“Maybe you can keep us from leaving, but you can’t keep our children from us any longer!”
“All of them?” asked Crawford to Hannah. He nodded.
“Yes, that was Plan B. They’ll be doing it on the other three ships now, too.”
“There’s no way we can reverse this, Doctor?” He looked to Birringir, but she shook her head.
“No, once revival is started, it has to go on to completion.”
Crawford whistled. “Granny, set another place for dinner! We got company coming!”
* * * * *
Brannon Gillard walked down the corridor of the Newcomer’s command vessel and tried to look confident. His two men were with him, but they walked far enough ahead and behind that at first glance they might not appear to be together. Once again, he had shaved his head and put aside his breathing helmet. The Newcomers’ air would not cause quite as much trouble for him as the Seyotahs’ had, but he still hoped to complete this excursion as quickly as possible. Indeed, they had to be quick if they were to have any hope of success.
The docking module for the clan ships was attached by a long tube to an airlock in their boat bay. From there, a large section of the ship was open to clan members. These were mostly recreation and entertainment areas, along with some eating areas. They had been politely asked to stay out of the other areas, but since there was a great deal of coming and going by the Newcomer crew members, many of the hatches were left unlocked and with only a few guards.
All those guards were gone now.
Brannon had no idea what emergency had pulled them away, but it presented a priceless opportunity. His two men, skilled mercenary warriors named Jak and Ulan, moved in a seemingly random pattern through the compartments and corridors, but very shortly they all neared a closed hatch. Ulan looked around quickly and then, standing on tip-toe, reached up with a small device to a spot on the ceiling. There was a momentary flash. “Camera,” he whispered, “just disabled it.” Immediately, Jak moved to the hatch controls and the door slid open. He urged Brannon through and then the hatch closed behind them.
“Remember, if we encounter anyone, look like you belong there. If they challenge you, just pretend to be lost.” Brannon nodded.
“How many times have you done something like this?”
“Enough. And these people are incredibly sloppy with their security. With a dozen more men, we could make off with this whole ship.”
“We don’t need the ship, just one person.”
“As you say. Let’s go.”
They moved off and Brannon was quickly lost in the maze of passageways and ladders he was led along. They did meet Newcomers at intervals, but the two mercenaries just smiled and pointed at things, jabbering in a baby-like speech about what was around them. The Newcomers scarcely gave them a second glance. Finally, Jak and Ulan slowed and moved more cautiously. “The security area is just ahead. Follow us and don’t say anything.”
Brannon nodded and they led the way around a corner. Just beyond there was an open hatch, and beyond that a control desk with two of the Newcomer warriors standing by it. They looked up in surprise.
“Hey,” said the one, “what do you geeks think you’re doing here?” In the weeks aboard the ship, Brannon had absorbed some of the Newcomer’s language. He understood them well enough, if not perfectly. He wasn’t sure if his mercenaries did, but it did not seem to matter. They just laughed and began asking inane questions about the lights and walls and the artificial gravity.
“You. Can’t. Stay. Here.” Said one of the guards very slowly and loudly. “Go. Back. To. Your. Ship!” He made shooing motions with his hands. Jak and Ulan ignored him and continued to babble. The guard continued to try and send them off, but finally turned to his companion. “I can’t make these morons understand. Get the sarge, will you?”
The other man nodded and touched a button on the desk. “Hey, Sarge, we got a couple of the yokels up here. Looks like they’re lost, but we can’t get ‘em to leave. Right.” He looked up. “He’ll be right here.”
It was only a moment before the hatch behind the desk slid open. The moment it did, Jak and Ulan went into action. The soft hiss of a compressed gas gun coughed three times in rapid succession and all three of the guards jerked in surprise.
“Hey!”
“What the…!”
The one coming through the hatch actually managed to half-draw his weapon before they all slumped to the deck. Ulan leapt forward and placed himself in the hatchway before it could slide shut again. Jak quickly moved past him into the next corridor. Brannon instinctively followed. He saw that Jak now had a tiny gun in his hand. It was entirely plastic or ceramic, had no power source, and fired drug-tipped needles. It was virtually undetectable; Brannon had used a similar device to immobilize the Seyotah boy and his girlfriend. He just hoped that whatever drug the mercenaries were using would not harm the Newcomers.
The corridor was lined with jail cells, but they were all empty; the path turned just up ahead and Jak quickly went to the corner. Brannon looked back and saw that Ulan had used one of the unconscious guards to block the door open. He looked ahead just in time to see Jak move around the corner. The dart gun coughed twice more. There was one cry of surprise and then the sound of crumpling bodies.
“All right, it’s secure,” said Jak. “Ulan, find the door release for cell six.”
Brannon looked cautiously around the corner and saw two more guards, one male and one female, lying peacefully on the floor. He walked up to the cell they had been guarding and looked in.
The woman in the boy’s memory looked back at him.
“Who… who are you?” she croaked.
“We are friends,” he said. “We’ve come to get you out.”
“I don’t have any friends. Who are you?” She scowled suspiciously, and then jumped as the cell door slid open. Jak was pulling the uniform off the female guard.
“We are your friends,” insisted Brannon. “And if you want to get out of here, you must come with us.” Jak tossed the guard’s tunic at her and she instinctively caught it. “Please, put these on. We must go quickly.”
The woman stared for one moment longer. “What the hell have I got to lose?” she said. Then she started pulling on the uniform. In a moment she was dressed and Jak was tugging on both of them.
“Come on, Father, we need to get out of here.”
Chapter Seventeen
“I want her back!” snarled Governor Shiffeld. “Her and whoever helped her!” Charles Crawford shifted uneasily in his chair and looked at the others in the governor’s office. Petre Frichette, Regina Nassau, and Saunder Garrit, Shiffeld’s new chief of police, all looked back just as uneasily. Only Beatrice Innes looked comfortable.
After a moment, Petre Frichette got to his feet and said: “I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible, sir.”
“Why not? Get your ships moving and track them down! She can’t have gotten that far!”
“Far enough, sir. Assuming they really are aboard that shuttle which left, they now have a three hour head start. Despite their low acceleration, they were well out of sensor range after the first hour. From their last known location, if they changed course, which they undoubtedly did, they could now be anywhere in a sphere over fifteen million kilometers in radius. If I had all my ships with their main sensors online and a full complement of recon drones, there might be a chance of finding them, but with what we actually have, there’s not a chance in a million of locating them. I’m sorry, sir.”
“You can at least try, damn it!”
“No, sir, I must respectfully decline.”
“What?” cried Shiffeld. “I’m giving you an order!” Crawford and the others looked on in surprise at the young man standing there shaking his head.
“Sir, you have put me in command of the Rift Fleet’s warships and charged me with defending it. It would take my entire force to have even the smallest chance of finding the fugitives and the search could take days.
I will not leave the transports and the construction site undefended for that length of time. I’m sorry, sir, but if you insist on that course of action, I must tender my resignation immediately.”
Shiffeld’s mouth was hanging open and he gobbled incoherently for a moment before snapping it shut again. Before he could recover sufficiently to say anything more, Innes gently touched the sleeve of his coat.
“Governor, he does make a good point. The escape took place because our police were distracted by the mutiny. Who’s to say that this isn’t part of some bigger distraction to leave us defenseless here while our warships are on a wild goose chase?” He stared at her. “We can find the traitor again later, sir.”
He fumed silently for a moment before nodding. “All right then! She’s gotten away for now. But I want to know how the hell this happened! Garrit, how did they just waltz into your headquarters and walk off with the traitor? Why were those savages given free run of this ship?”
The police chief looked decidedly uncomfortable. As Crawford recalled, a month ago the man had just been a mining foreman with a reputation for keeping his workers in line. Like everyone else, he was probably out of his depth. “S-sir, Miss N… I mean Dame Regina instructed me to show every courtesy to the visitors. She said they were to be allowed to go where they wanted as long as it wasn’t a sensitive area. My people were instructed not to bother them. And with the mutiny, you had ordered me to send every available man to suppress it. Sir.”
“So you just left the prisoner unguarded.”
“N-no, sir! There were five men on duty in the detention area. I-I had no way of knowing the locals had slipped a team of… of commandos aboard the ship! Please, sir, try to remember that all of my people—including me—are still learning our job. Whoever took the prisoner were real professionals, with first rate equipment. There’s no way I could have anticipated that!” The man was sweating and clenching the arms of his chair.
“What I would like to know,” said Innes, “is how these ‘commandos’ even knew about the prisoner.” She looked at Regina.
“I certainly didn’t tell them,” responded the terraformer with a snort. “But you might recall that the governor hauled Citrone into the main conference room while the Farsvars were there. They saw her.”
“Yes!” said Shiffeld suddenly leaning forward. “And one of them is here with the other natives! I want him questioned immediately!”
Regina’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Governor, you can’t do that, he’s part of the Seyotah delegation and has diplomatic immunity!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Regina, we never gave these people any sort of formal recognition. We allowed them to come here as a friendly gesture, but they are not any sort of ‘delegation’, nor do they have any ‘immunity’! If that boy was plotting against us, I want to know it and I want him punished!”
Crawford saw the alarm on Regina’s face. He knew that she was quite fond of the young native. She seemed about to make an angry retort, but she bit it back and took a deep breath. “Governor, I don't think that's a wise idea. The video records from the detention center showed that the leader of those responsible was a priest from the Clorindan clan. They are mortal enemies of the Seyotahs—and probably our enemies now, too, after we killed their warriors. There is no reason why Tad or his uncle would have deliberately told them about the prisoner or have helped them to rescue her.”
“Well, somebody told them!”
“Yes, but it does not mean they were working against us! The Farsvars saw Citrone and anyone could see that there was something important going on. No doubt when they got back to Panmunaptra they were thoroughly debriefed by their own leaders. They probably mentioned the incident. Hundreds of Seyotahs could have known about it and it’s entirely possible that Clorindan spies picked up on it from there. As for why they would go to such lengths to get their hands on her, I can’t imagine, but I can’t see any reason to risk our good relations with the Seyotahs by arresting Tad.”
“Our continued good relations are certainly critical, sir,” said Crawford. “The materials we are receiving will be vital to completing the gate on time.”
“They could be correct, sir,” said Innes. “While it is certainly irritating that this has happened, we must remained focused on the primary goal. However, I would recommend that the level of… hospitality we have shown the locals be more restricted.”
“Absolutely!” snapped Shiffeld. “I’m tempted to just send them all packing right now, but in the interest of cordial relations,” he was practically sneering as he looked at Regina, “I’ll allow them to stay—in a closely guarded area!”
“Governor, I must protest!” cried Regina. “The other delegates have done nothing to deserve such treatment!”
“Protest all you like, but those are my orders and Captain Garrit will see that they are carried out—to the letter!”
Regina’s face had turned almost as red as the governor’s during the exchange, although it seemed even redder in contrast to her pale hair. She was clutching her long braid in one hand. “Very well!” she snapped, standing up from her chair. “Then if you’ll excuse me, I better go and figure out how I’ll explain all this to them!” Without waiting for an answer, she turned and left the room.
Shiffled stared after her and then was silent for a minute or more, while his face slowly regained its normal color. “There is one more matter here that concerns me,” he said at last. “The timing of the mutiny and the jail break. While it is true that the jail breakers might have simply taken advantage of the distraction caused by the mutiny, we can’t assume that. Citrone has made assertions, during questioning, that she has confederates still loose in the fleet. It’s possible that some of them arranged the mutiny specifically to allow for her escape.”
“Governor, that seems very unlikely,” said Crawford, who was afraid he saw exactly where this was leading. “The people involved in the… disturbance were just scared parents and spouses who made a bad decision.”
“Nevertheless, I want all the ring leaders questioned. I assume you have them all in custody, Captain Garrit?”
The police chief looked really uncomfortable now. He glanced at Crawford. “Uh, no, sir, Mr. Crawford—I mean Sir Charles—wouldn’t allow it.”
“What! These people committed a criminal act! They should be in jail!” He looked at Crawford in astonishment.
“I promised them all immunity in return for giving up. It seemed the best thing to do and I stand by my decision, sir.”
“You had no right to make such a deal and I’m canceling it right now! Captain, round up all of the mutineers!”
“Don’t even think about it, Captain,” said Crawford, putting out a hand. “Governor, you were smart enough to realize that you couldn’t defend your fleet without Lord Frichette. I hope you’ll be equally as smart and realize you can’t build your gate without me and my people.”
“Are you threatening me?” spluttered Shiffeld.
“Yup, I sure am. You touch just one of my people and I’ll shut this operation down. I don’t bluff, Governor, so I advise you to take the threat seriously.”
Shiffeld was turning red again. “This is blackmail, damn you!”
“Yes, I guess it is. You can have the Protector slap me in irons when this is all over, but for now, you don’t have much choice.”
“I could arrest you right now!”
“Governor…!” said Innes, touching his sleeve again.
“You could,” said Crawford, “but my people know what to do if I don’t come back from this meeting.”
“Governor, please calm down,” said Innes. “There are better ways to handle this.” He looked at her and they locked eyes for a long moment. Finally, Shiffeld let out a long breath and twitched his shoulders.
“All right! We’ll forget about it—this time! But you damn well better keep your people in line from now on, Crawford.”
“I’ll do what I can. But now, with all the families thawed out, t
he likelihood of this happening again is pretty small. But that brings up the topic of quarters for all the revived dependents.”
“Let your mutineers figure out what to do,” snorted Shiffeld.
“Actually, sir,” said Frichette, breaking in, “this incident might have a bit of a silver lining.”
“Really? Could you explain how?”
“Well, there’s no shortage of living space on the Rift Fleet. We lost nine thousand people to the traitor and there are only four thousand on the transports. With all the people we’ve been transferring to the warships, there will be plenty of space on the work vessels.”
“True, but that’s a pretty thin silver lining.”
“Yes, but there’s more, sir. I was looking at the statistics on the people actually on the family transports. Over two thousand are children, but the rest are adults. Some of them were skilled or semi-skilled workers in their own right back home. It seems to me that for the extent of this crisis, we could put a few hundred of the least skilled adults to work providing day-care for the children. The rest, say twelve hundred or so, could be put to useful work with the fleet or the construction teams.”
“That’s a possibility, sir,” said Crawford. “You’ve ‘borrowed’ over half of my clerical staff. I could certainly use the help there and I’d bet I could find work for some of the others. Hell, just preparing meals and doing laundry would free up some of my people for other work.”
Shiffeld looked at Innes who raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “It’s certainly a possibility, sir. At the least, it’s better than them all sitting around taking up space and doing nothing.”
“Very well, put some proposals together for me.”
Across the Great Rift Page 29