by Jim Rudnick
The Baroness tightened one hand, Tanner noted, and he wondered if such a reaction could draw blood from those long teal nails.
She nodded, however, and put both her hands into her lap. "Yes, I concur—your captain from the Nugent will be our guest on the Atlas but will be in charge—we agree," she said, her voice as polished as a river stone.
Tanner wondered about that, and he remembered to vote by raising his hand. The vote was recorded and the committee moved to the next item.
A quick look at Ghayth and the progress there was next; the Baroness also tendered final documents to move their boundaries to include this planet in the Valissian system. There was some more talk about the planet Valissia itself being a free planet within the RIM Confederacy, but that was a moot point at best. Some of the current members of the Confederacy had been just that—and had joined when the advantages of the Confederacy were so plainly apparent.
After making some notes as to whom to assign the task of budgeting and then planning the movement of the RIM boundary buoys, the admiral looked down at his Agenda. We're about halfway, he thought, and what's next—oh damn.
He tried not to look glazed over as the point came up about the decades-old Garnuthian claim against the realm of Thrones. The Garnuthians claimed a constant lack of acceptance of their taxes and customs on landing fees. This claim was older than the number of years the admiral had even been on the RIM. He knew it would again be brought up at the next full Confederacy Council meeting and again receive the same cries of BS and who cares from all of the members there. The fact that the Garnuthians charged all Thrones ships those extra fees over and above what every other realm in the Confederacy paid was not lost on anyone. Garnuth had lost a war with Thrones more than two hundred years ago and was still trying to find a way to irritate them.
Never ending, the admiral thought as they moved on to the rest of the agenda. Wonder what else might make me doze off, he thought, grinned, and noted the Master Adept was smiling at widely…
#####
With Major Stal arriving the evening before, the complete Atlas ship top brass sat in the conference room onboard and awaited their guests. Alver had told them some harrowing tales of life on Ghayth as they built more bases and a few more towns too. Population, he had stated, was now over forty thousand and growing as the Barony was promising all immigrants to the newly adopted planet more than one hundred acres deeded to them. Additionally, all immigrants were promised a pioneer package chock full of crop seeds, livestock, building supplies, and everything else anyone would need to carve out a life on a new planet.
"Not that all can," Alver noted, "as some learned there was very little in the way of local food stores which weren't always available nor stocked with ten kinds of pasta. Some," he added, "however, really excelled at this kind of basic life skills. Some have parlayed that pioneer kit into real live homes and more, and some have even joined with others to form sort of a commune-style cooperative too. Gotta color me impressed." His bright blue eyes shone with the pride of helping others grow into Ghayth citizens.
The truth was, Tanner knew, that the Barony had to offer up something to get immigrants to buy in to the building up of the planet. With a population of over forty thousand, that was a very good sign. Ghayth was a rainy planet with dull gray skies, which meant that it might be last on anyone's list of planets to get a new start on. Add in that it had little in the way of fauna—at least so far discovered—and that meant that the best crops to plant were the ones with big water footprints. Livestock reigned supreme with smaller animals like chickens or the various Garnuthian species of dicrees. These and porcine species were the best to set up ranching with.
"And, what can you tell us of the base commander's daughter, Major," Tanner said and watched as Alver almost blushed.
"Sir, long time ago, a mentor of mine told me a gentleman should always decline to comment on anyone he's sleepin—anyone he's dating. Sir," Alver said, and the blush was now full red.
Tanner grinned and let it go—and the whole table was suddenly busy with their tablets, pads, and stylos, and there was a calm for a moment until EliteGuards by pairs appeared at the conference room door. Four came in and took up positions on either side of the door, and a moment later, passing between those guards on picket duty, the Lady St. August entered the room.
Tanner's heart rate climbed quite a bit, as she was dressed in shades of Pompeii Purple. The only reason he knew that was because when he was in her quarters just a couple of mornings back, he'd inadvertently clicked a button on a remote he didn't recognize. The wall in front of him—covered with a view-screen of the planet below—suddenly telescoped up and into the ceiling, and the biggest closet he'd ever seen in his life was suddenly wide open, and he saw colors and styles and types of clothing he'd never even imagined. There were several long rows of shoes and boots and some kind of heeled footwear. He really had no idea. He had taken a couple of steps toward the closet as Helena came out of the bathroom in her robe after a shower, and that stopped him, but his eyebrows were lifted with an unspoken question.
She had nodded at him, smiled, and nodded.
He grinned at her and went into what he could see was the foyer of her dressing room and walk-in closet. There were a couple of chairs with small end tables between that held fashion magazines, and on a wall ahead was a rotating display on the view-screen of models wearing God knew what. He had no name for the colors they wore, and he had never seen the styles they wore. Some styles were leaning toward more nudity than he thought should be shown, and still other styles were so prim and proper he wondered how anyone could even walk or sit.
"Like anything?" Helena asked as she had followed him in, flounced down in one of the big wing chairs, and tousled her hair to dry it more thoroughly.
He held out both hands palms up, as if to signify that he gave up, and shook his head too. "There is just too much to see and choose from," he said.
She laughed, her blond locks shaking and her brow furrowed. "This is just the Sterling, Tanner. You should see my suite in the Baronial Palace," she giggled, "it's ten times bigger. And I make it a point to change my look and styles annually. One must always be a Baroness—or at least one in training." She grinned widely at him.
He'd gone over and picked out some dresses and outfits—if that's what they were called—and she named off the real names of those styles and colors. That's how he knew the outfit she had on—it was called a safari set, she had said—at least if he remembered that part correctly. And the color he thought she had said was that Pompeii Purple—and he grinned at her and quickly wiped the smile off his face and looked down at his tablet.
The lady sat at her place at the head of the table and smiled at all present.
Tanner nodded at his XO to make the introductions.
"Ma’am, just to introduce our Atlas team, Ma’am, if I may," the XO said.
The Lady inclined her head in assent.
"Ma’am, down at the far end is Chief Warrant Officer Hartford—our best tech man onboard, Ma’am—he's from Tarvos." Everyone knew that meant he lived and breathed IT and tech.
"Beside him is our Head Science officer, Lieutenant Commander Karl Sheldon, who will be our point man on the away team down the Memories.
"Beside him is Major Alver Stal, our marine commander—fresh from Ghayth and ready to go. No better commander, Ma’am.
"Beside him is Colonel David Richards, our Wing commander of the one-hundred-plus aviators onboard the Atlas, Ma’am.
"I'm the XO, Ma’am, Lieutenant Commander Kondo Lazaro." He dipped his head to acknowledge the greeting. "And finally, closest to yourself, Ma’am, is our captain, Tanner Scott—whom you know ,of course," he said with not a hint of smugness or anything else but politeness, and he sat down.
The lady smiled at each of them, and then her gaze ended up on Tanner, who smiled politely back at her.
"Captain—able team. I wonder, however, just what the captain of the Nugent may want—but on
cautionary tale, a gentle reminder. The refugees have claimed status from the RIM Confederacy overall—but from the Barony as their sponsoring realm. We all know that. We recognize that in this special case, we—I, in fact—have the total authority to handle this mission as I see fit. The RIM Navy captain will simply follow my orders, or he will not be on the team. I wanted to say that up front—gentlemen, we are the team. The RIM Navy is along for the ride—you will all need to remember that simple fact," she said, and in the past few seconds, her voice had gone from plain conversational tones to hard-edged steely statements of fact.
The Atlas crew was smart enough to have frozen those smiles of welcome on their faces, Tanner could see. Able navy men, he knew, and was thankful for that.
He, however, had the duty to ask the question. "Ma’am, a small note—question really. We were told by our own Council of Captains that Captain Siegel of the Nugent would be the top navy man on this mission—he'd run the show his way, we understood. Is that not the case, Ma’am?" He queried in the most polite tones he could manage as he tried to find out who his boss was going to be.
She stared at him for only a moment and then replied, "I am the heir to the Barony—a full Royal. No one tells me what to do—do you not understand that, Captain?" she said, her voice simply polite.
He nodded and held up both hands, palms toward her, as if to signify that he was not arguing whatsoever.
"Ma’am. Of course, Ma’am, it's just that this captain will most likely expect to be in charge—admiral's orders and all that, Ma’am," he said, his tone one of full subservience.
She nodded and added matter-of-factly, "Yes, but he will follow my orders or else I'll have my EliteGuards dump him in a life-pod minutes after he defies me. End of story. Do you all understand? All of you?" she said and received nods from every single Atlas officer at the table.
As she leaned back and picked up her tablet, Tanner received an Ansible message on his wrist PDA. He quickly keyed in his throat mic and answered quietly as the rest of the room was busy with tablets and small talk. "Yes, Lieutenant Irving?"
"Sir, the Nugent is in low orbit above you, and their captain has requested that you and your away team report to him on the Nugent STAT—for 'his vetting,' I believe he said. Sir," she finished politely.
He weighed that. The crux of who was in charge was right here, and he said, "Hold that for a moment, Lieutenant."
He looked across the table at Lady St. August and waited until she seemed to pay attention as she put down her tablet. "Ma’am. Captain Siegel has just taken up a low orbit over KappaD. He has just Ansibled over to us here on the Atlas, demanding that I and my away team report to him to be 'vetted' by him. I have him on hold, Ma’am," he said, as he pointed at his wrist PDA.
She flicked a finger at the big view-screen that was now off and said, "On screen, with full video and audio, please."
The screen came to life, and moments later, it filled with Captain Siegel's face on the bridge of the Nugent.
He looked like he was somewhat taken aback, because he could now see the assembled team on the Atlas facing him—and not lost on him was the face of the Lady St. August.
"You were calling in, Captain?" she said politely, but no one at the table doubted there was iron within her.
"Ma’am, yes—sorry to intrude, I simply wanted to ask Captain Tanner and his proposed team to come up to the Nugent so we can meet and see if there might be ... might be some redundancies perhaps, Ma’am."
Polite. Royally polite yet still on point, Tanner noted.
"Won’t be necessary, Captain. As leader of this refugee verification mission, I have already met and approved the complete team. Your own team, however, should—what's it called—shake a leg to get over here so that I can 'vet' them myself. Do you understand, Captain, where you fit in here?"
There's that iron, Tanner thought, and like all at the table, he leaned back to watch the other captain.
Siegel was old enough and smart enough to show nothing on his face. No emotion at all. He'd just learned that he was at least number two on the who's who of the away mission to Memories—no matter what the admiral had sold to the Executive Council. Choices here were slim, Tanner knew, and he wondered how the older captain would try to wiggle up some room here to get his own orders fulfilled yet keep the Royal happy too.
"Might I remind you, Captain, that I am a Royal from the realm to which these refugees have claimed refugee status. You are simply a RIM Confederacy Navy captain obeying orders. My orders, Captain—do you agree? Or do we simply go on our own way? Your choice, Captain, and a reminder that the planet Memories lies outside the RIM Confederacy, ending your jurisdiction, Sir," she said, and the steel was out and cuttingly sharp.
Siegel was a better captain than Tanner had ever given him credit for—as he smiled and nodded back to the lady.
"Ma’am, of course, Ma’am. My pleasure to serve is all that is important. Not a problem, Ma’am, not a problem at all."
She called him and he folded.
Mission leader decided, Tanner thought, and he smiled, as did all the mission members at the table. Case closed, Tanner thought, we're good to go and we know who the boss is too.
#####
"Sir," Lieutenant Cooper on the helm said, "we're right on target, but the specs that we got from our guests, Sir, appears to be off?"
Tanner thought about that for a second and then leaned over to his right to face Captain Rossum who was ensconced in a folding seat just off the edge of the bridge area of the Atlas.
They'd all gotten squared away just a couple of days ago and had left KappaD, and now, just over two days later, they were at the Ansible specs that the Roma captain claimed should be where Memories lay. Except this was still swirling nebula wisps and black space. No planet and no sun either.
"Captain?" he asked.
"Perhaps," Captain Siegel said from his temporary seat in the Royal chair, "the coordinates are incorrect?" He smiled at everyone.
Getting him to leave the Nugent behind and take up a temporary berth on the Atlas had been a bit of a chore, but that had been ably handled by the XO, and the captain, while not happy, was at least present. Gruff old goat was how Tanner would describe the man—yet his reputation as a superb navy man was still there. Not so happy either, Tanner suspected, but then that's what dealing with Royals was like, which almost got a smile from him.
"Captain, yes, perhaps so. Captain Rossum—can you explain where we are in relation to Memories, as I too do not see same?"
She nodded and then stood to approach the helm. "Helmsman—through you, of course, Captain—can I ask that you now change your heading to point at that large expanse of the yellow dust with the green lines in it to port?" she said.
Lieutenant Cooper looked at Tanner and receiving a nod back slowly turned the ship on low impulse drive and eased the Atlas forward.
Whatever the nebula was, it was thick in this vicinity. Ahead less than a few hundred yards, the large yellow dust area slowly grew with those green lines now becoming larger paths and rivers of other colored particulate.
"Dead-slow, Helm," Captain Rossum added, but that was redundant as Cooper held the throttle at its lowest setting, and the Atlas moved ahead.
After almost five minutes, the very tip of the Atlas entered that yellow expanse, and the Roma captain said, "Adjust display to infrared up to microwave spectrum levels, please," and after that same nod from Tanner, Cooper complied.
Moments later the nebula ahead of them disappeared, and they could see the star around which Memories orbited and yes, the planet itself.
"Lock onto that planet, please, Helm," Tanner said, “and still at dead-slow, let's get through this nebula cloud area and increase speed soon as it's safe to do so," he finished off.
Up on the view-screen display sidebar, it showed that Memories was still a few thousand miles ahead, so they all knew that this would take a while.
"Science, care to tell me what we know—or what you can
extrapolate from these conditions as to the planet and this nebula?"
Lieutenant Commander Sheldon nodded and leaned into his conversation. "Sir, yes … the original discovery of Memories goes back only about a thousand years or so. At that time, it was determined that there had been a binary star system right here—the one we can still see, that G-class mainstream smaller one there," he said, as he pointed to the bright burning yellow body on the infrared view-screen.
"And another—type and class we have no idea. But about a billion or so years ago, it went nova and the nebula we see is called a diffuse nebula as it is the remains of that star. Hence, the high, high particulate matter, which is why we're going so dang slow. More though of even more interest is the planet Memories. As I said, discovered and explored those centuries ago, all that was noted was that it had a set of terraforming foundries at various spots on its continents, all of which it was noted were unpowered. Moot really. But the interesting thing was that about six hundred years ago, the planet disappeared as the nebula swirled around the surviving G-class star and the few planets that had survived that nova, including Memories.”
He smiled at the bridge crew and their guests before continuing. "Disappeared. Hidden. Not to be found—but, of course, these were reports from what we would call unconfirmed sources by various agencies and realms. Some were from other explorers, a few from the Pentyaan realm, a single one from the Seenra on a trip nearby. All said that at the coordinates of where Memories should be, she was not there."
"And yet, there she is. I'd say it was a nice bit of exploring by our Roma friends, Sir—very nice indeed."
Captain Rossum touched her hammer and cogs icon as a sign of respect and dipped her head.
The planet lay still farther ahead, and Tanner noted Cooper was now moving the ship up in speed as the yellow cloud drifted off behind the Atlas.
The Atlas now surged ahead, and following further planetary coordinates, they slowly drifted down through heavy cloud cover to an area near the coast of a southern continent. As they dropped even farther, Tanner indicated that they should do a slow tour of this area that the Roma captain claimed they knew and had been down to many times.