He faced the next man, but there was no challenge from him. He grunted and strolled out from the detention room, past the guards in the main hall and out the door into the midday streets of town in a direct line to Mythor’s Tavern.
Gahre was warmly greeted therein. He politely but firmly dismissed the curious patrons and their queries and took solitude at a dark corner table. “Lamb,” he ordered, “a full rack. Salad, bread, water and a pitcher of milk.”
He sat in to wait, salivating, wanting for his meal and felt his anger rising. He had been compelled to retell the events four times over while the tone of their questioning became ever more accusatory. Had he not just brought them one of the most wanted criminals in the realms? He never imagined such a reception. They had attempted to detain him by force, as though there were more to tell, as though he were a criminal himself. It was intolerable foolishness, and he fumed over it til the dishes came, one by one in quick succession. Mythor, the proprietor, delivered them himself and told Gahre that in light of his brave deed, the rumors of which had spread like wildfire through the town, he would dine on the house. Gahre made his best effort to decline and offer up his coin, but Mathor would have none of it and pressed his insistence. Gahre, just wishing a fast resolution to the matter, thanked him and briskly took up his utensils. As he prepared to dig in, a cacophony of bootsteps thudded their way into the tavern, made their way through, and surrounded his table before the first chunk of the hot fatty lamb juice could soak into his tongue. With no small hint of annoyance, Gahre set down his food and went still, refusing to look up at them.
“Begone!” he told them. “I’ve given you a full and truthful accounting. There is nothing more to it, and I am done with you.”
“It is not that simple,” returned the Sheriff. “You, Gahre Aurori, Son of Danu, have been found, by your own confession, to be in willful violation of the Law on at least four counts. We are hereby arresting you on the charges of…”
Gahre scoffed. “Confession? I gave you no confession! I gave you testimony detailing the happenings of the last eve, which resulted in the apprehension of an infamous bandit. I admit to nothing unlawful or dishonorable on my part, nor am I willing to hear it.”
“Stop this nonsense, Sheriff! The boy’s deeds were noble,” came the voice of a patron Gahre could not quite identify, followed by more affirmative calls from the other guests and staff.
“Be that as it may, this man is in violation of four counts of felony. His defense may be relayed to the magistrate, who has been summoned from the capital and should arrive within the week,” Sheriff Janker bellowed back at them with all the authority he could muster. “Until then, the boy is to be detained in the town jail.”
This announcement elicited a round of jeers from the patrons. Realizing he could soon be parted from it, Gahre took a large, succulent bite of the lamb, hastily savoring it through the distraction, then hurriedly swallowed and took another.
Mythor approached the ring of men, bypassing the Sheriff and addressing Elder Panthus directly. “Venerable Elder, surely this is unnecessary!”
Old Panthus seemed conflicted himself but insisted that he could not interfere with the due process of the Law.
“Read the damn charges then!” challenged Cherles the Barber from his barstool and probably well into his cups. This was echoed by more calls from the other patrons. “Yeah, read the charges!” “Let’s hear them!”
Gahre, who was now stuffing his face with food as fast as physically possible, nearly spit it out when he heard the first of them.
“You are hereby charged with assault with a deadly weapon, resulting in grievous bodily injury.”
It was enough to divert his focus away from his food and directly into the Sheriff’s shifting eyes, and he shrunk under Gahre's fixation. “He is a notorious and wanted highwayman, Sheriff!” Gahre shouted with half his mouth full.
“Nonetheless, you ambushed their company.”
“A company of brigands gearing up for assault on the innocent!”
“You could not know their intent. If this were a matter of self-defense, the law would be on your side. But it is not. You crept upon a party who was unaware of your presence and ambushed them with lethal force. You fired first and drew first blood.”
“I did rightly acertain their intent!” Gahre stood up abruptly knocking the table back and causing a pitcher of milk to drop and shatter on the floor. “They were positioned on high ground below a ridge, camped there for days or more waiting to strike on that wayhouse. Indeed from that vantage they were scouting the wayhouse, whereupon last eve the merchant family lodged. I saw them sharpening their sabers and donning armor. There was no question as to their intent. It was perfectly evident.”
“It was suspicious, surely. But that brings me to the second felony I must charge you with: Unlawful Vigilantism. You are neither a lawman nor a ranger, and thus have no authority to apprehend suspected criminals.”
“I am a junior Ranger. And does Har Darox not have a bounty on him? Is he not a wanted brigand, accused of murder and defilement? Does his likeness not hang in every township and outpost from here to the opposite ends of the world?”
“Junior Rangers have no so such authority to detain folk. In fact I believe as a junior ranger you are trained for such contingency and did not follow protocol. Isn't that correct, Master Ranger Throjos?”
Throjos cleared his throat and answered carefully. “The protocol a junior ranger is deemed to follow upon the sighting of criminally suspicious circumstance is to immediately report his observations to the nearest township or garrison outpost. He has no more authority to apprehend suspects than any civilian, which is to say none at all. That said, however, Sheriff, the boy is of age and we were, and still are, of mind to offer him commission to our ranks.”
“Which means nothing under the Law. So you would agree, would you not, Master Ranger, that the boy acted outside the Law having as he did options other than committing deadly assault?”
“Surely he did not follow protocol, Sheriff. To be truthful his account belies belief. A young man with no prior combat experience ambushing and successfully capturing three hardened bandits. I think we need to look at….”
“He’s a bloody hero is what he is!” hollered Cherles raising his stein. More onlooker affirmations followed. Townsfolk were coming in off the street now, and the tavern was quickly filling to capacity.
“Hear this, Sheriff!” Gahre stated to all. “The nearest outpost to the wayhouse is over ten kilometers east along the highway, further than this town. Had I headed out for either, those bandits surely would have carried out their violence. I sprung an ambush using stealth and cover of darkness, not in my own self-defense, but in the preemptive defense of the innocent boarders below who would otherwise have surely been set upon. And why would I not use such tactics? I faced greater numbers and weaponry, and so pressed every advantage at my disposal. I stand righteously by both my judgment and my actions.”
“Boy, do not think I am here to prosecute you. The magistrate will hear your justifications and afford you a full defense at trial. I come to charge and arrest you for those laws, that by your own admission and testimony, you have violated. I am duty bound in this regard.”
“Then the Law itself is perverse,” Gahre grunted, reseating himself and taking up his utensils again.
“As perverse as a boy with a record of poaching and a personal vendetta against banditry?”
These aspersions were unbelievable. “I was cleared of the poaching charge, by the Master Ranger here.”
“Tis true,” confirmed Ranger Throjos. “The boy was hunting wolves and…”
“And how many wolves did you kill, boy?”
“All of them,” replied Gahre “And Sheriff, I was not engaged in a hunt, but a war. Farmer Peascow's land is on the periphery of the hinterlands, bordered by the northern hills. A natural order was in place that each kept to their domain, man and wolf. When the lupines crossed into our territor
ies, they had to be dealt with for the danger they posed not to just farmer Peascow’s young ones and livestock, but to all of us, as their numbers grew.”
“Tis again true,” affirmed Ranger Throjos. “It is illegal to hunt the wolf in their own territory. Though never codified, it has been long understood that they are to be eradicated for public safety should they attempt to expand their territory onto our side of those hills. You’ll recall a similar situation in our youth Sheriff. The cycle seems to repeat itself every few decades. In light of this, the poaching charges were dropped against the young Gahre here.”
“My concern, Master Ranger, is to the character of the young man. His reputation as a loner and a hunter, and it seems he has an insatiable appetite for blood. Twenty-two wolves, Master Ranger, solo. Work indeed so perilous, it would not be undertaken by any sane man. And now he tells a tale of hunting down the very deadliest of all predators, a tale in which he did not hesitate to strike first and draw blood against men. What kind of man, I ask, Master Ranger, hunts predators who be not one himself?”
“A harsh and unwarranted allegation, Sheriff,” argued Throjos. “Aloof though he is, Gahre’s reputation is more than honorable. He has never harmed any folk til now, and that man he lamed be one of the worst notoriety, wanted across the realms for despicable deeds.”
“There are two more charges,” countered the Sheriff, “both again felonies. One is for the brandishing of a firearm and another for possessing knowledge of its operation.”
“As it was superior to my bow, I co-opted the enemy’s rifle,” Gahre explained in exasperation, still bolting down food and drink. “I pressed every advantage I had, Sheriff. As for my “illegal knowledge,” suffice it to say that I have boarded these many years in Tulan with my uncle, a master tinker. The mechanics of the thing were simple enough to deduce.”
“You stated that you both fired the weapon and reloaded it. Perhaps it is your uncle who has given you such instruction?”
Gahre, for the first time, was obliged to lie. Yes, uncle had described to him the operation of a rifle, though he had also learnt that same knowledge from various hunting parties he’d crossed paths with over the years. “Who in this tavern, who here does not know what a rifle is? Who here has not heard the many sordid stories of their use in misdeeds across the Far West, and of their proliferation therein? There is not a one here, Sheriff, without that basic knowledge. These charges are as spurious as the others.”
“Again, you may plead your case to the magistrate. You will be afforded counsel to represent you…”
“I require no counsel, Sheriff. I stand by my every action, honestly and in the face of any corrupt application of the Law you wish to throw at me.”
“Nonetheless, you shall be afforded a barrister. Should you refuse this...”
“Indulu comes soon to Tulan, does he not?” A silence fell across the tavern as Gahre invoked the name. “Spring Conference is to be held in the coming weeks. You already have a full and detailed testimony of my account. So I choose Indulu as my counsel, and I will speak to none but him in the interim.”
“Then you agree to come with us peaceably into custody?”
“Once my meal is finished, Sheriff. Otherwise you will get a brutal scuffle out of me, here before the public.”
The Sheriff began to open his mouth in indignance, but the Venerable Elder Panthus, the highest standing authority present, waved his hand.
“Take a seat. Sheriff, Master Ranger, deputies, order what you like. I’ll cover the tab. Let’s let the boy eat in peace.”
Chromosphere
Twenty-two tenuous life-hanging-by-a-thread hours and seven overloaded and ejected heatsinks later, the Kinetic Dream broke through to the cooler, placid chromosphere. A calm seemed to fall over the ship, a respite from the inferno. Aru's mind started to unwind and he felt sleepy. It occurred to him to have a drink, but this probably wasn’t the time. Well, actually it was. Like everything else he did he engaged his vice on a strict schedule, and today was his day to indulge. Maybe later. Fool’s errand or not, they still had their work cut out for them.
Mei was busily plotting away coordinates and routes for the probes. They had 61 long-range probes in total and an immense area of the solar ecliptic to cover since they only had a very rough idea of the object’s orbital altitude. He had never seen her so devoted to a mission before, and for the first time, he felt like she was in charge and he was mostly just along for the ride.
In a sense, that was only fair. She had served under him with loyalty and distinction for over a decade, and when he honestly weighed the full measure of her value to him, it was far more than that. She'd given him more than just service; she'd given him her heart, and all she’d ever asked for in return was this one endeavor. She seemed to have everything well in hand. There wasn’t much he could do but monitor the ship’s status and wait for her to put the finishing touches on the probe strategy for their search.
“System, recliner,” he ordered. This was the standing bridge, quite literally. It was more suited to this type of operation. It was a large grey chamber, utilitarian and arching with the curve of the inner-ring. Aside from the lack of coziness, the biggest drawback was that it was set in a fixed position on the centrifuge. Any enemy they chanced upon was bound to know that, so normally they used the mobile auxiliary bridge for command, a much smaller more lounge-like affair.
The padded chair rose up from the floor and positioned itself behind his command console. He flopped down into it with a sigh. “System, brandy,” he ordered in a sudden change of heart.
Mei paused briefly from her feverish calculations to look over at him and giggle. She knew Aru’s habits; he drank once every eight days, like clockwork, no more, no less.
“I’ll take first watch,” she offered. “Delve into your cups if you like. Knock off even.”
Aru knew the rules, for they were his own. “System, transfer primary command control to Commander Li.”
“Confirmed, Captain.” The ship replied curtly. System also knew the rules, and this was a weekly occurrence. Command would stay under Mei until such time as Aru awakened with negligible blood-alcohol levels.
“Oooh, Kinny gets scared when I’m in charge!” she joked with System. Aru viewed their contrasting attitudes toward the machine world as yet another defining difference between reds and blues. Reds saw them as servants, underlings that gave useful analysis and certain particular insights, but were otherwise on the whole unworthy companions. Mei, who had the peculiar habit of talking to machines, tended to anthropomorphize them and would engage System in long discourses about philosophy, fashion, culture, etc. Aru knew better. Sure they had all kinds of personalities and social protocols installed to every flavor and liking, but aside from L-classified anthrometas, like Memnetech, they were ultimately all alike in their foundations.
“Apprehensive would be the more suitable term, Commander,” replied the ship.
“You know I’m going to turn the G up once you’re good and knackered,” she said to taunt Aru.
There were two things in particular they bickered over constantly, G and lighting. Occitania, being the most massive world in the Taiji, had 4.6% higher gravity than Aru’s homeworld of Calidon. Generally, by agreement, they kept it at the median of the two, but both had a tendency to surreptitiously notch it up or down ever-so-slightly when the other was off guard. Then there was lighting, red or blue. At the moment Aru didn’t care, so long as it was dim.
“Go right ahead, I’ll sleep all the harder.” He was surrendering, and it felt good. “I’m going to stay here on deck until those probes get launched.”
“Suit yourself. Maybe you’d like to review the sweep strategy Kinny and I have come up with before you wander off too far into the idiot zone. I’ve modified it considerably based on the data we’re getting here, most especially this high flare activity.”
Aru brought up the holograph of Ignis Rubeli with their position indicated and a series of colored lines
representing the orbits and spacing of the search probes' destined positions and their routes to them.
Mei continued, “As you can see, that magnetic disturbance we spotted yesterday on the far side photosphere is forming into a formidable solar flare along the ecliptic, a possible CME. So I’m reserving half of the probes for delayed launch and rerouting fourteen others. It’s not just that one flare either. The overall solar surface is showing a sudden and unusual amount of turbulence.”
“It’s pissed that we’re here,” Aru half joked, looking at the holograph and animating the prescribed orbits. He noted something else that was not in the original strategy. “Why do you have probes 22 through 33 in such high orbits? I thought the target was well below the geosynchronous zone.”
Aru had his brandy glass set to self-refill and was already on his second. Mei answered him.
“Two reasons. One is that we need more outer network relays for the lower probes to report to in the face of all this high solar activity. Signal travels further and stronger when it flows with the solar medium. Secondly, I want to expand the search area, since who knows what else might be out here that could clue us into the target's location? Let’s consider the Kinetic as the primary search vehicle since it has by far the most burn capacity, sensory and analytic power. I’m positioning us in a median orbit in the prime search radius. Probes will be in and out of contact, but I’m hoping this configuration is what will alert us to any find in the timeliest manner. Any find, of course, will require an immediate reconfiguration of the entire network, which Kinny has already programmed the probes to initiate on their own in the event we lose contact with them.”
DUALITY: The World of Lies Page 4