Messinants

by S. H. Jucha

  “You’re missing the point, Dingles,” Harbour replied, sitting on the edge of her chair. “I don’t have the pieces either. But, wouldn’t we appear a little foolish if the Jatouche showed up someday, and we hadn’t given this any thought.”

  “Ah,” Dingles said on a slow exhalation of breath. “We need a council.”

  “Yes,” Harbour replied triumphantly.

  “There would be the problems of transport, depending what the Jatouche brought,” Dingles said, staring at the deck and thinking out loud. “With the gate, they could have a mountain of material stacked on the other side and we wouldn’t know it. Then there’s the question of the number of individuals coming. They’ll need long-term accommodations.”

  Nadine handed Harbour her second green, and the two women smiled at each other, as Dingles continued to enumerate the obstacles, as he saw them. When the first mate wound down, he’d listed some thirty or more major considerations.

  “Which brings me to my next question, Dingles,” Harbour said, relaxing deep in her old reading chair with her green cradled in both hands. “Who sits on the council?”

  “And that’s the real question, isn’t it, Captain?” Dingles asked.

  Harbour smiled and said, “Ituau shared with me that Captain Cinders was being inundated by spacers’ questions about the what ifs when the Jatouche return.”

  “And Captain Cinders was trying to puzzle out the answers himself,” Dingles finished. “Sounds like the captain.”

  “We need a list of those subjects that you mentioned, and I need to know who you’d recommend to cover them,” Harbour replied.

  “Captain, I’m good at what I do, but I can’t foresee all the obstacles in the way of something as big as this project,” Dingles objected. “Oh, I get it,” Dingles suddenly said. “My first task is to contact the strategic thinkers and have them help me create a list.”

  When Harbour nodded, Dingles continued. “Those people, who are the most help, will be part of the council. Then the rest of the members would be those capable of solving the problems or, at least, would be able to detail the challenges.”

  “There you go, Dingles,” Harbour replied, gulping down the last of her green. “Three steps: the strategic thinkers, the incremental steps to consider, and the problem solvers.”

  “How soon do you need this?” Dingles asked, as Harbour stood, stretched, and hugged Nadine.

  “As I see it, we need to convene the council, thrash out the obstacles, and design solutions to surmount them before the Jatouche return,” Harbour replied.

  “But, we don’t know when the Jatouche will return,” Dingles objected.

  Harbour paused at the cabin’s door, her hand poised to open it. “Right you are, Dingles,” she said, winked, and left.

  Dingles stared, open-mouthed, at Nadine.

  “Don’t look at me,” Nadine replied. “You’re the one who said a year ago that you were excited by the prospect of sailing again and under such a good woman as Harbour.”

  While Dingles was trying to think of a retort, Nadine handed him his comm unit and sat on the couch with hers. “Let’s get started. Walk me through those considerations that you enumerated for Harbour. We’ll start with those, and that will direct us toward the strategic thinkers who can amplify or edit our list.”

  Dingles smiled at Nadine. She was a no-nonsense, practical person with a good heart, and that suited him just fine. He leaned over, kissed her temple, and started to reiterate his points.

  -24-

  The Council

  “You’re commanded to attend a dinner at eighteen hundred this evening with Captain Harbour before the council meeting tomorrow,” Nate said, as Jessie entered the Spryte’s bridge. “The message came in while you were downside, Captain.”

  “I’m commanded, am I?” Jessie replied, lifting an eyebrow.

  “Ituau said I need to learn to read between the lines when females speak,” Nate replied, frowning. “She makes it sound simple, but it’s not so easy. Captain Harbour was polite and all, but, when I offered to connect her to you, she said, ‘Deliver the message, Nate.’ So, I’m translating that as you better be there, Captain.”

  “You’re not as bad at reading between the lines as you think, Nate,” Jessie said, laughing and slapping his second mate on the shoulder.

  Jessie checked the chronometer on his comm unit. He would have to hurry through a shower, change, and catch a shuttle if he didn’t want to be late for dinner. As he hustled to his cabin, the reasons for his failure to visit the Belle since his return from Triton rolled through him. If he was honest with himself, they weren’t reasons, they were emotions, and they were complex. That’s what bothered him. He liked things simple — work, business, and relationships, in short, life. Trouble was, Harbour was anything but simple.

  Jessie’s shuttle delivered him to the Belle in time to shuck his vac suit, walk to the captain’s quarters, and arrive a few minutes early. He stepped through the door, with a smile on his face, which quickly faded. Leonard Hastings and Yohlin Erring were chatting with Harbour, drinks in their hands.

  “Captain Cinders, please join us,” Harbour called out.

  Leonard and Yohlin could tell by Jessie’s expression that their presence was unexpected, and they weren’t sure what to make of that.

  Jessie was confounded by his own reactions. You ignore Harbour for weeks, and, when she invites you to dinner, you’re disappointed that she’s not alone, he thought.

  Yasmin handed Jessie a drink, and he swallowed half of it.

  “Everyone, please take a seat,” Harbour invited. “We’ll serve dinner in a few minutes, after we speak.” When the captains had settled around the table, Harbour continued. “Tomorrow we initiate the council, which you’ve participated in organizing. What I want to talk about tonight, which we will keep to ourselves while we’re in council, are the political ramifications of helping the Jatouche.”

  Harbour looked across the table at Jessie. He interpreted her glance, as asking permission to share what the two of them knew. Jessie agreed, but he chose to be the one to tell them.

  “What Harbour is referring to is that any aid from the Jatouche will be complicated by the close liaison of the commandant and the governor,” Jessie explained.

  “How close?” Leonard asked.

  This time, Jessie regarded Harbour. Others were involved, and it was a question of whether to reveal their identities. Harbour chose to protect them, as she said, “We’ve sources that know that the governor has the commandant on a monthly stipend. It’s a considerable amount of coin.”

  Yohlin whispered a string of expletives, and Harbour didn’t know if she should be shocked or take notes.

  “Yes, well, what this means,” Harbour continued, “is that we can expect the families to embrace the concept of repairing the planet and making the land arable only if they can reap a huge reward for their cooperation.

  “How far do you think Lise will push it?” Leonard asked.

  “My thought is that Lise Panoy would like to be president of Pyre,” Harbour replied.

  “You mean of the planet?” Yohlin asked in surprise.

  “Lise is thinking much bigger than that,” Jessie said. “Based on what we’ve heard, she’s probably trying to find a way to be the leader of all Pyre — planet, stations, ships — in short, the entire system.”

  “In that case, I would anticipate the governor pushing hard to be the primary, if not the only, contact of the Jatouche,” Leonard said.

  Jessie pointed a finger at Leonard, underlining the accuracy of the captain’s remark.

  “Wait, if the two of you have this information, why doesn’t the Review Board have Emerson up on charges?” Yohlin asked. When Jessie and Harbour hesitated, Yohlin rightly guessed, “Because the evidence is illegally obtained.”

  Harbour tipped her head in agreement.

  “Well, isn’t this a useless ore analysis,” Yohlin commented. “The commandant and the governor are allied again
st topsiders and spacers, and we can’t do anything about it.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Jessie replied. “Because we know of their alliance, we can anticipate their actions.”

  “I would imagine that informing us of their liaison isn’t the only reason for this opportunity to have a wonderful dinner,” Leonard said to Harbour, leaving his question unstated.

  “It isn’t,” Harbour replied. “No one knows what the Jatouche will supply. The council’s purpose is to entertain conjectures, as to what they will bring, and imagine the steps necessary to implement them. The purpose of this small group is to anticipate the political ramifications. One of the primary items on the list created by you is the difficulty of transporting overly large items downside via the El and through the domes.”

  “And that’s when the governor and the family heads will seize their opportunity,” Jessie interjected. “They’ll be negotiating every step we intend to take, with the ultimate goal of expanding their power.”

  “And security’s actions will be hampered by the commandant,” Yohlin supplied. The disgust was evident on her face.

  “So, now you know what you should be considering, while the council meets and plans,” Harbour said. “It’s time to eat,” she added, sending a small measure of pleasure with her words. She touched an icon on her comm device, and Yasmin, Nadine, and two other empaths swept into the salon, pushing two carts loaded with the dinners.

  For the next hour and a half, the captains spoke on various subjects from slush to the aliens. Occasionally, Harbour caught Jessie gazing at her, while he sipped on his drink. She couldn’t help opening her gates and trying to sense his emotions. Unfortunately, they were subtle and mixed, which did little to help her understand what he was thinking.

  When dinner finished, Birdie, who was becoming known as the eternal owl for her habit of staying up all hours, led the captains to their overnight quarters.

  On the walk to Jessie’s cabin, he recalled the first time he’d stayed aboard the Belle. The next morning, he was lost, attempting to find his way to the bridge. Thankfully, he was rescued by Aurelia and Sasha. His second meeting with Sasha was as memorable as the first. But, then, every meeting with Aurelia’s powerful younger sister tended to be a memorable event.

  * * * *

  Early the next morning, a flash of blue light caught the Belle’s third-watch comm operator’s eye. The crew member snatched his comm unit and made an urgent call.

  “Dingles, aliens arriving,” the comm operator said.

  Dingles jumped out of bed, grabbed his comm unit, and called Harbour. When she answered his call, he could hear the shower running. He repeated the comm operator’s message, and his call was cut off.

  Harbour shut off the shower, grabbed a towel, and briefly wiped down. With wet hair, she slid on a set of skins and deck boots and ran for the bridge.

  Dingles had the presence of mind to wake Jessie before he finished dressing and made for the bridge.

  Harbour arrived in time to see four Jatouche on the bridge monitor that relayed the image from the Spryte’s array. The comm operator, who had already grabbed an ear wig for translation from the case Jessie had been given, handed one to Harbour.

  On the bridge monitor, the crew watched Kractik, Tacticnok, Jaktook, and Jittak approach the console. Kractik was tapping at a panel, and, moments later, the image of Tacticnok appeared on a comm monitor.

  “I would converse with Captain Harbour and Jessie Cinders,” the Jatouche leader said.

  Harbour decided it was time to set the record straight about Jessie. She replied, “Welcome back, Your Highness. If you’ll allow me some time, I’ll contact Captain Cinders and add him to our call.”

  “Thank you, Captain Harbour,” Tacticnok replied.

  “Owner of three ships and ship’s captain,” Jaktook whispered to Tacticnok.

  “A most modest human,” Tacticnok replied quietly. “We were favored to meet him first.”

  Jessie hurried onto the bridge, taking in who was present and the Jatouche on the comm monitor.

  “Hello, Your Highness,” Jessie said, adjusting the ear wig.

  “It’s good to hear your voice, Captain Cinders,” Tacticnok replied. “I presume it’s appropriate to use your title.”

  “As it is to use yours,” Jessie replied.

  “Yes,” Tacticnok replied thoughtfully. “It makes one wish for the simpler times of our first meeting.”

  “What brings you back so quickly, Tacticnok?” Harbour asked. She was worried that the Jatouche were far ahead of her people’s preparations.

  “We wished to keep you apprised of significant developments, Captain Harbour. His Excellency Rictook has approved my request to assist you in recovering your planet.”

  “That’s wonderful news, Tacticnok,” Jessie replied. “Please thank your father for us. We appreciate his generosity.”

  “And for me?” Tacticnok asked.

  Jessie paused to consider how to reply to Tacticnok, and Harbour chose to rescue him, when she said, “Tacticnok, I’m sure your skills, as a female, played a significant role in convincing His Excellency to heed your request.”

  Tacticnok flashed her teeth in reply. Why do females understand relationships so much quicker? she thought.

  “Captains, my second announcement is that our scientists are confident that they’ve designed a device that will accomplish the processes necessary to pull heat from the surface and clean the atmosphere,” Tacticnok said.

  “Also excellent news,” Jessie replied. “Do you have a timeline for completion of your device?”

  “Your question is premature, Captain,” Jaktook replied. “The engineers have a task in front of them to build and test some of the components. The Jatouche have never created such a device.”

  “Are they confident that they can?” Harbour asked.

  “They’re Jatouche,” Tacticnok replied.

  Harbour and Jessie glanced at each other. Neither chose to address the subject further.

  “We’ll need your services, in many respects,” Jaktook said. “They’ll include transport, use of your production facilities, and delivery of the device to the planet’s surface. We’ll build one unit to deploy and then more when we’re assured it’s functioning as intended.”

  “Captain Harbour has formed a council, which, incidentally, meets for the first time today,” Jessie said. “The council will discuss the elements we need to put in place to assist you.”

  Tacticnok stared silently out of the bridge monitor, and the bridge personnel could see Jaktook whispering in her ear.

  “Your actions, Captain Harbour, are most propitious,” Tacticnok said. “Have the rulers been informed of our offer?”

  “Yes,” Harbour replied quickly and with emphasis.

  The bridge crew, who had hurriedly grabbed ear wigs from the case when Harbour received hers, glanced from Harbour to Jessie, wondering why the Jatouche were referring to rulers.

  “And how did they receive the announcement?” Jaktook asked, pursuing the subject.

  “They haven’t replied to our broadcast,” Jessie temporized. He glanced guiltily at Harbour.

  “We would appreciate more information about these two rulers,” Tacticnok said.

  Recognizing the topic couldn’t be evaded, Jessie replied, “Commandant Emerson Strattleford is head of security, which is responsible for the application of the laws within the stations and any ships that are docked. Governor Lise Panoy is the head of the families who have control of the domes on the planet.”

  “How is it, Captain Harbour, your ship doesn’t fall under the auspices of one of these rulers?” Jaktook asked.

  “This is the colony ship, which brought humans to this system,” Harbour replied. “It’s too large to dock at either station. In that regard it never falls under the commandant’s purview. Any ship underway is under the command of the captain.”

  “My scope’s recording indicates that one of your stations, by its heat signatures,
is used for manufacturing. We’ll need the services of this platform. Will the ruler, Commandant Emerson Strattleford, allow the use of his station for our purposes?” Jaktook asked.

  “We’ve waited to negotiate the terms of use until we knew that the Jatouche would be able to help us,” Jessie replied.

  By now, the bridge crew was more intent on watching the captains than the comm monitor, which displayed the furry aliens.

  “Do you expect any difficulties in securing these permissions, Captains Harbour and Cinders?” Tacticnok asked. She received a firm no from each of them. “We’ll return with another update, when we’ve more to report,” Tacticnok added, and signaled Kractik to end the call.

  Jessie kept his ear wig, but Harbour and the bridge crew returned theirs to the case. The crew stared expectantly at Harbour, but Dingles demanded, “We’ve operations underway. Slush is being transferred. Who’s monitoring that?” That galvanized the crew to swivel around and attend their panels.

  Harbour glanced at Jessie and tipped her head toward the captain’s quarters, and he turned and preceded her through the bridge hatch.

  “What do you think it means that the Jatouche are asking so many questions about our political structure?” Harbour asked, when she closed the cabin door to her salon.

  “I know that I confused them trying to differentiate you from the commandant and the governor,” Jessie replied. “With a single ruler, Tacticnok’s father, they must find our fractionized leadership difficult to understand.”

  “I’m interested to see how you begin negotiations with the commandant, Jessie,” Harbour said, with a quizzical lift of her eyebrows.

  “Yeah, me too,” Jessie said.

  * * * *

  After morning meal, the council convened in a small amphitheater that had been constructed, with the surplus of coin that flowed into the Belle’s general fund after the delivery of the second load of slush to the YIPS.

  Jessie’s captains and first mates were joined by a collection of engineers from every ship. Harbour and Jessie sat at a small desk on the amphitheater’s stage.