The Lord of the Plains (56 page)

‘Look, you guys need to open your eyes. This
isn’t Astar. It can’t be Astar.’

‘I see it’s not Astar. But can’t be?’ Alann
shook his head. ‘As part of the Coastside mission alcohol
consumption will be curtailed and cut off, Aleitar. You
underestimate our determination.’

Aleitar met his eyes calmly. ‘Go ask the
submariners here what they’ll do if Astarians do that.’

‘I think you have an idea.’

‘I think they’ll tell
you
to get on
the damn subs and defend the coast.’

Alann said nothing. This job wasn’t easy, on
any level, but it was his mission. Really, that was all that
mattered, not whether he liked it or not.

‘By the way, don’t
actually
suggest
that.’ Aleitar added quickly.

‘Why ever not, submariner?’ Alann asked a
touch sarcastically.

Aleitar gazed at him steadily. ‘Because I
think you guys have pushed too close to the limit. I don’t know how
much more the Coastsiders will put up with. Things could get
ugly.’

Commander Reista had been getting a lot of
unwelcome visitors lately. First, Mr Fisley, demanding to know
which of the submariners had stormed into his office and brutally
attacked him (his words). The Commander had replied pleasantly
saying, ‘I don’t know, Mr Fisley, they all look the same to me.
We’ll have a look for him anyway.’ Then Mr Geiba had showed up. At
least he had provided a way to reprimand Vann for his pyrotechnics.
He’d always paid close attention to Vann as he was growing up, the
same as with all the other orphans. Still, that didn’t mean the boy
got any special treatment. Not that Mr Fisley was made aware of
that. Vann was reprimanded the same as any other submariner when he
screwed up, not that that happened often, he thought with a touch
of pride.

Now it was this group of Astarian officials
making noise about contraceptives, of all things!

‘It’s a waste of resources to produce such
things. And such… promiscuousness spreads disease.’ A stiff,
expressionless man was saying. ‘No more are to be produced.’

‘Certainly, Mr…?’

‘Rollis.’

‘Mr Rollis. Alright then. Shall we cancel
the classes then?’

‘Classes?’

‘Well, the submariners are taught how to use
those resources in basic training. It wouldn’t do for disease to
spread among our forces. But I imagine you consider that a waste of
time too?’

Mr Rollis said nothing.

‘And what shall we do with all the
parentless children then, Mr Rollis?’

Mr Rollis frowned. ‘I don’t understand, sir.
Parentless?’

‘Well, Mr Rollis. Many of the young men and
women of Coastside have multiple partners. I imagine parentage will
be hard to determine. Most of course, will be unwanted. Most likely
they’ll be abandoned. So what shall we do with them?’

‘Control the submariners, Commander! Is that
so hard to do? It is your job, isn’t it?!’ a small, fiery faced man
yelled.

The Commander smiled pleasantly. ‘I’m afraid
the submariners will do what they always do, with or without those
wasteful contraceptives. There’s no getting around that, so,’ he
smiled, ‘the children, gentlemen, what will we do with them? I
imagine the birth rate will more than quadruple! I’m afraid
Coastside may be unable to handle that. Will Astar take them? I
suppose it won’t be too bad, they can replace all the submariners
we’ll lose to disease.’

‘Surely they wouldn’t continue with such
practices if they were ill!’

Commander Reista just smiled.

The man began to look a little sick
himself.

‘Let’s move on. We’ll come back to this
later.’ One of the others, Miss Dellas, said quickly, ‘the amount
of alcohol consumed is also of great concern. It is wasteful,
unnecessary, time wasting and dangerous to the health. There will
be no more of it.’

‘None?’ Commander Reista asked.

‘None.’

‘Ah, well.’

‘Do you have a problem with that,
Commander?’ Mr Rolg asked primly.

‘Well, you’ll have to find some new
submariners of course. Well there you go! That’s what we’ll do with
all the children when they grow up! Good there’ll be so many, I
imagine they won’t stay on the job long.’

‘Why on earth would we have to do that?’
Miss Dellas asked, ignoring the last part.

‘Why, because they’ll mutiny of course!’

‘Nonsense.’ Mr Rollis harrumphed. ‘There may
be some grumbling, but they’ll get used to it.’

‘I assure you, if you tell the submariners
they aren’t to drink they will not work.’

‘Let me ask you people something.’ Commander
Reista leant back in his chair, his pleasant smile gone. ‘Has Astar
had any problems with the supplies coming in through
Coastside?’

‘No.’ Mr Rollis replied, ‘you would have
received a complaint if there was.’

‘Hmm, so you’re telling me there is no
problem with Coastside’s performance?’

‘Just your depraved behaviour!’ the fiery
man interjected. ‘Wasteful!’

‘I see. So until Mr Geiba came racing back
whingeing about our… depravity, was it?’

‘Yes, sir, quite depraved.’ Mr Rolg
said.

‘So until Mr Geiba’s review, you had no
problem at all with Coastside.’

‘That’s correct.’ they agreed slowly.

‘Then let me make a suggestion. Don’t mess
with what has worked so far. I let you evict Dr Ralis, I’ve let you
waste my submariners time fighting that gemeng of yours. I strongly
suggest you content yourselves with that.’ He smiled then, a
threatening smile. ‘I’m afraid we may have some problems
otherwise.’

There was silence. Silence filled with
fidgeting.

Commander Reista knew what the few Astarians
among the submariners had been saying to the Astar team. Why, he’d
given them suggestions after all. His threat wasn’t quite so
formless as it seemed.

Miss Dellas, her eyes wide and roaming
around nervously, began, ‘I’m sure you understand the nature of
your submariners better than we do, Commander…’

Reista just smiled.

‘I think to… to convince ourselves of what
you say however…’ her eyes flicked around the rest of her group, as
if hoping for help. She coughed. ‘Well, why don’t we replace one of
the submarine crews with an Astarian crew? They will of course not
be so depraved.’ she said that last part confidently, but it
instantly withered away under the Commander’s scowl. ‘A-and, we’ll
decide how to t-treat Coastside… depending on the results of
that-that crew.’ she trailed off.

The Commander gazed at her for a long
moment. ‘And who is going to train these Astarians?’ he asked.

‘W-well, they would have to be trained
here-’

‘I see. So which submarine would you like to
waste on your little experiment? And what will I do with the crew
of highly trained submariners your Astarians will be
replacing?’

‘Astar will fund the experiment. Once it is
proved to you all this is nonsense, there will be no more
complaints from you about curtailing drink and…so on.’ Mr Rollis
cleared his throat. Quickly then he said, ‘the fishing statistics,
Commander, did you look at them?’

The Commander frowned darkly and pushed the
relevant folder of information over to them. ‘I can’t imagine why
you think I know anything about fishing. Why? Don’t you trust your
counters?’

Mr Rollis looked at him darkly. When
Commander Reista returned the look he cleared his throat again and
went on. ‘Well then, we’ll put the new pricing measures in place.
We’ve decided against transporting the seafood to Astar. The
necessary cooling measures are, I’m afraid, too costly.’

‘Certainly.’ Commander Reista had noticed
that the fishermen had succeeded in hiding a fair amount of their
equipment and catch from the Astarians. He certainly wasn’t going
to tell that to these presumptuous fools though.

‘T-the… medicinal supplies aren’t
staggered.’ Miss Dellas said.

‘No. They have always been exempt.’
Commander Reista held her eyes until she looked away.

‘The staggering on the other goods and
services is, while at least present, rather loose.’

‘Unless our actions cause some calculable
suffering to Astar, I suggest you not come bother us again.’

‘The experimental sub, Commander,’ Mr Rollis
pressed.

‘You’ll have it. Astar will fund the
building and maintenance of a new sub. Then you can do what you
like with it.’

‘Building? Surely we can ‘rent’ one of the
operational subs-’

‘And displace one of my crews? No, Mr
Rollis, the submariners are too vital to be lost in your silly
games. Send over your Astarians. I imagine you’ll want to provide
your own instructor, ours are all depraved after all.’

‘But we don’t have-’

‘Really? Well, you can hire your own
instructor from here then too.’

Mr Rollis glared at him darkly. ‘Very well,
make this as difficult as you want. We will prove your depravity is
not understandable or acceptable, that it is not necessary to
working in the submarines.’

‘Hah!’ The Commander laughed. ‘Good
luck!’

Chapter 44

‘I don’t know what to do.’

Lillia watched Vann, her eyes filled with
concern. He was staring out of her window, a look on his face she
had never seen before.

He turned to her. It hurt Lillia to see that
look in his eyes.

‘Why doesn’t she want me?’ he asked.

‘Vann, shouldn’t you move on from this
girl?’ she suggested gently.

He shook his head and went back to looking
out the window.

‘Maybe it’s not you. Maybe she just doesn’t
want a relationship, who knows what’s going on in her life.’

‘She won’t even talk to me…’

He spun away from the window, possessed by a
sudden burst of energy. He walked over to her mirror and glared at
himself.

‘Maybe she doesn’t like guys in the
military.’ For most girls, the submariner’s uniform was like a
magnet. But Riley was surrounded by military men all day, perhaps
it worked the opposite way for her. At least, he hoped. It was
something. He needed something.

‘Vann, there’s nothing wrong with how you
look, I’m sure it’s not that.’ Lillia stressed. ‘It’s probably
something else.’

‘Maybe it’s my cast.’

‘How would that be a problem?’ Lillia asked.
‘Vann, don’t you
dare
take that thing off!’

He turned to her, ‘she doesn’t
want
me. Lillia…’ panic was entering his eyes, ‘what if she thinks of me
how I think of Azra?’

‘Vann…’

He started pacing. ‘But why- if she just
told me what to do, Lillia, I can’t, she
can’t
think of me
like that!’

‘Vann, stop,’ Lillia grabbed his shoulder
gently, ‘Vann, how about I go talk to her ok?’ she said soothingly.
‘Offer to show her around. It will be different coming from
me.’

‘Lillia, I need to know her. I just want to
get to know her.’