‘T’were real!’ Roll’em turned to Alex as the end-credits flashed. ‘T’were you.’ He looked at Alex with some echo of wonder on his own face. ‘Tha’s got some nerve,’ he observed, with genuine respect.
Alex grinned. ‘This,’ he responded, ‘from the man who just faced down the monopoly which has been holding your world to ransom for centuries.’ He toasted the president in turn. ‘My respects, sir.’
Roll’em chuckled modestly, though pride came beaming back onto his face again. ‘T’were a dream come true,’ he said and then, resuming his confidential manner, ‘Turns out, things weren’t as we’d always thought they were. Funny that, how tha can believe a thing tha whole life, never kestion it and then…’ he made a gesture as if something puffed away into the air and vanished. ‘We always thought,’ he admitted, ‘that Delanceys were part of the Families, left over from afore… powerful, powerful people, tha knows?’ He shook his head disgustedly. ‘Turns out they never were. Just people who decided to make themselves rich at our expense. And they’ve been getting away with it because we didn’t see we had any choice. But now we do, her grace is giving us choices – with your help, obvious and that North fella’s. But her grace, it’s like her coming here has changed everything. We can see choices now, where there weren’t none before.’
‘It is hard,’ Alex said, ‘when a problem has been going on for so long, to see that there is even a possibility of a way out of it. Sometimes you need an outsider coming in, a fresh pair of eyes, new ideas. And her grace is remarkably skilful,’ he grinned a little, ‘at opening people’s minds to new possibilities.’ As the president chortled agreement, Alex went on in the same conversational manner, ‘So, do you think the water monopoly will fold, then? Just accept the inevitable?’
Roll’em snorted. ‘Not they!’ he said. ‘Do tha know, they said – actually said, on record, in meeting, that if we went ahead with getting water from her grace they’d stop supplying us? Stop, just stop, when they know it’ll be near a year before we’ve enough coming in to meet our needs. And before, tha knows, that would have made us back down, just too big a risk to take, no water coming in or prices go so high people can’t afford to live. That’s what we’ve always been so afeared of. But that…’ he suddenly started laughing, ‘That hundred and one ways…’
Alex laughed too. He had given Davie permission to send some suggestions to the Lundanian president, informally, advising on ways that they might deal with the water corporations according to how they reacted to the busting of their long-standing monopoly. One of the scenarios he’d predicted as most likely was that they would threaten either to withdraw water supplies entirely or to raise prices to such an extent that many ordinary people on Lundane would not be able to afford sufficient water for survival. He had offered thirty seven potential solutions to that, the most highly recommended being a hostile takeover of the weakest of the three. The advice had set out, step by step, various methods of achieving this and the financial experts the president had passed it to had come back very excited, yes, they could do that, they could buy out critical support industries and make Akicorps dependent on them and if they tried to stop production, force them into bankruptcy and buy them out. Akicorps owned all the water rights on all the planets and moons within the system and Akicorps alone could, if they chose, supply all of Lundane’s needs. The corporation which currently owned all the ocean-water rights on Lundane itself, Davie said, could be mopped up in a few years. And the corporation which owned the ice-mining rights to the asteroids and comet cloud would either have to come to an accommodation with the Lundanians, providing water at reasonable prices, or they would go under too.
Altogether, the ‘hundred and one ways to deal with corporate stranglehold’ was a comprehensive manual for a government which was only just starting to come to terms with its identity and responsibilities as a government.
‘Brimming!’ Roll’em said, his highest compliment. ‘Not that we haven’t got our own ideas!’ He was beaming with pride again. ‘At the meeting,’ he said, ‘We were talking and one of the guys suggested that instead of charging port fees, we could ask ships to bring us water instead – their choice, like, high port fees or so much ice to be delivered instead. Spacers’ll likely go for that, he reckons.’
‘I should say they will,’ said Alex, knowing very well that tramp freighters really resented the kind of port fees they had to pay and no great effort involved, really, in adding a big chunk of ice to their cargo. ‘That’s a brilliant idea. And really excellent to see that you’re taking control of the water supplies.’
The president nodded. ‘We’ll have pilots ready for training by the end of next week,’ he said, referring to an agreement which had already been made. The Fourth was in the process of converting their two tug-shuttles to using non-classified tech, a simple enough matter. It would chop the shuttles’ scanner range in half and affect other systems significantly too, slowing them somewhat, but they would still be capable of providing for the planet’s survival needs until the shuttles Davie had sent for arrived. ‘Amazin’,’ he said, contemplating his world’s liberation from corporate tyranny with a broad smile, then turning a rather more thoughtful look on Alex. ‘But this is what you do, right? You fix stuff. Big stuff, worlds in crisis stuff?’
‘I wouldn’t put it that dramatically,’ Alex said. ‘We’ve helped to resolve a couple of issues which were holding back worlds in their development, but they were not what I’d describe as a crisis, just developmental issues.’
‘The spacers,’ the president said, with an obvious question, ‘Talk a lot about Novamas. And they say you laid ghosts?’
‘Not as such, not really,’ Alex said and explained about the mysterious shudders and noises ships had always experienced in certain orbits within Novamas and how no investigation had ever turned up any scientific explanation.
‘So with that and the Novamasians being pretty unfriendly to spacers anyway, ships got out of the habit of going there and were going to a mining system, Tolmer’s Drift, instead, using that as a trading port. Only trouble was, cargo was stacking up there, might take months or even years before it got taken through to Novamas, so their trade was being limited and they weren’t getting any of the social and economic benefits of having ships come into port, either, so they were getting more and more isolated from the rest of the League. We were asked to have a look at that and see if we could find a solution. So we persuaded spacers at Tolmer’s Drift to bring their ships with us to Novamas and staged a mass protest there outside the system, all the ships there with their cargoes but refusing to enter the port until the authorities there allowed us to reorganise the parking orbits. They weren’t too pleased about that, obviously, but they eventually saw that it was in their best interests, we shifted the orbits and the ships came in. But that still hadn’t addressed the superstitious fears spacers had built up over seeing Novamas as a jinxed port – and spacers are, you know, an incredibly superstitious lot. Seriously, you would not believe the kind of weird shipboard rituals that go on if there’s any kind of incident in space that science doesn’t have an explanation for yet. Like the banshee – that’s a weird noise that happens very occasionally aboard ships passing through regions of turbulent space, nobody quite knows why but it sounds like the engines are screaming. Even having had contact with a yacht which had experienced a banshee noise, I was obliged to take part in a ritual where every single person on my ship walked backwards and threw salt over their shoulders. Mad, you know? Utterly mad. But I had to do it too, or they’d have got themselves worked up into believing that the ship was jinxed and once a crew believes that, even the slightest little mishap is put down to ‘the jinx’, anxiety goes sky high, accidents increase, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I knew we had to do something to satisfy spacers that the jinx at Novamas had been lifted.
‘And the thing is, we did know that there had once been a species living there, a people called the Alari who’d died out in the plague.
And I did feel, genuinely, that it was important to honour them, to pay our respects. So we established a memorial site and a rite of remembrance using a fragment of one of their poems. For me, that was the right thing to do, so that they would not be forgotten. But it was also a way for spacers to feel that they’d made peace with the spirits of the ancient race they felt to be responsible for the jinx. So it worked out well, spacers have been going to Novamas since, their trade and economy have picked up and they’re no longer isolated. A good result. But an issue, you know, a long term issue, not a crisis. And we were not, of course, sent here to resolve anything at all. Weren’t sent here, even.’
‘Your government really doesn’t know that you’re here, do they?’ Roll’em was half amused, but there was some concern in there, too. ‘Your Embassy says that and the League spacers, too, they all reckon it sounds just like you, to have done this, come here without your government even knowing about it. But – have to ask, Alex. How sure are you that they’re not going to rip you to bits for having done this without even telling them?’
Alex chuckled. ‘I have,’ he said, ‘a very simple method of figuring out what decisions to make when I’m having to decide things that should, really, be decided by the Admiralty or the Senate, but there is no way that I can wait to send and ask for instructions. When I have to make the call, right then and there, I do a thought experiment, a visualisation – if it’s something to do with Admiralty regulations then I imagine that I’m going into First Lord Admiral Harangay’s office and explaining to him what I did. If I know that I can do that without having to apologise or be concerned about how he’ll react, I know it is the right thing. And I do just the same when I’m having to make decisions on behalf of the Senate – like on the Carrearranis mission. That was the biggest political and most potentially controversial decision I think I’ve ever made. The Carrearranians, you see, were not at all happy to discover that a tiny difference in the way their cells produce proteins was enough to take them outside the definition of human according to the Homo Sapiens Identification Act. They were, understandably, outraged by being defined in a way which they saw as telling them they weren’t real people, not people like us, and diplomatic relationships stalled right there over that issue, they wouldn’t have anything more to do with us until we recognised that they were human, see? And quite apart from the ethical issues, there, in which I was entirely with them on their right to define themselves as human and to be recognised as such, let’s face it, the pragmatic issues of dealing with either a human or an alien world right there on our border made it very much better for us, too, if they could be defined as a human world. So I wrote a codicil to the Homo Sapiens Identification Act, changing the criteria which defined human, and signed it on behalf of our Senate. They still had to ratify it but I knew that they would, I wouldn’t have signed it on their behalf unless I was confident that that was the decision they would make. And in this, well…’ he shook his head, grinning.
‘I can just imagine,’ he said, ‘going into the Senate and addressing them, telling them that I made contact with the Chethari, who are very nice, lovely people, and it turns out that they’re already in contact with the Pirrellothians, too, having stepped in when the Solarans withdrew. And I’m standing there, you know, with all the hundreds of them watching me, and I explain that Trilopharus passed on a message from the Karlane, the ruler of Pirrell, asking for us, specifically, for the Fourth, to pick up their ambassador, bring her to Lundane and support her in establishing an embassy here. And I can just see the wild excitement, the euphoria, the immediate recognition of what an absolutely amazing opportunity that is, the best opportunity for fostering peace and forging alliances that there has ever been, a game-changing arrival of an ambassador everyone, but everyone, will listen to and respect. There would be, I can tell you now, a standing ovation, how excellent, wonderful and so brilliant, too, that we, the Fourth, were asked for like that, a matter of such pride to the League for our exodiplomacy unit to be asked for and trusted in that way. It’s really something very special for us, you know. And I can just imagine with all that pride and joy going on, me putting my hand up and saying no, hang on, no, wait, I didn’t actually do it, I said no, turned Trilopharus and the Pirrellothians down, because I didn’t have a mandate for that from the Senate themselves and I didn’t feel that I could act in such a matter on my own responsibility.’ He laughed.
‘Then, I’d be lucky to make it out of there in one piece! There will, I know, be a lot of questions over my decision to arrive here without guns, supplies or money…’ he laughed ruefully, ‘but I will stand by those decisions. And I don’t doubt for a moment that the Senate will approve us having brought Lady Ursele here.’
‘Hah.’ Roll’em was satisfied with that, giving Alex a nod which held approval and some relief. ‘So,’ he asked, ‘What will they make of that…’ he used a Lundanian word Alex didn’t recognise, but it was clearly not intended as a compliment, ‘Jilt-Defame-Tarantula?’
‘Ambassador Jilit-Defane-Taracalas,’ Alex said, very carefully indeed, ‘can not be blamed for doing what he has been trained to do, sticking rigidly to Diplomatic Corps protocols however unusual the circumstances may be. But I will have to say that I am disappointed with the level of support I feel he could have given us with a little more flexibility. And I doubt that many in the Senate will be tremendously impressed by his attitude, either. But you can’t fire someone for doing his job strictly according to the rules, can you?’
‘I can,’ said Roll’em. ‘If they’re being a small-minded, obstructive little bum-hole, I can. And I do. And can’t I fire him? Our Lutti says I can, or tell him to leave, anyway.’ Lutti, Alex recognised, was the Lundanian Ambassador to everybody, resident at Number One, Embassy Avenue. Roll’em had clearly been talking to him about this issue and looked enquiringly at Alex, ‘Shall I?’
‘Not on my account, thanks,’ Alex said. ‘For one thing, however disappointing his attitude may be, he is doing his job to the rules and so has not given any grounds for demanding his removal.
‘For a second thing, it really wouldn’t change anything because the next ambassador would be just as obstructive – and you may take my word on that, as I have taken soundings on how things would go at the Embassy if Ambassador Jilit-Defane-Taracalas was persuaded, shall we say, to step aside. The woman who’d take over from him as interim ambassador is even more of a by-the-book martinet and we really can’t keep firing ambassadors till we get one we like, that’s not on.
‘For a third thing, for you to demand that he leaves the system would be seen as an act of hostility towards the League – expelling ambassadors is pretty high on the list of hostile actions short of actually using weapons, you know, and that really isn’t where we want to be going right now, is it?
‘And finally, purely on a personal note, there is a myth that follows me around that anyone who gets in my way when I’m on a mission will be kicked aside either with their career in ruins or their mental health impaired. It isn’t true, but it’s one of those superstitions people have come to believe and which I am, I have to admit, quite sensitive about. So if we could avoid trashing his career or driving him into a breakdown, that would be good.’
Roll’em guffawed. ‘Fair enough,’ he conceded. ‘But speaking of sensitive, Alex, why aren’t your people coming down on shoreleave? Lutti reckons you don’t trust us, but I don’t see it can be that – can it?’
‘I trust you,’ Alex said at once. ‘What I don’t trust are the intelligence services I know very well would love nothing more than to pick up any of our people they can get their hands on for questioning.’
‘Intelligence services?’ Roll’em said, with an unconvincing effort at pretending he’d never heard of such a thing.
‘PDA,’ Alex said and began ticking them off on his fingers, ‘Feds, your own I6, of course, the LIA, the Sons of Marfik Vigilance Corps, the…’
‘Hang on…’ Roll’em interrupted. ‘The LIA? But they�
��re your lot, aren’t they?’
‘It’s complicated,’ Alex said. ‘You have probably gathered from the intelligence grapevine that we have an LIA agent in custody aboard the ship and that we have been trying, without success, to make contact with the LIA and get them to come and take him off our hands. So I don’t know who they are or what their position is. But I feel pretty certain that if they could, say, get their hands on one of our young officers, they would take them in for intensive questioning about the circumstances which have brought us here with one of their agents in custody and that is not a risk that I’m prepared to take. As for the others, I am sure you are aware that any intelligence service worthy of the name will be slavering at the thought of the kind of highly classified tech they must know we have aboard this ship and be prepared to go to great lengths to get hold of anyone who could give them the details about it. So no, I can’t risk letting my people go groundside, Roll’em, it simply isn’t safe.’
‘Hmmn,’ the president considered that and Alex. ‘What would it take,’ he asked, ‘to make a place safe for your guys to visit?’
Alex considered that too and told him. As a result of which, three days later, the first shoreleave party was allowed to go down.
It was, admittedly, a highly restricted kind of shoreleave. Perimeter fencing had been installed around the Samartian embassy, patrolled externally by Lundanian police who also provided escort for the heavily armoured bus which brought shoreleave parties out of the embassy grounds.
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