by Jim Rudnick
Tanner finished up his logs and nodded to the XO about sending in the port chandlers quickly and getting squared away while he rose and left the bridge with Lieutenant Sander. They made their way down to the surface and the waiting group. Once they’d signed off and made their Customs/Health declarations and nodded to the Navy base commander and made their excuses, he and Lieutenant Sander moved quickly to a queue of robo-cabs and moved off with some speed.
“Right, Lieutenant … let’s just go over this one more time, and no, I don’t need to hear all of those cautions every time I make a qualified guess, okay with you?” Tanner said, as he settled back into the corner of the rear cab seating. “We okay with that?”
Sander nodded. “I’m good to go, Sir!”
“Okay, first task then is to find the Master Adept from the festival back on d'Avigdor, the one who read my fortune and let us know about those ‘Royal female hands.’ She, if found, may just be a link to more than my future with a Royal, but may also know about the Pirates, correct?” Tanner looked pointedly at Lieutenant Sander and awaited his agreement.
“Um … Sir, as I pointed out before," Sander said as he held up both palms to his captain in supplication, trying to get a word in quickly before the interruption, “we really, in my opinion, are grasping at straws on this quest. We do know that this Master is here, but whether or not she will even see you, let alone be able to ‘see’ anything else that may help us, is the point of the matter, Sir,” Sander added quickly, “and that’s why this may be a lost cause here on Eons … Sir … um …”
Tanner nodded. He knew the lieutenant was making solid sense, but he also knew that the Master Adept had seen something … and he wanted to find out as much as he could before he was left with the only other slim chance that he had to find the Pirates, one that he didn’t even want to countenance. Not yet, in any case.
“Well stated, Lieutenant, but we go on and I do thank you for the aid so far in even finding the Master,” Tanner said.
“But as I indicated, Sir, she may not even allow us to speak to her … remember, this is her planet, her city, and her temple that we must encroach upon. And my own abilities do not allow me to see ahead at all, especially here on Eons with all the Adepts here. It’s like having 100 choirs of Altos in your brain, all singing a different song and all in four-part harmony. Only a Master Adept can make sense of this environment and even then only the best of the best. But … we will try, yes?” Sander said, and then he too sat back in the other corner of the robo-cab plas-seat, his eyes darting sideways to look at his captain.
Tanner nodded and looked out the window at the city of Dessau as it passed by, smooth architecture and stunning towers near the landing fields that slowly gave way to bustle of the city core, business districts, and open air marketplaces. After about another mile or two and smaller low rise buildings, the city began to thin out. A few parks went by, then what looked like dry sparse open fields, and up ahead, the squat gray stone buildings of the Rim Navy Academy appeared, and they cruised right on by as they didn’t have time this trip to Eons to drop in and make nice.
Ahead, there was a sloping level down to a river, and once across the bridge, they climbed the opposite shoreline and worked their way up and over top of a ridge and then another. Eons had trees but there were none here, only grasslands that poor rainfall had made it slowly brown and sparse. But the grasslands were not what demanded his attention; it was the walled village that lay ahead with its large central temple and tall tower that loomed above the brown brick walls. Gates were occasionally spaced around the exterior walls, but the road led only through one of them, and at that portal, there was a barricade that would stop them, and it did…
# # # # #
The person who appeared from within the walled village itself ambled out to the robo-cab and moved to the rear window where Tanner sat. The Issian wore a black robe with hood though it was not covering the head, and what Tanner thought was a veil or a bib of some kind over his face—least Tanner thought it was a man. But he was wrong, as he saw the greeter drop her veil and smile wanly to them.
“Welcome, Navy officers. We welcome you to our village. You are welcome, but you will need to remember that you will need to leave before sundown today. No strangers are ever allowed to remain here after sundown, not even those of us who have left our society and have found other pastimes,” the woman said in a dry throaty voice as she bent and looked over at Lieutenant Sander.
“We would like to thank you, Mistress,” Sander said quietly, “and we will leave the village before sundown. You can be assured of that.” He glanced at Tanner and laid his hand on Tanner’s arm.
“May we ask, Mistress, please if—”
“Yes, Lieutenant, please direct yourselves into the village straight ahead and proceed directly to the temple. You will be met there, right there, once again. And we thank you as always with our thanks.” She made a quick movement with her hand and arm and the barricade rose, and they slowly moved into the walled village.
Ahead and to each side lay low single-story row homes, all the same shade of brown. Like milk chocolate, Tanner thought, a village of milk chocolate. The cab slowly moved down the road toward the temple that lay a few hundred yards ahead. People who were walking moved slowly out of the way. All the adults from what Tanner could tell wore that black, but the children were dressed more in kids’ clothing, jeans and overalls and skirts, some even in bright colors. Some of the kids waved … and one or two of the little boys tried to snap a salute to him, and he grinned back at them each time.
“Seems like we were expected, as well as greeted pretty nicely, I think, Bram … you?” Tanner said.
“Um … yes, to be expected, really, Sir … they knew that we were coming via the Ansible message we sent through on our way here is all,” Sander said and made ready to leave the cab as they pulled up at the temple, a large dark brown building that rose at least 100 feet above the street.
Bittersweet chocolate, Tanner thought as they left the cab and made their way up the wide front steps to the tall two-story doors that were closed. He looked for a bell or a door knocker or anyway to “ring” through to the occupants, and as he gawked at the frames and door sill, the left hand door opened slowly with no one in sight. They entered and slowly walked through an anteroom area to what Tanner thought was a congregational room … large, and wide and with pews of a type of wood he'd never seen before with green lines of speckled grain over a dull beige core.
Ahead down the long center aisle was a black-robed man, veil off, Issian, awaiting them, and as they approached, he gestured for them to move down the aisle toward him up at the front. As they walked, on one pew about halfway down the left-hand side sat one Issian in robes. Quietly ruminating on his god, Tanner thought. As they passed that black-robed figure, Tanner looked at the face of that Issian and could not even see the eyes as the veil covered his whole face. Approaching the first of the rows of pews, they slowed as the Issian ahead stepped forward to meet them.
“Welcome again, our Navy friends. We welcome you to our village and our temple. May I offer you some water, if you have a thirst?” he said as he gestured toward a small side table with a pitcher and some plain ceramic glasses. Just as Tanner was about to decline nicely, he once again felt the lieutenant’s hand on his arm.
“Um … yes, thank you. That would be very kind,” Tanner said, and as he tried to walk over to that table, Sander’s grip firmed up even more … holding him there.
“Our pleasure, then friends … please wait moments, please.” The Issian quickly poured a single glass and handed it to Tanner, who glanced questioningly at his lieutenant, who just shook his head.
Tanner drank a quick mouthful or two of the warmish tepid water and then held the glass out to the Issian, who accepted it gratefully and then moved and gestured toward the side door on the left, but he held out his arm to stop Sander from moving. Tanner looked back after only a couple of steps, but Sander just nodded and went back
to sit alone in one of those pews, and Tanner then turned to trod the carpet quietly. By the time he got to that door, it opened and led him into a small sitting room where there sat another robed and veiled Issian.
Tanner sat directly opposite the Issian whom he assumed was the Master Adept that they had been seeking and looked at her with some pointedness. He cleared his throat and then was stopped by a hand held up by the black-robed figure, and he waited. And waited. And waited still.
From somewhere behind him, Tanner heard a voice, and he half-turned to see another black-robed, veiled Issian who walked over to the sofa settings and sat beside the already seated Issian, and then both of them dropped their veils. The Master Adept had been the second Issian to have just entered the room, and the original person was not an Issian at all but the Right Honorable Lady St. August, the step-daughter of the Baroness, who he saw looked both a bit irritated and annoyed and still very closed off to him.
Tanner sat shocked and opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could even shed his surprise, and the Master Adept spoke after a moment.
“Captain, your surprise is noted. We thank you for that, but you should not talk but listen instead. We want your help and the Lady’s help too, and for that help to we Issians, we will explain what you need to know, but only to the degree that we have seen your future …” She spoke clearly, Tanner thought as he spoke up quickly.
“Yes, Master Adept, and now I also see who you meant owned those ‘Royal female hands’— this Lady St. August, it appears,” he said quickly to try to acknowledge her input from the festival.
“As I said, Captain … you need to listen. The hands I spoke of belong not to this Lady, but to her step-mother, the Baroness of Neres. It is her hands that hold your future, and not this woman.” She said this with a teensy degree of shortness, Tanner thought and bowed his head quickly to acknowledge his mistake.
She continued with ease.
“You are here to learn what you need to know to be able to help not only us, the Issians here at the RIM but all RIM peoples and especially the hostages gathered by the Pirates and now held in servitude on ITO. They have been captured by these Pirates, under the care and control of the Baroness, to use as miners on ITO to mine in secret a new element that allows these Pirates to somehow capture other ships. And rob these other ships. Why the Baroness needs to build her treasury—of that we know little as that is beyond our abilities …” She left off for a second as she shook her head.
Tanner sat shocked, his eyes round with surprise.
“Yet our abilities have helped us learn all of this so far from our other Masters and our only Adept on ITO as well, a youngster but one of great talent, it appears. And we wanted to impart this knowledge to you, as the one who can help rid the Rim of these Pirates and perhaps more,” she said as she glanced sideways to the Lady, who just looked between the Master and Tanner and then spoke for the first time.
“And again, Mistress, I reiterate, what in God’s name makes you think that this … this drunk can be counted on to not only help, but to defeat the Pirates, seeing as he’ll probably just get drunk and miss the whole thing!” She voiced her displeasure and her contempt well, Tanner thought, and she went on. Drunk? He'd not had a drink in almost half a day. He shook his head.
“Further, I have been sitting here for hours awaiting what I thought would be our hero to come in, and I find that you Issians are going to depend upon this … this … washed-up has-been to defend the RIM and help those poor Issian hostages in ITO’s mines? What kind of nonsense is this, I must ask,” she huffed and dragged the hood back and away from her long blonde hair. Her eyes flashed and she tossed her head with anger. Tanner noted she was one fiery yet truly beautiful woman.
“Lady St. August,” the Master Adept said, “you are upset which is fine, but surely you would have to agree that with our skills as Adepts, our abilities to ‘see’ into the future with a great degree of certainty and our ability though little known to be able to ‘link’ between worlds from one Master to another has shown us that this is the man to do this for all of us,” the Adept said with a hint of steel showing in her tone and timbre of voice.
“We asked you to come here, accompanied by your own Adept who waits without, Lady St. August, to enable you to learn what we know, what we will do to help you and this Navy Captain both rescue the hostages—some as you realize are Issian citizens, and that is of paramount importance to us; we want our people freed, and you can help with that … if you agree … to hear me out …” Her voice trailed off as she looked at the woman beside her.
Directing her gaze only onto the Adept, she stared for a minute of silence, then one more minute … then she looked over at Tanner and then back at the Adept. And she nodded.
“Fine, I understand what you have said, and yes, I do agree that you … you … Issians are best suited to do this … or rather to help with this … but this man does not get my vote to help, not now and not ever. No matter what Adept Gillian has told me, no matter what ‘persuasion’ she worked on me, my mind is firm on that point,” she said forcefully.
She sat back and stonily followed the rest of the conversation between the Adept and Tanner. When asked for an opinion, she gave it with what Tanner thought was a begrudging tone, but she did come up with an idea to help with ITO, and yes, she even offered up a small palm branch when it came to how this would be handled at the upcoming quarterly Council meeting and even nodded consent a couple of times when asked for a “Royal” touch on some items.
The Master Adept then nodded to both of them and spoke clearly and succinctly to them both. “We thank you for your help on this and wish you the best in your endeavors. We know you both mean well, and yes, we will be watching for your success in this, and Captain, please be careful with the Pirates. We know that they are definitely the antithesis of everything we hold dear and will need a firm hand to defeat them. We thank you, and we bid you good fortune … please rejoin your Adepts and let’s get our Issians back here … to their home!” she added carefully and rose as she put back on her veil and swept out of the room with purpose.
Tanner looked over at the Lady St. August and smiled.
“Guess we’re gonna be seeing a bit of each other in the next little while,” he said and waited for her answer, which appeared to be taking some time for her to come up with … but eventually she spoke.
“Captain, we are not friends. We will work with you in this undertaking, and yes, even later on Juno. But we are not friends, as I despise men like you. But maybe—just maybe—you are the man who can defeat these Pirates. We will rendezvous then at ITO on the chosen day, and we will not brook any tardiness NOR any drunkenness either, Captain … so until then. We will leave now,” she offered at the end, and again, veil now swung across her face, she moved off toward the same door that the Master Adept had left via and Tanner was alone.
He sat for a moment, then left the room, and gathered up his lieutenant. Once back inside the robo-cab, he held up his hand to Sander for quiet as he tried to digest what he’d just learned from this meeting as the cab left the village and they climbed the hills on the road back to Dessau with one stop first, Tanner demanded. One stop and then a big, big Scotch. Maybe two.
# # # # #
Ahead was the RIM Navy Academy road into the grounds, and Tanner turned to Sander at that point to quietly let him know only what he needed to help further the mission. Sander nodded and listened and asked not a single question. And they entered the Academy to pull up in front of Kinsolving Hall.
Pushing up the stairs, two at a time, with Sander in close behind him, Tanner reached the doors just as they were challenged by the cadets on guard at the portal entrance.
“Sir, please advance and be recognized,” the cadet officer brayed out loudly, his hand stacked up over his sidearm. He looked directly at Tanner, his eyes flicking at the silver eagles and then back to Tanner’s face. “Sir, Captain, Sir, I mean …”
Tanner said qui
te pointedly and succinctly to the cadet whose job was to challenge all visitors, “Captain Tanner Scott, RN Marwick, here to see the academy rear admiral, cadet,” and he awaited confirmation as the conversation was relayed into the bowels of the Hall, and the cadet received back the approved status via his ear-piece.
“Sir, permission granted. Please follow Cadet Simmons to the rear admiral’s offices, second floor, Delta wing, Sir …” he said, and he almost smiled, Tanner noticed.
“Well done, Cadet. And thank the duty officer for me as well. Let’s go, Simmons,” he said as they moved within the front doors and down the hallway to the left. Ahead of them, the hallway stretched out for more than fifty yards, wide with agate green terrazzo floors and large photos on each wall that hung from mid-chest height up to well over the heads of the cadets that were swarming the hall, all fussily dressed in khakis and carrying books and backpacks and noisily chatting and arguing as they held up the group.
“Bullshit, Smathers,” one cadet was haranguing another, “there is no way that a pulse cannon can pierce in that far … even unshielded, the furthest a ball will penetrate is a bit less than twenty feet.” He slid a page of a textbook under the nose of a taller cadet to his left. “That’s what the book says,” he parroted, “and that’s what they’ll test us on—”
“Ten-shun!” Tanner barked, and the corridor froze after all present came to full attention no matter which way the cadets were walking in the hall. Their guide, Cadet Simmons, took only a second to respond, but then barked out, “Captain in the Hall,” and then froze at full attention too.
Tanner smiled to himself and then strode up to the cadet who had been quoting his textbook. He reached down to the cadet’s side seams, took the book, peered at the page that had been proffered as the proof on the pulse cannon piercing depth measure, and then smiled.