The Engines of Dawn (15 page)

"You can't afford it," Fontenot said.

"What is it?"

"Ten million dollars," Fontenot said with a lizardly smile. "More than you've got."

"That's unconstitutional," Holcombe said. "They didn't do anything to warrant such an exorbitant bond. That would be harassment. And I don't think that'll look good in court."

"Who's going to file charges of harassment against campus security?" Fontenot said with a laugh. "You? If you do, then I'll throw
you
in jail for jeopardizing an investigation into high crimes against the Human Community and the Enamorati Compact."

"You can't do that," Holcombe said.

"I'm going to do it right now," Fontenot said as he stepped toward Albert Holcombe.

"I wouldn't," came a voice from behind them.

Making their way through the mob came Messrs. Sammons and Wangberg, their ominous deadman standing behind them. The deadman's neck had elevated itself by eighteen inches in order for its eyes to take everything in.

"Who let those guys in here?" Fontenot shouted back to his people in the outer offices.

"That doesn't matter," said Advocate Sammons. "You've broken a few laws yourself."

Lieutenant Fontenot's face seemed to turn crimson and spittle began to gather at the corners of his mouth.

Sammons spoke before Fontenot could erupt. "You've held these men without immediate access to counsel. You've denied them bail, which, given the nature of the crime you're accusing them of, is unconscionable. You've then denied third parties in posting bond in lieu of the accused doing so on their own."

"And I want to know what the hell
that
thing is," Ben said, pointing to the alien. "It could have
killed
us while you guys were playing squid!"

Fontenot leveled an accusatory finger at Ben.
"He
assaulted the High Auditor and I witnessed it."

"That's horsesnit! Nethercott and his javelinas tackled me!" Ben said. "And since when do the Auditors work for campus security? They're a
religious
order! They can't do
anything
to
anybody
on the ship! And those motherfuckers
jumped
us!"

"They were acting as concerned citizens of Eos," Fontenot said. "I deputized them."

"You
deputized
them? You can't deputize them! They're fucking
priestsl"
Ben said.

Sammons raised a hand. "We'll let the courts decide the issue." He looked at Fontenot with absolutely no hint of fear on his face. "Right now, we've got enough evidence to put you in there with them, Mr. Fontenot. Is that what you want?"

Fontenot's eyebrows came together belligerently. "These . ..
men
constitute a threat not only to the ship but to the Enamorati Compact! They witnessed the Enamorati's sacred Engine-removal ceremony."

"Were they outside the ship?" Mr. Wangberg asked.

Fontenot hesitated. "Technically, no. We caught them inside a telescope pod just as it was returning to its bay."

"Were the bays off-limits?" Sammons asked.

"Well, no-"

"What other proof do you have?" Sammons demanded.

Fontenot stammered. "They were outside the ship! That's all the proof I need!"

"Yes, but, how do you
know
they were?" Sammons asked.

Fontenot's fists clenched. "Listen, Winn. These men have committed one of the most heinous crimes against the Enamorati in human history! Was I supposed to sit back and let them do it?"

Mr. Sammons stepped in front of Fontenot. "Then
you
made the first move in the astronomy lab."

Fontenot blinked. "We
had
to, because we thought that-"

"So these men were
provoked,"
Sammons interrupted. "They were forced to defend themselves. That's assault and battery right there. Let me ask you this, Lieutenant. Has Mr. Nethercott filed charges of aggravated assault against Mr. Bennett or any of his friends here?"

Fontenot thrust out his chest. "The Ainge are not vindictive. This isn't about revenge, as far as they are concerned."

"Then you are holding these men illegally," Sammons said. "And
that
fact will be used if or when this goes to trial."

Fontenot could barely stifle his rage. "But they
saw
the ceremony! That's the
one
law
nobody
can break!"

"Do you have proof that they witnessed the event?" Sammons asked once more. "I'm sure that these men would have been smart enough to have made a video recording of the event, if that's what they had intended to do. Did you confiscate a data tile with the video record?"

"They made a tile," Fontenot said. "But one of them erased it. I think it was Clock. That's him right there."

"So you have no proof that they did anything wrong?" Mr. Wangberg asked with the deadman right beside him.

"I guess we don't," he finally admitted.

Everyone had been ignoring the alien. Upon Fontenot's admission, the Accuser turned and headed for the doorway. He made no comment. He merely walked out of the room.

Sammons said, "You have nothing to hold these men on. Charge them with a crime for which you've got immediate
cause
or let them go."

"Fine," he said, throwing his hand in the air. "Fine! Turn them
all
loose. They only
broke
the Enamorati Compact!"

"Prove that," Dr. Holcombe demanded. "Right here, right now. Especially in front of this guy." Holcombe pointed to the deadman whose head was now back in place.

Fontenot gave Holcombe a fierce stare.
"You'd
better watch it, old man," Fontenot said. "You pick the wrong side in this and you'll suffer the consequences."

Holcombe, a bear-sized man, stood before the head of campus security. "Any time you and your pet squirrels want a piece of me, just ask. I will pull out your
liver
and eat it while you die."

The room filled with tense silence.

But the beleaguered lieutenant merely turned and pushed his way out of the room. The skirmish had been lost, but not the war. The war had simply entered a new phase.

18

"Is Holcombe always like that?" Ben whispered to Julia as they left the campus-security detention center.

The group was led by an energized Albert Holcombe. The man now seemed like a walking dynamo, fired up by his rage.

"No," Julia whispered. "I've never seen him like this."

Her breath, Ben noticed, smelled of peppermint; her hair had the aura of a springtime wind drifting across the prairie just after the rain. She filled his senses.

In fact, Ben had noticed lately that all of his senses seemed to be a bit sharper. His hearing was more acute and his mind seemed to work faster. Either he was in love or the excitement of getting a glimpse of an Engine had cracked the calcification in his brain from having been in school so long.

Or perhaps it was the simple pleasure of punching a major Gray-High Auditor Joseph Nethercott-in the snoot and getting away with it.

Holcombe waited for them at the transit portal. He looked around him-the walls and the ceiling, the dreary brownish gray confines of campus security. "This place is for the birds," he said.

"You mean the detention center?" Julia asked.

"No," Holcombe said. "I mean the ship. It's run by a bunch of deadmen. They've let the life drain out of themselves long ago."

They followed him into the transit portal and within seconds they were back in the archaeology department. Ben's friends had decided to go back to their dorm rooms to recuperate. Holcombe headed for the department's main offices and Ben and Julia followed.

Holcombe stood before his own 2D and said, "Screen, open. President Porter. Regents' Priority Override."

"Contacting. Stand by,"
the voice of the computer said.

"What's this about?" Julia asked.

Holcombe stood like a Viking, arms crossed, ready to do battle. "There's a famous quote by a Roman historian that I've always loved. Tacitus once said, "They make a desolation and call it peace.' Tacitus was speaking about the Romans, bringers of civilization to England. It's always reminded me of the Ainge Church."

The 2D screen came alive. The view was President Porter's personal quarters. Holcombe had caught the man at home. However, in the background was the hovering 3D image of the Kuulo Kuumottoomaa, with whom Porter must have been conversing.

Porter asked,
"What is it, Albert? How may I help you?"

Ben and Julia stood beside each other next to Professor Holcombe, well within view of the reciprocal camera's eye.

Holcombe spoke. "Just moments ago, campus security arrested several students for no reason whatsoever and detained them without allowing them proper access to counsel or to medical treatment. They needed medical treatment because they were physically assaulted by that fascist Fontenot and his men. If the Rights Advocacy Office hadn't been available, Fontenot would have thrown us all in jail and it would have been days before you would have heard of it."

A momentary look of confusion passed across Porter's face.
"Albert, Ted doesn't act rashly. I'm sure that whatever he did was in the best interests of the ship."

"Do you know what the situation was?" Holcombe asked.

"Well, I'm sure he would have informed me as soon as the situation was stabilized."

"The son of a bitch is a cowboy!" Holcombe shouted. "Look, he not only tried to arrest four students who were conducting experiments in an astronomy lab, but he enlisted several Auditors to help him out. Hasn't anyone told you this?"

Nolan Porter held out his hand helplessly.
"Albert, I can't be on top of every little fracas on the vessel."

"Fracas?"
Ben said.

He stepped in front of Professor Holcombe in full view of the televisor lens.

"Do you know that there's another class of Enamorati on this ship? They're called 'Accusers' and they put one of them in detention with us. Its e-suit was body armor."

Ben felt some of Holcombe's rage. He went on. "And since when is there another class of Enamorati? We've known the Enamorati for over a hundred and fifty years! What else are they hiding from us?"

Holcombe gently pushed Ben aside. "Ted Fontenot is a loose cannon. He's deputized the Ainge Auditors into the ranks of campus security and he's allowing these Accusers, whatever the hell they are, in on civilian detention matters. Is Fontenot running the show now?"

"Albert… Albert, there has been a misunderstanding,"
Porter insisted.
"Lieutenant Fontenot would never incarcerate anyone unless circumstances warranted it."

Ben jumped back into the frame. "I want to know what that creature was! I want to know how many of them are back there. There could be a whole fucking
army
back there!"

"Watch your language, young man,"
Porter said stiffly.
"You do not speak to an Auditor that way."

Holcombe held Ben back. "Nolan, I called you because I don't think our students are safe anymore. The Accuser is only part of it. From where I'm standing, it looks like campus security, the Auditors,
and
the Enamorati are running the ship. And that's in clear violation of Eos University's charter. And that thing
was
wearing body armor, Nolan. I think it's from a warrior class the Enamorati haven't told us about."

Behind Nolan Porter the image of the Kuulo Kuumottoomaa hovered. He had been listening to the discussion. The alien said,
"The
armaz-paava
are sentries, not soldiers. Their duties include being observers in legal affairs. Perhaps 'Accuser' is not the right word in your language to describe them, but they are most definitely
not
warriors. Our sentries are devoted to everyone's protection, including yours."

Ben said, "Hey, that guy had
no
intention of protecting anybody! I was there!"

The Kuulo went on.
"As for the other matter, I would respectfully counsel everyone to remain on the ship until the new Engine arrives. We don't yet know the date of its arrival and it might be awkward if too many of your people were coming and going from the university."

"I don't care," said Holcombe. "As a Regents Professor I have certain rights and duties that allow me to act in times of crisis. We've got six gondolas already fitted for descent tomorrow. Six more can be outfitted within twelve hours. We've got fifteen inflatable biodomes for surface habitation. If the Ainge and the Enamorati are running the ship, that's in clear violation of university charter. I demand that you allow all those who want to go, to go down to the surface and wait in our habitats for rescue from the H.C."

The president protested.
"But Albert, if hundreds of students are on the planet when the Engine arrives, they will just have to return again until the insertion ceremony is over."

"We won't see a thing if we're on the surface of the planet," Holcombe said. "The atmosphere's too thick at sea level and none of the gondola scanners have the necessary visual resolution to see ships in orbit. We won't see a thing."

Here the Kuulo spoke. He said,
"But it may take days to retrieve hundreds of vessels. We should be on our way as soon as the Engine is fitted and passes its first test cycle. The planet below can be explored by a later expedition."

Ben stepped back into the frame. "And what's this business of taking Eos University to some place called Wolfe-Langaard 4?"

President Porter frowned.
"Son, don't believe anything you read in the newspaper. Those are very troubled students
-"

"I was there when the Tagani Tormis told us the Enamorati had decided to take us there. I don't think the Tagani was lying or misinformed."

The Kuulo spoke immediately.
"The Tagani was mistaken. His caste does not sit on our Council. He probably had heard a rumor or two and accidentally passed it on."