I pointed to Lt. Kruger and said, “Well, sir, as to that, the authorities happen to be right here. Feel free to lodge any protest you wish. I’ll wait. As will your two security men, sitting over there in the corner.”
For the first time, he noticed the two handcuffed security men and his face blanched. He turned back to Lt. Kruger, who held out her hand, into which one of her aides placed another of the ubiquitous warrants, and she held it out to him. I got the sense she was having a terrific time.
He was forced to step forward to take it and began reading. His face became even whiter, which I personally hadn’t thought possible. Elian asked, “Sir, have you finished? We haven’t all day.”
He looked back up from the warrant and asked, a little less brusquely, “Who are you again?’ I smiled and said, “For the purposes of this meeting, you may consider that I am Admiral Lee. I am not the actual admiral; he is on Jupiter base, trying to win a war. However, as I said, you may consider that he is present here today, right in your break room. Sir, if I have your attention, we wish to take a look at your prototype Kestral. It is our understanding that you have accepted several billion federal credits, for which credits you promised to provide the Fleet with a large number of fighters. You have not delivered said fighters to fleet; therefore, we have come to you. Show us the Kestrel. Now please.”
Mr. Mencia stood rooted to the floor for several moments. Too long for me. I stood and headed for the door. As I passed him I said, “Sir, we are going to examine the Kestral with our without you. It will go better for you if the former.”
I got to the doorway and opened it. He remained in place. I stopped and said, “Mr. Mencia, remain here if you please. I’ll find my own way.”
I was getting angry. I began walking up the corridor, which now had quite a few curious workers in it. Elian caught up to me, and said, “Mind your temper young man. We don’t want to develop high blood pressure do we?”
Lieutenant Kruger left one man in the break room with the two handcuffed security men, the receptionist and Mr. Mencia, and took off after us with her single remaining officer in trail. The first two had not reappeared.
I looked in each door as I passed and came eventually to a large double door. I tried to push it open but it was a security door. I turned to a man standing near the door and asked, “Do you have clearance to this room?” He looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, which indicated to me that he did in fact have clearance. Before I could say anything Lt. Kruger produced her badge, and told the man, “You are hereby ordered to open that door. If you fail to obey the lawful orders of the Federal Marshal Service, I will place you under arrest. Do you understand my order sir?”
The man said, “We are not allowed to let anyone in that section of the building.” I sighed and said, “Sir, you have ten seconds to open this door, or get arrested and placed in handcuffs.” I turned to Lt. Kruger and asked, loudly enough to be heard by the white-coated employee, “Just how many sets of handcuffs have you brought with you?”
She smiled faintly and said, “Not enough, it appears. However, we have two more shuttles on the way. They should be landing in just a few minutes. At that time, I assure you, Lieutenant Padilla, we will have more than enough handcuffs for everyone.” She added, almost as an afterthought, “This has been far more interesting than I would have thought. If I don’t get the chance to say it later, thank you.” She was once again smiling, faintly.
My side conversation produced the desired result. The man rushed up to the door and palmed his hand on a pad. The door unlatched and I smiled nicely at him. We passed into the room, which held a large number of impressively expensive looking machines, reaching up two and three stories. I was in a room that produced stuff, possibly for the Kestrel, possibly not. In any event, I did not see the Kestrel so I walked back out into the hallway.
I had taken just a few steps when a loud clatter of footsteps announced the arrival of a number of people. They almost tumbled out of a stairwell and turned towards us. I seemed to have found some executives.
I stopped and waited for them to hustle to us. They had that expression on their faces that I was beginning to seriously dislike. They were furious. Well, I was getting there myself. I waited for them to speak.
A middle aged man wearing an extremely nice suit spoke, “My name is Korsibisky and I am the chief operating officer of Merkovik. May I know who you are and why you have invaded our company?” I took a breath and said, “We are lieutenants Padilla and Turner. We have come from Fleet base Jupiter. We are here at the express orders of Admiral Lee. We wish to inspect the Kestrel, which your company has been hired to construct. We have been here for over thirty minutes, and have yet not seen the prototype. We are on a tight schedule sir, and whatever time we had for chitchat has been exhausted. Do you know where the Kestrel prototype is located, sir?”
I instinctively realized that I was now up against their first team, and he demonstrated that by asking, “Please, show me whatever paperwork you have that allows you to intrude on us in this fashion.” Lt. Kruger held her hand out, holding in it a nicely folded document with very small type, but once again she did not step forward. I realized that I could learn a lot watching her.
After an awkward moment, Mr. Korsibisky stepped forward to take it. He glanced at it and handed it to another suit. He said, “We will inspect your paper, and if it is in order, we will of course comply.” He remained rooted to the spot.
I asked, nicely as I could, “Sir, approximately how long will it take for your attorney to determine if that document allows us the right to inspect the working prototype of the Kestrel?”
He said, “I really have no idea.” I said, “Sir, would you think five minutes would be sufficient? It really is a rather small document after all.”
Mr. Korsibisky seemed to be a nice enough man, but he clearly resented being invaded. He said, “Lieutenant, I have no idea just how you managed to bluff your way in here, but I assure you that I will speak to your superiors, whoever they may be.” I said, “Sir, you most certainly have an idea how I came to be here. So do your security men and Mr. Mencia who are currently in detention. I am here to inspect the prototype Kestrel, and I am going to inspect that craft now. Do you object?”
He was still made of stern stuff. He said, “Of course I object. Our company has been working night and day to produce that ship, and we do not have to waste our time talking to every jumped up tin pot junior officer who shows up in our company, demanding this or that. When my attorney has decided that your paperwork is proper, then I will consider allowing you to make an appointment to view our prototype. Is that very clear, lieutenant?”
I held up my hand and turned to Elian, as I usually did when I needed help. We turned our backs to the suits and I said, “Do you have the relevant paragraphs, along with the penalties?” He nodded his head and took my pad. I realized what he was going to do and smiled. I should have thought of that.
I turned back to face the phalanx of stuffy men, and one stuffy woman and said, “I’m going to assume that either you or your attorneys are familiar with the contract which your company signed with your government. In that lengthy contract, there is a clause, um...” Elian brought up an image on a convenient wall and I quickly read it, “Clause four hundred thirty seven. It says, well, you can read it yourself. The gist of it is that your company was to have produced a working prototype by October fifteenth. You failed to produce said prototype and are in default of your contract. Sir, the Fleet is in a shooting war, one that we can lose. By lose, I mean to say the death of billions of human beings. Fleet must have that ship. I am offering you an opportunity to assist us, now, right now. Will you take it?”
I had just thrown down the gauntlet. It was frightening, having all this responsibility, and the authority that came with it. Someone had to be here, to do this, or else Fleet would be fighting with knives and spears. Unfortunately, it was me. I suddenly saw the terrifying aspects that came with strategic authority an
d responsibility.
As I stood waiting, another bunch of people came up behind me. They were the additional marshals. These people were in uniform, and some of them were actually armed with shoulder weapons. Perfect timing.
I turned back to look with as good a poker face as I possessed as the suits huddled. In that instant, I decided that I would authorize the take over of the company if I got the slightest argument. I waited some more, and they continued to huddle.
I waited for over ten minutes. Finally Mr. Korsibisky said, “It seems that your papers give you the authority to examine our Kestrel. I can produce our prototype within ten working days. No less.”
I smiled nicely at the man and said, “Sir, the Kestrel belongs to the people of this federation, the people who paid for it with their taxes.” I produced the original paper, signed by Admiral Lee, in which I was given the authority to federalize the company. I said, “Sir, this document grants to me the authority to federalize your company. I will do that, not in ten days, not even in ten minutes. Unless you produce our prototype immediately, I will take over your company right now.”
Mr. Korsibisky was a good poker player, but he didn’t have very good cards, and we both knew it. He was accustomed to being in the presence of fleet personnel who were, quite possibly, thinking of their retirement, and what they would do with their spare time. That is to say, they tended to be somewhat amenable. He didn’t know me, he had no idea who I was, and he was walking on thin ice. He clearly knew it, and he was thinking very, very fast. It however seemed that he thought I was bluffing, and I think he was going to call me, but before he did, I held up my hand.
I said, “Sir, before you refuse my proper order, I have this to say. Fleet is in a very bad way. Our ships are old and they are not capable of defeating the bug invasion. We have had some success at defeating their flotillas, yet the only reason we have not lost millions of lives lies in the simple fact that they do not know the location of our systems. Additionally, as you may or may not be aware, we have suffered a sixth incursion. This one has, in just the one fleet we have discovered, over four hundred craft, of which twenty-two are carriers, all of them far larger than our own. This deployment is clearly aggressive and they have entered our space. We do not know if they are seeking the bugs, if they are seeking a conflict with us, or if they’re looking for a good cup of coffee. We do not have the ability to defeat this huge force. Entire populations of human beings may be at the mercy of this second invasion, while we are still struggling to deal with the first. You sir, are an officer of a corporation that has pledged to provide the fleet that serves and protects us all with a weapon with which we can possibly protect our citizens. I swear to you, sir, as an officer of Fleet, if you do not do everything in your power to hold to your contract, Fleet will take over this company and put in place people who will. Now, sir, right now, is the time for your answer.”
I felt as if a great weight had fallen from my shoulders. For me, this was a moral and ethical question, rather than a ‘merely’ legal one. By translating the situation from one of paper and words into a situation in which human lives were at stake, I felt that if he refused us, I could sleep well with the resulting action we would be forced to take.
Mr. Korsibisky paused, and for the first time I saw a real human being behind his eyes. He turned back to his attorneys, who shook their heads firmly. I hated lawyers, did I mention that?
He turned back to me and even as he started to open his mouth I was bringing out my paper. I was certain that he was going to refuse, but the man surprised me. He said, “Lieutenant, I heard just yesterday about that second invasion. I did not know it was as large as you say. Have you fought against the bugs?”
In that instant, I knew we had won. I said, quietly, “Yes sir, we have. Yes, we have fought; we have seen our brothers and sisters die in outmoded fighters that should have been replaced years ago. In a few days we will return to face that enemy. We will be fighting it in ships that are older than their crews. But, sir, we will fight as long as we are able.”
I waited for just a brief moment before he said, “Lieutenants, come with me.”
We had to travel quite a ways, but we got our inspection. The Kestrel was shiny new, and it was quite pretty. Mr. Korsibisky personally showed us around the exterior, pointing to its various features. He knew what he was talking about, which fact impressed me. The ship was not quite as aerodynamic as the Hawk, as its intended theater of operations would primarily be outside of any atmosphere. However, it was certainly capable of atmospheric insertion. As I looked at it I realized that it was thicker through the middle, and I presumed that was done to provide space for the additional missiles it would contain.
At the proper moment, I asked him about its acceleration. He turned to me and said, “Lieutenant, we have a problem, and that problem has delayed our delivery of the first flying prototype. We have not been able to produce the acceleration we promised when we signed your contract. We have seen a little more than sixteen G’s, which is far short of what we believed to be possible.”
I almost hugged the man for simply speaking the bald truth. I asked, surprising him, “Sir whose mag bottles are you using?” Elian looked at me with a grin and I nodded my head in his direction. Mr. Korzybski said, “Why do you ask?” Elian said, “Sir, it has been our experience that of the two manufacturers that provide mag bottles to Fleet, one of them works, and one of them works much better. In the Hawks that we modified, we stuffed four additional mag systems in the former crew compartment, and it does seventeen and a bit G’s; the Dresdens were slugs, sir, until we stripped out their mag systems and replaced them with Anodyne power systems. The Dresdens can now keep up with anything in Fleet, save for the aforementioned Hawks. So, sir, which company has provided you with your power plants?”
Mr. Korzybski said, “Well, it appears that you two men may know something our best engineers do not. Are you saying that our problem is not the design, it is the vendor?”
Elian said, “Sir, at Jupiter base we had a civilian representative of your very own vendor swear up one side of the Bible and down the other, that his systems were the best, and that there was no possible way that the Dresden could run any faster than it was, in fact, walking. As it turns out, he was a crook, and is currently on trial, but that is another story. We took over the project; by we, I mean to say Fleet personnel. We ripped out that company’s power systems and stuffed in twenty additional ones. We had to tinker with it a bit, but we got great service out of it. Still do. The Dresden is now our front line combat ship, sir. In fact, it is actually the only one that can stand toe to toe with their smaller ships.”
Mr. Korzybski stared at Elian as if he were a lunatic from another planet, and speaking in tongues. Naked as well. Elian said, “Here, sir, look at this.” He took my pad and puttered with it for a couple of seconds, then projected a clip on the wall showing our last running battle with the bugs.
Mr. Korzybski watched in fascination for ten minutes. Elian fast-forwarded it as necessary to compress the time. We watched as we exchanged missiles with the two battle cruisers, and they and their fighters blew our two launches apart.
Elian said, “Sir, the Dresden we produced can outrun anything the bugs have; it can fire over one hundred capital missiles and it can run nearly as stealthily as the Hawk, which is itself a tank, an invisible tank. The problem is that the bugs possess battle cruisers that can fire at least two hundred capital missiles, any one of which can take out any ship we have. We are desperate to get better ships, sir, and I promise you that if you will just try doing the same thing we tried, you might find that the Kestrel will meet our requirements. We have no time left to screw around sir. Will you just try?”
He looked at us with a wry smile and said, “You realize, this is terribly unscientific.” Elian nodded his head and said, “Yes sir, it is. It also works.” Elian paused for a moment as he collected his thoughts, then said, “Sir, we, that is, Fleet, procures its magnetic bottles and ca
pacitor systems from two vendors. The first meets current fleet specs and the second does not. However, those specs are in fact not at all realistic, and may in fact have been a political plum rather than an engineering specification. They posit a low steady state output followed by a peak burst of power, which it must meet and sustain for five minutes without overheating. Sir, I analyzed all of our engagements with the bugs, and in them, our energy systems had to sustain a max output to both the engines and the energy weapons for far longer than a mere five minutes. In many cases, that output was sustained for upwards of one hour. Sir, the system you are working with has a ten percent higher rated power output over that of the competing Anodyne unit, and is approximately seven percent smaller than those produced by that vendor. However, when you push it past five minutes, it begins to heat up and goes into emergency shut down, in some cases in as little as fifteen minutes of sustained operation. On the other hand the mag systems we utilized in both the Hawks and the Dresdens are not capable of as much output, but they can maintain their max outputs for far longer. We were able to put four mag bottles in the Hawk, which already had one. After fine tuning the controllers, we could maintain an acceleration of over seventeen G’s while simultaneously running both lasers, with 40 cm barrels, at their maximum rate of fire. We were able to do the same thing with the Dresdens, once we added additional bottles.”
Hawk Seven (Flight of the Hawk) Page 63