Secrets in the Stars (Family Law)

by Mackey Chandler

  The speed of light lag both ways finally let the Sahyadri reply to Gordon.

  "High Hopes, this is Captain Dhar of the Sahyadri, we are proceeding under acceleration for jump to Earth. Our instructions obligate us to make a return without delay if a vessel of an unknown alien race appears. There was no exception made for an escorted vessel so we are following our orders literally with no interpretation. We anticipate jumping out before you can respond.

  "Our return and report will undoubtedly result in a heightened alert status among many of the Commission members. I suggest Commander Gordon that you delay here and send a jump drone through detailing your intentions and await a response for everyone's safety. I'm not at all certain a non-Earth armed vessel such as the Retribution will be given clearance to Earth orbit. Armed ships of Fargone and New Japan do not routinely enter the Solar System. The Commission and space powers may want to send somebody to inspect the ship of these new species, and may carry word of a refusal to grant traffic clearance."

  "Well, we certainly never had this response before coming to file our claims," Gordon said.

  "That was carefully weasel worded," Lee said. She looked upset. "And he avoided asking a lot of questions he could or should have asked, or at least requested you put in a drone message. Brownie, is he really going to jump out before our transmission could reach him?"

  "System scan lists the ship as in-system, but censors the location of the picket ship. The delay suggests he was sticking with the main mining group, but he hasn't fired up his own radar at all, which would certainly locate him. He might even jump out behind the primary from us and not accept relayed messages. But he'd have to be boosting at over three G, and nobody wants to do that needlessly. You start to have a significant probability someone will have a medical emergency at that acceleration. It's not like we are in pursuit or shooting at him," Brownie pointed out.

  "Yes, he seems anxious not to talk to us," Gordon agreed.

  "I could illuminate that whole quadrant of the system with a full power ping," Thor offered from the Retribution. "If we catch an echo off him before he jumps we know he lied."

  "No," Gordon decided. "Let's play the game. We don't want to tell him we know he's lying, nor turn things adversarial by using military power radar in a peaceful system. Let us see what else they say to us, thinking we are buying the story, before we contradict anyone."

  "Notice, he says the Commission and the space powers may deny us permission to enter, without naming those powers,” Lee said. "He doesn't say we'll be met with armed force, but just implies it by saying there will be an alert. He sounds like a lawyer instead of a ship's captain."

  "And what does all that tell you, if you were sitting this seat?" Gordon asked.

  This struck Lee as one of those critical questions and a test, that would determine when or if she was ever going to be considered for command.

  "I would consider myself informed that likely everything Captain Roosevelt told is fact, and much more to be learned he didn't tell us," Lee decided.

  That seemed agreeable to Gordon. If she'd failed the question he'd have immediately turned it into a lesson. Instead he asked, "So would you send a drone as he urged us or just show up uninvited and see what sort of reception we get?"

  "They may be a little sensitive to Gordon of Red Tree coming to Sol," Lee said as tactfully as possible. "The last time an armed Derf vessel went through North America got clobbered. They lost an orbital fort and an entire shipyard with work in progress. You scare the snot out of the Fargoers and you didn't even shoot at them. It may not seem credible to you, but they might panic. That's a bad thing."

  "Ah, well... maybe," Gordon said, but tried to wave it away with a true hand. "Not to mention it was Thor doing that with a destroyer last time, and here he is back with a heavy cruiser. So drone it is instead of popping in to chat. But how do we make it a conciliatory message? We probably should reveal the High Hopes isn't in standard deep space explorer weapons configuration. I'm not sure how to pretty that up even if we left the Retribution here to wait for us."

  "To whom do you send the drone?" Lee asked.

  Gordon perked up at that. Perhaps that was an original thought and Gordon hadn't considered that question yet. Lee would love to get ahead of him for once instead of being predictable.

  "Now that is a very interesting question. When we entered with the High Hopes before I just set the radio to the frequency listed in the Aid to Navigation and asked traffic control for clearance to Luna. I sort of assumed traffic control was associated with the Claims Commission, and directing from Luna or through relays, but nobody ever explicitly said so. You don't say what traffic control any more than you say 'Derf Station traffic control' when you enter the Derfhome system. You're tuned to the right frequency and you assume you have the right folks. Who else would be answering? Nobody ever asks 'by what authority are you directing traffic?'," Gordon said, looking thoughtful.

  "Why not test what Captain Roosevelt said, and fail to mention the Commission. Just ask to speak to the Lunar authorities?" Lee asked.

  "Not any specific one of the three?" Gordon asked, doing a fake copy of a Human eyebrow lift.

  "I'm not sure from what Captain Precious Roosevelt said who is the main player among them," Lee said.

  "What if they ask what the heck we are talking about, and tell us we should be asking the Claims Commission permission to land and file claims as it is always done?" Gordon asked.

  "Then either Precious was wrong, or the Loonies don't want to acknowledge what he said publicly either. We'd just look like we're a bunch of rural rubes who don't know how to act in the big city and they'll set us straight. Do you really care what they think about you after everything we've been through with the Earthies?" Lee asked.

  "Nah, if they think we're idiots maybe they'll underestimate us – again," Gordon said.

  Chapter 25

  "Traffic Control: The command vessel High Hopes out of Derfhome, an armed deep space explorer, and the Derf heavy cruiser Retribution escorting the unarmed alien vessel Dart with spox of the aliens races known informally as Badgers and Bills desire to meet with the Lunar authorities and have discussions before conducting some business with the Claims Commission. We are uncertain how to address this request and ask you relay it.

  "Be aware please we have been followed for some time by a large vessel of another race displaying an interest in us. We have traded with them, but have very limited communications. They have been friendly and consider them under our protection as long as they remain unaggressive. The Derf commonly known as Gordon, commanding High Hopes. The Derf commonly known as Thor, commanding Retribution. The citizen of Derfhome known as Lee Anderson owner. Full Derf names on request. The Badger know as Fussy, commanding the Dart, and the Badger known as Talker spox for his race. The Bill known as Singer aboard Dart is seconded away from his vessel as spox for his race.

  "We request permission for lunar orbit and landing for either High Hopes or her shuttle, and a meeting with those controlling Solar space outside L1.”

  That was the fourth revision of their drone message. Everybody had input. Lee still quibbled she was only part owner of the High Hopes. Gordon insisted needless details detracted from the message and offered to sell his share to Lee.

  That embarrassed Lee, making her remember a time they'd been in conflict that she'd rather forget.

  "That's fine," she agreed, dropping her objection. "Send it."

  Gordon sent the message via commercial drone, that being readily available one jump from Earth, and much cheaper than using one they carried and needing to recover it or have it sent back. It transmitted on arrival just like his would have.

  * * *

  There wasn't much to do waiting. The system was for mining, and so close to Earth people could go there on leave. A couple positions posted on the job board for one company offered a month-on month-off schedule. Lee decided she didn't want to know any more when it was vaguely listed as entertainer.
There was a station, but it had three very small limited restaurants, a card hall, and a lot of stores for suits, mining equipment, ship parts and repair, electronics and hardware.

  It looked like a really terrible place to live for any time at all and Lee saw no evidence people brought their family there to live at all. Even their Fargoers had no interest in going to the card shop and betting parlor. That had to be a first.

  They had an off shift do a shift, but Gordon didn't set a light orbital watch.

  Lee logged on to the local web when they took a turn at the bridge again. The local web was even more complete than their fleet fraction, although the rates were ruinous for an unrestricted search. She had money to burn so it didn't matter.

  When she did a search on the System bank she got a company page that covered all three branches and one in Jupiter orbit. Not a moon, a free standing hab or station apparently. It still listed a Singh, Anderson and Lewis partners running it, so they kept it in the families. The page offered every other day account balancing with Earth for the miners in System 17, and versions in Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, German and Tongan. She hadn't wondered what they were mining, but the page gave a hint by having a link to quotes and commodities.

  That proved to be a chart of last quote and recent history for USNA Dollars, Australian Group Dollar, Chinese Xìndài, New EuroMarks, and a dozen other currencies some of which Lee didn't even recognize. The Home Solar was listed with a ☼Au and a ☼Pt symbol and traded for over thirty-two thousand dollars USNA. A text line under them informed her ☼ x .80386 = Troy ounces. That was hardly handy, but there was a Home Bit with a symbol BtAg that approximated a tenth Dollar Ceres. Then a separate area was marked off and quoted raw comet water ninety day deliver at Home, Luna and Mars. Screened regolithic sintering iron was quoted by the metric ton for thirty day delivery but only Home and Luna.

  "And we have our clearance," Gordon said suddenly. "Acceleration at a half G in five minutes. Forming up and ramping to eight tenths in another ten. Let's get this show on the road, folks."

  Lee suddenly realized she should have been downloading and archiving a big reading list instead of downloading them and reading them one by one. She had seconds before they turned their drive to the mining station and ended her connection. She didn't want it relayed ahead and beamed back at them. It would triple the cost and Gordon would notice she hadn't thought to do it the easy way.

  There was one thing that sounded really interesting about half way down the list. Lee clicked on it for one last thing to load. She could feel the ship turning slowly under her and she thought something was wrong and she wasn't going to snatch it, because it still showed loading for five or six seconds. It was the video file marked BBC about April Lewis. She'd just spent a good ten thousand bucks Ceres to load it.

  The ship automatically paid their bills for all three vessels as they withdrew and announced departure to traffic control. Nobody noticed the data fees seemed a little high so that was good. Lee watched and listened to everything happening until they were away and in the groove. All three ships synchronized and running good for about an hour before she bothered Gordon.

  "What sort of invitation did we get?" Lee finally asked.

  Gordon put the text on the open command channel for her that went to the other ships too.

  ‘To the Third love son of the Four Hundred-Seventy Third First Mother of Red Tree, by the Hero of the Chain Bound Lands, Second line of the short haired folk, Gordon, and his first daughter Lee Anderson:

  Your reputation precedes you, so that We look forward to meeting you. The Sovereign of Central is absent from the system and I am her voice and hand until she returns.

  You are expected and need no further clearance. You are welcome to orbit Luna and use the field granted the Claims Committee for the High Hopes or any of your shuttles. They will be informed you have first landing rights. That will make your business after our meeting easier than landing at Central.

  Our hospitality suite at the Holiday Inn Armstrong adjacent to the field will be available for your use. Our sworn man will pass you through the border of the Lunar Republic and see to your comfort. When you are adjusted and rested from any shift lag he will offer you transport to Central.

  Personal weapons are normal among adults at Central, as are all weapons made safe against breaching pressure in the Republic.

  We request you refrain from using targeting radar or lidar in orbit. A full uncensored system scan will be supplied upon which you may rely.

  All the named persons in your request are welcome.

  Lady April Lewis / Peer / Hanko file attached.’

  "Wow, that reads like something out of a historic novel," Lee said.

  "I suspect it an informal little note and she could have laid it on much thicker," Gordon said. "I've seen the Mothers do that at a formal gathering of clans, and it's a wonder to behold."

  "Captain Roosevelt was right on the money," Lee decided. "Another April... I wonder if they have a regular formal line of descent that requires each new one of the line to take up the name? Gordon, I have video I downloaded just before we boosted. I've started looking at it, jumping ahead and running it fast. There's a lot of it, but you have to look at it before we see any of these people."

  Gordon held down the mute on his com panel and spoke across to Lee. "Certainly, as you mentioned, it's on the money, as far as he went. I wish we'd had time to go to Fargone and interrogate Admiral Hawking."

  "You're too nice," Lee told Gordon. "You can do questioning, but I'd have Thor do the interrogations."

  "Or you," Gordon said, looking at her hard, which surprised her.

  * * *

  When their four vessels emerged into the Sol system in a synchronized military maneuver, nobody said boo. Gordon was pleased the Caterpillars were right on the tick with them as they'd been doing. It just looked sharper like they knew what they were doing. They didn't do it in tight to them, but nobody would notice, being too busy looking at a kilometer long starship.

  They didn't have to wait for speed of light lag both ways insystem. There were manned traffic control nodes in the zones ships jumped into with pre-arranged clearances. Earth got a lot of traffic, and they sorted it out early. Gordon was prepared to transmit a copy of his invitation to them if there was any question. Instead Control asked if he had a preferred route or acceleration he's like to maintain? Gordon sat with his mouth hanging open for almost a full second, which was an eternity for him.

  "If you can bring us in at seven tenths of a G most of the way, that what my crew are accustomed to," Gordon said.

  "Very well. I'm sending you a proposed plot for that acceleration, and a little bit more the last half hour for orbital insertion. If you need to change that let us know please." There wasn't any waiting or coming in at holding points, or consolidating with other ships. Gordon did notice the line swept well clear of Earth and achieved an orbital insertion from the side of the moon opposite the Earth.

  "Well, so this is how the upper crust live," Thor said. But on ship to ship, Lee was glad to see.

  * * *

  The Caterpillars seemed to be slightly intimidated by the traffic level and obvious signs of population on this living world. They hadn't taken The Champion William nearly as close to the living Caterpillar world they'd showed them. They must wonder why they'd be allowed in so close. Or after seeing what Human weapons did – maybe not. They meekly assumed exactly the same orbit as the others, but rearmost in line.

  The cart that came to transport them was the same as when Gordon and Lee were here before. It was recent enough it might be the same cart. But when they saw their party was bigger they rushed another one out to carry everyone in comfort.

  When they reached the lock it wasn't into the Claims Commission medical cubic like when they'd come to Earth before. They went straight to the entry that was beside the border from the extraterritoriality that belonged to the Commission and the Lunar Republic. After putting their suits in lockers, to w
hich they kept the keys, a few of them added clothing over suit liners or changed.

  The promised escort was waiting for them in pressure, offering to help if any of them needed anything in the locker room. He was dressed all in black with an odd jacket with a straight up collar, spex that looked subtly different, and shoes that were downright dainty, almost like ballet slippers. He also had on a brace of pistols, grips sticking forward from each side.

  "I'm Gabriel," he said, with a slight bow. "My Lady has entrusted you to my care."

  There was a cart outside waiting in the corridor, big enough for all of them. The seats could be folded down flat to create a padded area suitable for Derf. From where they boarded the blue strip marking the border was in sight. There were two guards on each side of the line, just as Lee remembered from before. They'd been held in medical isolation before and nobody had said a word about that yet. Lee didn't want to say anything out loud, but looking at Gordon he had that very alert look he got when expecting something to happen. She'd bet anything he was thinking the same thing.

  When they rolled up to the line the guard on the Lunar Republic line stood at ease and didn't regard them at all. The Claims Commission guard held up a hand and stopped them. The man driving came to a smooth stop without argument.

  "I see unknown species," the guard said, looking at the Badger and Bill genuinely concerned. "Do you have a quarantine release to leave the Claims Commission Area?"

  Their escort held his hand out in a fist. There was a ring displayed on it, gold with a blood red stone.

  "They are not entering from the Commission Field. They are entering from my Lady's field she allows you to use. They are no concern of yours, and I wear her ring, so my voice is as hers."

  The man couldn't have jumped back any faster if fire had issued forth from the ring to singe him. Lee and Gordon turned their heads slowly to regard each other as they rolled through. Neither so much as lifted an eyebrow, but their thoughts were the same.