by S A Shaffer
He turned as the steam lift door opened behind him, and he stepped into a hallway that looked to wrap around the square pillar. He and Mercy walked a little way down its length and then turned and passed through a wide arch that opened into a grand observatory. There were several people in the room, Johnson, Francisco, and Bethany, but the face that drew David’s attention was the solemn countenance of Representative Walker, former speaker of the Houses of Alönia. Everyone turned and looked at David and Mercy when they entered the room. Johnson stood and clasped David’s hand.
“I was very sorry to hear about your mother, David.” He said. “You have my condolences.”
“Thank you, sir.” David replied with a tight smile.
“I do believe you know representative Walker,” Johnson added after he’d released David’s hand, “even if you’ve never met him.”
Representative Walker approached David from the window where he’d been spectating and smiled at him.
“So this is David Ike.” Walker said as he appraised David. “The most famous aide in Alönian history. I must say, you look very different from the first time I saw you sitting in the Third District booth after Blythe’s grand speech. Now, you look as regal as your father and grandfather.” He too took David’s hand and shook it.
David did his best to smile but found the exchange awkward. It was unsettling to shake hands with the man he’d once called enemy, and it was odder still that Walker would receive that hand in friendship after David destroyed his career.
“We didn’t expect you so soon.” Johnson said after the exchange. “I had thought it would be at least a week before Mercy revived you from your loss. Are you sure you’re ready to return so soon?”
David nodded, doing his best not to think about his mother as they all alluded to her. “I left the Third District with more hope than I’ve had in a long time.” David said. “I’m ready to do my duty and right a lot of wrongs.” He nodded toward Representative Walker.
“You found hope at a time like this?” Francisco asked after everyone had found a seat around the room.
“What Francisco means to say,” Walker said as he rested his index fingers against his chin, “is that we have been in conference for some time and our situation is dire. We cannot conceive of any reasonable means to unseat Speaker Blythe before he slashes the armada and prostrates Alönia before her enemies.”
“As you know, in weeks Blythe intends to put the squeeze on both public pharmaceuticals and the Sixth District, both from legislation and corporate espionage. This district is the Pragmatic’s stronghold, and its passing would doom our party and Alönia. Whatever Blythe’s intentions, he’s leading Alönia into the mouth of the beast.” Walker ended with a great sigh and looked out over his magnificent city.
David fought against feelings of pain, guilt, and regret and prepared his mind for thought. “I think our greatest hope is still inspector Winston.” He said after some consideration. “If we can pin Blythe with multiple murder, there is a decent chance we could have him removed from office.”
“Have you seen the papers from the past few days.” Francisco asked.
David nodded. “I know. He’s blamed me with the murders but pinning them on me won’t counter all of the evidence Inspector Winston has on him.”
“But we’ve looked for him non-stop ever since you gave us his name.” Johnson said. “The man’s a ghost. More than likely, Blythe had him disposed of weeks ago in light of what he knew.”
“That may not matter.” David said. “You can’t really erase evidence, just like you can’t erase history. You can try and cover it up, but in the process, you just create more evidence of its existence. Maybe we’re looking for Winston in the wrong place. What we should really be doing is backtracking Blythe’s interaction with the Orbital Police and see when it was that Blythe inquired after Winston.”
Johnson and Walker looked at each other and then at Francisco.
“Seems like a fair idea.” Francisco said. “So far we’ve got nothing from watching Winston’s house except we spotted a few other people watching his house as well. That and we also discovered that it’s not just inspector Winston that went missing.”
“What do you mean?” David asked.
“There’s about a dozen inspectors missing.” Francisco said. “All of them disappeared around the same time. We posted a watch at a few of their houses, but there’s no sign of them either.”
“Somebody cleaned house.” Johnson said.
“That’s the going theory.” Francisco said. “There doesn’t seem to be any connection between the inspectors. They come from a range of departments within the Capital City police; white-collar crimes, security, orbital traffic, and none were of particular importance.”
“I’m assuming your men already looked for connections with Blythe.” David asked and Francisco nodded. David rested his head in his hands. He needed to broaden his scope of inquiry. Perhaps the focus wasn’t on Blythe’s criminal history, perhaps there was some other connection.”
“No connection in academy class or training groups?” David asked.
“None of note.” said Francisco. “Most of the orbital guard were born and raised on the island and trained at the Capital City Academy. But this lot comes from all different cycles.”
Bethany slapped a hand against her forehead. “Oh of course.” She said and everyone looked at her. “It’s not like the information is public, but I’ll bet if you asked around their friends and colleagues, you’d find a common political affiliation.”
“That would solve it.” Francisco said with a nod to Bethany. “It would be difficult to prove, but it fits. Blythe would want a capital guard loyal to him.”
“True,” David said. “But if we’d have a hard time finding out, how would Blythe know? You said all the men disappeared at the same time?”
Francisco nodded.
“If one or two disappeared each week as their leanings became public knowledge, I’d agree with Bethany.” David said. “But to have them all disappear at once… It’s almost like they upped and left.”
“Francisco,” Johnson said. “Let’s try altering our search and look into if and when Blythe inquired after Winston. At the moment, I think that’s all to be done with our missing inspector. What about Blythe and his slippery little Viörn friend? Any more communications between the two?”
“Not through our cloned device.” Bethany said. “It’s been silent since the Thornton meeting. They probably guessed we’d been eavesdropping and switched devices.”
“So proving Blythe’s involved in treason is off the table for now.” Johnson said and massaged his brow. “Too bad. That would have been easy. Any other ideas?”
Nobody said anything. David looked around at the downcast faces. All of them seemed hopeless, all except Mercy’s. She looked at him with an encouraging smile, a look that gave him confidence.
“Why don’t we wait on Blythe and his removal until we have more answers.” He said. “We should face the problem we have answers too.”
“Which is?” Johnson asked.
“The airships,” David said. “We need to rescue the airships from their deconstruction. Without them, it won’t matter if we retake the speakership. Viörn and Berg will crush us in one fell swoop.”
“We don’t have the personnel to succeed in such a heist.” Francisco said.
“We don’t need to rescue all the airships. We can leave all the support craft and focus on the larger vessels. Skiff Carriers are the major players these days anyway. And, I’ll bet with a little bit of recruiting, we could find a few hundred Armada vets willing to help us smuggle them away.”
“But away to where?” Francisco said. “Where will we hide a few hundred thunder class carriers, not to mention, when we fly them away, what will keep the orbital guard from chasing us down? It’s like robbing a vault and trying to escape on the back of a bovine. I don’t know about you but shooting down our own guard won’t create sympathy for our
cause.”
“We cannot possibly hope to survive without those ships.” David said, letting his hands fall to his lap. “That is an absolute in this situation. How we snatch them, and where we take them only requires better planning, but not having them means complete disaster.”
“Why not take them to Armstad?” Mercy asked. “The capital guard can’t pass into our airspace without permission.”
“Where are the ships now?” Johnson asked?
“At Veteran Shipyards on the north side of Capital Island.” Walker said. “To be deconstructed on the 39th day of Úoi Season.”
“That’s only an hour from Armstad airspace at a carrier’s pace.” David said hopefully. “We could make that.” He turned to Francisco.
“Perhaps.” Francisco said. “An hour is a long time in a chase.” He lifted his arm and pulled up the sleeve, revealing the pulse emitter strapped to his arm.
“39th day of Úoi Season?” Mercy said as she turned to David’s ear. “Isn’t that the same day as the third’s election?”
David looked away from Francisco’s fidgeting to nod at Mercy. “I know what you’re thinking, but he’s got 80% of the popular vote behind him, and he’s running unopposed.”
“So no campaigning against him then.” Mercy said and frowned.
David shook his head. “Francisco?” he said at length when the man had his entire sleeve unrolled and his emitter partially disassembled. “Are you going to tell us why you’re disrobing in front of us?”
Francisco opened his mouth to speak, but then cocked his head and continued to fiddle with the wires strapped to his arm. At length he said, “Bethany, what would happen to a gunship if we shot it with a pulse emitter.”
“Nothing.” Bethany said, nodding to the little emitter on his wrist.
“No, not like this one, one of a much larger scale.” Francisco said.
“Oh.” Bethany said with a roll of her eyes. “No lasting damage to the gunship. It would take the crew a few minutes to rouse themselves and a few more minutes to restart the burner. It’s not a new concept, just not effective in battle because it won’t kill the enemy, and the range is very limited.”
“But we don’t want to kill the enemy.” David said, nodding along with Francisco as he saw where the idea was heading. “We could mount them on the carriers and disable any gunships that got to close.”
“But… I thought we didn’t have enough men to man the airships.” Johnson said. “If we have to man their guns as well, we won’t have nearly enough.”
“We don’t need to fully man all the airships,” David said, “only the ones at the rear.”
“Yes,” Walker said, with a flourish of his hand. “But when you start shooting at the gunships, they will undoubtedly shoot back.”
“Orbital gunships aren’t armed with torpedoes.” David said. “They really won’t be able to do anything but scratch the paint with their chain guns. Their greatest threat is boarding, but if we stun them when they get close…”
“They won’t be able to.” Francisco said, finishing David’s thought.
“Hmm,” Johnson said as he leaned forward in his chair. “The Armstadi would be more than grateful to have the forward fleet back as most of them came from the Armstad border anyway. But what will Blythe do?”
“He won’t declare war.” Mercy said with a snort. “Even he would hesitate to do something like that. He’s parading as a peacekeeper. Declaring war isn’t his style.”
“Even so, Armstad can’t abscond with several hundred airships and expect the assembly to do nothing.” Walker said.
Mercy looked up for a moment, apparently deep in thought. “When warships enter Armstadi airspace without authorizations, there is an automatic quarantine by our border control. After all, Armstad would have no idea the airships were stolen. It could be an invading armada. And, given the number of airships invading, as it were, it may be some time before Armstad could return Alönia its airships. The paperwork alone would be a nightmare.”
Mercy gave an exasperated expression, and David smiled at her.
“Could you contact Armstad and inform them of our plan?” Johnson asked.
“Of course,” Mercy said. “I don’t foresee any objection from them.”
“So what we’re proposing is,” Johnson said and he squeezed his eyes tight in apparent concentration, “recruit old armada veterans, sneak into the Veteran shipyards, disperse a skeleton crew to all but the rear vessels, which we will arm with large pulse emitters and a full gun crew, charge out of the docks and race across the channel into Armstad airspace pulsing any gunship that ventures too close. Once in Armstad their border control will confiscate the ships and hold them until the paperwork can be finalized, which might take upwards of...”
“I should say three seasons,” Mercy said, filling in when Johnson paused. “Maybe even a cycle.”
Johnson turned to Walker with a questioning look.
Walker huffed. “I think you might need to start distributing your antipsychotics to the underground.” He said. “You’ve all gone insane. That’s the riskiest plan I’ve ever heard.”
“Desperate times, representative.” Johnson said as he nodded. “Desperate times.”
Everyone looked around at everybody else, but no one had anything further to add.
“Start preparing for the operation.” Johnson said to Francisco. “We have some time to reconsider, but if we’re going to pull this off, we’ll need to start moving immediately.”
Francisco nodded.
“As for Blythe,” Johnson continued, “We will need to wait until he makes his next mistake. Keep an eye on him, David and Mercy. If he slips up, it will be you two who’ll catch him in the act.”
David felt the weight of those words, and as everyone stood to go their separate ways and see to their duties, he lingered. Mercy turned at the arch, apparently noticing that he hadn’t come with her, but David waved her on and smiled in a reassuring manner. Johnson and Walker had stayed as well, both looking out the large glass windows at the expanse of the Sixth District as the thrum of its air traffic buzzed around the pillar.
“Sir,” David said, “Might I have a word?”
The two men turned around and David gave a tight smile to Mr. Johnson. Walker, seemingly recognizing the need for privacy, excused himself. Once he had gone, Johnson looked at David in an encouraging manner.
“I was wondering,” said David, but then he paused unsure how to ask what he wanted. “I was wondering what it was that estranged you and my father. I asked my mother, but she told me that it would be better if you explained it.”
Johnson bit his lip and looked at the floor with a nod.
“I suppose I knew this question was coming eventually.” he said. “Your father and I were very close during our earlier cycles, very, very close, the best of friends, really.”
“But he never mentioned you.” David said, “Neither did my mother.”
“Yes, that would follow.” Johnson said. He took a deep breath before turning back toward the window and looking out at the busy city. “I met your mother before your father did. I met her, and I fell very much in love. She did not feel the same, and after some time of fruitless pursuing, she dismissed my affections without even giving me her name. I am a don and not accustomed to people telling me I can’t have something. I redoubled my efforts and after some digging, discovered her name and address. However, as fate would have it, I asked your father to deliver the letter. I’m not sure what my reasons were. Perhaps I thought she would be impressed that an armada captain was transporting my love messages. In any case, he agreed to deliver my note, but that same day he and your mother fell in love. I think you know that story better than I. Your father stumbled upon your mother without knowing who she was or that she was the same woman I had affections for. It really isn’t surprising, when you think of it. Your mother was incomparable in beauty and charm.”
David nodded. “She wouldn’t tell my father her name until
he won her heart.”
“Yes.” Johnson said. “She told me the same when she met me, but I never won her heart. I accused your father of betrayal, and as your parent’s relationship progressed, your father’s and my relationship deteriorated.”
“Did he ever deliver your letter?” David asked.
Johnson nodded. “Yes. By his own admission, he struggled with the undertaking once he knew your mother was the same woman I had affections for. But in the end, he delivered my letter, and your mother chose him over me. I was hopelessly envious of his victory, and I blamed his interference for my shortcomings. Your father was a better man than I, plain and simple. It’s taken me cycles to figure that out, but your mother knew it the minute she met him.”
“I see.” David said, finally understanding the mystery surrounding Don Johnson.
“The ill will I bore toward your father and Mother all these cycles, was jealously placed on two very good and very kind people. I intend to make it up to them by assisting you in their absence. If there is anything you should need, anything at all, you have but to ask.”
David looked away to wipe an unbidden tear. “Thank you, sir.” David said. “You have already done so much for me. You really have no cause to do any more. I’m sure all is forgiven.”
Johnson laid an arm across David’s shoulders and sighed as the two of them looked out across the expanse in front of them.
“It really is an amazing city,” Johnson said after a moment.
David looked out the window and nodded, thankful for the subject change. “It’s not anything near what I expected.” He said. “I expected vast slums separated from pockets of ostentatious wealth.”
“There are slums here,” Johnson pointed to the far-right corner of the cityscape. “They’re just in smaller proportions here than anywhere else in Alönia. There is no such thing as utopia, not in this life anyway. There will always be rich, and there will always be poor. The only thing that will change is the proportions. The Sixth District recognizes that and makes a grand effort to incentivize and reward anyone striving to better themselves. Walker has a saying. Everyone who wants to be rich in the sixth, is. The only people who are poor are those who want to be.”
