A Charter for the Commonwealth

by Richard F. Weyand

  On Kodu, His Excellency Daniel Sparks, the Planetary Governor, had other ideas. He was also talking to the head of his police force, Mark Hunter.

  “What gives Westlake the right to turn everything topsy-turvy like this? He’s got his own damned planet, he can do with it as he wishes, but he should leave me and my planet alone,” Sparks said.

  “He thinks he’s the head of all the planets now, the ones that matter. He’s the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council,” Hunter said.

  “Just words. He’s not here, and I am.”

  “Are you forgetting about the two Commonwealth battleships in orbit?”

  “No, I’m not forgetting. They don’t belong here. I never signed up for this Commonwealth nonsense.” Sparks stalked back in the other direction. “Do you think I can order them out of the system?”

  “You can try, but I don’t think they’re going to leave. And with them holding the orbitals, there’s nothing I can do about them.”

  “What are they going to do? Bomb the planet? I don’t think so. You saw what the uproar was over the Doma thing. I think they had it coming personally. But there’s no way they’re going to bomb the planet.”

  “Are you forgetting what happened to your father-in-law?” Hunter asked.

  “That was a damned shame. Murdered him, right in his own home. He understood what we were trying to do out here. I always liked him. Never any of this namby-pamby stuff. Not like Fournier and his crew.”

  “Well, Fournier and his crew are back in charge on Earth. Even if the Commonwealth didn’t exist, we’d be under that bunch again.”

  “Yes, I know. And they gave me no end of grief last time about the simple measures that were necessary to maintain order.” Sparks stalked back across his office. “Shit. What am I supposed to do now?”

  “I don’t know. I will tell you all the Commonwealth news has really got people riled up. And the news that Bahay and a bunch of the other planets have adopted the new planetary constitution has made it even worse. I’m going to have trouble keeping the lid on if this keeps heating up.”

  “No, you won’t. We’ll do whatever we have to do to keep order.”

  “And those battleships in orbit?” Hunter asked.

  “They’re all show. They’re not going to do anything.”

  Aboard the CSS Intolerant, Captain James Scorse was reviewing his options. Intolerant and Adamant were here to protect Commonwealth citizens’ rights under the Charter, but his options were all pretty big sticks.

  “Russ, do we have any of the dummy rounds for the directed aerial munitions?” Scorse asked Commander Russell Sellick, his executive officer.

  “The practice rounds, Sir?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, Sir, we’ve got ’em. Thinking about a little demonstration?”

  Scorse sighed. “I may have to. If Dan Sparks has two functioning brain cells, I think he must have them under lock and key to keep from wearing them out.”

  Sellick chuckled. “He does seem just a might thick on this one, Sir.”

  “We are monitoring their police communications in the capital, in Linn, are we not?”

  “Yes, Sir. And recording.”

  “Good. If this starts to get out of hand, I want to know about it soon enough to do something about it.”

  “Sir, I think we have a situation developing in Linn,” Sellick said. “There is a pro-constitution movement calling for a rally in the city park on Saturday afternoon, and Sparks has declared the rally illegal. He says they will do whatever they need to do to keep the park clear of protesters. And police superintendent Mark Hunter has rescinded all leave and days off for Saturday. He’ll have one hundred percent of his police force on duty that day.”

  “Dammit. Just when I thought this might not boil over,” Captain Scorse said. “I’m going to need to talk to Sparks. He can’t make a rally illegal. That’s black-and-white against the Charter.”

  “What if he doesn’t take your call, Sir?”

  “I’ll think of something.”

  “Sir, Captain Scorse of the CSS Intolerant wants to talk to you,” said Mike Piskos, Planetary Governor Sparks’ chief of staff.

  “Tell him to go fuck himself. And get his goddamn ships out of my system.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Captain, I have a response from Planetary Governor Sparks. He says to, um, perform a biologically impossible autoerotic act and also to get your ships out of his system,” Lieutenant Yvonne Jacobs said from her comm console.

  “Tell him to look out his office window. Ms. Modesitt, you may launch when ready.”

  “We’re in the cone, Captain. Launching. Munition away,” Lieutenant Lori Modesitt said from her gunnery console.

  “Uh, sir? Captain Scorse said to look out your office window,” Piskos said.

  “What the hell is he talking about?”

  Sparks walked over to the windows. There was a two-thousand-acre park behind the Planetary Governor’s Mansion, three square miles that was walled off from the city, for his use alone. Down the slope from him was a twenty-acre pond, shaped like a dogbone, with a Japanese-style arched concrete bridge across the narrow portion, joining the formal gardens on this side to the less formal meadows and woodlands on the other.

  As he looked out the window, a dummy munition from Intolerant hit the bridge square in the center, passing right through the deck, shattering the bridge, and raising a geyser of water. The remains of the bridge collapsed into the hole as much of the water in the pond was pushed out in two great waves that rushed over its banks at either end.

  “Shit!” Sparks said as he jumped back from the windows. “Is this guy a fucking maniac?”

  “Sir, Captain Scorse wonders if you would like to speak to him now,” Piskos said.

  “You’re goddamn right I wanna speak to him.”

  “Putting you through, sir.”

  “What the hell is your problem, Scorse? You just bombed a populated area in a major city.”

  “I put a dummy round into an empty area to get your attention, Mr. Sparks. You are not allowed to ban or disrupt a peaceful rally under the civil rights clauses of the Charter.”

  “What are you gonna do about it, Scorse. Bomb the cops? They’ll be in close, clearing out illegal protesters. You can’t use any of your weapons there. You’ll kill thousands.”

  “No, Mr. Sparks. I won’t bomb people carrying out illegal orders. I’ll bomb the person who gave them. If you persist, I’ll put one into your office, and it’ll be a twenty-ton nuke.”

  “You’re bluffing.”

  “Mr. Sparks, please listen carefully. It’s very important that you understand this. I have five hundred crew on these two warships who all swore a personal oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Charter of the Commonwealth of Free Planets, as did I. That includes its civil rights clauses. We will do whatever we need to do to stop you from violating those rights. Anything whatsoever.”

  “I don’t believe you. There’s no way Westlake gave you those orders. You’re way outside your authority.”

  “Mr. Sparks, consider the math. The Commonwealth has seventy battleships and thirty-three planets. That means, were there two battleships deployed to every planet, there would only be four battleships remaining for all patrols, repairs, refitting – for every other purpose.

  “The obvious conclusion is there are not two battleships deployed to every Commonwealth planet. But there are two deployed here, and that’s because Mr. Westlake anticipated your reluctance to honor and protect the civil rights every Commonwealth citizen enjoys under the Charter.

  “I can assure you, Mr. Sparks, I am well within the orders Mr. Westlake issued to Intolerant and Adamant, and which I discussed with him personally before leaving on this assignment. I guess he’s willing to treat your life and your civil rights with the same casual disdain with which you treat everyone else’s.

  “But know this for a fact: If you attempt to suppress the civil rights of the Commonwealth citizens
on Kodu, I will use whatever means, up to and including the use of deadly force against you personally, to stop you.”

  The air went out of Sparks as he listened to Scorse’s little speech. He had more than a little experience judging people’s personalities, and Scorse was a straight arrow, the sort of person who would never be able to lie very well, and Sparks knew he wasn’t lying now. Scorse also came across to Sparks as the sort of person who kept his promises.

  All of which meant he was well and truly screwed. If he couldn’t suppress the demonstrations, they would grow until it was impossible to keep them from overturning his regime. And then his life would be forfeit to the crowd. But if he attempted to suppress the demonstrations, Scorse would do the job for them.

  “What am I to do, Captain? If I cannot take the measures I think are necessary to keep order on the planet, I cannot even guarantee my own safety or that of my administrators. Would you leave us to the mob?”

  “No, Mr. Sparks, I would not leave you unprotected or at risk. I have been authorized to offer you, your administrators, and your families, should you decide to step down and return to Earth, amnesty and free passage home.”

  Sparks considered, and Scorse noted his hesitation.

  “You’ve had a long run here, Excellency, and done well for yourself and your family. Maybe it’s time now to pursue other opportunities for the future. I would be happy to arrange safe and comfortable transportation.”

  Kodu was a major business hub. Passenger traffic was still down due to the uncertainties associated with the War Of Independence, and the local office of a passenger carrier was more than happy to book a first-class charter from Kodu to Earth.

  Scorse arranged the evacuation of the planetary governor, his associates like Piskos and Hunter, and all their families to the passenger ship. When they departed for Earth, he was more than a little relieved.

  On the chance such a thing could be arranged, administrators from Jablonka had been brought along on the Intolerant and Adamant, including a senior police captain looking for a career move. They transferred down to the planet and began to clean up the mess.

  The demonstration in the park on Saturday came just as the news hit the newsfeeds that His Excellency Daniel Sparks, Planetary Governor of Kodu, had resigned. When Commander Sellick of the Intolerant announced to the crowd that Sparks had also signed the planetary constitution for Kodu on his way out – as a condition of his passage, though Sellick didn’t mention that – and Kodu’s other two members of the Commonwealth Council, safely on Jablonka, had already countersigned it, the planned angry demonstration became a jubilant party. The newly christened Kodu Protective Service served free beer.

  After the bridge and the pond were repaired, the thousand-acre gardens behind the Planetary Governor’s Mansion were named Liberty Park and opened to the public.

  Building the Future

  Defense Minister Georgy Orlov and Admiral Jarl Sigurdsen were giving Council Chairman James Westlake a tour of the building site for the Jablonka Fleet Base of the Commonwealth Space Force. They were standing on a small foothill at the south end of the large construction site. Across the site they could see Jezgra in the distance beyond.

  “This is impressive,” Westlake said. “I really like the space, the layout, everything.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Sigurdsen said. “We spent quite a bit of time on trying to get it right.”

  “It shows. It’s marvelous,” Westlake said.

  Westlake turned around. Behind him, three large houses were being built.

  “And these?”

  “Houses for the three commanders: the Chief of Naval Research, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Jablonka Planetary Commander,” Orlov said, pointing to them one at a time. “They look out over the base. They’re built for entertaining VIP guests. And with the house staff and all, they take all the burden off the top commanders so they can go home and really relax. Not be bothered with the trivia of running a household or any of that.”

  “Great idea. I like it.”

  “I copied it from West Point, the old United States Military Academy on Earth. It’s a military museum now. We were there on a field trip from school once, remember? Same setup, looking out over the parade ground. I always thought it was a good idea.”

  Westlake nodded, turned back toward the much larger construction projects on the plain.

  “The thing about the construction is we actually had to lay out the organization of the CSF before we could plan the buildings. The construction actually mirrors the structure of the organization,” Orlov said.

  “And that over there?” Westlake pointed to a large construction project well off to one side, separated from the rest of the site.

  “Jablonka Military Hospital. Military people get wounds and illnesses civilian doctors may never see. We want our own hospital facilities to make sure those issues get the proper attention.”

  Westlake nodded and turned his attention back to the main site.

  “This is perfect. I know you’ve been saying you were happy with the plans, and you were making good progress, but this is amazing. You’re both to be congratulated.”

  Westlake turned and shook the hands of Orlov and Sigurdsen in turn.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Construction Project Manager Ann Lowenstein was showing Westlake and Orlov around the construction site for Commonwealth Center, the seat of government for the Commonwealth. Much like with Jablonka Fleet Base, Commonwealth Center reflected the structure of the organization it was intended to house.

  “Off to the west side there, sir, is the Chairman’s Residence, on that hill on the coast. Its rear side faces out to the beach and the sea beyond. You can see it’s in a private setting of woods and meadows, a couple of hundred acres.

  “There’s a tunnel running east below the grounds, connecting the Residence to the executive office building there. That high-rise tower will hold the Chairman’s Office and the Cabinet offices and their staffs. Continuing east, that low, domed structure holds the Council Chambers, and east of the Council Chambers is a matching high-rise tower for the Council’s offices and staff.

  “North of the Council Chambers, that high-rise tower contains one hundred and fifty suites for the Council when in session and any VIP guests. There are four possible views: north up the wild coastline, east to the mountains, south overlooking the city, and west looking out to sea. Each suite has two of those views.

  “And there’s plenty of room left on the site for expanding the executive offices with another tower north of that one, or for expanding the Council offices with another tower north of that one.”

  “It’s a nice plan, well thought out and with room for the future. And your progress is breathtaking, Ms. Lowenstein.”

  “Thank you, sir. It’s an aggressive schedule, but we’re actually managing to hold on to it with our fingernails. There’s a couple places we may even be ahead of the game.”

  “We won’t keep you any longer, Ms. Lowenstein. Thank you for your time.”

  “No problem, sir. Oh, and ask Mrs. Westlake for me. What color does she want the master bedroom?”

  Lowenstein winked and Westlake laughed. All the interior design was complete already.

  Westlake and Orlov waved goodbye and got back in the ground car for the trip across Government Park, past the planetary government offices, to the Commonwealth government’s temporary quarters in the Jezgra Gardens Hotel downtown.

  “I still liked your old office better,” Orlov said.

  “Of course. But it wouldn’t be fair not to let the planetary government into their own offices. We’re the new guys, after all,” Westlake said.

  “Oh, I know, I know.”

  “And the view from here isn’t bad.”

  Westlake had taken the whole top floor for his residence and office. The interconnected set of suites worked well for that, and the security, with a private elevator stop and elevator lobby, worked well for his purposes. It even worked o
ut for the family. The kids were fifteen and seventeen now and thought being downtown was more exciting.

  “True, true. Even so, I’ll be happy when we move. When is that again?”

  “Two more years, if Ms. Lowenstein keeps to the schedule,” Westlake said with exaggerated patience. “It’s been four years since the signing of the Charter, and three and a half years since the treaty with Earth.”

  “Time flies, I guess. And I have no doubt Ms. Lowenstein will keep to schedule. I know I wouldn’t want to cross her.”

  “I don’t think I would, either, to be honest.”

  There was a polite knock on the door, and Westlake’s long-time retainer entered.

  “Excuse me, sir. I thought you would like to know. The Starcruiser has made hyperspace transition and announced their arrival from Doma. Your niece and her husband are aboard.”

  “Claudette and Fernando?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Do we know their arrival time?”

  “Saturday afternoon, sir.”

  “Excellent. Let Suzette know, if you would, Henson. Oh, and would you make sure a guest suite is available for them?”

  “Of course, sir.”

  The butler left, and Westlake turned back to Orlov.

  “An unannounced visit from our mutual niece. That’s unusual.”

  “That sounds like a mission, not a visit. I wonder what’s up.”

  “Time will tell.”

  A Request From Doma

  “Hi, Uncle Jim, Aunt Suzette,” Claudette Sandoval nee Fournier said as she was shown into the living room of the Westlakes’ suite on the penthouse floor of the Commonwealth government headquarters.

  She gave them both a hug.

  “I want to introduce my husband, Fernando Sandoval.”

  “Pleased to meet you, sir. Ma’am.”

  “We’re sorry we couldn’t make your wedding, dear,” Suzette said.

  “At interstellar distances? Don’t be silly.”