by Chris Hechtl
“Thank you for waiting, Mister Muggs,” the governor said, waking him out of his revere. He immediately rose and extended his hand to shake hands with the Tauren governor. “Please,” she said, ushering him into her office. He nodded to the Tauren lieutenant governor who rose at his arrival. He smiled politely and accepted a drink. Water of course; he didn't trust what the locals used for rotgut. The last time he'd imbibed, purely out of diplomacy, he'd regretted it with a bad migraine later.
Which just said how much had gotten past his implants and filters.
Both Taurens seemed more professional he noted in approval. Taurens didn't wear clothes like humans did. At least, they weren't obsessive about covering a majority of their bodies, unless of course they were going out into the vacuum of space. Still, it was nice for them to start taking on an additional polish.
Once they were settled, he smiled. “So, I hear the vote tally is in and has been certified. Once it is sent to the Federation and confirmed, you'll be recognized as a full member of the Federation. And I heard you are already taking nominations for representatives and senators,” he said.
The governor rolled her eyes as her fingertips stroked her blotter. “Don't remind me,” she said with a brief smile. “I'm already getting calls to hold elections. Or, I should say, my secretary of state is,” she said.
He nodded but hid a smile. The government of the star system hadn't had much of a proper chain of command before the convoy's arrival nor had they been so formal. The governor had an office, but it had been more of a closet. As his eyes roved the room, he noted the changes. She was coming up in the galaxy, or at least her office and prestige was. No doubt some of the tax credits were being put to use padding her position.
No matter.
“So, I've been hearing the usual scuttlebutt. I know the fleet is almost completely repaired …?” she let that statement pitter-patter out into a sound of mild inquiry. She was trying to set the tone and keep things cordial without being too hostile or too confrontational Fred realized.
He appreciated that. But, his training said she had something else on her agenda. That made him wary.
“Actually, I don't know the full status, classified,” he said, heading off that inquiry. “Not that I expect anyone to run to the pirates with the information, but it’s protocol.”
“Oh, yes, I understand that,” she said, pursing her lips in a brief show of annoyance.
She was picking up tricks about politics and diplomacy he noted. No doubt she'd learned on the job beforehand, dealing with her constituents. But she was in a different realm with him.
“We're not going to leave you or the bases and yard we're building here uncovered. Not for a minute, as I said before; the commodore isn't that reckless,” he stated, hoping to head off any more hedging and beating around the bush.
“Well, that's certainly a relief.”
The Neochimp diplomat sat back and took a sip of water as he contemplated the governor's dubious tone of voice. “I feel a but coming,” he said, lifting an eyebrow her way.
“I'm not thrilled about the ships she is sending to Tortuga. She could be provoking the pirates into another attack,” the governor said peevishly. “And each time she sends a ship, there are two in transit. One there and another on the way.”
He considered his answer carefully. The stock explanation should help ease her and her constituent's fears he judged. He knew the commodore's answer, that she ran the navy for the time being and that it was her call would step on too many sensitive toes.
“I believe that is a concern, but you have to see it from another perspective. With a ship in the system, we have eyes on Tortuga and the ships there. The navy can see what they are doing, and if they move to attack us again, the ship picketing there will jump ahead of them to carry a warning to us.”
The governor blinked and then frowned thoughtfully.
“And, once the navy has built up sufficient defenses in this system, they'll have on-site intelligence gathering in Tortuga to allow them to use it to plan a mission to wipe the pirates out once and for all.”
He left unsaid the four asteroid forts that had been placed around the Tortuga jump point. Two more were in the planning stages. The problem was they were running out of warm bodies to staff the bases.
“And then what?” the governor asked. “What's next?”
“Well, that depends on the circumstances,” he said carefully. He reminded himself to be careful; he was starting to wade into untested water. He didn't want to get in over his head or get caught out by committing to something he shouldn't or couldn't do.
“I mean, are they going to go harrying off after the pirates? Or come back here?”
“Again, it depends on the circumstances. The commodore or the onsite commander she designates to lead the assault will make that decision when it is needed.”
The governor blinked and then slowly smiled. “Cross that bridge when we come to it?”
He returned the smile, feeling a small sense of relief and bonding. “Exactly.”
“Good to know,” the governor stated with a nod.
“What about if they take the base intact? Won't they want to move in? What will happen to us now?” the lieutenant governor pressed. “They'll just abandon us!” He shot an aggrieved look at the governor.
Fred kept himself from sucking in a breath and letting it out in a hearty sigh. He wanted to do so but kept it in check. “No, that's not going to happen. We're in this system for the long haul. We did sign a contract, and we have agreements. We've got the yard and other bases growing daily. We're not going to walk away from that. Not now.”
Governor Adrienne was tempted to ask when they'd have enough surpluses to produce extra tugs and small craft but her lieutenant governor dived right back in to the topic at hand.
“Then what will you do with Tortuga?”
She sighed internally. He really was going to go forward with his plan she realized. And it looked like there was no way to get him off of it.
“That depends on what we get when the dust settles,” Fred replied with an indifferent shrug. His indulgence and calm were professionally feigned. He could feel something was up. Most likely something he wasn't going to like from the governor's pursed lips. He was getting better at reading Tauren body language, or at least he hoped he was. “Again, we'll cross that bridge …”
“When we come to it,” the governor agreed with a nod, hoping that would satisfy everyone.
“Exactly,” Fred said with a smile of thanks her way.
“Well, I for one believe we should get a say in the disposition of the Tortuga resources! Given the pain and suffering we've endured with centuries of exposure to them! And our people are paying in material and blood to help fend them off and kick them out! Fair's fair!” the lieutenant governor pressed, looking from Fred to the governor and then back. His face was stern.
Fred recognized the opening salvo in a negotiating ploy to get a piece of the pie. He judged it just a tad early though. “That sort of decision is above my pay grade,” Fred said slowly. “I'd have to take your proposal and pass it up the chain,” he said in a regretful tone.
The lieutenant governor's lips puckered in a sour expression. “And that will take, what, years to get a response?”
“Currently Commodore Logan is the military expedition commander. At least until Commodore Richards arrives, after that I'm not sure who is in charge, I'm not familiar with their chain of command and who is senior. But actually no, we're expecting the ansible to arrive in a month or so. When it does we'll be able to be in instant contact with the government in Rho as you know.”
“Oh, I did forget that,” the governor stated softly. She turned to the lieutenant governor. “Given that they haven't even taken Tortuga, I believe we can give them a few weeks' grace to get their ducks in a row.”
“I suppose,” he said grudgingly.
“It also means that we'll get validation of your vote and accreditation of your positi
on within the Federation all the sooner,” Fred said, hoping that the matter was if not put to bed at least tabled.
They'd overplayed their hand he thought. They'd come out early and forewarned was forearmed. He'd have to find a way to gently dissuade them from pushing too hard while maneuvering the military into throwing them a token bone for them to chew on he thought, making a note in his implants.
“But,” the governor turned back to Fred with a gleam in her eye. Fred felt a sinking sensation. “That doesn't mean we can't hash out a gentleman's agreement now on what we might expect in return …”
<()>^<()>
Governor Adrienne poured herself a drink after the Neochimp had left. “Too soon, Jeremy, too soon by half.” She had a few minutes before her next appointment. She offered a drink to the lieutenant governor but he shook his head.
She put the stopper back on the old bottle and put it back on the shelf. That reminded her, she needed to look into more faux wood. She'd love to have an old-school office rich with more wood paneling, nice and elegant. But that would come in time she reminded herself.
“Hey, if we don't make sure they know we deserve an in, then we'll be left out.”
“The problem is we've already gotten quite a bit from them,” she reminded him. “And some of it is priceless.”
“Yeah? We're paying for it too with the taxes,” he sniffed.
“Which doesn’t come into effect for another fiscal cycle, and they are phased in so as not to cause us too much problems. We've already phased in our local tax system ahead of them.”
“Still …”
“And do you have any idea how much we're paying compared to how much they are spending? The money our people are raking in from their people on leave more than offsets our taxes! Don't get me started on suppliers selling goods to them!” She shook her head. “Let's not get too greedy.”
“I don't know. I just think we should get something.”
“We are. Safety. A chance to grow. But if we appear ungrateful, we could drive them out.”
“Um …”
“You didn't read some of their history did you?” she asked with another shake of her head. He grimaced. “Skimmed it?” he nodded. She snorted slightly. “That's what I thought.”
“What does that mean?”
“Go back to Pyrax. Specifically, what Irons did. The same for some of the other interactions. Antigua! That one is more telling actually,” she said pointedly.
“Um …?”
She sighed. “Okay, I'll give you the gist, but I still want you to do your homework.”
He couldn't help but smile at that. The governor had spent some time as a teacher and occasionally aired regret over not being able to do it. “Irons was driven out of Pyrax. But before he was driven out, probably why the politicians there did it really, was because they were getting uppity. They got greedy and thought if they got rid of him they'd benefit. They were wrong.”
“Okay.”
“The same for Antigua.”
“But didn't he end up there?”
“Yes, he went back after they were forced to eat crow. See, the first time he was there he was all set to build a navy and capital there. But then Governor Randall was elected on a platform of taking over. When he tried to and called Irons to heel, Irons fixed up a derelict yacht and pulled out.”
“Oh.”
Adrienne wondered if the warning was sinking in. Personally she agreed with Mister Muggs that the navy had too much invested in her star system to pull out now. But if push came to shove, they might do so. She didn't want that. She was pretty sure the commodore wouldn't want that either. It would mean starting over and a major delay in her building schedule.
“Yeah. He took his ship and left. Their growth began to stall and enter a tailspin much like Pyrax did after he left there. Randall had a change of heart and sent his regrets when the navy saved his star system from invasion.”
“That part I did read. Firefly,” the lieutenant governor supplied with a nod.
“And our good commodore was on Firefly as her XO at that time,” the governor stated. Her lieutenant governor's eyes widened in surprise at that news. “And she was on the cruiser when they rode to the admiral's rescue in B101a1. He ended up more or less having the fight already in hand; they just helped finish the job.”
“Oh.” He frowned thoughtfully. “So, you want me to drop it?”
“No, I'm saying temper your expectations. The moral of the story is, let's not get too greedy and ruin a good thing. And, remember, anything they get they'll probably use here in order to help rebuild, not to mention to hunt down and kill the pirates, which makes the sector safer.”
He nodded. “Point. But if we can get something out of it …”
“We'll see,” she replied with a shrug. “It's out there now. Right now, I'm just glad we've still got the use of their Spacebees for the time being.”
He nodded again at that.
<()>^<()>
Zed flicked his mandibles as he examined the reports. His ship Zeng He was fully restored, but it still felt wounded, scarred by her recent brush with the fire of combat.
He hated being stuck on picket duty—truly hated it. He wanted to get even. No, he had to be honest with himself, at least internally; he wanted revenge.
He wanted to prove himself and the Federation better than the pirates. The last battle had been a near thing, only a healthy dose of lady luck's blessing had let them survive it. Many of his crew had not been so lucky. A few had, though they'd come through the fire of combat maimed. Some physically, some mentally with horrible stories of death and destruction and terror in the bowels of his ship.
Only time and talking about it would help them to heal. He knew that.
He scanned the reports and then the various displays on his HUD, then those around his office. The ship was fine; he had no excuse to get out of the paperwork and no excuse for getting out of picket duty. It was essential that they protect the base, intellectually, he knew that. Without the base they were not going to be an effective fighting force in the sector.
But, oh how he wanted to be in on taking the fight to the pirates!
His eyestalks glared at the image of the Tortuga jump space. Soon, he thought, soon.
<()>^<()>
Using parallel processing and comparing the results, it took the A.I. and intel shop two days of hard processing to break the first layers of the pirate encryption. The larger core sample they had, the quicker the processing went. Many of the A.I. took on the project in their off time as a game and to get status points with each other.
Once the breakthrough was made, the algorithm was sent to all parties, and they rapidly broke down every conversation and recompiled them for analysis.
Several days later their findings were presented to the brass.
It was there that Commodore Logan and her senior staff found out about the outbreak of the plague in the pirate base. “Ah,” Shelby replied, hiding a grimace behind her coffee mug. She didn't want to wish the plague on anyone. She had mixed feelings about that; they were technically the enemy.
But, there were kids there and slaves. They didn't deserve to suffer. From the sound of it, Ishmael took care of that though she thought with a mental wince at the memory of the nuclear bombardment.
“We're going back through the recordings,” Lieutenant JG Fara Slatterly, their head of ONI stated. She was still new to her lieutenant bar but she was acting like she'd worn it for a long time. Shelby made another mental note to see if she could get the lieutenant bumped another rank outside of the zone.
While she was thinking of that, Sadie's ears picked up and twitched, drawing her attention. The black lab Neodog ran double duty as Shelby's flag lieutenant as well as clerical duty in the yard or wherever the commodore needed her to fill in at. Like a lot of the officers and noncoms, she'd been bumped up a rank to full lieutenant.
“Nothing internal of course, nor laser lines. But there were some juicy broadcasts, some
of them omni broadcasts. There are a lot of upset people over there. And it's definitely impacted their plans and resupply. The destruction of their main base took most of their best supplies and some of their best people with it,” Fara stated.
“Could it be legit? They screwed up and dropped a beaker of plague or something?” Captain JG John Frost, the head of the Marine detachment asked.
Fara nodded curtly. “It is possible.”
“Or they went back to confront the Horathians who had brought the plague and the bastards turned on them,” Sadie said.
“Given the split they had here, that's also entirely possible,” Shelby replied with a nod. “Either way, we don't know for sure.”
“I wish we could find out,” Fara grumbled.
Shelby shot her a look but shrugged. “It is a moot point. Either way, the plague is out there among them now—plagues plural. We don't know if they managed to cauterize it with the nuke or not,” Shelby stated.
“We also don't know if it was legit or not,” Fara pointed out. All eyes turned to the spook. “Think about it. They blow the base; we see an opportunity and come in. They could have ships in stealth watching and waiting for an opportunity to pounce. In fact, we know they've got ships at the jump point picketing it. That's in Demon Chaser's report.”
“We had a hard number when Demon Chaser returned. And we know which ships escaped,” Boni said slowly. “Demon Chaser has kept eyes on the star system since their arrival. They've seen some ships being reactivated in the yard but nothing like what you are describing.”
In truth the Tortuga yard was something of a letdown, just an improvised repair slip made out of a truss slip and a giant grape cluster of something or other that might have once been a ship. She wasn't sure. What they did know was that Black Death was monopolizing the yard for the majority of the time.
“Ships have been coming in. We haven't seen ships leave. A few seem to have set course for a jump point but then they turned back when another ship went after them,” Sadie stated in a pointed reminder. “That tells me the lion is trying to build a force. Whether it is to attack or defend … we don't know.” she twitched her ears in a shrug.