by Ted Mayes
She just shrugged and nodded at Michael, “I just watched them take off.”
Michael paused between bites and said, “Two of the ships have been detached, and your radars have shown them to be headed to Mars. The other four are hanging around L4, mucking about in the near-Earth asteroids.”
It seemed that Agent Reynolds took a few moments to digest that, and to take another bite. “I'm told that their speed is … unusual?”
Michael chuckled. “They've been told to keep the speed down to 150,000 miles an hour, for the time being. They’re pilots, though, and they want to see how fast they can go, but Fleet Headquarters has been firm about the speed limit.”
A few more moments as Reynolds seemed to be considering the words 'Fleet Headquarters.' “And the trip you took today...?”
“Your radars should have told you that we went straight to the Copernicus crater on the moon and then returned back here.”
Reynolds looked him with a faint expression of surprise, as if Michael was admitting to something he was expected to hide. “And in the Copernicus crater is … ?”
Michael gestured to Amanda and went back to eating as if the rest of the conversation lay outside his interest. Amanda said, “At the other end of our trip is a small, but functioning colony? … settlement? I don't know what the experts will call it, but,” she reached in her shoulder bag and took out a VHS cartridge to place on the table, “they can take a look at this highlight tape of the last few days, and make up their own mind. Oh, and for those who think this is a hoax,” she placed her rock samples from the moon on the table as well, “they can check these out, which I collected on a walk this afternoon. In fact, check them out thoroughly, because I'm not sure what scares me more – that this is an elaborate hoax, or that it isn't.”
Agent Reynolds ate silently for a while with a thoughtful expression on his face. “I assume you realize what a disturbance this is going to cause, and that you intend for it to take place.”
“We don't know how big the disturbance is going to be, yet, because all the information isn't out on the table, yet. So, let me add a few vital tidbits. The emperor has decided that, in honor of their bravery, any former astronaut will be given free passage to or from the moon. We think that there will be a goodly number of experienced space flight experts who will be taking advantage of the daily flights to the moon, and who will return and be able to say whether this is a hoax or not.”
“Second, the farms that Amanda has, or will be describing, will be lunar farms that the emperor will rent in perpetuity for the equivalent of $25-30 a month. Third, the empire will be looking for workers or businesses who will be interested in working or settling, either here at Ostia or on the moon.”
Seeing the owner of the restaurant enter the room, Michael motioned him over and asked him to tell the guests what price they would be charged, if they were to eat at Pietro's again. Pietro promised to bring them menus they could take home with them and named a figure which caused both Mrs. Reynolds and Amanda to gape in astonishment. Mrs. Reynolds whispered to her husband that the price was almost half of what they would pay anywhere else.
Smiling, Michael said, “And Pietro, would you mind telling the agent how you find the business climate here in the empire?”
“Certainly, consul. Personally, I'm grateful. I pay the equivalent of $25 a month rent, need no insurance, and pay no income tax. I work hard, but have more time to spend with my family, and I'm free to run my business as I want. The only thing that the empire requires me to do is be compassionate and considerate of my workers – which is only good business, anyway.” Excusing himself to see to the rest of his customers, he left calmly and proudly.
Agent Reynolds considered Michael and what had been said for several minutes while the others went back to eating. Finally, he said, “It will be most interesting to see whether you are able to handle the situation as effectively as you did with that last event in New York.”
Michael replied, “I have no idea what event you are referring to, Agent Reynolds.”
He replied, “I must be mistaken, then.” After that the conversation turned to more ordinary topics and the dinner was very enjoyable. It was with real regret that eventually the time came for them to leave. They took their leftovers, thanked Pietro sincerely, and departed with unmeant complaints about how full they were. They strolled to the gate in the midst of the bodyguard group, but before the Reynolds left, Michael handed over to the agent another VHS cassette. “A record of the dinner conversation, in case your wire didn't catch all the nuances.” Then Michael handed him a folded document as well. “This is for you, personally. It is a permanent pass, for you and your family, and one or two guests, to enter Ostia, so that your wife can shop or you can enjoy Pietro's whenever you wish.”
Reynolds shook Michael's hand. “Thank you. I hope that things work out well for you – and for us as well.” He added in a much softer tone, “I'm sorry we couldn't help your wife and child.”
“And that attitude, that honest attitude, is why you were asked to dinner tonight.”
Reynolds said one more thing before he turned and went out the gate. “By the way, I never cared for that Don.”
* * * * *
Beth was surprised how quiet the next ten days were, at least for her. There was nightly guard duty, and some trips, somewhere in Ostia, usually one of the government departments, for 'inspections.' She thought they were meet-and-greet events, rather than the inspections they'd had in basic, but that's what the boss called it, so that was what it was called.
She had been given a part-time job during the day at the Foreign department. She was only a 'gofer', but she was secretly pleased. Part of it was just running papers around the building, which was okay because she got to meet so many people. But another part of the job was escorting people, which was impressive in a different way. Several times she got to escort groups of astronauts down to the fleet harbor for the flight to the moon, and she was awed that these men had been the first to go into space, live in space, land on the moon. The imperial forces had apparently been ordered to show respect, and whenever an astronaut appeared, both fleet and marine (everyone seemed to be accepting Amanda's naming system) snapped to attention and saluted. Beth marveled at how the older men straightened up and saluted in response – and several times she was sure she saw a few older eyes glistening at the honor.
Escorting people to see Amanda, who had been given a desk at the Foreign Department and was busier than Beth could believe, was not quite as much fun. Many of them were okay, but some of them seemed to think that Beth knew every single thing the consul did and all they had to do was ask her the right question. One of them was different – he tried groping her and, certainly before she realized it, her dagger was out and touching his groin. The man froze and turned pale, while she tried to think of something to say. All she could come up with was “If you have a problem, I'll arrange it so that it'll never trouble you again.” After his stammered apology, Beth put the dagger away and led him to Amanda, more than happy to leave the jerk there.
Later that evening at dinner, Amanda told everyone what had happened next. As soon as Beth had left, the jerk had started complaining of mistreatment, which Amanda had ignored for a bit. Then she had looked at the guy and said, “Shove it, Dan, consider yourself lucky. Your head is still on your shoulders, and she apparently didn't cut off anything important. I'd suggest that you never try to bother an Imperial Marine, no matter what the gender. I watched her shoot down two men just last week, and she probably took their balls as trophies, too.”
Beth's outraged gasp of “Amanda” was drowned out as an avalanche of laughter overpowered everything. The consul and First were laughing riotously, and the codjits were falling out of their chairs, laughing uncontrollably, even Jon.
Eventually the laughter subsided and the consul said admiringly, “Amanda, you're a really talented liar! I haven't heard a whopper like that since Tommy tried to tell me what a great fisherma
n he was.” When the laughter, and the one protest, over that died down, the consul told Beth not to worry, because he couldn't see anything wrong in convincing everyone that it was definitely dangerous to cause trouble for any marine. The only bad thing was that Beth found that she'd been given the nickname of 'Amazon.'
So the ten days were eventually counted down. The afternoon of their last day, the codjits had turned in most of their equipment, keeping only their pistols, goggles, dagger and baton. They'd moved their personal belongings down to their apartments and cleaned up their barracks. They stood their last (at least Beth hoped it was their last) night guard duty and when 0800 came around, they were called into the atrium as the veteran praetorians took on the guard. Standing at attention in formation, the consul stood in front of them.
“Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “you have completed your assignment and are ready for leave. Before you depart, though – and there is a bus waiting at the gate to take most of you to the airport – I wanted to tell you all how impressed I am by all of you. All of you have made valuable suggestions – all of you have acted like veteran professionals – all of you have shown important leadership skills. I'm impressed, and so is the emperor. Therefore, in his name, you are all promoted to the permanent rank of optio, and your pay is raised one grade, to two denarii a week. You are all hereby transferred to the auxilia, still marines, but not subject to regular military duties. During the next week you will be notified of your next assignment. Good luck, and stay out of trouble. Dismissed.”
He added quickly under his breath, “Stay for just a bit, Beth.” The rest of the codjits happily moved out of the residence. Jon, looking back at her, left more slowly than the rest. When they were alone, the consul continued, “Two special things for you, Beth. One, you asked if you could borrow an imperial vehicle to get back and forth between school and here. The emperor is most happy to arrange that, and you still have a favor coming – there's a hot, red convertible waiting for you at the gate, so you can go home and see your family. Second, Samuel, make the connection.” There was a click, and the boss went on. “You now have a connection to Augustus, the emperor's clerk. The emperor hopes that if you see or think of anything that might be important, you'll drop him a message.”
Beth looked at him, shocked, as the consul continued. “Don't worry, there are others in your group who have been given the same connection, so it's not totally unheard of, but it is a great honor and I hope you will prove worthy of it. Now, get out of here, and go see your parents.”
Beth left the residence slightly stunned but things got better outside. Jon was waiting for her.
7 – September 1993
The day that high school was supposed to start, Beth was sitting in her Mom's kitchen early, drinking a cup of coffee after her morning run. When leave first started last week, the first thing she'd done was to catch up on her sleep. How she appreciated getting to sleep straight through the night! After a couple of days, though, she felt something was missing, and, getting up early the next morning, she'd gone for a run. That had certainly taken care of part of the problem. There had still been something 'off', though, that had continued bothering her.
She'd figured it out only yesterday. Mom had wanted to take her clothes shopping, but Beth had been aghast at the prices in the stores. They were so much higher than what she had been paying at Ostia, that she refused to shop anywhere but back at her favorite shops, and immediately dragged her Mom to the Via Emporia. That's not to say it was a totally stress free experience. Getting her Mom into the city had been easy, but the shops they had refused to take anything but imperial money. Her Mom finally agreed to let her buy things with her own money, and Mom would reimburse her later in US funds, which she was sure she could exchange for imperial coins at the Imperial Bank, right next to the Foreign Department.
Shopping with Mom had been okay, but there had still been something not quite right. Then they came out of the last store, loaded down with purchases – and things were suddenly right and bright again. She saw Jon walking down the street, coming toward them, and she'd waved happily. He'd come up to them, said “Hi” to her Mom, and then invited both of them to sit at a near-by café with 'sidewalk' tables for their choice of drinks. They'd ordered and gotten the drinks, and then sat quietly, but happily, for a half hour or so, chatting about all the new things that had been happening at Ostia when she was on leave.
They'd said their goodbyes, but Beth was almost home before she finally realized why the feeling of something wrong was gone. The rest of the evening she hoped her Mom thought she was preoccupied with thoughts of school, but she was thinking about Jon and trying to evaluate her feelings. She didn't think she'd made much progress in figuring things out, even after going for a run.
Her Mom came into the kitchen and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Have you solved your problem yet?”
“What?” she said as her Mom poured herself a cup of coffee.
“Your problem, the one who bought us something to drink at that café yesterday afternoon.” At Beth's look of surprise, her Mom continued, “Oh, honey, you may be able to fool your Dad, but neither you nor Becky have been able to hide your problems with boys, or rather men, from me.”
“I guess it was silly to think I could hide something from you,” Beth said with a sigh. “I think I like Jon, but I'm not sure if it's because I like him, or because we went through so much together.”
“Well, just ask yourself whether you feel the way you feel about Jon, towards any of the other boys with whom you went through so much.”
“I think I'll consider that another time when I'm feeling braver. Right now I've been trying to decide whether he likes me or not.”
Her mother got up and began making breakfast. “Now I know you're really upset about this. Do you really think your Jon just happened to be walking down the street just as we were coming out of the shop? Do you really think he really wanted to buy me a drink?”
“I guess not.”
“Well, just calm down and give yourself some time. Nothing has to be decided right away.”
“But what will Dad say about it? You know how he's gotten about some of the guys I dated!”
“True, but you never saw how closely he kept track of you and Jon during the first few weeks of basic. There were times, I swear, the man wouldn't budge from the clerk's display for hours at a time. Toward the end, though, all he would say was that he trusted Jon to take care of you. Last night we talked about it and we both decided that it was up to you to decide what you wanted to do.”
“Thanks, Mom. Where's Dad? If he were down here I'd give him a hug.”
Her Mom said nothing for a moment. Then, “He's probably still asleep – he didn't have a good night.”
“What's wrong?”
The silence lay there a few seconds. “We didn't want to worry you, but your Dad's company was downsizing and he got laid off last week.”
“And you went out to spend a lot of money on me? No way, you're getting that money back.” She thought furiously for a moment, and then, when a memory surfaced, considered the possibilities. “What kind of job would Dad like to have?”
“All things considered, he'd love to have something like we had when we were first married. We ran a coffee house for a couple of years, but then a big chain moved in and we had to close.”
“Well, hang on, then, because I hope this works. Molly, open a channel to Augustus.” There was a pause, and then Beth heard, not one, but five clicks, and assumed the channel was open. “Sir, this is Optio Bethany Jordan. I'd like to ask for my favor on behalf of my father, who has been laid off. He'd like to do something like run a coffee house. If there's any way you could help him, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and I don't know if you actually want people to shop in Ostia, but if you do, people need to be reminded somehow to change their money for imperial coins before they get to the shops. Thank you, sir.” When she said nothing more, there were five more clicks and Molly report
ed that the connection had been closed.
Her Mom was astounded that Beth could, and would, ask the emperor for something like that. When she finally realized what had happened, she ran to get Beth's Dad, dragged him into the kitchen and had Beth explain everything. They were still excitedly talking, and trying to get ready for breakfast, when five sharp pings were heard.
Beth snapped to attention and heard that rich voice say, “Miss Jordan, if you would, have your parents come out to Ostia today, at their convenience. I'll see what I can do to help them.” The closing pings left Beth speechless – the emperor responding to her, personally, and so quickly!
Eventually she recovered enough to explain to her parents what had just happened. When she was done, though, seeing the expressions on her parents' faces, she said, “Don't tell anyone about this! When you go out there, just say that you were told to come. If you say anything, outsiders will bug me to death, trying to gain access to the emperor.” Her parents agreed, chattering eagerly over the rest of breakfast. While they were doing that, Beth found herself considering that she now understood a little better why the emperor would want to remain incognito.
* * * * *
Michael was glad that huge crowds weren't showing up at Ostia, yet. The speculatores had reported that most governments were having some intense internal debates about how to react to the empire and the news about it – not so much Amanda's writing, because only the first one was out, so far. The article about the farm would make a bigger splash, he guessed, but there was enough frenzied debate about what the radar tracks of the scout ships and Amanda's video tape and moon rocks indicated. Some of the summaries of those debates were almost humorous. One thing in particular wasn't very thrilling, as far as he was concerned – diplomatic missions, so far composed of low level individuals, were already showing up in Ostia. None of them wanted to move in, yet, but still … , he was just glad that he could drop most of that duty on Mary Chen.