from a weapon rather than hand thrown."

  "How does a negative income family just disappear? Those people live hand to mouth."

  The AG just shrugged.

  "And who can take out an FBI team and vanish? Do we have interstellar sleepers?"

  "There was one extra set of remains associated with a non-agency weapon in the building. However it was subject to explosive fragmentation and prolonged exposure to high heat. The stocks in the rear room where the corpse was found were very combustible. The station was hit with white phosphorus and the building and vehicles out front were just a shell. The remains were so completely cremated identification seems unlikely," he explained. "Whoever it was is very well equipped," he admitted.

  "The clerk said it was a black van with dark windows and some sort of sign on the door said it was a postal vehicle. We immediately set up roadblocks in a radius beyond their possible distance of travel. Despite that and an aerial patrol searching the roads they disappeared, the same as her foster family."

  "Well isn't that sweet," the President fumed.

  The Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor looked at each other alarmed.

  "No way can we allow them to keep the ships," the Sec. Defense said. The National Security Advisor was shaking his head yes. "The return of the captured ships has to be a precondition to talking with them at all!"

  "So what exactly are you advising?" the President asked, steppling his hands in front of him, "Are you suggesting I bluff and tell them we are holding their little girl hostage for the ships when we don't even have her? Doesn't that course seem a bit, perilous? I can think of several ways that might go wrong," he smiled. It was not pretty.

  "I still have hope we may have the girl again sometime soon," the Secretary of Defense said carefully. "I've directed all my assets to be on the watch for her and advise the FBI if they secure her. I made it very clear it was an absolute priority."

  "Was one of those assets by any chance the Office of Naval Intelligence?" the President asked him."

  "I'm sure they would be utilized," he said blandly. "I don't micromanage my people. I just say what goal we want and leave the details to them. When you have good people it works."

  "And it keeps your hands so clean," the Attorney General said, disgusted.

  * * *

  "I've never seen damage like this," the engineer said, eyes big. They were standing in the hanger deck and there was an oval hole vaporized in the huge hatch about two by three meters. The edge was not even melted, just sharp edged like it had been sheared out.

  "The deck was in vacuum, or it would have broken the ships back from the overpressure. It blew out the far wall of the corridor into stores and we lost a good deal of our food and some of our spare parts and repair facilities. We lost two cooks preparing lunch and an engineering tech is missing and presumed in the corridor when it opened to vacuum. The whole section of that corridor needs replaced from hatch to hatch."

  "What is this?" he asked rubbing the silvery hanger wall with a gloved hand.

  "Well, the beam went right through a nice little shuttle we had acquired and strapped on the deck here. We didn't have a cradle for it so we chained it down by the landing gear. There wasn't much left. The landing struts and wing tips and a bit of one of the vertical stabilizers on one wing. The steel and titanium mostly condensed into a bunch of BB shot we swept up. But the aluminum and other light metals vacuum deposited on the cool walls and unfortunately on the side of the other shuttle we were carrying. They are trying to figure out how to get it off without damaging it. The organics li
ke rubber, plastic, crewmen and what little fuel was onboard vaporized and vented to space. You could see clean through her before we jury rigged a liner."

  "And what did this?"

  Thor looked at the man closely to see if he was joking. He wasn't.

  "We caught a beam from an X-head missile. You know – it sets off an H-bomb to pump an X-ray laser. The USNA Phoenix gave us this little love tap in passing."

  "I thought that would just destroy a ship so nothing was left," the engineer said.

  "It can. It depends on how far out the thing detonates and if it can orient the primary beam on you, or a secondary. We caught the USNA cruiser the St. Louis in Derfhome orbit with an X-head. Got in way too close, under a hundred kilometers, the main beam took it right down the long axis of the ship and it vaporized so completely there was no debris a centimeter long showing on radar after."

  "This vessel did that? You vaporized a cruiser and crew?" he looked a bit uncomfortable.

  "That's what war is about," Thor said as gently as he could. The man looked ready to run.

  "You think you can patch her up?" he asked hoping to steer the conversation away from death and destruction. The man was obviously having a rough time dealing with it. "We want a good solid repair and not too fussy about pretty," he explained. If you can tell it has been patched and blended in no biggie as long as it is solid."

  "If I may suggest, the shuttle can be cleaned easily by taking it for a hot passage in the atmosphere. It's hard enough keeping insignia painted on them. Aluminum will burn right off. As for the hole, I think we can have you fixed up there in a week."

  "I'm thinking you'd personally be a hundred thousand New Yen richer, if it was five days."

  "I'll certainly see what I can do," he agreed.

  "You'll need some extra to motivate the foremen and suppliers. Here is fifty thousand to prime the pump, but you need to risk it to get your hundred. Up to you whether to pocket it and that is all you'll get, or shoot for the hundred." He handed him an attaché case.