The Pirates of Sufiro (Book 1) (Old Star New Earth) (21 page)

The star cruiser
Astrolus
leapt into the solar system somewhere near Pluto. Captain MacPherson was bringing his ship home, to Earth. From Earth, the ship would go to Titan where it would be officially recommissioned as a part of the new Confederation fleet.

Karen Shankar and John Mark Ellis had each received word that they would be leaving the ship at Earth. Janelle Shoukry shook John Mark's hand vigorously. "It has to mean a promotion, sir."

"We can only hope." Ellis trudged back toward the mess and sat down. A frown distorted his features.
Cookie sat down across from him. "You look as though someone's just died."
"I feel that way, but I'm not sure why." Ellis shrugged.
"Could it be you're feeling uncertain about your future assignment?" Cookie smiled reassuringly. "Rumor is this new Confederation Fleet needs every man and woman they can lay their hands on to captain new ships."
Ellis shook his head slowly. "I'm not sure what's wrong."
At that moment, Captain MacPherson appeared in the doorway. The dour look on his face told Cookie it was time to depart. MacPherson sat across from his second officer and sighed. "We just received a communiqué from Titan. I'm sorry to inform you..."
John Mark Ellis didn't need to hear the rest. He knew his father had been lost to the Cluster.
* * * *

Edmund Swan found himself sitting in a large room. Tapestries with medieval motifs hung on the walls. The floor was of fine wood. A long table filled much of the room. A bald man in a hover chair had led Swan to the room and sat him at the end of the table. He recognized the man from Manuel's description, as Roberts. Shortly thereafter Roberts returned and offered him a drink; he decided he needed a beer. Swan sipped the cool, dark beer and tapped his fingers on the table.

Finally, a surprisingly lithe old man stepped into the room. His long white hair was tied in the back. He wore a beard, trimmed close. The old man extended his hand. "My name is Ellison Firebrandt," he said with a smile.

Swan accepted the hand. "Pleased to meet you, Captain Firebrandt." Firebrandt looked sure of himself. Swan studied the captain with his mechanical eye. His heart rate was up. He was perspiring, even though the room was cool. Despite appearances, the captain was nervous.

Firebrandt grinned and motioned for Swan to be seated. "We'll have none of those formalities here," said the captain as he seated himself. "I am long retired."

Firebrandt laughed. "There have been years when no one would say they were 'honored' to see me." He leaned forward. "I understand you gave the Tejans quite a run for their money."

Swan took a sip of his beer and scratched his head. His hair was growing out and it felt strange after years of wearing it as a crew cut. "I don't think I was what they had in mind when they hired a new marshal."

"No," said Firebrandt with a devilish grin. "But you must be aware that you embarrassed them a great deal. You showed a lot of us that the way they could keep Erdonium prices low was by using slave labor." The captain sat back folding his arms. "They won't stand for that."

"But surely the Confederation will keep order," said Swan. He felt the sweat trickling under his collar. "Now they know the Tejan miners aren't voluntary migrants."

"Son, the Confederation only cares about the Cluster," said Firebrandt. Suddenly the retired privateer captain felt very paternal then shook it aside. "Since they only care about the Cluster, that means the only thing they care about on this planet is the Erdonium. Ergo, they are on the side of Tejo." He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I'm afraid few people back on Earth even realized you freed slaves. They probably see what you did as an act of aggression, slowing the war effort against the Cluster."

Swan took a long swallow of his beer. Thoughtfully, he lowered it to the table and licked his lips. "And you think Tejo is going to formally declare hostilities against New Granada?"

"Today Tejo
is
the government of Sufiro. They could virtually declare slave labor legal and no one would stop them." Firebrandt shook his head. "I'm afraid that freeing those slaves may have started a full scale war."

"Is that why you did nothing to free the slaves?" Swan blurted out, then regretted it.
Firebrandt stood, put his hands behind his back and began pacing the room while looking at his feet. He did not say a word for a long time. Finally, he stopped and looked at Swan. "You're right. I did nothing. As people began to settle this world, I made a conscious decision that I would not interfere with the personal freedom of anyone who came." Firebrandt sat down, not meeting Swan's eyes. "I knew some would abuse that freedom, but I never dreamt it would go as horribly wrong as it has. There has to be a way to stop the Tejans."
"There's always a way," said Swan.
The captain closed his eyes. His reddish eyebrows came together. "We could have formed a more formal government early on. We could have passed laws preventing this sort of thing." He opened his gray eyes. "I fought for and believed in the Gaean Alliance because they had solved all the human rights disasters on the mother planet. The Gaean Alliance even managed to end the abuse of people in my father's homeland of South Africa."
Swan nodded, remembering history. He had to admit that when Manuel Raton had told him there were few laws to enforce in New Granada, it had frightened him. He wondered how rights were protected.
"It wasn't until I came to Sufiro that I realized that while humans live in peace, they aren't really free. Suki, Roberts and I dreamed of a world where a people live in peace and are free. When I heard about slavery in Tejo, I thought I saw my dream crumbling to dust." Firebrandt's fist was clenched. He slowly relaxed his hand while looking into the younger man's mismatched eyes. The older man's eyes seemed to sparkle. "Then you came along."
Swan sat back, stunned. "What do you mean, I came along?"
"We can fight the Tejans, whether or not the Confederation is on our side," said Firebrandt. "It's time we show the Tejans that we value personal freedom. We must be prepared to fight to keep ourselves, our friends and our families free. We must begin organizing the defense against the attack the Tejan's are going to mount any day now. We must preserve our freedom, even if the price is peace."
Swan shook his head. "Manuel's analysis of the situation was that I'd embarrassed the Tejans; that they wouldn't mount a full scale attack."
"That was true before Manuel killed Stone. What was also true is that they would have simply resumed the
kidnappings." Firebrandt pursed his lips. "I don't know that what Manuel did was right, but it forced the conflict into the open. They know we'll resist openly now."
Swan studied the old man's eyes. "I understand that much..."
"I want you to lead the defense forces," said Firebrandt, laying his cards on the table.
It was Swan's turn to stand and pace the room. "Me?" Swan walked over to the fireplace and ran his finger over the cold, stone mantel. "I'm not any good in that kind of a fight. I'm just an old cop from Tucson. Hell, I get sick just at the sight of blood."
Firebrandt stood and placed his hand on Swan's shoulder. "That's why I want you." Swan looked at the old privateer captain as though he had lost his mind. "I don't want some war-hungry hero. I want someone with a heart ... and a mind."
"I wouldn't even know where to begin organizing a defense," stammered Swan.
"Start with Manuel," said Firebrandt. "Then study the records of the people of New Granada. Roberts and I have those."
"It won't be easy."
"War is never easy," said Firebrandt moving back toward the table. "I don't want war. I want this conflict over, so we can all get on with our lives." Firebrandt sat down in the chair Swan abandoned. "You see, I don't begrudge anyone on the Tejan continent having and mining Erdonium. I only begrudge them taking and using innocent people. I'm going to do my damnedest to make sure that stops."
"Then you can count me in, sir," said Swan nervously. Firebrandt stood and the two men clasped hands. The captain showed Swan to the door then returned to the room and sat down. Roberts floated into the room on the hover chair.
"How are you, old friend?" asked Firebrandt with a ghost of a smile.
"Old and cranky." Roberts folded his stiff arms. "Tired, with no desire to be on the receiving end of an attack from Tejans."
The captain sighed. "I understand."
"So," said Roberts, sitting back. "Why did you allow the Tejans to capture innocent people and use them as slaves?"
"Honestly?" Firebrandt shrugged. Roberts nodded. "Honestly, it was because interfering would have been as big a crime as the slavery itself. This whole migrant labor issue is just a test. The Tejans had a right to their freedom. They still do, as far as I'm concerned. Edmund Swan showed us that one man, exercising his personal freedom can change a bad situation."
Roberts rubbed his hand across a hairless head. "What about the rest of the slaves?"
"We'll take care of that," said Firebrandt.
Roberts looked at his former captain quizzically. "When?" In reply, Firebrandt removed a pipe from his pocket, sat back in his chair and lit it.
* * * *

Edmund Swan stood outside the large house studying it. In many ways it told the story of New Granada. Part of the house was made of old wood, some of it painted yellow, the rest green. Part of it was adobe. The core of the house was the old gleaming black privateer vessel that Firebrandt and Roberts had crash landed in. The house was at once a mishmash of conflicting architecture and a palace of epic proportions. From his vantage at the front door of the house, Swan could look out across the village of Succor. The houses all nestled cozily along the banks of the Nuevo Rio Grande. Slowly, Swan turned and clambered into the old battered hover he borrowed from Manuel Raton.

Swan pushed the starter button a couple of times. The car was dead, sitting on the ground. He hopped out, gave it a swift kick next to the anti-graviton generator and the hover floated off the ground. With a sigh, he pulled himself in and engaged the engine. As he maneuvered the craft along the Nuevo Rio Grande, he took one last wistful look at the grand house.

The ex-Tejan Marshal drove full throttle, following the wide river. He tried to figure out how a handful of New Granadans could ever hope to defeat a well-armed army from Tejo. The problem was made even worse by the fact that the Tejans had the Confederation on their side.

As he drove, however, the scenery increasingly distracted him. The terrain around Succor was mostly grassland with rolling hills and low scrub. Trees grew closer to the river. As he continued north along the river, the terrain became more cultivated. Green hills and fields of corn surrounded him. He waved to a farmer riding a hover tractor pulling a laser plow.

Swan thought about Firebrandt and his difficulty with the situation. At one moment, he seemed to love the people and the land. The next moment, the one-time pirate had seemed willing to let the Tejans overrun New Granada. It suddenly occurred to Swan that Firebrandt was not willing to let the land be overrun; he simply valued the freedom of the Tejans as much as he valued his own. "So," asked Swan aloud, the wind whipping through his hair. "Why exactly
did
Firebrandt ask me to take over military operations?"

Swan's hover topped a hillcrest. He found himself looking down at New Des Moines. The city was large by New Granadan standards. On Earth, it would hardly be a village. Still, New Des Moines had the only spaceport in New Granada. Swan thought he would stop off at a tavern, grab a bite to eat and something to drink.

He drove down the central street in town and parked his hover in front of the Rancheros Tavern. Stepping inside the rough, wooden building through swinging doors, he had to blink several times to get adjusted to the darkness. He sat down at a small, round table that wobbled as he put weight on it. When the waitress came by, he ordered the burrito plate and a beer.

He looked around at the sparsely populated bar. There were assorted people from off world. Swan was startled by a heavy thud as a Rd'dyggian warrior sat down at the table next to him. Swan knew that Rd'dyggians were one of the few species that could survive in the same atmosphere as humans. However, few Rd'dyggians chose the company of humans.

The Rd'dyggian's thick purple moustache moved. Soon a voice followed from a pocket translator: "You look like a man with a problem."

Swan studied the Rd'dyggian. He was a deeper shade of orange than normal. One of his two black eyes had a patch over it. There was a receiver plug in the warrior's ear. Swan smiled nervously. "I believe you have me at a disadvantage."

"Not at all," said the warrior. "My name is Arepno." He held out his massive six-fingered hand.
Swan realized he was trying to emulate a human custom. He did his best to accept the hand that was nearly twice as large as his. "My name is Swan. And brother, do I have a problem."
"Brother," echoed Arepno. He forced a decent imitation of a smile. "I like that. Tell me of your problem."
The waitress arrived with the burrito plate and beer. Swan downed about half the beer as he detailed the Tejo-New Granada conflict to the Rd'dyggian. The Rd'dyggian nodded understanding and sympathy at key points in the story. After the story was complete, the Rd'dyggian contemplated it for some moments.
"Slavery is not honorable," he said at last.
"Do Rd'dyggians even know what slaves are?" asked Swan between mouthfuls of food.
"No," he said. "Not until I heard about them this morning from an old friend."
Swan blinked a couple of times. He ate the last mouthful of burrito on his plate then looked back at the Rd'dyggian. "An old friend has already told you this story?"
"I thought everyone knew," said Arepno. "Ellison Firebrandt has many friends. My crew and I are ready to help you in your honorable cause, General Swan."
Swan sat back and laughed. Arepno inclined his head. "Call me Edmund," said Swan waving his hand. "I'll have none of this 'general' stuff."
"My crew and I await your instructions, Edmund Swan," said Arepno, making a noise Swan recognized to be the Rd'dyggian equivalent of laughter.
Edmund Swan and Arepno sat for much of the evening telling stories. Swan knew that was the custom of the Rd'dyggians. They laughed and talked for hours. Swan could see how Firebrandt could get attached to this large warrior. Finally, Swan made his apologies, explaining that he had to get back to Nuevo Santa Fe by dark. Swan asked Arepno to meet with Manuel Raton and himself the next day. He drew the Rd'dyggian a map.
"I will be there." Arepno put his hand to his abdomen in the traditional Rd'dyggian salute.
* * * *