IronStar

by Hallman, Grant

  The repair of bodies continued as fast as the Regnum regen tanks could run. As each casualty was restored to more or less physical wholeness, they were decanted and the line of waiting maimed and burned patients moved one place forward. Kirrah was sure she saw a dozen crippled O’dai in the queue, placed there by the cheerfully indiscriminate blue-robed healers. On the one hundred sixty-first day since Kirrah’s first landing, two days after Ulla’ta went into a tank for repair of her eye and hand, and three days ahead of the Navy doctor’s projection, Irshe was decanted and released into her care.

  Chapter 51 (Landing plus one hundred sixty-two): Interruption

  “No battle can take place unless by mutual consent” - General Carl Von Clausewitz, op. cit.

  “You two can stop mooning over each other like that,” said Doris at dinner the next night. “It’s not polite to us mere mortals around the table.” Ex-Corporal Gilman exchanged a knowing glance with ex-Lieutenant Warden, across the table from her.

  Kirrah, one place down, broke from her reverie and replied languidly, “Irshe’jasa, you may ignore my rude shipmate. She was raised by barbarians and would not recognize True Love if it bit her on the… come to think of it, I remember once it did bite her on…”

  “All right, I surrender!” Doris replied hastily. “I’m sure everyone has a past. Would someone please pass those yellow vegetables?”

  “Do’ris’jasa, as my Warmaster’s liaison I should know any relevant facts about her friends and allies,” replied Irshe, with that straight face he could carry off so well. “Including any past injuries… are you finding the evening air too warm?”

  “You’re supposed to be resting,” Doris replied tartly, “…not making your - what now?” as Kirrah’s wristcomp chimed.

  “Roehl, go.” As Kirrah touched the Transmit key, her memory flashed back to a lake burning in the darkness, and the sense of carrying the world on her shoulders. Her blood ran suddenly cold at the sound of a Regnum warship’s General Quarters alarm carried over the comm link.

  “Lieutenant Roehl, this is Argosy comm, Ensign Angeles. We have Kruss grav-trace in-system, Admiral Dunning asked me to locate you and keep a link open.” Doris Finch’s spoon clattered to her plate, the sound loud in the sudden silence.

  “How many?” Kirrah clipped the words out calmly, even though part of her mind was babbling ‘How many, how many, how many, how many?’ She unplugged that voice and firmly set it aside.

  “Just two we can see right now, ma’am. It doesn’t look like any serious metal yet, not that we can see so far. Wait… one’s stopped… they’ve both stopped, thirteen light-minutes out. Argosy’s been holding station on Tubedrive for weeks, so they’ve already made us, but Utterson and Attila are in passive orbit, and Murphy knows where she’s got the two FTBs lurking.

  “Ok, there’s one, just unTubed fifteen thousand kay away, looks like they made a straight run in from their last stop. Other one’s gone stealthed. Nothing hostile yet… yes, Ma’am, I’ll patch it in…” Kirrah recognized the capital-M ‘Ma’am’ that indicated a captain or admiral in the vicinity. Her small wristcomp screen suddenly seemed inadequate, and she and the rest of the dinner table’s complement hastened the few steps to the large comm console in her quarters.

  As she sat in front of her display, the Argosy’s logo was replaced by a live splitscreen feed. The left side showed the tactical imagery from the sensor net that filled the entire star-system, updating at lightspeed lag. Occasionally a section would update faster as an automated courier drone arrived FTL, dumped its data, and returned to its station. On the right side, Admiral Dunning’s strong face was looking off-screen, then came back.

  As those gold-flecked brown eyes met hers, the Admiral said, “Kirrah! Good, we have visitors. Please be available on-comm should the need arise. This is your star system after all, I just work here. I don’t think we… yes, put it through, conferenced.” The right-side screen split horizontally, the bottom half now showing the elongated head and black lips of a Kruss against the background of an alien starship’s bridge. The being opened its mouth, but Lucinda Dunning spoke first:

  “What a surprise to see our Kruss friends so far from their home! We greet you in the name of the Regnum Navy and our allies, the planet Sho’ito. Did you have a nice trip?”

  « What treachery is this! » came the synthesized translation. «This is the Trader vessel Kassgee’s Esophagus, on regular supply run to our legal colony on this planet. We observe your trespassing gravtrace from a distance! We demand you withdraw immediately from our territory! »

  “My dear Captain, you seem to be mistaken about your location. There is no Kruss colony here. This is a human planet, has been for millennia. If you are lost, perhaps we can assist…”

  « Kaa#ksss! Do not sell rubbish! I have naval escort. Your vessel’s location is long known to its targeting computers. It is you mistaken, fantasy you can steal our colony. Move or die, same price.»

  The Admiral’s face went blank at the interruption, her voice shifted to a deadly flat tone. “Before you issue your second threat, Captain, have a look in your sensors at what’s in our targeting computers. Captain Wallace, please blink the ‘A’ missile field.” A signal sped out from the Argosy’s Tac board, triggering half a dozen of the nearest stealthed and drifting missiles to emit a single electronic ‘ping’ directed at the Kruss vessel. As the radio command ballooned outward at lightspeed, more and more of the deadly little missiles responded, in an ever-widening sphere of destruction poised and timed to center directly on the Kruss.

  Behind her, Kirrah heard Adrianne say over her shoulder, “See, Marcus, the Admiral knows how to make a Kruss go pale, just like our boss! That should be a regular part of Marine training, don’t you think?” Indeed the small being’s lips had lightened to a telltale medium blue-gray, as its ship’s sensors reported the Regnum’s precise display of massive force.

  “Yeah, Addie, but she can make two Kruss go pale,” replied Marcus. “Look there!” Indeed another FTL drone had just arrived. Its sensor update now revealed a second sphere of missile transponders, their pings converging around a point in space near where the first Kruss gravtrace had ended. “I bet that other Kruss is a serious warship, and I bet she’s just told it she knows exactly where it’s lurking. Damn, she’s good.”

  The Admiral’s voice continued, “Do you have any idea how many missiles my entire fleet has already seeded in this system, Captain? Do you know where my other warships lie? My missiles give me a sensor net as large as this entire star system, and you’re inside it, so I can see both of your vessels. Can you see mine? Do you want to?” The Kruss actually jerked slightly at the Admiral’s last, hissed, words, its eyes opening and closing in that weird out-of synch way they had when stressed.

  « Tagk#eess! Your thievery is powerful. Do not fire to this small trading vessel, we have already messaged notice of our arrival and your presence. We depart now. You accountable now leaving our companions unfed, our trade unconsummated. We will return. Litigation and sanctions, weapons and fighting. We cannot abandon our colony. »

  Kirrah exchanged glances with Issthe, touched a key that activated the Attention light on the Admiral’s screen. At Lucinda’s nod, she said, “Let me have a word with it. Can you escort it on a single reconnaissance pass?”

  “Yes, but why would you… oh! As you wish, ‘Warmaster’.” Kirrah’s comm status changed from ‘listen’ to ‘talk’. She watched the Kruss’ attention shift as its screen split to add her to the call.

  Admiral Dunning said, “The military commander of the planet Sho’ito now speaks. Go ahead.”

  “Who speaks for Kruss?” Kirrah asked.

  « Pallagkss, Captain of the peaceful Kruss trader-vessel Kassgee’s Esophagus. Who pretends to speak for this planet? »

  “This is Kirrah Warmaster. If you…”

  « What have you done to my colony? » the small being’s voice interrupted. « They fail to respond to our hails. You will be assigned rep
arations by Civilium court for all damages to legal Kruss trade mission. »

  “We do not want you leaving with your mind burdened with untruths,” Kirrah replied. “ But we do want you leaving. I therefore offer you a free sample, to purchase goodwill. Your vessel may make a single pass near our planet, to confirm the truth of what I now tell you. The evidence is there for all to see.

  “Your ‘peaceful Kruss traders’ attacked our pre-tech indigenes’ city with three kinds of illegal weapons. We suffered much damage from the smartshots and the nanowire. I am sending you the certified recordings which form part of our evidence. Then your representative Pssittagk attacked our city with a nuclear bomb. You will see the crater when you pass over the coordinates I am sending you.

  “In response, on my authority we destroyed the source of the illegal military action against us, using one of your own illegal weapons. You will see the whole story when Civilium newsnets pick up the RegNet broadcast in a few weeks. Our reporter has already sent the story. She believes it will make her famous throughout all Civilium space.

  “You will receive even more confirmation when the Kruss Lssghagk’s memory is exposed to the Civilium Scrutineer. He is so ashamed, he went willingly. I’m sure a copy of his testimony will be sent to the Kruss Emperor’s legal staff when our lawsuit is registered, and I’m sure your Emperor will want to interview personally every Kruss associated with its public humiliation. Are you getting all this?”

  Indeed the Kruss was showing signs of distress: its eyes were sphinctering out of phase, its head rocking slightly and its narrow black tongue lolling out over black teeth and gray lips. Two attendants were now visible, one offering a drinking tube and one painting the being’s throat with something wet from an ornate bottle. In the upper right screen quadrant, Admiral Dunning was nodding appreciatively.

  “Good,” Kirrah concluded. “The Regnum Navy Admiral who defends our system will now give you the coordinates for your single pass over our world. We would both consider any deviation from that path to be a hostile act. Sho’ito closes its ears.” She blinked the Admiral’s Attention light and the Admiral took her cue to drop Kirrah from the Kruss’ part of the call.

  Lucinda took up the conversation. “Captain Pallagkss, you will receive my approved flight plan in two minutes. I am making a small side bet with my flagship’s Tactical Officer, who very much wishes to see you deviate a hundred meters, or fifteen seconds, from that plan. You are about to choose which of us wins our friendly wager. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you. I wish you and your escort a peaceful trip home. Argosy out.” Lucinda Dunning broke the connection with the Kruss, whose image disappeared from Kirrah’s screen. She smiled, a cool, professional smile of approval.

  “Well done, Warmaster. We’ve both given these Kruss something to think about, although I suspect they will be thinking about your message longer than mine. Nevertheless we seem to make an effective team, when our goals correspond. Thank you.”

  “Thank you, Admiral Dunning. Sho’ito is grateful for your protection. As you said, we’re going to have an interesting hand to play. Seems to me we’ve just led with the truth. I think that’s a good opening.” The Admiral nodded.

  “I’ll be passing… ah! There goes the Kruss drive. Yes, they’re right on the flight plan we gave them. Looks like I’ll owe a brew to Sandra’s Tac officer - I lied about which way I bet. They’ll be overhead your position in seventeen minutes. If they get frisky on the way past us, we’ll be out of touch for a while. We’ve been drive-hot with the Tac computers on auto-evasion since they arrived.

  “We’ve got the whole local sensor net watching for a response from your pet Kruss down there. Assuming their vessel attempts a microburst hail, if it answers from the planet’s surface we’ll have its location nailed within a few centimeters. That was a bit of quick thinking, Warmaster. Either way, good hunting. This is the Regnum Navy destroyer Argosy, standing by this channel.”

  Twenty minutes later, some six hundred kilometers diagonally beneath the speeding Kruss vessel, Senior Xenodominator Pssittagk crouched between two large trees deep in a jungle. Suddenly its attention switched from the prey it was stalking, to the alert-signal from its suit’s computer. It extruded a small screen from its collar, one eye read the code analysis displayed there. Lips peeled, its dark muzzle rose to the early evening sky. The long head wagged back and forth in a very human gesture of negation. The intended prey, a plump young fruit-eater, raised its head at the careless motion, sniffed the air and bounded off into the dense underbrush. No problem, its spoor was still clear, and nothing on this planet could outrun a Kruss in a short dash. It would wait.

  The humans were becoming annoying. They had already destroyed Pssittagk’s nest and para-mate, and its precious few remaining sun’s-egg weapons. And they were getting better at cracking Kruss comm all the time. Their earliest attempts to bait Pssittagk with comm hails had been pathetic, but had improved steadily as the days went by. That one just now had looked exactly like a Kruss high-security commercial hail. But Pssittagk was not so easily fooled. It too, could wait. It returned its attention to the pleasures of the hunt.

  Chapter 52 (Landing plus one hundred seventy-five): Interlude

  Message ID: 180AS2180407.60293.Cmail@web9881.mail.regnav.rd

  Pod ID: BelleTaskStd.locS22041.44675.bar

  Routing: Standard

  Priority: Standard

  Security: 44A12 (Pad 1122.2143.029)

  Date:1121-021-086

  To: Regnum Navy Base Trailway, CINC-surface, Building 822

  From: Task Force Belleville, Vice Admiral L. Dunning Commanding.

  Attn: Admiral Sir Josiah McBain, CINC Trailway Sector, Eyes Only

  Subject: Interim report Number one hundred twenty seven

  Attachments: 27 (internal)

  Greetings Joe!

  I have to tell you, despite all my careful preparations it was a great relief to finally see Carl’s smiling face on the comm, realtime, yesterday. Our - my gamble has paid off, exactly as hoped. By arriving early we forestalled some serious Kruss mischief, and although they did show up fourteen Standard days ago, they arrived late and under-dressed for the party, so they left without a peep. Now that Mattison’s here with my Belleville and the Leacock and the rest of the fleet, the risks I took by dividing forces are moot, and the system is secure.

  My last messages have been full of the technical details your paranoid and very capable data polishers so love, and these attachments are no exception. As expected, the long-range scans the Belleville made (while waiting on station a lightyear out for Carl to arrive), found one or two faint gravtrace almost a year old. Much farther out and they’re below detection threshold, but we can say someone was running one or two Tubedrives in the system that long ago, and it wasn’t us, and it wasn’t the locals. Too faint to ID as Kruss, but it fits what we know.

  But this report is about something else. I’ve been taking a step back from the trees as you taught us so often, and I want to give you a my-eyes view of the forest.

  Lieutenant Kirrah Roehl continues to amaze me. This officer was wasted in Survey, as a Helm One, no less. I don’t know how we missed profiling her, but besides all the accomplishments I’ve already detailed while she was alone here, she stared that Kruss captain down like… well, like a Fleet Admiral. I couldn’t have done better myself. She has consistently matched or out-maneuvered her better-armed adversaries, including, in a sense, me. I would never have sanctioned the action she took against the Kruss base, but once she’d made it irrevocable, it was too good to turn down, even knowing she was hoping I’d think exactly that.

  Something’s shifted in her, Joe, from the Lieutenant we sent exploring. I’m not sure what it is, but she’s as tough and sharp as that nanowire she took away from the Kruss. Ironically, I now believe she always was, but it’s as though she was afraid of her own strengths before, and now, somehow, she’s not. And as far as I can see, she remains utterly loyal to the Regnum’s military inte
rests.

  I’ve thought seriously about reactivating her commission and packing her off to your private little ‘school for admirals’ on Trailway, and you may want to keep that thought on the back burner. But I realized she’d be away for two plus years, and then if this planet’s inhabitants were lucky, she’d come right back here as Admiral. So for now, my recommendation is that the Regnum’s, and the Navy’s, and this planet’s interests are best served by leaving her right where she is. She’s making a good start on bringing Sho’ito into the Civilium, and that as a friend of the Regnum. Indeed without her efforts, Dr. Pennington informs me we’d probably be lucky to get the planet partitioned at all, and could have lost the whole system in Civilium courts.

  A word about the locals. The Talamae culture is unique in my experience. They have a deceptively simple, straightforward way of taking on the world that many Regnum planetary cultures would do well to emulate. Their economy baffles me - it seems to be far more trust-based than I’d have expected would be viable, but they work it as naturally as breathing. They have virtually no sickness or crime, and very little poverty. Their political system is just about the sanest I’ve ever seen. I think someone at Xenoanthropology should get their research team over here, even if they have to grovel a little for admission.

  Part of their advantage seems to be attributable to the guidance of their remarkable guild of priest-healers. You will be interested in the clinical observations in Attachments 19 through 26. I know Lt. Lockwood (Utterson’s CMO), thinks they’re witches. He said, quote: “I can’t find it! Every time I try to measure whatever-they-do, it comes up ‘random’. But almost every time they put their hands near a patient, it’s like the damndest coincidences happen! Aieee…” - or words to that effect. And that’s after factoring in the effects of that glatha-fruit the UniDom rep almost peed her pants over. Speaking of local foods, Attachment 27 contains everything we know so far about its nutritional qualities, and the planet’s edibles in general, including the excellent state of health of both the Arvida-Yee’s survivors, which is as remarkable in its own way as the fact of their survival itself.