Chapter 8
by Dan Kirk
“What made you think you had the authority to offer these terms?” Captain Mikhail Leran asked Garret with a frown. They were in a small room on the Lemos Military Research Station. The room’s furniture, a small table and two chairs pretty much filled it up completely. Garret was beginning to suspect that it had been a closet before. The air circulation in here was bad, and there was sweat forming under his crisp civilian Captain’s uniform.
“Captain, my commission as a Lieutenant was legally activated by Lieutenant Marsters, and she conceded tactical command to me.” Garret answered the Captain steadily and calmly. Leran’s thinning brown hair was rather long, and combed over his high forehead to hide the acne scars there. His pock-marked face had an extra layer of fat on it, and his black military coveralls didn’t hide his growing girth too well. There was even a layer of skin from his neck hanging over his closed collar and almost touching the silver eagles of his rank.
“That doesn’t give you the authority to promise the surviving pirates a trial.” Leran snorted. He had shown an immediate distaste for Garret the moment his squadron had made orbit of Lemos. Whether it was because Garret was a clone, or that Garret was primarily a civilian who had saved the day, or that he was associated with House Lars, Garret wasn’t sure yet. Then again, it could have been all three of those factors.
“Is not an officer’s word binding on the Republic in matters like this?” Garret asked with a tilt of his head. “Since when does the Republic no longer back the word of its commissioned officers?”
“There are irregularities with your commissioning.” Leran’s voice was derisive now as he stared at Garret. “No clone has ever been commissioned before, you did not finish your last year at your vaunted Academy, and your commission is as a Reservist, which doesn’t entail all the rights and privileges of an active officer. Besides, that notion is outdated, just like most of the ideas springing from your little elitist Academy.”
“Irregularities do not invalidate the commission.” Garret countered with a small smile calculated to anger the senior officer without being an open insult. Okay, so he’d missed one more reason for the officer to dislike him: Garret was a product of the Colonial Elite Forces Academy. It would be interesting to see which school had produced Leran as an officer for the military. “The statement that no clone has been commissioned before is factually incorrect as well.”
“You’re calling me a liar?” Leran fumed with his cheeks turning slightly red.
“No, sir, I’m stating that the claim was slightly inaccurate.” Garret responded calmly; fully aware of the holo-recorder that was catching everything that happened in the room. The Base Commander, General Larry Nunes controlled that recorder. Unlike Leran, Nunes did not have this apparent prejudice against Academy graduates and would ensure the recording wasn’t tampered with to Garret’s detriment. “There have been four other clones commissioned before me, all of them 10-11MX clones. I was the last one produced. The major differences between them and I are that they were not raised in a House, rather by families from more common backgrounds, the youngest of them was five months older than me, and they’re all dead.”
“Maybe not.” Leran muttered and Garret’s eyebrows shot up towards his hairline.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Garret asked.
“If you insist you had the authority to offer a trial to the surviving Pirate clones that held Lemos Station, then the Republic will honor that promise.” Leran said with a sad shake of his head, changing the topic from Garret’s question.
“I do.” Garret answered with a shrug. “What else was I to do? I didn’t have a few squads of marines to send over to take back the station and blowing up that station would have done the Republic more harm, as well as cost it more money than a few hundred trials will cost.”
“You have a shipboard security force made up of 09 model clones designed for combat.” Leran pointed out facetiously.
“They have no armor, and only heavy stunners as weapons.” Garret stated.
“Your ship carries enough laser sidearms for the entire crew.” Leran shot back and Garret allowed himself to be impressed by how well informed Leran was about his ship’s operations.
“Yes, we have sidearms, and a dozen assault rifles.” Garret admitted cautiously, catching the gaze of brown eyes and holding them in his. “We don’t have armor though. You know as well as I that even if I used every member of my crew we would have been cut down and when your squadron arrived, you would have found the Adamant in the hands of the pirates.”
“We’ll never know for sure.” Leran retorted before shrugging his shoulders. “Tell me, Lars, where does your loyalty really lie?”
“My loyalty?” Garret was surprised by the question, and the sudden change in tact. Leran was holding his gaze now, not letting Garret’s green eyes escape.
“Yes, your loyalty.” Leran responded. “Where does your loyalty really lie?”
“I’m a loyal son of the Republic.” Garret said with conviction. “I was created to serve the Republic, and the Republic holds my loyalty.”
“What about your House?” Leran pressed, leaning forward slightly.
“I am loyal to the Republic first, and then to my House.” Garret’s answer was the same as any other son of a Great House might give to this question. “After those two, it is to my company and those who look to me for their well-being.”
“Appropriate words, as might be expected.” Leran replied. “I wonder how many people might believe them after what we’ve learned from the prisoners.”
“What we’ve learned?” Garret asked and then cursed himself silently as he saw a cloud pass over the older man’s eyes.
“None of your concern, for now.” Leran said as he stood up. “You are not to leave orbit until you’ve received your clearance from me directly.”
“I have a schedule to maintain, deliveries to make.” Garret protested.
“Your other ships may leave as soon as they are loaded.” Leran allowed as he turned away from Garret. “Lucky for you, enough ore and fuel remain to fill the holds of your ships. The Adamant and you stay though, until you’ve been cleared.”
“As you command.” Garret said with a bow of his head as the man left the room. His next run was supposed to be a cargo hold full of citeesium ore to the shipyards at Obduros. There were also supposed to be forty passengers, all ‘C’ class.
“Marjaan’s not going to be happy about this.” Garret muttered to himself as he left the room and headed down the corridor towards the base’s landing pads. From Obduros they were taking a load of military repair parts, and nearly four hundred passengers to the planet Shinawa. From Shinawa, they were scheduled to carry Speaker Toshiro Ito of House Ito along with five hundred of his retainers and household staff to Peladon along with almost a full load of highly perishable gourmet food products for the high-culture dining establishments on the Republic’s capital planet.
A delay of more than two days would put them so far behind schedule that not even the Adamant’s boosted military engines could get them there in time to meet the contracted delivery dates.
As Garret entered the covered landing pad where one of his ship’s smaller shuttles waited for him, he flinched at the acrid residual smell of the planet’s atmosphere. His stride quickened as he headed towards the shuttle and he barely paused to return the acknowledgement from the 08 model who was waiting for him at the base of the shuttle’s loading ramp.
“How’d it go, sir?” The pilot asked as he followed Garret up the ramp.
“Not as well as I expected.” Garret admitted with a frown as they reached the top of the ramp. He sat down in the main cabin, pulling the harness tight as the pilot raised the ramp. “Get us back into space.”
“Aye aye, Captain.” The pilot replied with a nod, heading into the cockpit. He left the door open behind him, a courtesy to Garret, and it wasn’t long before the small utility shuttle’s engines thrummed with life and the primary pilot began speaking with the base’s flight controllers, requesting opening of the pad doors above them, and an orbital insertion flight path. Two minutes later the vertical take-off engines roared and the shuttle was leaving the acrid, barely-life-sustaining atmosphere of Lemos behind as it rose towards space.
Their ascent into orbit was not a direct upward path, so they managed to avoid the gaggle of warships parked in orbit above the research base. Leran had parked his heavy cruiser there, along with several of the destroyers and frigates while two more destroyers and a single frigate were guarding the Lemos Space Station. The space above Lemos was now heavily defended, and it was Captain Leran who controlled things outside the atmosphere of Lemos.
The shuttle ride at least gave Garret some time to think about the last two days of interviews, or interrogations, with the naval Captain. After their last conversation, it seemed obvious he had it in for Garret due to several reasons, all of which culminated in a huge animosity.
There were also several mysteries to this whole attack. Why would whatever they had learned call Garret’s loyalty into question, or the loyalties of all clones for that matter? Clones were ingrained with loyalty to the Republic from the day they came out of the gestation chambers. A disloyal clone might be found here or there, but was always terminated immediately. The only line of clones that ever evidenced any real instability had long since been discontinued (the 05 model). There were nearly a thousand prisoners: a few hundred from the station and the rest were survivors from the arm of the Mother Ship that had been blown off by Garret’s attack. Garret had not heard of any True Born prisoners… could the clones have been working on their own?
No, not likely at all. There had been that courier ship that had escaped. It was large enough to have held a dozen True Borns, if not more. That wasn’t an unreasonable number to have been in control of the Mother Ship. In fact, with a largely clone crew, that would make sense because their share of the profits would have been greater.
Yet another question was what, if anything, all this had to do with the MX series of clones? They were all dead, the last dying in a fighter battle near the area where the Federation, the Empire, and the Republic all had a common border. Four Federation Mother Ships with their attendant vessels had joined a battle with the Forty-Eighth Heavy Carrier battle group against the Empire’s 108th Marine Expeditionary Force and Carrier Group Sixty-Eight. Two days after that battle, the war had ended.
“Sir, we’re being directed to the station’s docking bay instead of the Adamant.” The pilot’s voice came back from the cockpit. “Apparently there’s a damaged destroyer coming in and they need us out of their flight path.”
“Fine by me.” Garret replied. It’d mean a few minute’s walk to his ship, but was otherwise no problem. He wondered why a damaged destroyer was coming here, though instead to a military outpost where it could be more easily repaired.
The shuttle landed in the station’s landing bay without any further troubles, and Garret made his way through the crowded corridors towards the docking port where his ship was located. Most of the people in the corridors were clones who’d been transported aboard his ships, and it seemed they recognized him from the nods of respect they gave him. The nods were deeper than what a clone would normally give a regular human walking by him, and he expected most of them would think he was a human with his green eyes, but something about the way they all stood so solemnly and gave him deep nods of respect unnerved him. They should not be reacting like that towards him.
“Welcome home, sir.” Marna said with a toss of her brown hair as he came through the docking hatch.
A crew of techs that were coming back onboard from their EVA excursion to repair part of the hull damage came through behind him, and he stepped aside to make room for them. “How did things go planetside?”
“Poorly.” Garret frowned, thinking back to just how much a long delay here could cost his new company. “That Captain Leran has a burr up his butt about me and I don’t exactly know why.”
“Well, the ship’s officers are waiting for our staff meeting that you wanted to have as soon as you returned.” Marna said as she pulled out a small data pad and began to read through it like she was checking off items on a list. “Gospedene Blashame has invited you to dinner on the station tonight, and he made it very clear he wanted to discuss business with you afterwards. I’d suggest accepting the invitation.”
“Fine.” Garret said as the last of the technicians finished going past him. He started off towards the conference room connected to the ship’s wardroom. Most of the Officer Staff meetings were held there so refreshments could be easily served.
“Thank you, sir.” Marna said lightly, showing her appreciation for Garret’s listening to her advice. She knew Garret probably wouldn’t have wanted to go to the dinner, but the administrative clone that had called up from Blashame’s staff office had been quite explicit about how important the dinner could be for BGL Shipping and Transport. “Also, a communiqué came through from the commanding officer of the Admiral Alexis Minot requesting a meeting with you in a few hours. There’s time for it between the staff meeting and your dinner.”
“What ship is that?” Garret asked, not knowing the answer off the top of his head. He could probably ask the AI, but Ada, as she was now insisting on being called, was busy communing with some other computer nearby, as well as keeping an eye on the almost-completed repairs. Ada was also humming softly, which now that he was back onboard was setting Garret’s teeth on edge. At least planetside he’d been at such a range that she’d have to make a conscious effort to communicate with him. Here, onboard, it was pretty much automatic unless he switched off his transmitter or she made a real effort to block him out.
“It’s the damaged destroyer that just finished docking.” Marna answered with a strange tone. “She’s one of the new class of destroyers.”
“Ah, one of the dead admirals class.” Garret nodded to himself at that bit of information. There were six ships in the class that had been produced before the end of the war. O’Leary Shipyards had designed them and they closely resembled Adamant, and had actually been prototypes for a lot of his ship’s special features. They were half as long as his ship, and they didn’t have a lower hull section like his.
They still had the distinctive silver-finished citeesium armor, a new blend of the rare metal that had proven to be much more effective than previous alloy blends, and the destroyer-type also featured a single Type 68C reactor instead of the three that the Adamant held. These were the most advanced reactors in the fleet, providing more power than any other ship reactors in existence. He hadn’t seen the Minot as it pulled in, but if it had been in a firefight, the station’s crew wouldn’t be able to help with repairs because of the new systems.
Garret’s crew, on the other hand, might be able to provide a lot of assistance since the two ships were so similar. That made the request to meet with the destroyer’s skipper very logical. It also meant he could make some money while his ship was tied up here waiting for Captain Leran to authorize him to leave.
“Okay, Marna, fit him in to my schedule.” Garret ordered. “We’ll meet in my cabin.”
“Yes, sir.” Marna said as they reached the conference room.
“Anything else before we go inside?” He asked her and she shook her head. He strode forward as the hatch opened. All of his officers and their immediate subordinates were already seated at the large table, and the wardroom attendants had put out a light lunch before each person. They rose as he entered, and sat back down as he took his own seat. He took a sip of his fruit juice before beginning the meetings.
“Captain Leran has cleared the other ships in our group to leave as soon as they are loaded, but we’re going to be here for a few more days while he finishes his investigation.” He told them, going right to business. It was Garret’s belief that staff meetings should be as succinct as possible, something he’d gotten from watching Marja Lars conduct House staff meetings. “I don’t know how long we’ll be stuck here, but it’s going to be a few days at the least. Engineering, we should be ready to make all possible speed once we’re cleared for departure. Now, let’s begin with status reports.”
The reports went fairly quickly. One of their reactors had taken minor shock damage during the battle, and repairs had been finished early in the morning. Hull repairs were now mostly completed as well. There had been a few sections of armor that were nearly burned away, and they had erected portable environmental shelters to allow the re-application of armor patches on those sections. The repaired points would be slightly weaker than the original armor had been, but was far better than leaving bare hull in case of another attack.
The loadmaster reported that all outgoing cargo had been offloaded, and that most of the new cargo had been loaded. They would finish loading the new cargo this afternoon. Marna reported all passengers had been off-loaded as well, and they were set to board new passengers. Garret authorized letting them onboard right away so that they could leave as soon as the ship had received clearance. It would also relieve some of the congestion on the station.
Gary reported that the cabins were all being cleaned with the departure of their passengers. There was some minor damage to a few of them, which would be catalogued and charged to Blashame’s company. The journalist, Anova had decided to book passage through to Shinawa, and so would be staying with them for another few weeks. He also reported that the entertainment deck had finally been cleaned after the pool water escaped its force fields during the battle. Most of the equipment had been salvaged as well.
The Supply Master reported that while consumables were running a little low, they were in fine condition for the next leg of their journey, even if they were delayed here another week. She’d also sold a goodly amount of the emergency rations they carried for disaster assistance (as required by Republic law, and for which they’d be reimbursed handsomely next time they pulled into Peladon).
The ship’s doctor reported that all of the injured had been released from his care and that his sickbay was in decent condition. He’d want to restock some of his medicines at Shinawa, which Garret approved. Also, he reported the two clones who’d been severely whipped had been discharged, although he had not had time to attempt any reduction or removal of the scars forming on their backs. He wasn’t happy about that, but knew there was nothing that could be done.
“Thank you all for your reports.” Garret said as they concluded. “Until we get clearance, I recommend we get the ship ready and use the time for crew relaxation as much as possible. O’Malley, that injured destroyer might need some help from our engineering crews, but I’d also like all of our crew to get as much free time on the entertainment decks as possible.”
“I’ll work out a schedule for them.” Commander Harrington responded and Garret nodded to her.
“Dismissed.” Garret said, standing up and grabbing the plate of untouched food. As the captain, Garret was the first out of the room, and it was a short walk back to his own cabin. The corridors were quiet, and Ada started sharing images with Garret of all the repair work that had gone on while he was away.
Ship AI computers were notoriously fickle when they first began operating. As they grew ‘older’ by operating more and more, their personalities adapted to fit the captain and crew. Ada was still at the stage of essential development, more akin to a teenager with all the knowledge of a grandmother, but without the wisdom that went with the greater age. Her first battle experience had proven to be a huge growing experience, especially her defeat of the computer virus. General Nunes had been fascinated to get the logs of how she’d defeated the virus, and it was something the military had paid for with a million credits to the BGL accounts.
His cabin was tidy, having been picked up while he was gone, and he sat at his desk to finish off the sandwich while letting Ada show him her external visuals of the repaired sections. From a distance they wouldn’t be readily visible, but up close people would see them, and Ada was happy they’d know she’d seen and survived a real battle. When she was done showing him the repairs, she switched to showing the news reports of what was being described as the Pirate Battle of Lemos.
The vid feeds from Anova, and her commentary were truly frightening for him since they showed almost every single reaction from him during the battle. Had his eyes really shone with such… excitement as the battle began and he tricked the cruiser-carrier into a stupid maneuver? Anova’s commentary was even worse – mostly because of her high praise for him.
“Garret Lars, youngest son of Speaker Marja Lars, dominated the engagement with the superior pirate forces, never once wavering in his confidence.” Anova’s commentary was saccharine sweet, and already beamed all over the Republic since Lemos had gotten a communications relay traveling faster than one-half the speed of light. “The mighty Adamant, an armed passenger liner/cargo vessel converted from a military Planetary Assault Flagship, proved the technological superiority of Republic warships, even those converted to civilian use. Meanwhile, Captain Lars showed once again why graduates of the highly praised Elite Forces Academy are so widely revered amongst the Republic’s list of heroes.”
Then they showed the joke he’d made about needing two sticks of gum to blow up a planet.
“I like her.” Ada voiced her opinion directly and Garret shook off an urge to scold his ship’s computer. Then she started giggling in his mind and he grew worried. The last time she’d done that was right before something embarrassing had happened to Commander Harrington. Apparently the ship’s executive officer had made a joke about stupid AI computers. An hour later, Harrington had gone to take a shower and the equipment in her ‘fresher malfunctioned. Harrington had ended up locked outside her flooded stateroom with nothing but a thick towel while the ship’s computer giggled in Garret’s head.
“What are you doing?” Garret demanded of Ada, but she didn’t respond. The sounds of his door chimes ringing made him sigh. With any luck it was the commander of the damaged destroyer, and not some silly joke. Putting the empty plate into the refuse can at the side of his desk, he pushed a button that would open his door.
It didn’t work.
“Ada!” He growled mentally, but there was no response from the ship’s AI. With a grunt he got up and moved to stand in front the door, reaching out and pushing the ‘open’ button when it didn’t open automatically. The damn ship shouldn’t be…
“Oh, hi.” Garret said in a stunned voice as the door swhooshed open and he saw who was standing there.
“Hey bro.” William Lars, Billy to Garret since they were both little boys, said with a familiar crooked grin that made Garret’s knees go weak. Billy Lars was four inches taller than Garret, but of a more slender build. His brown hair was cut short in a high and tight, while his hazel eyes twinkled with merriment.
Responsibility, duty, all those things slid away from Garret’s mind and he wanted nothing more than to melt against Billy in that moment, but a flash of warning in Billy’s eyes meant that was not to be any longer. Garret took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out through his nose, using that age-old technique to regain his composure.
“I didn’t know it was your ship that was damaged.” Garret said carefully, moving aside slightly. “Please, come inside.”
“Thank you.” Billy said with a nod of his head. There was no hug, not even a shaking of the hands, almost as if Billy didn’t trust himself to touch Garret. They sat down on the couch against the far bulkhead, at opposite ends, facing each other. A mental command from Garret to Ada promised that a steward would be there soon with tea and scones.
“What happened?” Garret asked with a lift of his eyebrow.
“I was taking a VIP from Peladon to Shinawa.” Billy answered with a frown. “You probably remember him, Lefhaus Admiral Lumbardon.”
“I saw him in New Prejat the day I got the message from mother.” Garret answered. “I thought he was with Supply?”
“He was… retired.” Billy said with a furtive look. There was a beep at the door and this time the computer opened it for him to admit one of his stewards. The young clone set the tray down on the table in front of the sofa and left quickly. Garret took the teapot and fixed both of them a cup while Billy waited until the door had closed before continuing. “Garret, you might not know this, but things are changing, and they’re changing fast.”
“What do you mean?” Garret asked. Billy gave him a long look as he took the tea Garret had made for him, and sipped it from the fine china cup.
“Let’s talk about that later.” Billy said with a sigh. “Business first, okay?”
“Okay.” Garret sighed as he sipped his own tea. It was both wonderful and painful to be seeing Billy like this. His brother wore the standard black military coveralls with the gold cluster of his rank on the collars. Garret wore his regular merchant captain’s uniform. While they both remained silent for a moment, sipping their tea, Billy looked around at the cabin and a smile finally formed on his face.
“You’re really doing it, aren’t you?” Billy’s voice was that soft caress he remembered very well. It was like, for a moment, the years hadn’t passed by and they were teenagers again, whispering to each other while they lay in bed.
“Yeah, its our dream come true.” Garret said, surprised that there really was no bitterness in his voice.
“Why’d you put my initial first?” Billy asked, referring to the ‘B’ in ‘BGL’.
“Because of how much you’ve always meant to me.” Garret said with a hint of the pain he’d been feeling in his voice.
“I’m sorry.” Billy said softly. “It…she’s a devout Christian and you know how they are. She insists on marital fidelity.”
“I’m sorry too.” Garret said as the last little bit of hope left him. Whatever the reasons he was marrying this woman, Billy’s eyes told him that he would abide by that decision and those vows. It was one of the things he’d loved about Billy.
His brother, and one-time lover rarely made promises unless he knew he could keep them. His promises to Garret had been full of conditions of ‘if’ or ‘maybe’, except the promise that he’d always love Garret like a brother. For a brief moment, both of them reached out and clasped their hands together, their eyes sharing their feelings, and Garret realized that it was going to be enough.
“So, back to business.” Billy said again and Garret nodded as they let their hands drop. “We got jumped by an old Aurelia-class battle cruiser escorted by two Luda-class destroyers. There were no house or government markings on any of the ships. I managed to kill both destroyers, and heavily damage the battle cruiser before it got up to speed and jumped. Our reactor was damaged in the attack and I only had enough power for a short jump, with Lemos just in range. I knew you were inbound here so I took a risk and jumped here. The only other options weren’t likely to have anyone who knew how to work on our type of ships, plus there’s some things that aren’t normally carried by stations that we need.”
“Like what?” Garret asked with curiosity.
“CS fluid for the ship’s AI.” Billy s voice was strained a bit. “Lily is only a Type VII, but she uses the same CS fluid as yours. The ambushers… well their torpedoes were ancient like their ships, but they had updated lasers and rail guns that hit pretty damn hard. Four blasts got through the armor and shields. Two damaged the reactor’s primary and secondary coolant systems. We used up most of our reserve coolant getting the secondaries back online. Another blast destroyed part of our long-range communications and sensor control rooms while the last one damaged the ship’s AI core. We lost about half the fluid in the main AI tank and the entire reserve was blasted out at the same time.”
“I need to remember to have mine moved into a separate location.” Garret said with a frown. “We should have enough coolant and CS fluid on board to get you to a proper repair facility. How’s your crew?”
“Dead tired.” Billy answered. “It took us two days to get up to speed in order to make the jump.”
“As soon as my engineering crews have had a chance to rest up from fixing our own battle damage, I’ll send them over.” Garret offered and was relieved when Billy nodded his acceptance.
“Thanks for the help, bro.” Billy said with his crooked smile.
“Anything for you.” Garret reminded him. “I promised that years ago, and I’ve never regretted it for a moment.”
“Neither have I.” Billy replied. “So, if I decide to leave the military after my term’s up, you got room for me?”
“Without a doubt.” Garret answered with a smile. “We’ll buy some old crate for you and you can tool around looking for all the pretty buttons that make the ship go.”
“Cute.” Billy replied while he chuckled.
“Seriously, yeah, anytime.” Garret said.
“Good because I might need it.” Billy supplied seriously. That got Garret’s attention.
“Why?” Garret asked.
“Because I’m an Academy graduate.” Billy’s answer confused Garret. “Fleet Admiral Richardson is getting ready to retire, and his two most likely replacements do not like the Academy. Most of the senior officers who graduated from the Academy, like Admiral Lumbardon, are being pushed into retirement. Mid-level officers are finding that they aren’t getting promoted, and short-listed onto the deactivation list when they don’t get a promotion. Junior officers… well we’re not being offered re-enlistment.”
“So there’s a bunch of people like Captain Leran taking over the military?” Garret stated his thoughts aloud and Billy winced.
“You’ve met that asshole?” Billy asked.
“Yeah, his squadron arrived here a couple days ago and he’s been doing the investigation on the attack.” Garret stated. “He’s grounded my ship until he finishes.”
“I think coming here was a mistake.” Billy said with a frown. “The man can use my ship’s condition as an excuse to take her away from me.”
“How can he do that?” Garret asked.
“He’s on the short-lists for Commodore, and for command of Task Force 38.” Billy answered. “My ship’s permanently a part of the TF 38. Last month, he took Tim Nolan – you remember him from the Academy, right?”
“Yeah, I do.” Garret agreed.
“Well, Leran stripped Nolan of his frigate command after the ship was scratched during rescue operations.” Billy said with a shrug. “Nolan took off eighty-three crew and passengers from a light transport, as well as saving five-thousand tons of cargo. When the transport blew, part of the debris drilled a hole in the frigate’s armor. It was an old Knox-class with that super-thin armor that isn’t worth a damn. The repairs took four hours and by the time they were done, Leran had removed Nolan from command for ‘needlessly endangering his ship and crew’.
“That’s… that’s plain wrong.” Garret muttered angrily. “Where’s Nolan now?”
“Looking for work on Calos.” Billy answered. “Leran left him penniless without his final check and you know his family’s never been rich.”
“Why haven’t you given him the funds to…” Garret started to ask but shook his head. He knew Nolan’s pride wouldn’t let him take a handout. “Merlinda, that’s our heavy lifter, she’ll be going to Calos in about three weeks. I’ll have her captain look up Nolan and offer him a job.”
“He’ll accept it, even if it’s just as a junior officer on a freighter.” Billy said with approval.
“So, the military’s being taken over by anti-Academy bigots.” Garret concluded with a sigh.
“That’s just part of it.” Billy told him. “When Gostel retires next month, they’re going to recommend cutting back on enlisted clones. We’re talking total cut-back to pre-war levels with True Borns taking up all positions again.”
“How do they expect to do that?” Garret was shocked.
“Have you been following the financials?” Billy asked and Garret shook his head.
“Just the ones that affect me directly.” He answered honestly.
“So you don’t know the latest unemployment reports put the unemployment rates up above twelve percent?” Billy asked.
“Ouch.” Garret winced. “So, high unemployment, free up room in the military for True Borns and that lets them lower the unemployment rate without drastic measures. Without a war on, many unemployed True Borns will take the military role.”
“That’s what they figure.” Billy shrugged. “Mom’s pretty pissed about it all, and what with the democracy push, she’s working hard preparing for the next session of the Deliberatorium.”
“What democracy push?” Garret asked.
“You really haven’t been following the news, little brother.” Billy’s voice held an edge of criticism and Garret frowned. “There’s a new movement that’s actually surging pretty strong right now to give the power of vote to the Voices in the Deliberatorium.”
“Wow.” Garret whistled. That was big. Voices were elected by the populations of the Republic’s worlds, two per member-world, and could speak during any deliberation by the Deliberatorium. They lacked a vote, though, in keeping with the founding premise of the Republic: Democracies were too easily corrupted to be effectual systems of governing.
“Yep, bro, change is coming and not all of it sounds good.” Billy said, tapping Garret’s knee in a comforting gesture. Yes, Garret still loved Billy, but he knew that would never go anywhere, so he accepted the gesture as it was meant: in brotherly love.
That would have to be enough.
