Stand Against The Storm (The Maxwell Saga Book 4) (18 page)

“Compare that to the jade knife of Lei Sik Hoi. If I were to throw it out of the airlock of my ship as hard as I could towards this planet, it’d burn up in Eskishi’s atmosphere like any other small meteorite. It’d become no more than a few charred molecules circulating in the stratosphere.” The Tong men looked horrified at the mere thought of such sacrilege, but before they could say anything Steve went on, “That wouldn’t do a single thing to help or hurt the Dragon Tong. You’d go on the next day just as you had the day before. The knife’s a piece of carved stone, not the be-all and end-all of existence. It has historical and cultural value to you, and I’m sure it’ll gain your Tong a lot of prestige among its rivals; but in and of itself it’s no reason to get yourselves killed – and believe me, if you get involved in this, that danger is real. No, if you’re going to help, do it for the
right
reason. Do it because you care about the children and the other hostages. Do it because you’re human beings, and you care about other innocent human beings.”

First Mate Kun snapped irritably, “They’re not so innocent! The people of this planet have treated us like dirt since we arrived here!”

“Have the children treated you like dirt?” Steve asked.

“Of course not! We’ve hardly even seen any!”

“Then how can they be anything but innocent as far as you’re concerned?”

Kun’s mouth opened and closed as he struggled to find words. Steve pressed his advantage. “Some of the adult hostages might be meaner than sin. Some of them may even deserve to die – but not the kids. It’s because of them that I’m going to do all I can to stop the rebels. You can hate the adults all you like, although I’m willing to bet you’ve never met most of them; but don’t hate the kids because of what their parents have done. That’d be like sending your kids to jail for crimes you’ve committed. Get your priorities straight. Either this is worth doing for its own sake, or it’s not. If it is, join me. If it’s not, all the jade knives in the universe won’t justify risking your lives to do it.”

Kun’s face was red with anger. He opened his mouth to speak, but Chun reached out and placed his hand on his arm. “The Senior Lieutenant is serious, First Mate.” Kun looked at him in surprise. “He’s not joking.”

Kun sank back in his chair, still looking rebellious, but as he considered Chun’s words his face cleared. He slowly nodded. “Thank you, Captain.” He transferred his gaze to Steve. “I apologize, Senior Lieutenant. I think you may perhaps be a better human being than I am.” He grinned sheepishly.

“Apology accepted, and no harm done.” Steve looked around the table. “I’ll be personally very grateful if you agree to help; but it means accepting significant risks. I don’t want you accepting them for the wrong reasons. You’ve already fought alongside me, and some of you have been wounded in the process. I’m very grateful to you for that. I don’t want to ruin the respect we’ve built up for each other by holding the jade knife over your heads as a sort of compulsion, to force you to help me.”

Chun spoke for them all. “We understand better now why you’re doing this. We can’t be as neutral about the jade knife as you are, but you’re right. This
is
worth doing for its own sake. Also, you
have
treated us with respect, and in the process helped to restore our self-respect. For all those reasons, as well as because of the knife, we’ll help you.”

~ ~ ~

“The long and the short of it is that we have our volunteer spacers, Sir,” Steve concluded, gazing into the terminal’s lens.

On the display, Lieutenant-Colonel Battista’s face was a mixture of elation and wonder. “Maxwell, I swear you could sell frozen vacuum to miners in the asteroid belt!”

Steve grinned tiredly, but shook his head. “There’s an awful lot more to tell than the bare-bones outline I’ve given you. When Major Emory comes out here tomorrow morning, I should know enough to be able to tell him more.” There was no such visit on the schedule, but Steve hoped the Lieutenant-Colonel would understand. He didn’t want to say anything that might be brought to Captain Davis’ attention in time for him to intervene.

Battista clearly got the idea. “He’ll be with you as soon after first light as we can arrange it.”

“Thank you, Sir. There’s one more thing. The rebels have asked for a cargo shuttle to accommodate hostages and their guards in orbit, until they get word that the main body of their people has reached safety. I presume it’ll be an Eskishi shuttle, Sir, not one of the Fleet’s birds?”

“Correct.”

“The only two cargo shuttles planetside are parked at the spaceport, Sir. One of them will have to be heavily modified to provide accommodation, stores, environmental systems and so on for however many people will be aboard. The shuttle maintenance center was moved here to the depot before everything went down. May I request that we bring the shuttles here at once to begin making the necessary modifications? We’ll need both, in case we have to cannibalize parts from one of them. I’m a qualified pilot, and there’s bound to be another among the Qianjin spacers, so if no-one else is available we can drive to the spaceport and bring them back here.”

“Do that, Lieutenant. I’ll clear it with the Governor, and have him tell this Bairam character that he’s got his spacers. Some of the Qianjin officers will have to speak with Bairam in the morning to discuss how they’re going to set things up.”

“Yes, Sir. It’s going to take several days to prepare the freighter for the trip, including stocking it with rations and all the other supplies it’ll need; assembling all the passengers; and getting the Qianjin spacers aboard to take over from her regular crew. Bairam will have to agree to their conditions, but if he doesn’t, his people won’t be leaving. I’ll let them negotiate that with him.”

Battista nodded. “All right. It’s after midnight. I’ll leave you to get on with it.”

Bairam settled himself into his chair, staring into the terminal before him. It showed Captain Chun and Captain Qiu at Carsamba Depot, staring impassively out of the screen at him.

“The Governor says you’re gonna provide spacers for our ship,” he began brusquely. “I –”

“Not so fast, please,” Chun interjected. “We have agreed in principle to
consider
doing this; but we can’t forget that a third of our people died or were injured at the hands of some of your people. We don’t trust you. Therefore, if – I say again,
if
– we do this, there will have to be stringent safeguards for us. That’s not negotiable. Either you meet our conditions or we won’t help you.”

“An’ what if the Governor arrests you and forces you to help us?” Bairam sneered.

In answer, Chun lifted a rifle that had been leaning against the table. “We too have weapons,” he pointed out. “If the Governor tries to force us to do anything, he’ll need more Colonial Guards than he has available at present. They’re all surrounding your positions, remember?”

“An’ what if I kill a few hostages to make you see reason?”

“Your threat is empty. You have none of our people among them.”

Bairam cursed under his breath. He’d assumed he held all the cards, but his hand suddenly looked less powerful than he’d believed. He thought for a moment. “So whaddaya want?”

“First, all your people aboard the freighter are to be unarmed. They’ll be searched before they leave the planet, and again when they board the ship. All weapons and explosives will be confiscated. After what you’ve already done to us, I won’t risk my spacers among armed potential enemies.”

“No way!
How will they be able to defend themselves without weapons?”

“Defend themselves against what? They will have no enemies aboard the freighter. If you’re worried about Karabak forces firing missiles at the ship, personal weapons will be worse than useless against them. You’ll have your hostages aboard a cargo shuttle in orbit. They’ll be your guarantee against interference as we leave. Once we’ve hyper-jumped out of the system, we can’t be followed. No-one knows where we’re going, so they can’t plan to intercept us there either.”

Bairam struggled internally. He’d never voluntarily shared – much less surrendered – control of anything before; but he had to have qualified spacers, and these were the only ones available. “I’ll… I’ll think about it. Next?”

“We need to know where you want to go. Some parts of the settled galaxy are not very hospitable to us. That’s how we ended up here in the first place. We’re not prepared to put our heads into another noose.”

“I’m not gonna say anything about that until the ship leaves. Like you said, if no-one knows where we’re going they can’t arrange to intercept us.”

“I’m sorry, but that won’t do. We simply won’t go to certain planets at all, no matter what. It won’t help to make all the other preparations, then sit in orbit because we won’t go where you want us to go.” Chun’s brow furrowed as a thought came to him. “On the other hand, there may be a way we can make this work even for such places. We can arrange to meet another ship at the system boundary. Our spacers can board her after calling the planet to send out a relief crew, or tugs, to bring your ship into orbit. That way your people will arrive safely, and ours will leave safely.”

“How will you set that up?”

“We’ll have to detour via another planet where we can meet one of our ships, or send a message from there to arrange a rendezvous. It’d take longer to reach your objective, but we’d get there in the end.”

“Well… maybe. Matter of fact, that might work for both of us. If I tell the Governor that he has to send a replacement crew to collect his ship, and they’ve gotta bring my people from the cargo shuttle with them, and unless they do he won’t get the ship, that gives the hostage guards a way out of here. Next?”

“I’m worried about putting some of my people aboard the cargo shuttle with the hostages. What if something goes wrong? Will you kill my spacers as well? What safeguards or guarantees do you offer them?”

“Hmm… I got a few spacers of my own. I’d planned to use ’em t’ help my Bosun aboard the freighter, but I may hafta use ’em aboard the shuttle an’ leave your people to crew the freighter. I’m not sure I wanna do that, though. Lemme think… Shuttles have lifeboats, don’t they?”

“Yes, of course – small ones.”

“What if we use one of the lifeboats as living quarters for your people? They can have the one closest to their duty stations. That way, if anything goes wrong, most of them will already be in or near a lifeboat. Those on duty can run to join them. They can separate from the shuttle within a few seconds, after which whoever I leave in charge can do what has to be done.”

“But how can I be sure he’ll give them time to get away?”

“You can’t. How can I be sure you won’t betray me to the Governor?”

“I suppose you can’t be sure of that either.”

“Yeah. This is gonna be a problem. I’ll think about it. Next?”

“Those are my immediate concerns. There will be others, but if we can’t resolve these more important ones they won’t matter, because we won’t assist you at all.”

Bairam gritted his teeth. After a moment he said, “I hear the cargo shuttle’s at the depot right now?”

“Yes. The maintenance facilities have been set up here, so it’s been brought here to be prepared for your use. How many people will you need to accommodate, and for how long?”

“I guess up to forty hostages plus guards and crew, for up to two months – maybe three, if you detour via another planet to set up that rendezvous. It all depends how long word takes to get back here that our people arrived safely at… the place where I’m sending them.”

“That will require a lot of modifications to the cargo shuttle. It’s designed for short-term operations in orbit and planetside. It doesn’t carry enough fuel, environmental systems, or crew supplies and facilities for that number of people or for long-term deployments. We’re going to have to expand them and test the modifications to make sure they work. It’ll take up to a week.”

“You know better than me what needs to be done. Send the bill to the Governor.” He couldn’t help grinning at the thought. “While you’re doin’ that, I’ll have him start gatherin’ our people together, includin’ the families of those who have them an’ the people captured by the Colonial Guard durin’ the revolt. He’ll have to stock the freighter with supplies for the journey, too. We’ll probably both be ready at about the same time.” He frowned. “I’m gonna have my spacers inspect that freighter front to back, top to bottom, left to right, inside out and upside down before we load any of my people. I’m not takin’ any chances that the Governor will hide some Colonial Guards on it ready to take over after the first hyper-jump out of here, or put a booby-trap somewhere to blow it out of space where no-one will ever know what happened to it. I’m gonna have them check the shuttle as well before we board it, for the same reason. Any objections?”

He was surprised to see smiles appear on the faces of the two Captains. “None at all,” Chun assured him. “It pleases me to hear you’ll take such precautions. We’re professional spacers. We don’t want anything going wrong either, because if it does our people will be in as much danger as yours. We’ll help with the inspection of both ships, and only proceed if both of us are satisfied that everything’s in order.”

“You won’t be insulted if my people double-check your work on the shuttle?”

“Why should we be? We’ll double-check the work ourselves. Space is a merciless environment. Let’s make it as safe as we can for all of us.”

“Then we understand each other.” Bairam sat back in his seat. “I’ll think about your conditions and get back to you tomorrow about them. I reckon we can work something out that’ll satisfy both of us. Meanwhile I’ll talk to the Governor about gathering our people together and stocking the ship with supplies, and you’ll get on with modifying the shuttle.”

“Until tomorrow.” The two captains nodded in unison, then cut the circuit.

Bairam glanced at Turgay. He’d been sitting at the foot of the table, out of sight of the terminal, listening to the conversation. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s great, Boss! They asked all the right questions, and they’re suspicious about all the things that would worry me if I were in their shoes. They’re professionals, all right.”

“So you won’t be worried if they inspect the ship with you? You don’t think they’ll try to hide anything to help the Governor?”

“Hell, no, Boss! They’re on this rock because they’re crooks like us, ain’t they? They’re our kinda folks – just a different gang. Like they said, their own people will be in as much danger as ours if something goes wrong. I reckon when it comes to professional spacer stuff, you can trust them like you’d trust me. I’m a whole lot happier having heard the way they look at things. I was worried this wouldn’t work, but now I’ve got a feeling that with their help, we might just pull it off.”

“I’m glad you think so. I’ll send you to inspect the shuttle as well, as soon as they finish the work. You don’t need to check what they’re doing before they’re done?”

“Naw, Boss. A cargo shuttle’s just a small spaceship, an’ a hell of a lot simpler than a big one. I’ve used ’em for years. They ain’t got no secrets I don’t already know.”

“They can’t hide an ambush party inside it?”

Turgay guffawed.
“Where?
Those things ain’t got but an itty-bitty crew compartment, a pilot console, an engineering section, an’ a damn great cargo hold. Sure, they’ll put in big water tanks an’ bunks an’ so on, and expand the environmental systems, but I can check all that easily enough. It’s got no other compartments big enough to hide ambushers.”

“OK. Did their plan to detour via another planet to arrange a rendezvous with another spaceship make sense?”

“It sure did. It’ll make the trip longer, but we can live with that if we have to. I liked your point about it offering a way out for the guards aboard the shuttle, too. That freighter’s got to be worth close to half a billion Karabak lira. It’s a civilian ship, chartered by the government, so they won’t want to pay out that much to its owners. They’ll go get it rather than abandon it, and if the only way is to take your guards with them, they’ll do that too. Money talks.”

“It usually does.” Bairam stood and stretched wearily. “Let’s get some coffee, then I’ll talk to the Governor again. We gotta figure out how to get our people up to the freighter. I don’t trust his people to do it right. I reckon they’ll try something given half a chance.”

“Why not ask the Marines to help? They’re not allowed to assist one side against another down here, but that didn’t stop ’em delivering rations to our perimeter when the Governor asked ’em to help. If both sides ask ’em to ferry people up to orbit, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Ya know, that ain’t a bad idea at all!”

~ ~ ~

Major Emory arrived shortly after dawn. He found Steve, bleary-eyed with weariness, inside one of the two cargo shuttles on the hardstand, along with the Qianjin engineer officers and technicians. They were poring over plans and comparing them to the shuttle’s hull and systems.

Steve straightened as he saw the Marine officer, a tired smile flickering on his face. He saluted. “Morning, Sir. Thanks for coming out.”

“Lieutenant-Colonel Battista had me moving before I’d even had my morning coffee. I hope you’ve got some around?”

“I think we can find some, Sir.” He turned to the Qianjin spacers. “All right, we’re on the same page. Whomp up your plans and we’ll go through them over lunch. If we’re all in agreement we’ll start cutting metal right away. Make a list of parts and equipment you’ll need from the freighters in orbit.”

As they walked towards the depot gates, Emory asked curiously, “You’re taking parts from other spaceships?”

“We’ve no choice if we’re to have this shuttle ready on time, Sir. We need tanks to store potable, gray and black water and reaction mass, compressed air cylinders – a lot of them – environmental system modules and a bunch of other specialized stuff. You can’t buy it at the corner store and we don’t have time to import or make what we need; so if the Governor wants us ready on time, he’ll have to let us cannibalize it from two of the three freighters that brought the Colonial Guard reinforcements here. Even with that, if we didn’t have the two robotic fabricators from the spaceport’s maintenance facility we couldn’t possibly have it ready on time. We’re going to wear them out on this job, but they should last long enough to get it done.”

“Won’t the other two freighters need the equipment you’re taking out for their own use?”

“Yes, Sir, they will, but this job is more important in the short term. They’ll just have to get spares shipped here from Karabak and reinstall them. They won’t be happy about that, and it’ll be expensive, but that’s the reality of the situation.”

“I suppose so.”

Arriving at Steve’s office, they poured coffee from the carafe on the sideboard and settled into chairs. Emory began, “All right, there’s a lot you left unsaid last night. The boss wants to know what you’re going to do. This is off the record, of course.”

“Of course, Sir. It’s still a bit embryonic, but this is what I’ve got in mind.” Steve spent ten minutes running through what he intended to do, the equipment he planned to use, how he would deploy it, and the results he hoped to achieve. He concluded by saying, “Gunnery Sergeant Kinnear’s volunteered to come along, Sir. I’d like your permission to use him, please.”