by Ward Wagher
“I don’t know if it’s the admiral’s flagship sitting up in orbit, or the news getting around about the hearing. Everyone certainly knows about certain police officers getting rolled up.”
“True. And what do you suppose this fellow wants?” Hai said nodding to the Navy master chief waiting for them on the sidewalk.
“Hello, Master Chief,” Frank said. “I assume you are not just out here taking the air.”
He braced to attention, although he did not salute – neither Frank or Hai were in uniform. “Sirs, Admiral Krause would like a few moments of your time.”
“Is he at the Legation?” Frank said.
“No, Sir. He is here in the car.” The chief walked over to the ground car parked at the curb and opened both doors on the right side.
Frank leaned down to look in the back seat and then climbed in. Hai climbed into the front seat.
“Hello Admiral,” Frank said. “We’ve had a busy week.”
“Captain, Commander. That we have. Before I left orbit, I decided to invite myself to dinner with you two.”
“Yes, Sir,” they both said.
The chief climbed into the driver’s seat. “Master Chief, take us back to the starport. We’re going to pop up to the Corona for dinner. There are too many ears down here.”
“We could eat at Montora Village,” Frank said. “Our Mrs. Marsden sets a good table.”
“Thank you, Frank, but I’d rather not have it noised about that I am paying undue attention to any of the parties here.”
“But you are, Sir,” Frank said.
“Yes. But we are going to be discrete about it.”
“Very good, Sir,” Hai said. “We will want to decide how to handle the starport. Justin Vos is expecting our return. We were planning to depart from there to Montora and he wanted his wife and children to return with us.”
Krause eyebrows raised. “What are you telling me?”
“Just that Vos is concerned about the safety of his family.”
“Is he in any danger personally?”
“I don’t know, Sir.”
“Probably,” Frank said. “The duke likes to keep tabs on what is going on in his domain. He knows we have been making purchasing expeditions to Cambridge and there are only so many transport operators in the area.”
Krause leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. “All I ask, Gentlemen, is some modicum of peace here so I can deal with the real issues of the sector.”
“You understand the dilemma we are facing here?” Frank said.
“Of course. The duke is not only a murderer and a swine, but he is a fool as well. He as much as admitted he had your brother killed. I wonder if he is really sane.”
They arrived at the starport and drove to the far side, where a Navy shuttle was parked. Four marines stood guard around the craft.
“Call Vos,” The admiral said. “Tell him to plan on your departure for 21:00 or 22:00.”
“We left our car in town,” Hai said.
“I will have you delivered to your vehicle following your return groundside.”
They exited the vehicle and quickly stepped aboard the shuttle. The chief drove off in the groundcar.
The three dined in the Admiral’s dining room aboard the Corona, his flagship. The table, which could accommodate eight, was squeezed in with barely enough room to slide the chairs back.
Frank studied the room as the steward set the dinner on the table. The admiral shows little enough high style out here. But then again, he has never flaunted his wealth in the years I have known him.
“I wanted to take the opportunity to let you two know I do not intend to leave you with the short end of the stick on Hepplewhite,” the admiral said.
Frank snorted.
“Seriously, Frank, I have few enough friends as it is without driving off the best ones.”
Frank looked at Hai. “Do you think the admiral protests too much?”
Hai looked at Frank and shook his head slightly.
“That’s not fair to Hai, you know,” Krause said. “He is on active duty and recognizes the limits of what he can say.”
“I don’t believe this,” Frank said. “In one breath you come across as our best friend and in the next you pull out your tyrant stick. Which will it be… Sir?”
“What will it be? Let me tell you, Captain. The Centaurans have apparently decided they have completed digesting Ceti and are casting longing eyes at Earth. The Navy is trying to decide where its loyalties lie – to the League or to Earth. In any event, if Earth falls to Centauri, it will be the end of the League too.”
Frank shrugged his shoulders. “So? This is not exactly recent news. We’ve been watching that little dance for the past decade. The Centaurans have been aggressive critters ever since they immigrated from Earth, what, six hundred years ago.”
“What is news, however, is that I am still tasked with keeping order in the periphery. The League is distracted. The Navy is distracted, and everybody knows it. We’ve got active piracy out at Sarah’s Star and Essex – it’s beginning to resemble a nation-state. I have a small flotilla at Cardiff, which will definitely be out-gunned if the pirates make their move. I have warring governors on Addison’s Planet both renting mercenaries to advance their causes. And Tetrarch is an on-going cesspool I don't have the time or forces to do anything about. I really, really resent having to travel four-hundred plus light years to Panoz because you two cannot control a worthless duke!”
Frank held his hands up in front of himself. “Hey, hey, hey! You’ve seen what is going on here. Every time we close down one operation, Guilietto Jackass Roma hunts around and starts up another one. It’s pretty hard to be the statesman when the object of your desire will not listen to the voice of sweet reason.”
“And meanwhile the civilized human inhabited universe is getting set to go up in flames. We are on the outer fringes of the inner worlds here, Gentlemen. There is a real risk of death on a planetary level. Panoz is, what, two-hundred light years from Earth. Centauri is apt to be so busy grappling with Earth I don’t think they would head this way anytime soon. But I don’t know.”
“So, in other words, put up with the monster in Cambridge because you have bigger fish to fry?”
“That is not what I am saying and you know it. How long did you work for me before you went haring off to start your own business? Surely, you know me better than that.”
“I know you well enough, Admiral. I know something of the challenges you face. I was your flag captain for five years before I retired. But you are not going to solve the bigger problems if you ignore the smaller ones. I recognize we are pretty small fish, and I really do appreciate your coming out here to put Roma in his place. But, your ‘just fix it’ directive is unrealistic if you cannot give us the tools to do this. You chewed out Hai, here, for being a cowboy. But what else was he supposed to do?”
Krause stared at Frank for a few moments, then he picked up his utensils and started sawing on the roast beef. Hai took the cue and started eating too.
Frank looked back and forth at them. “Fine.” He started eating.
The silence continued for perhaps ten minutes as the three men ate. Finally Hai spoke. “You truly set a fine table, Admiral. This is as good as anything I’ve had in the past couple of years.”
“Thank you, Commander. My current steward is a jewel.”
“What about your previous flag captain?”
“Is this a trick question, Commander? I don’t think there is any doubt Frank is one of the finest officers I have ever been privileged to serve with. His wife is special too.”
“And what about his brother, Jack?”
“Hai…” Frank began.
“No, no,” the admiral said. “It’s a fair question. Your brother was a fine man, although a little too eccentric to be a great officer. But he did okay in the Navy. Everyone wished him well when he purchased Montora.” Krause took a sip of his coffee. “What we have been dancing around all evening,
Gentlemen is the fine line I am walking here. There are several critical things on my plate, and we have discussed most of them.”
“As an admiral in the Merchant League Navy I have several responsibilities. On a personal level, I try to look out for my friends. But when push comes to shove, human civilization rates much higher than my friends. I don’t apologize for that. I am hoping you two will be able to figure out a way to fix things on Hepplewhite, and I will help where I am able. But if I get pushed into a position of having to decide between you and the Navy or the League, or mankind in general, you lose. It’s pretty simple really.”
“Okay, then, can you give me some advice, Admiral?” Frank said.
“Sure.”
“How would you go about fixing things on Hepplewhite?”
The admiral grinned with one side of his mouth and chuckled. “I haven’t the foggiest idea. It’s one of the reasons I have you and Hai there. I was faced with an intractable problem, among many. I sent in the best troubleshooters I knew. I’m counting on you two to figure it out.”
“Thanks, but I came out here because my brother was murdered.”
“I didn’t try to stop you.”
“That has to be the most cynical, asinine thing I have ever heard.”
Krause glared at Frank. “I can pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“Take it easy, Skipper,” Hai said.
Krause glared at Frank for perhaps ten seconds. “You really don’t know when to quit, do you?”
Frank glared back at the admiral. “Do I look like I give a flying fig?”
“Of course you do,” the admiral replied. “Whether you care to accept it, or not, you have responsibilities beyond Hepplewhite. This planet won't remain untouched if the rest of the sphere of man goes up in flames.”
“I don't think you can have the one without the other, Admiral. You have been very clear about our responsibilities here. I am simply looking for support in solving your intractable problem.”
“I'm here, Frank. I'm spending more time on your particular forest fire than any of the others I'm fighting. I know I'm asking for miracles, but that's what I'm reduced to at the moment.”
“And you don't think you are being unreasonable?”
Krause took a deep breath. “I'm asking for help from my friends.”
Frank leaned back in his chair and looked at his wrist. “Golly, look at the time. I suppose we had better be going, Admiral.”
Krause leaned back and spoke to the steward. “Call away the shuttle.”
As Ciera and Frank boarded the shuttle, Krause grabbed Frank’s arm. “I really do want you to succeed, Frank. I just am very limited in what I can do to help you.”
Frank looked at the admiral carefully. “I understand what you are saying, Admiral. I plan to succeed. But understand that if I cannot do it your way, I will surely succeed doing it my way. I am not playing to lose. And unlike you, I am putting my friends and my subjects in Montora ahead of human civilization. Because if I can't do that, we really aren't civilized, are we?” And he turned and entered the shuttle.
Chapter Nineteen
The subsonic vibrations of water passing through the turbine were noticeable as a bit of a tingle through the shoes of the men in the power house. Harmon Eckert labored in the pit next to the existing generator. Hai Ciera looked at the diagrams and instructions spread out on a table. Frank stood off to the side, and observed the progress as Guard Captain Nesmith and Corporal Fitzhugh kept watch on Frank.
“A stroke of luck that there was another generator here on Hepplewhite,” Frank said. “The price was right too.”
“Count your chicks once Harmon gets this thing running,” Ciera said. He pointed through a window at the new twenty-one inch pipe extending up the mountain next to its twin. “I worry we won’t have enough water flow to support both generators.”
“Harmon thinks we will, and he is the engineer here.”
“Yes, but this generator is significantly larger than the first one. I get the impression Eckert is just guessing.”
Frank smiled. “He may be, but I think I would rather trust one of Harmon Eckert’s guesses instead of anybody else’s clearly stated facts. Besides, the opportunity to get power into the village was just too good to resist.”
“Assuming everything works as it should.”
“Hai! You are usually the incurable optimist. I think you are just unhappy someone else thought of this?”
Ciera snorted. “And have we forgotten about our little problem over on the other side of the mountains?”
“Oh, not at all. I am simply looking for ways to pave around him. We have the street in front of the hotel finished. With power to the village, we can get the HVAC plant running at the hotel and furnish a floor. We have a hotel manager. We have the basic infrastructure of a shuttle port coming in. Wendy is dropping advertising into the planetary nets of the sector. We’ll have some revenue coming in here and the duke will be getting some tourists too. He has a new hotel opening up in Cambridge.”
Ciera rolled his eyes. “I really have a hard time classifying some Woogies buying the old Marriott as a new hotel coming in. The place had turned into a dump and that is why Marriott pulled out.”
When mankind had ventured the three or four hundred light years into this sector of space, they found a thriving interstellar civilization controlled by pink, fireplug shaped beings with radial symmetry. The Woogies have five arms and five legs, although tentacles might be a better description. The only familiar part of their anatomy was a single, four inch, very human appearing blue eye. The Woogies were generally more honest and honorable than humans, aside from their kleptomanaical tendency to abscond with any bright and shiny bauble which catches their eye.
“No, Hai, it complicates the duke’s life. It adds another variable.”
“Yeah, like the biggest suckers in the known universe, when they are not stealing everything not nailed down. The duke must think it is Christmas time.”
“You know better than that. One thing the Woogies have done is to master our legal system. They are better at it than we are. Plus with the Navy directives on playing fair with them, the one thing which would bring Krause’s hammer down on the duke would be for him to try to screw the Woogies.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re right. But having the Woogies in Cambridge complicates things for me too.”
“How is that?”
“As I said, there’s a new variable in the mix. The duke will be watching the Woogies and he will be watching us. The added pressure may drive him back into action, regardless of what Krause told him.”
“Hey Commander,” called Eckert from the pit, “is there a three-eighths socket up there?”
Ciera turned around and looked around on the floor. He bent over to pick something up. “Here you go. Catch.” He tossed the socket down to Eckert.
“I am about ready to install the controls for the waste gate. I will need you to read off the settings for me. These things are touchy.”
Frank waved to Ciera. “Later, Hai.” He turned to the door. “Let’s go, guys.” I don’t know why Hai thinks the Woogies complicate his life, Frank thought. Anything that messes up the duke's thinking is just fine with me.
Frank and the two guards left the power house and walked towards the village. Frank and Hai had purchased two more electric trucklets, but Frank preferred to save the accumulator charge for business use around Montora village, rather than as his personal transportation. Not being fond of horses, he had decided walking would keep him in shape. The walking and the physical labor had trimmed fifteen pounds off his frame, which made Wendy happy too.
The three men walked along the graveled path from the power house. They came around a curve where the trees opened up and presented a view of the valley with the castle and village framed between the tall conifers. Frank stopped to look.
“You know, nice as this is, I’ll bet it is beautiful in the winter.”
Alexander Nesmith, the Guard Capta
in nodded. “Yes, Sir, it is. My parents brought me here when I was ten and I still do not get tired of the view.”
“Maybe we will finally have the opportunity to take advantage of this. With power to the village and some basic services, we can start drawing in money-paying tourists.”
“Begging the margrave’s pardon, but why do we not just put in a small fusion plant like Cambridge has?”
“No problem, Alex. Harmon asked me the same question. A vest pocket fusion plant sized to this place would cost something on the order of forty million Centaurans. I cannot do that right now. Plus Hepplewhite really does not have the tech base to support a fusion plant. Heaven help Cambridge if theirs ever breaks down – nobody on planet with the tools, parts or skills to fix something like that.”