The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 43

  Captain Turis and his squad, minus the gemeng, sat down at Aleitar’s table. They’d been looking for him for a while, though he’d only just returned to Coastside.

  ‘I’m Alann.’ Alann introduced himself.

  Aleitar set down his mug and shook his hand, introducing himself. And so on for the entire squad.

  ‘Do you know why we’re here?’ Alann asked him.

  Aleitar nodded as he glanced at their faces in turn. ‘Yeah, there’s been a lot of talk. Hey, some friendly advice, you need to watch yourselves.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Alann asked, narrowing his eyes. He noted the man was drinking alcohol.

  ‘I mean Commander Reista ordered everyone to play nice, but the submariners are getting… they’re not…’ he hesitated. ‘Look,’ he started again. ‘I’m from Astar too, I know how shocking this place is at first. But you guys need to calm down and stop insulting everything and everyone here. We lost a lot of people in the Molk attack. Let’s just say if you guys all went home in boxes nobody here’d care.’

  Alann observed him coolly for a few moments. ‘So how long have you been in Coastside?’

  ‘About three years.’

  ‘I notice you’re drinking.’

  Aleitar sighed. ‘Why does it matter- I know how it looks to you, but tell me, what does it matter?’

  ‘It’s wasteful. It wastes resources, time and is poor for the health.’

  ‘Firstly, it’s not a waste. If you’d spent weeks trapped on a sub with water up to your ankles all the time and fighting gemengs you’d want a drink when you got back. Secondly, I don’t know any submariner who’s died from drinking too much. Do you know the life expectancy for submariners who don’t get transferred shoreside? Not long.’

  ‘The military personnel located in Astar have always managed without drinking.’ Alann said tightly.

  ‘How many gemengs do you run into around Astar, hmm? Count them for me. Go on.’

  Alann just narrowed his eyes further.

  ‘Look, you guys need to open your eyes. This isn’t Astar. It can’t be Astar.’

  ‘I see it’s not Astar. But can’t be?’ Alann shook his head. ‘As part of the Coastside mission alcohol consumption will be curtailed and cut off, Aleitar. You underestimate our determination.’

  Aleitar met his eyes calmly. ‘Go ask the submariners here what they’ll do if Astarians do that.’

  ‘I think you have an idea.’

  ‘I think they’ll tell you to get on the damn subs and defend the coast.’

  Alann said nothing. This job wasn’t easy, on any level, but it was his mission. Really, that was all that mattered, not whether he liked it or not.

  ‘By the way, don’t actually suggest that.’ Aleitar added quickly.

  ‘Why ever not, submariner?’ Alann asked a touch sarcastically.

  Aleitar gazed at him steadily. ‘Because I think you guys have pushed too close to the limit. I don’t know how much more the Coastsiders will put up with. Things could get ugly.’

  Commander Reista had been getting a lot of unwelcome visitors lately. First, Mr Fisley, demanding to know which of the submariners had stormed into his office and brutally attacked him (his words). The Commander had replied pleasantly saying, ‘I don’t know, Mr Fisley, they all look the same to me. We’ll have a look for him anyway.’ Then Mr Geiba had showed up. At least he had provided a way to reprimand Vann for his pyrotechnics. He’d always paid close attention to Vann as he was growing up, the same as with all the other orphans. Still, that didn’t mean the boy got any special treatment. Not that Mr Fisley was made aware of that. Vann was reprimanded the same as any other submariner when he screwed up, not that that happened often, he thought with a touch of pride.

  Now it was this group of Astarian officials making noise about contraceptives, of all things!

  ‘It’s a waste of resources to produce such things. And such… promiscuousness spreads disease.’ A stiff, expressionless man was saying. ‘No more are to be produced.’

  ‘Certainly, Mr…?’

  ‘Rollis.’

  ‘Mr Rollis. Alright then. Shall we cancel the classes then?’

  ‘Classes?’

  ‘Well, the submariners are taught how to use those resources in basic training. It wouldn’t do for disease to spread among our forces. But I imagine you consider that a waste of time too?’

  Mr Rollis said nothing.

  ‘And what shall we do with all the parentless children then, Mr Rollis?’

  Mr Rollis frowned. ‘I don’t understand, sir. Parentless?’

  ‘Well, Mr Rollis. Many of the young men and women of Coastside have multiple partners. I imagine parentage will be hard to determine. Most of course, will be unwanted. Most likely they’ll be abandoned. So what shall we do with them?’

  ‘Control the submariners, Commander! Is that so hard to do? It is your job, isn’t it?!’ a small, fiery faced man yelled.

  The Commander smiled pleasantly. ‘I’m afraid the submariners will do what they always do, with or without those wasteful contraceptives. There’s no getting around that, so,’ he smiled, ‘the children, gentlemen, what will we do with them? I imagine the birth rate will more than quadruple! I’m afraid Coastside may be unable to handle that. Will Astar take them? I suppose it won’t be too bad, they can replace all the submariners we’ll lose to disease.’

  ‘Surely they wouldn’t continue with such practices if they were ill!’

  Commander Reista just smiled.

  The man began to look a little sick himself.

  ‘Let’s move on. We’ll come back to this later.’ One of the others, Miss Dellas, said quickly, ‘the amount of alcohol consumed is also of great concern. It is wasteful, unnecessary, time wasting and dangerous to the health. There will be no more of it.’

  ‘None?’ Commander Reista asked.

  ‘None.’

  ‘Ah, well.’

  ‘Do you have a problem with that, Commander?’ Mr Rolg asked primly.

  ‘Well, you’ll have to find some new submariners of course. Well there you go! That’s what we’ll do with all the children when they grow up! Good there’ll be so many, I imagine they won’t stay on the job long.’

  ‘Why on earth would we have to do that?’ Miss Dellas asked, ignoring the last part.

  ‘Why, because they’ll mutiny of course!’

  ‘Nonsense.’ Mr Rollis harrumphed. ‘There may be some grumbling, but they’ll get used to it.’

  ‘I assure you, if you tell the submariners they aren’t to drink they will not work.’

  ‘Let me ask you people something.’ Commander Reista leant back in his chair, his pleasant smile gone. ‘Has Astar had any problems with the supplies coming in through Coastside?’

  ‘No.’ Mr Rollis replied, ‘you would have received a complaint if there was.’

  ‘Hmm, so you’re telling me there is no problem with Coastside’s performance?’

  ‘Just your depraved behaviour!’ the fiery man interjected. ‘Wasteful!’

  ‘I see. So until Mr Geiba came racing back whingeing about our… depravity, was it?’

  ‘Yes, sir, quite depraved.’ Mr Rolg said.

  ‘So until Mr Geiba’s review, you had no problem at all with Coastside.’

  ‘That’s correct.’ they agreed slowly.

  ‘Then let me make a suggestion. Don’t mess with what has worked so far. I let you evict Dr Ralis, I’ve let you waste my submariners time fighting that gemeng of yours. I strongly suggest you content yourselves with that.’ He smiled then, a threatening smile. ‘I’m afraid we may have some problems otherwise.’

  There was silence. Silence filled with fidgeting.

  Commander Reista knew what the few Astarians among the submariners had been saying to the Astar team. Why, he’d given them suggestions after all. His threat wasn’t quite so formless as it seemed.

  Miss Dellas, her eyes wide and roaming around nervously, began, ‘I’m sure you understand the
nature of your submariners better than we do, Commander…’

  Reista just smiled.

  ‘I think to… to convince ourselves of what you say however…’ her eyes flicked around the rest of her group, as if hoping for help. She coughed. ‘Well, why don’t we replace one of the submarine crews with an Astarian crew? They will of course not be so depraved.’ she said that last part confidently, but it instantly withered away under the Commander’s scowl. ‘A-and, we’ll decide how to t-treat Coastside… depending on the results of that-that crew.’ she trailed off.

  The Commander gazed at her for a long moment. ‘And who is going to train these Astarians?’ he asked.

  ‘W-well, they would have to be trained here-’

  ‘I see. So which submarine would you like to waste on your little experiment? And what will I do with the crew of highly trained submariners your Astarians will be replacing?’

  ‘Astar will fund the experiment. Once it is proved to you all this is nonsense, there will be no more complaints from you about curtailing drink and…so on.’ Mr Rollis cleared his throat. Quickly then he said, ‘the fishing statistics, Commander, did you look at them?’

  The Commander frowned darkly and pushed the relevant folder of information over to them. ‘I can’t imagine why you think I know anything about fishing. Why? Don’t you trust your counters?’

  Mr Rollis looked at him darkly. When Commander Reista returned the look he cleared his throat again and went on. ‘Well then, we’ll put the new pricing measures in place. We’ve decided against transporting the seafood to Astar. The necessary cooling measures are, I’m afraid, too costly.’

  ‘Certainly.’ Commander Reista had noticed that the fishermen had succeeded in hiding a fair amount of their equipment and catch from the Astarians. He certainly wasn’t going to tell that to these presumptuous fools though.

  ‘T-the… medicinal supplies aren’t staggered.’ Miss Dellas said.

  ‘No. They have always been exempt.’ Commander Reista held her eyes until she looked away.

  ‘The staggering on the other goods and services is, while at least present, rather loose.’

  ‘Unless our actions cause some calculable suffering to Astar, I suggest you not come bother us again.’

  ‘The experimental sub, Commander,’ Mr Rollis pressed.

  ‘You’ll have it. Astar will fund the building and maintenance of a new sub. Then you can do what you like with it.’

  ‘Building? Surely we can ‘rent’ one of the operational subs-’

  ‘And displace one of my crews? No, Mr Rollis, the submariners are too vital to be lost in your silly games. Send over your Astarians. I imagine you’ll want to provide your own instructor, ours are all depraved after all.’

  ‘But we don’t have-’

  ‘Really? Well, you can hire your own instructor from here then too.’

  Mr Rollis glared at him darkly. ‘Very well, make this as difficult as you want. We will prove your depravity is not understandable or acceptable, that it is not necessary to working in the submarines.’

  ‘Hah!’ The Commander laughed. ‘Good luck!’