IronStar (52 page)

“Hold it right there, soldier,”
said Doris. “You mean we have over ten thousand of our allies living outdoors
because their city is infested by illegal tech, and all we can do is sweep a
few blocks a day?” Marcus turned a surprised and slightly wounded look in the
direction of this unexpected assault.

“Because,” she continued, stabbing
one finger toward the sky, “I just happen to know where there’s about three
hundred swabbies at the itchy end of a long voyage, with nothing to do but
gripe and sit around, and I bet a hundred of them would jump at the chance for
a little light dirtside duty.” The three Regnum officers stared at one another
until Kirrah laughed out loud.

“
Damn!
I’ve missed you,
Doris! Let’s put that on our wish-list. We have one shuttle going up at noon,
Marcus. If you can supply a guard detail, have our Kruss prisoner in restraints
and ready. I’d like to get it off-planet on that ride. We’ve also got the
debrief team coming down in about half an hour, and the Contact Teams meet at
takka-doi
,
sorry, Marcus, that’s oh-eight-hundred hours local, but the days here have
twenty hours, each hour’s eighty-one and a tad Standard minutes long, and they
very sensibly start numbering the hours at dawn, so that’s mid-afternoon. Look,
there should be a file in your wristcomp called ‘T-local’, it was one of my
first entries, just run that and you’ll be in sync.”
Why is he getting that
hunted
look again
…

“What is
that
?” asked
Brai'klao shu'Naei, the school’s resident professor of law and history,
pointing high into the heavens behind Kirrah. She followed his gaze to see a
small dark spot descending silently out of the western sky, occasional flashes
of sunlight glittering from glass or metal.

“
That
, I would say, is my
first appointment this morning. It looks like they decided to send the debrief
team down in their own facilities. I’d guess it’s a Class Four command module,
Master Brai'klao, a small building about forty
hab’la
wide and the same
height. They will probably set it down on the land we offered for a
Reg’num
embassy.”

“It certainly arrives quietly
compared to the sky-ferry,” observed Irshe.

“Indeed, Irshe
’jasa
, it is
not designed to fly at all. This is what
nano’ire
is intended for. It is
simply a building, being lowered from one of the starships on a cable as thin
as a blade of real-grass. It has only small thrusters to position it accurately
on the ground.” Several pairs of eyes were getting round at the sight of the
flying building, by now low over the west wall of the courtyard.

“Do you mean,” asked Slaetra, “that
object is attached to a starship,
how
high over our heads? By a
rope
?”
A little to Kirrah’s surprise, Lieutenant Warden chose to answer her question
himself.

“Not a rope, ma’am, but a
nanowire
cable, yes. They probably brought the ship down to minimum, I’d guess about
two-twenty-five kay. Your atmosphere is a bit thicker than we’re used to.” Kirrah
listened in fascination as Slaetra’s wristcomp did a simultaneous translation
into Talamae, rendering the ‘two-twenty-five kay’ as ‘four hundred thirty-six
doi’la
’.

“
Minimum?
” The quick
intellect behind those piercing blue eyes pounced on the new tidbit like one of
Aunt Risa’s little birds on a hapless bug. “Why doesn’t the starship simply
come to earth like your sky-boats, and be done with all the up-and-down
business?” After exchanging ‘how-much-can-I-say’ glances with Kirrah, the
Marine Lieutenant continued. Kirrah watched on with amusement as the wristcomp
translation program buzzed his untranslatable technical vocabulary to tatters:

“No, ma’am, they can’t do that. If
they activate the Higgs-bzzzz, sorry, I mean the grav-gener-zzzzz,
damn!
-zzzzz,
look, I just mean the Tubedri-zzzzzz.” He looked helplessly at Kirrah. “How can
you talk to these people so much easier? How do I…?”

“What Marcus
’jasa
is trying
to say, Slaetra, is that if the vessel were to activate its engine while in the
air around your planet, it would cause much damage. Both to the vessel and
anything near it. These large people,” Her mock-derisive gesture took in the
two Marines at the table: “…in their stronger armor are far more appreciated
for their ability to fight, than to converse.”

“So the starship is now
above
our
air?”

“With apologies to everyone, I must
leave Marcus to explain further. I have a duty to the Regnum which shall
shortly occupy me for a few
takka
. Then may I suggest we convene at the
Palace. I’m sure it would be good to review our impressions with Lord Tsano
before meeting with the Regnum half of the Contact Team. Doris, they’ll want
you for debrief after I’m through.” Bows all around the table, and Kirrah
returned to her quarters and the (new!
clean!
) RSS uniform which had
been provided for her use at the debrief.

Half an hour later Kirrah and Irshe
rode west across two thirds of the city, their horses followed by Lieutenant
Warden and another Marine on a Tango. The eclectic group passed through the Sun
Gate in the west wall and out into the road that led down the Geera to the Sea
of the Sun. The ground was cool and slightly damp where the city wall was still
shading it, and the air smelled fresh and new.

Beside the two shuttles parked
outside the wall, Regnum Naval personnel had erected a prefab one-story field
hut. Half a kilometer to the northwest, past a small cluster of produce
merchants’ booths, a new modern three-story building stood ready-made. The flag
of the Regnum Draconis hung limp in the still morning air, and a crowd of
rubbernecking Talamae adults and children were slowly dispersing, returning to
their work in the fields and shops.

In a few minutes the riders pulled
up at the door of the building. Irshe settled in the lobby while a yeoman
ushered Kirrah into one of the new-smelling, comfortably furnished rooms on the
ground floor and seated her behind a recording console. After only a moment the
yeoman re-entered, stood at attention and said “Admiral on deck!”, and Kirrah
sprang to attention and saluted as three men and a woman entered, all wearing
silver-trimmed black Regnum Navy uniforms.

“Greetings, Lieutenant Roehl,” said
the tall tanned woman with the Vice Admiral’s broad silver cuff trim. Steady
gold-flecked brown eyes gazed from under a smooth broad brow in a strong plain
face. “I trust we’re not keeping you from pressing matters regarding the
defense of our friends.” At Kirrah’s negative response, handshakes were
exchanged.

“Please be seated, Lieutenant
Roehl. I am Vice Admiral Lucinda Dunning, these are Lieutenant Commander
Michael Willison, our NavInt specialist,” a tall, somewhat gangly blond man
with watery blue eyes and a mournful expression; “Commander Sandish Tally,
Argosy’s
XO,” another tall blond man, but with harder sea-gray eyes and a coarser,
tougher look about him; “and Dr. Garth Pennington, sometime Director of
Research for Atikokan Mining and Metals, but reactivated as a reserve with the
rank of Lieutenant Commander for the duration.” The latter was a slender
coffee-colored man with a hatchet face, a hooked nose and a circle of dark hair
around a bald crown. The Admiral continued:

“Lieutenant, it’s a real pleasure
to finally meet one of the crew whose fate has been the subject of so much
speculation and activity. My,
our
sincere condolences on the loss of
your ship and crewmates. Now, if Lieutenant Commander Willison would please
turn on the recorder… thank you. Let me explain the procedure to you. This is a
formal mission debriefing, legal cousin to what you do routinely at the end of
every other Survey mission. However a vessel has been lost, and at a minimum
that automatically entails a Navy Board of Enquiry, and as you know one of the
theoretical results of that Board is a recommendation for Court Martial. Let me
stress that nothing I have seen so far suggests such a thing is even remotely
indicated, but the theoretical possibility is there. Do you understand me so
far, Lieutenant Roehl?”

“Ma’am, yes Ma’am!”

“Thank you, Lieutenant, and by the
way you can relax a little, we’re not here to nail you, it’s the
Kruss
I’m after!”

“Thank you, Ma’am.”
Breathe,
Kirrah. You’ve met her type before: she’ll hand you your ass if you screw up,
but she’s no monster
…

“Therefore, you are entitled to be
represented by counsel at these proceedings. Which brings me to the reason for
Dr. Pennington’s presence. He started this voyage as a representative of A.M.
and M., but it turns out besides being an excellent metallurgical researcher,
he also carries a reserve commission in the Navy
and
a Kay Cee. He agreed
to defend your interests should NavInt scoop too deeply into your brains, if
you want him. So naturally, I drafted him.”

Despite her twisting stomach,
Kirrah was impressed by the man’s qualifications. Only the cream of the legal
profession earned the right to the highly coveted ‘K.C.’ after their name,
signifying their appointment as ‘King’s Counsel’. What he said next only
confirmed her initial estimate of his basic decency and integrity:

“Ms. Roehl, you should know that
you have the right to refuse counsel, that you have the alternative right to
select any willing officer on the
Argosy
to represent you. You should
also know that you are not charged with anything, no one
expects
you to
be charged with anything, and that the possibility is
not
zero that
charges could result from the enquiries made here.

“You should also know that I have
not actively practiced law for about eight years Standard. Furthermore I
represent one of four Mercantile interests who will be part of the Contact Team
meeting later today. I only allowed our esteemed Admiral to dragoon me so that
I could get a head start on my competition. It was the only way she’d let me in
on this debriefing. Something about being able to have me shot, if I talked out
of school.”

“Dr. Pennington, there is a law
professor by the name of
Brai'klao shu'Naei
teaching at the local
university whom you will be meeting later today. I think you two will get along
like brothers. I would be honored to have you represent me here.” The man’s
eyes widened ever so slightly in his hawk-like face at the mention of a ‘local
university’, however he nodded graciously. Suddenly another thought struck her,
and Kirrah added belatedly:

“Um, except, that is, how much…”

“Oh, my fee will be paid by the
Navy, Ms. Roehl. At a Lieutenant Commander’s payscale, I might add…”

Admiral Dunning cleared her throat
at his wry look and continued, “Very well then. Commander Tally is here on
behalf of our task force, trolling for anything of immediate tactical concern
arising out of your information, and I am Chair of the proceedings. Let me
state for the record that we have already received downloads of all files from
your wristcomp, including a very complete language file for the Talamae, also
including your personal mission log since donning your suit in the
Arvida-Yee
.
Which by the way is making for some
very
interesting study material. I
would now like to turn this meeting over to Lieutenant Commander Willison.”

“Thank you, Admiral Dunning. Now
Lieutenant Roehl, let us begin with your first indication of hostile activity.
Can you recall…”

“So let me summarize,” said Lucinda
Dunning as the recorder turned off two Standard hours later. “We have found a
new manhome planet. On approach to this system, your vessel was attacked by
Kruss, without hail or provocation. You managed to defeat the first attacker,
and believe, with some cause, that you destroyed the second even as they killed
your ship.

“You landed, befriended the human
indigenes, and now personally hold office as the supreme military commander of
one of the indig human factions, with several others allied. The Kruss have
also landed, and allied with another human faction. Is there some reason we
should not simply adopt this world as a Regnum protectorate and tell the Kruss
to kiss off? It looks like we’ve beat them - barely - to getting our foot in
the door here. They may have been here first, but I’ve got the system, and I
intend to hold it.”

“Actually, Admiral, there may be
several
reasons why we won’t annex this world.” Dr. Pennington raised one finger.
“First, since it has an indigenous human population, under both Regnum and
Civilium law this planet belongs to its inhabitants. Indeed, absent another
sentient native species, this entire
system
is their property.

“Second, we must realize that under
Kruss
law, a new planet is simply a territorial extension of their home
world Krusslath, and up for grabs to the strongest grabber, or the
only
one, which they usually manage to be. Civilium law tends to correspond with
ours in respecting the wishes of the indigenes, but the situation has simply
never arisen before, where Kruss and Regnum each have a presence and alliances
with humans indigenes on the same hablet.

“However I must caution you, the
precedents are not totally favorable. We collided with the Kruss out on
Darkwall. If you recall, those natives, neither human nor Kruss, petitioned
successfully to be made a Civilium wardstate, and have chosen essentially
quarantine ever since. And there was the case of Sharpspur, where the Kruss
landed just hours before the Noopish traders. Even though the Noopisha home
world was only a few lightyears away, the Kruss won because the Civilium
Judiciary ruled first-in, first claim.” Small frowns and a wince around the
table at the mention of the Noopisha, a race long since absorbed into the Kruss
empire.