Lord Banshee- Fugitive

by Russell O Redman

  Marin noted that it had been a while since lunch, and dinner might be delayed as we approached the Moon. We would work better after a light meal, even if it was just battle rations. The moment she mentioned it, my stomach gave a gurgle of agreement.

  Immediately after that, the acceleration alarms wailed. I had a queasy sensation as the Mao slewed to a different orientation, followed by a series of sharp jolts that indicated laser firings. The two doctors barely reached their beds before we felt the rattling shudder of rail guns. The Mao surged ahead, slewed and fired its lasers one more time, then stabilized. We waited, one minute, two minutes, five minutes, then relaxed. The Mao would be far past whatever they had encountered.

  There had been no missile launches. The lasers and rail guns could smash through a freighter’s hull, but against warships were mostly effective in destroying the enemy’s weapons systems. They could disable or destroy missiles but could also fuse or shatter the parts in the missile racks, laser targeting pods and rail gun turrets.

  Raul was in an adjacent bed, so I quietly asked him what he thought we might have been firing at, but he refused to speculate. There were just too many possibilities, and he refused to distract the ship’s systems with idle queries based only on curiosity.

  He was quiet, even quieter than usual, and had not participated in preparing the report unless questioned about some detail. I watched him surreptitiously for a few minutes. He was moving his lips without making a sound. I squinted to mask the direction of my gaze and watched more directly. I had mastered lip reading in my early training, as did most agents, but the art only really worked if you knew which language was being spoken. In a shock from my own past, I realized – the Kid realized – that Raul was speaking Spanish and was repeating over and over a prayer for Begum’s safety in the fight.

  I looked away, realizing that I was not the only one in love on the team. Raul, pillar-of-strength Raul, cold-as-ice Raul, needed some privacy. Begum was right; there was a warm and beating heart inside him that did not often show on the surface. After we returned to the Moon, he would need either marriage or grief counselling, depending on how the fight had gone.

  I told everyone to stay clipped in, since we could find ourselves in battle again at any moment. If the Mao had to boost at two-G and slew at the same time, anybody loose in the room would hit a steeply sloping floor/wall with twice the effective force of gravity. Doing that without taking life-threatening damage required training that none of us had, especially not the doctors who spent their careers on the earth stations.

  I called aloud, “Doctor Marin, I am terribly sorry, but I must forbid you to act as a waitress. I am going to see if I can call our guards, who at least might be able to stay on their feet.”

  That got the desired snort out of Marin, but before I had a chance to start digging through the interfaces in my comm unit, the door opened and our sailor guard stepped in, wearing suction boots that gave a perfectly rude noise with each step. They were probably less damaging to the floors and walls than magnetic boots but did require some air pressure to be effective.

  “Sirs,” he said, “the Cap wishes to inform you that you should remain clipped into your beds until we arrive at the Moon. There are pirate warships, not under the command of the Imperium, between us and our destination. I am to tell you that some of them have been stealthed with large sheets of silver but are still visible in the far UV. He said you would understand what that meant. We can avoid most of them, but it will require some hard maneuvering. If there is anything I can do to assist you, please tell me.”

  Marin immediately passed him a string of standard battle ration orders, flavoured lemon-raspberry for a change. I was not aware that flavouring had even been an option, and wanted to ask what other flavours were available, but Valentino piped up and asked if he could set the walls to something soothing, perhaps panoramic views of mountains, deserts, forests, beaches and a few cities running in a cycle. For myself, I asked if there was a generic comm address to pass requests to our current guards.

  He answered, “Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir, comm channel 56123 will always summons the guard or attendant for whatever room you are in, Sir.”

  Then he went to the wall control panel and selected a sequence of slow panoramic views of iconic locations around the Earth. I recognized the standard views of the valley of the Indus River as it swept out of the Himalayas, a long run up the Amazon River, the Great Bear Rainforest of coastal Noram Gwai, and the tall spires of New Chennai before our sailor arrived back with our snack bulbs. He recommended that we keep them tucked inside our bed sheets to prevent them from ricocheting around the room in sudden maneuvers.

  I asked if there was any news about the rest of the fleet, hoping for word of the Hammerhead. He glanced at Mindy and would say only that he had not heard of serious damage to any vessel in the Earth-Moon system, not even the pirates we had engaged earlier. Raul nodded slowly and looked somewhat less stressed. I noticed that when he thought no one was looking, he continued his silent prayer.

  2357-03-07 05:30

  Hopeless Cases

  A slow realization dawned that I was wasting the last few hours that the whole team would be together. When we reached the Moon, we would divide into two groups. Katerina and Evgenia would transfer to the Moon along with the doctors and all the ministers, the delegates, and the members of our old investigative team. Leilani, Sergei, Raul, Toyami and I would transfer in secret to the Columbia to make the run out to Thule Station, where we would pick up the mysterious Pantocrator. If Molongo was right, he would re-integrate my personae and I would return as a different man. The rest of the team would reunite on the Moon after we returned, but I would never again be the same man I was, and I could not predict what I would become.

  Try as I might, I was having a hard time imagining how I might win through to the Hellgate. Assuming I was still capable of completing the Mission, I needed to get the team, and probably the ministers as well, working on some mechanism to ensure that I could surrender myself to a competent authority who would transfer me to the jurisdiction of the Moon. Only the Moon had a legal system that would maintain my right to a full, honest, and public confession, which I was sure was the proper entry into the Hellgate, yet Lunar Justice had no jurisdiction over the case.

  I called to Evgenia and Katerina over the comm, presenting the problem as a legal challenge that would probably require both of their sets of talents, doubly difficult because of the risk they would have to take to address the issue. I presented it as part of the much larger issue of how to maintain the legal independence of the Earth, Moon, and Mars.

  In principle, Terrestrial Law applied throughout human space, but in practice the three planets had evolved different procedures and different local laws that were wildly divergent. Without competent advice, the Imperium would attempt to enforce Martian Justice everywhere, which would drive both the Earth and the Moon into rebellion.

  For us, it would be personally disastrous, since under Martian Law the entire team would be executed as Ghost Followers. Evgenia was the only member of the team with the legal background to pursue this issue, to create the necessary boundaries and interfaces between the laws of the three planets. Katerina would have to help with the extremely delicate negotiations needed to set those boundaries in place.

  Evgenia halted me, telling me she was feeling sick listening to such nonsense, and that I needed to find a better approach. I was asking her to face the most hateful justice system in human space, alone and without resources. Katerina intervened, assuring Evgenia that she would not be alone, but agreeing that this was a task for the Councils and for Extraterrestrial Affairs, not for a team of investigators stuck in a can. I pointed out that we were almost at the Moon where we would finally be released from the Mao, that our need was very great and extremely urgent, and that we could expect whatever resources the ministers and their delegates could provide.

  We were all becoming agitated, drawing Doctor Marin’s attenti
on. She demanded to know why Evgenia, Katerina and I were all spiking with stress. Leilani also demanded to know what was wrong. I replied to the whole team that we had been discussing what I wanted Evgenia and Katerina to do when we reached the Moon.

  Leilani interrupted again, her own stress levels rising visibly, “What are we facing when we get to the Moon? Will the Imperium be there already? Will we be arrested?”

  I realized with a shock that neither Wang nor Molongo had had time to inform anyone except Raul and myself about the plan to split us up at the Moon. I swore quietly, which caught the attention of everyone else.

  They left off watching the panoramas and their quiet conversations about places they had visited. Mindy had been listening to the conversation, awestruck by vistas of the Earth that she had ignored for her whole stay on the earth stations. Now, she looked around as well.

  Damn and double damn. I gave a theatrical sigh and spoke out loud. “We will all be disembarking from the Mao when we reach the Moon, and I believe that includes you Mindy. We will each have different roles to play after that, and I would like to discuss these roles with each of you privately. Forgive me, Mindy, I must deal with everyone else first. After that I would like to discuss what we might do to keep you safely within the Lunar Justice system.”

  What I had meant was that Lunar Justice would keep her safe if we could arrange the transfer from TDF jurisdiction, but I realized as she gasped that she feared we were protecting ourselves by condemning her to a system like Martian Justice. I quickly added, “Please, Lunar Justice is even more gentle than justice on the Earth. They will keep you safe and protect your rights, if only we can prevent the Imperium from demanding Martian Justice first.”

  I turned back to the team, using the comm again. “I am, umm, NOT sorry. I am mad as hell that you have not already been informed of our plans when we arrive at the Moon. There is not much I can tell you, but Molongo should have informed everyone on the team about our immediate future. Singh and Morris have been wired on painkillers, but Molongo and Wang told Raul and I what was intended when we met with them this morning.

  “We will all disembark from the Mao, which we know requires major repairs before it can be brought back into service. However, Leilani, Doctor Toyami, Raul, Sergei and myself are to be detached on a separate mission that should require two to three weeks. I am not free to share the details of that mission with the group, especially not with a Martian operative in the room. Evgenia, Katerina and the three remaining doctors will be staying on the Moon, along with the ministers and their delegates. I confidently expect that when we regain contact with the outside world we will discover that your nominal bodies back on the ESK all perished during the iron rain, but I have not been informed yet what your new IDs might be.

  “Can I speak with the three doctors first? I think their situation will be the easiest to deal with.”

  I addressed Doctors Marin, Tran, and Valentino. “I feel you have been left out of this discussion while so many larger issues are flying loose. That must stop. Can I ask you to try to clarify what future the team faces in their current plans? Since Molongo and Singh are our nominal supervisors, they would be the people to contact first if they do not come directly to you.

  “Since we are employees of the Council, I expect we will remain employed so long as the Council rules the Earth. Obviously, the original plans to start a new investigative branch are no longer viable, and the need for a new medical service within it has vanished. However, the Ministers and their delegates are now trapped on the Moon and may have serious difficulty returning to the Earth. They may not even want to. The need for additional medical care probably still exists, but on the Moon.

  “That would probably be a good cover for you, hidden within the Lunar medical system. It may even provide a good long-term source of employment. Very few doctors emigrate to the Moon, and the TDF surgeons have specialties that the civilian population rarely require. I think they would welcome you eagerly.

  “I fear that your most serious problem will be scraping off the Ghostly ectoplasm that slimes everyone I meet. Fortunately, Doctors Tran and Valentino did not interact with me much, and Doctor Marin is on record as hostile, so you are probably safe in that regard.”

  There was a brief snicker, as I turned my attention to our legal problems again, addressing the whole team.

  “I was discussing with Evgenia and Katerina that I want the Lunar courts to try us if we are arrested and charged with offences against Martian law. We must avoid trials on the Earth or on Mars. Mars will never tolerate a judicial decision made on the Earth, especially for someone like me who has committed actual crimes on Mars. The rest of you will be executed for the crime of knowing me if the trial is conducted on Mars. However, our cases are merely illustrative. The same rules must apply to all interplanetary cases.”

  Katerina was still distressed and demanded, “We talked about this before. Must we talk about it again?”

  “Yes,” said Leilani. “I did not believe Brian last time. Now I know he is right. They are hunting us, and I cannot forget the contempt in the Martian officer’s eyes. Evgenia, please, take this seriously. I will kill myself before I let the Martians take me.”

  My whole world went black and I would have collapsed if I had not been strapped into a bed in zero-G. It started to lighten again when Evgenia finally choked out, “Alright. But I cannot think about one of us on trial. Not yet. Perhaps we can consider Mindy as a test case?”

  I replied, “Yes, Mindy would be a good case. Her offence is against the TDF so she is being held under Military Law, which is less brutal but almost as draconian as Martian Law. Under what conditions could we transfer her case to the Moon? Bear in mind that Martian Law might consider her to be guilty of being a Ghost Follower simply for talking with us while she is incapacitated. Nor do they know where she is, so they may be considering charging her with desertion.”

  The Mao slewed and accelerated again. There was the jerk of laser fire, then the push-pull of a missile launch. Another jerk of laser fire and another missile launch. Pirates or war? Hidden here, we could not know, but I felt my world fade to grey with each jerk and shudder.

  I continued, trying to stay in the present. “The Mao probably does not have books on Martian Law on board, but it is derived from TDF Military Law as it existed two hundred years ago during the initial settlement. Since then, the Governors have made additions that contradict almost every principle of terrestrial justice.

  “Unfortunately, Martian prosecutors have enormous latitude in when and how they apply that law. I used to hand cases to the prosecutor, knowing that ze would pay no attention at all to what I had written. I am hoping that the Imperium has brought better discipline to the office, but a significant goal in your plans will be to keep Martian prosecutors as far from the accused as possible until you understand what they intend to do.”

  Katerina was annoyed with me again. “Brian, shut up for a minute. I have just about got Eve and Lei calmed down, and we were considering poor Mindy. We need some precedents. No one has ever tried to move legal cases between planets. The regions on the Earth are just administrative and cultural units, not legal ones for anything more important than regional and municipal bylaws. The last time anyone had to worry about crossing borders was before the Final War. Did they have any language for these kinds of issues?”

  That was one for me. “I am sure they did, and I must have looked at some book on the subject. Let me think. I suppose our initial effort should be to transfer her from Military to Lunar Justice. That must already have precedents, on the Earth if nowhere else. Meanwhile, should we ask Mindy whether she wants to try? It might help focus our thoughts.”

  There was a long pause. Then Katerina sent again, “Be silent. This is something Lei wants to try.”

  Leilani asked out loud, “Mindy, this is Flower. I am behind you now, so do not try to look at me. It would hurt your neck. We are trying to understand how we might help you. We may not be fri
ends yet, but nobody here wants to hurt you. Is it true that you would be killed if we handed you back to the Imperium right now?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you have not done anything to harm the Imperium. You fought recklessly, but valiantly in their cause, and tried several times to harm us. They have no case against you.”

  “I failed, and so they will believe I am a collaborator. I deserve to die.”

  “But they are wrong. You remain loyal to the cause. Let us try something different. Mindy, when did you first become angry enough to attack a battleship by yourself?”

  “What do you mean, when? I have been fighting the Ghost Followers since I left Mars.”

  “Yes, but you have been here for some time, and this is the first time we know of that you tried to attack a whole battleship. We have spoken to the crew and watched the security video. You were in a rage when you entered the Mao. What made you so angry?”

  “I do not know. It started building a few days before, when I realized that something big was happening that even the Belters understood. That day, it just seemed to overwhelm me and I had to do something. Then they gave me the drugs and the grenades and I knew what I had to do.

  “Why are you being nice to me? I tried to kill you!”

  “As did Dom Caruso and his bully boys, and they succeeded in raping me, but my injuries healed and I have received justice. They were shamed before their families and friends, stripped of their privileges, and have reformed into proper citizens again. If the TDF charges you with terrorism as an act of war, the penalties are much more severe, as is appropriate for soldiers who commit crimes.

  “Mindy, you mentioned the madness before. Do you know what kind of attack it was? We suspect you may have been an early victim of the madness. If so, then someone else goaded you into that attack, which might be the basis of a legal defence. Do you know how the madness works and who controls it?”