“Have you ever met Lieutenant Mortimer? She’s a stickler for the regulations, and I’ve already stood guard duty for detention once this term. I don’t want to do it again.”
“You’ve already gotten in trouble have you?”
“No sir, well, me and a Golkos cadet got into it during Z-Crosse, so we both stood guard duty on the Iowa.”
“Let him get to class Larry,” the woman said. “The kid doesn’t know anything.”
He eyed Alexander narrowly. “Tell me cadet, what is it you saw here?”
Alexander shrugged and said what he thought would put the man at ease—he didn’t really want to be late. It was mostly the truth, but he thought he put it in quite the clever way. “I saw the Professor and a few government people inspecting a circuit of some kind, same as in a dozen other places in the Tube. There are science teams everywhere.”
That seemed to satisfy the man. He took his hand off Alexander’s shoulder. He turned to go but suddenly asked, “Professor Strauss said you were Cadet Wolfe?” His hard stare settled on Alexander again. “Say, you wouldn’t be the son of Major Achilleus Wolfe?”
Alexander was taken aback, answering abruptly, “No sir, my father was an officer in the Fleet. He sails freighters now, but he is of course a Citizen.”
The man’s expression softened. “Really, I thought you looked like,” he shook his head and forced a smile. Patting him on the shoulder, he said, “Well good for him. You better get back to class. There’s no need for you to get any more demerits on our account.”
“You’re letting him go?” The Seer’koh said, his thin red tongue darting out from between his sharp teeth. “This area is classified. He shouldn’t have seen any of this!”
“What has he seen,” the man asked, spreading his arms wide. The smile was absolutely artificial. “Everything on this Methuselan ship is classified to one extent or another. This is just one of many circuit boards we have yet to identify.” Glancing toward Alexander, he nodded. “Get along now cadet. You’ve done your duty.”
“Yes sir,” Alexander said, and he zooted around the corner and back out into the Tube. He stopped just a few meters away, checking his watch, but in reality he wanted to wait for just one moment in case they said something interesting. He wasn’t disappointed.
“Well, are you going check that memory card?” It was the man in the suit.
Alexander heard the slight click of the card going into the Professor’s compad. There was an immediate gasp. “My manifesto—how did he get it? I’m ruined!” He didn’t wait, but hit his zoots as hard as he could, zooting out into the middle of the Tube as fast as he could.
#
Larry, the man in the suit, was unfazed. Calmly, he told Professor Strauss, “Get a hold of yourself. You didn’t think Augesburcke was ignorant of your fanatical youth did you? He knows who and what you were: a Gaian terrorist who has since joined the ranks of respectable people through the institutions you formerly called corrupt—so what?”
“Why reveal it now?” Professor Strauss was obviously terrified that his past was known to the Commandant. He was a civilian on a military station. It would be far too easy for him to simply disappear. He ran his pudgy fingers through his sparse gray hair, mumbling, “I should never have let you talk me into this. I’m exposed here. You promised me there was no way they’d know!”
The man laughed harshly, “I promised you what I needed to promise you, Professor. We needed you here, on this ship, helping us decipher this thing. You’ve done that so far; don’t stop now or we can’t protect you—we won’t protect you.” He smiled, but the smile was more terrifying than any threat could be.
“How can you protect me on a military ship,” Strauss replied angrily. “This isn’t just any ship, it’s the Academy! The Legion and the Fleet loyalists are here. I was a Gaiaist and a terrorist; they’d like nothing more than to take me out to Titan and send me swimming in the methane sea!”
“If that was their intent, they’d already have done it Professor, since they already know.”
The Seer’koh broke in, saying, “Therein lies the mystery, why haven’t you been exposed Professor Strauss? You are at the very center of conservative military minds in the Terran Empire. We have precious few friends here. Now it doesn’t matter how they found you out. What does matter is why your hide isn’t floating from the mast of the Iowa. There are two possibilities as I see it. Either Commandant Augesburcke is malleable in his opinion or you’ve cut a deal with him and this is your cover.” He tapped the memory card with his claw and hissed at the Professor.
Strauss shuddered, “No,” he insisted, “I don’t work for them, I swear it!”
Larry glowered at him, “You have nothing to swear on Professor; you’re the worst kind of atheist. You didn’t believe in anything because it got in the way of you doing what you wanted to do. Still, you were intelligent and arrogant; you knew better than anybody, but you don’t hold anything dear except your skin. We know all about you. You professed to have all these ideals and you planted bombs to make your point of view known. That’s the coward’s way of doing things, but that’s fine. We knew we could use that as leverage. You’re scared of prison, the mines or worse, Pantrixnia.” Larry straightened the lapels of the Professor’s white lab coat in a provocative manner. “Fortunately for you, we can use you—for now. Don’t worry Professor; as long as you serve us we will protect you. Besides, what better protection can you ask for than the President of Pan America? Play ball and you have nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t know, I’m surrounded by enemies here—even the cadets!”
“Now you’re just being paranoid,” Larry said, sounding irritated. “Cadet Wolfe’s story didn’t sound concocted. Augesburcke simply used him as a messenger, that’s all.”
“I’m not so sure,” Professor Strauss said nervously.
“He’s a cadet,” Larry said, shaking his head in disbelief. “He can’t be twelve or maybe thirteen years old. He can’t pose any sort of threat to us.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” said the woman. “The Professor may be right. Our young cadet may have been more than a messenger. I just accessed the surveillance camera for this section of the Tube. He was eavesdropping on us. It’s a good bet Augesburcke knows we’ve found the circuit.”
“But does he know what it is used for?” the Seer’koh said, his voice rattling and tail twitching.
“I doubt it,” she replied. “There are only a dozen people in the galaxy who know that.”
Larry zooted out from behind the tarp and looked off through the Tube in the direction Alexander left. “We know Augesburcke is on to something and he’s enlisted the help of his cadets, though I seriously doubt he’s let them in on anything.” He thought for a moment, and then announced, “We’ll play this by ear. Leave the circuit unpowered. I don’t think Augesburcke is willing to interfere—this is his way of warning us. Download the internal scans to Washington, and Ms. Jameson—you can find out everything you can about Cadet Wolfe.”
#
“Ca-det Wolfe, I’m so happy you could join us!” Lt. Mortimer’s voice rippled with sarcastic angst. All eyes turned to Alexander. His heart leapt to his throat as her blue eyes turned from playful blue to steel gray. Her perfectly chiseled brows drew together, forming a harsh line on her alabaster forehead. “Come on then, you’re holding up the class. Get to your seat and select page seven, Theorem one-decimal-five. ”
As quickly and quietly as he could, Alexander went to his seat and took out his compad. James, who was sitting next to him, leaned over and whispered, “You lucky devil, she talked to you; she even said your name!”
Alexander stared at him open mouthed, but he knew what he meant. Lieutenant Mortimer’s hard demeanor couldn’t overcome her beauty—at least not with the boys. All the other boys in K Flight felt the same as James, shooting darts at him with their eyes before turning back to gaze on the Lieutenant and listen to her melodious voice. As James settled back with a sigh
to watch her diagram the area of a circle, Lisa and Treya threw him withering glances. Treya turned her purplish tinged eye on Alexander. “You’re not bitten by her are you?”
“Oh of course not,” he lied, punching on the assignment and trying to look as disinterested as possible. “She’s our math professor. I need to pay attention to what she’s teaching and not anything else.”
“Then you’re smarter than any of the other boys in the class,” she said.
Lisa agreed. “Look at them all. They’re like puppies. It’s embarrassing.”
Class lurched on toward its conclusion. Lieutenant Mortimer was all business. The bell brought about a general groan from the boys that class was over so soon, and an answering groan from the girls that the boys should behave in so juvenile a manner. The Lieutenant announced, “Homework tomorrow, questions one through five, and don’t forget we have a quiz on this chapter on Friday. Class dismissed, except for you, Cadet Wolfe. Stay after a moment.”
Everyone glanced darkly at Alexander, the boys with envy, the girls with irritation. He couldn’t win. When everyone had gone he stood in front of the Lieutenant’s desk waiting. She continued to work on her compad until he said, “You wanted to see me Ma’am?”
She looked up. Her eyes were steely gray and he already knew what that meant. “Cadet, you were given seventeen minutes to deliver a memory card to Professor Strauss. It should have taken you only fourteen minutes to accomplish that and yet you took exactly nineteen minutes—why? Explain yourself, and please be specific.”
“They had some questions for me, Ma’am,” he replied. He didn’t have any idea how much he should or could tell her. Should he tell her about his suspicions concerning Professor Strauss? He decided not to, that wasn’t his place, but he did give her a detailed account on his interrogation by the man in the suit.
“What was your take on it,” she asked, and her eyes turned back toward their softer shade of blue.
“I don’t know Ma’am, I’m only a cadet,” he started to say, but she interrupted him, her eyes turning that steely gray again.
“Cadet Wolfe, you are a future officer of the Service! I realize you are only on your first year of training and that everything here is new to you. However, you must also understand that as a future officer we expect you to be responsible and to take responsibility when it is presented to you. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes Ma’am,” he said, trying to sound firm and less dejected than he felt.
“Don’t take it so hard Cadet Wolfe,” she told him in a softer tone. “Keep your eyes and ears open. I have faith in your ability to distinguish right from wrong. You come from good stock. Trust your instincts and if you need anything come to me. That’s all. Dismissed, Cadet Wolfe; go join your friends.”
“Yes Ma’am, thank you Ma’am,” he said, saluting her smartly. When she returned the salute he turned on his heel and left. Lisa, James and Treya were waiting for him outside the door. As soon as it slid closed they started talking at once.
“What did she want?”
“Are you in trouble?”
“You lucky duck; you know every guy out here is jealous of you!”
Alexander shot them a sour look, and said, “Very funny, this is serious,” and as they made their way to study hall he told them everything that had happened. When he finished, he added, “I don’t know what to think about this. I kind of liked Professor Strauss, but after what I heard I’m afraid he’s up to something. He’s working with people from the government. That can’t be good.”
“What can we do,” James asked. “We’re cadets. This Friday we have a quiz in every class. There’s homework in every class every single night. Even if we could do something we wouldn’t have time to do it.”
They were silent, all of them. James was right.
#
Commandant Augesburcke listened to Lieutenant Mortimer’s report, chewing on his mustache. His office doubled as his quarters and was immediately adjacent to the bridge. As the station didn’t move from Terran orbit, the bridge was almost a formality. Therefore, Augesburcke conducted most of the ships business from the austere chamber off his even more austere bedroom. Despite this, it was his office through and through. Behind the ancient oak desk he inherited from his father, and he from his grandfather, the Commandant reclined in a synthi-leather chair. Behind that was a bulkhead that could not be seen through the multitude of awards, medals, paintings of his ancestors and the flags of the Fleet and the Legions. Next to his desk on his right hand was a chest high bookcase. In it were hundreds of military books from all of human history. Crowning the bookcase were metal models of the various ships he commanded. Foremost, and most obviously his favorite was the wreck of the Iowa. One of the great honors of being Commandant of the Academy was being the Captain of the Iowa, the flagship of the Terran fleet. Although she was never refitted or repaired after the battle for Terra a century and a half past, Alexander, the last and only Overlord of the Terran Empire, refused to allow the ship to be decommissioned. He argued that her main forward battery still had one working gun and she still had nominal impulse power. She could therefore fight. The tradition of the Iowa became the foundation upon which the Terran Fleet built her reputation.
If any doubted Augesburcke’s hold on tradition the display on his left put to rest all doubt. There between the standard of the Terran Empire and the Iowa’s battle flag was a dramatic painting of the Battle for Terra. It caught the exact moment when the Iowa and the Bismarck caught the Golkos flagship Nived Sheur between their broadsides.
No one could enter the Commandant’s office without coming away with a deep sense of Fleet tradition in the relatively young Terran Empire. Surrounded by his personal and Fleet history, Augesburcke listened patiently to Lieutenant Mortimer’s report. When she finished, he mused aloud, “I wanted to prompt some reaction from Strauss and his confederates with the memory card. It did what it was supposed to do; that is, it put him on notice. Hopefully they’ll walk more carefully now.”
“Do you plan on letting them know where you stand?”
“What, and give them peace of mind?” he chuckled. “No Lieutenant, I want them wondering, every one of them. There’s a rule in politics and war that my grandfather used to swear by: when dealing with an enemy in your own camp, force them to make the first act of treachery. We need history on our side, because if we succeed there’s going to be someone at the bottom of this mess. If we fail, there’s not going to be any history left—none. The winners will blot out all of human history as some great mistake.” He looked around his office. “This will be where they start, but by God I’m not about to let that happen!”
“Sir, what should we do about Cadet Wolfe? He’s pretty young to be in the middle of this.”
“He is young, very young,” Augesburcke mused, stroking his mustache. “He’ll have to grow up quick. I’m beginning to think he was sent here by his father for just this reason.”
“Then Cadet Wolfe knows what all this is about?”
Augesburcke shook his head, and said harshly, “From what my mole says, young Alexander knows nothing about this and is more concerned with finding out who his father was—or is.” Lieutenant Mortimer looked confused, but the Commandant shook his head emphatically. “No, I’m convinced his father sent him up here ignorant, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a purpose.”
“He threw his son into the middle of a dangerous political intrigue?” She did not look happy. “Pardon my saying this sir, I know how highly you esteem the Commander but that is uncommonly callous.”
“I think he had no choice,” the Commandant said gravely. “Even someone with the Commander’s skills cannot fight this war alone. I’m coming to the conclusion that he is relying more on his son’s ability to figure this out and do something about it than his own, and I’m beginning to agree with him.”
“So what do we do?”
Augesburcke laughed gruffly and admitted, “We don’t even know what this ci
rcuit does—if the Commander knows then he’s not saying, or he can’t say anything without endangering all of us—remember Lieutenant, the Pro Consul is with the President.” He lit his pipe. The air scrubbers hummed and removed the wafting blue cloud rising from the bowl. “We fly high cover over young Alexander and his friends. I can’t afford to interfere. I need him to do what he was sent here to do.”
CHAPTER 16: Routine Scrums on Luna
“When considering the advent of global representation and the expansion of a fledgling Terran democracy into an empire, we must look at the inherent movement from various forms of governments to what we have now—that is, a work in progress that combines elements of democracy, socialism and authoritarianism left over from the military dictatorship of Alexander.”
To everyone’s relief Professor Nussbaum stopped to take a breath and glance at the class over his glasses. James and Alexander looked at each other. Treya and Lisa looked at each other. Treya and Alexander looked at each other, and so on.
The Methuselan Circuit Page 15