Lord Banshee- Fugitive

by Russell O Redman

  [2] Won’t matter. If you had not started herding people, I would have gone when Rouseth called and would have been holding a gun. I have never shot a gun before in my life and by now would be dead meat in the pirate’s freezer. Everyone knows I collaborated with the pirates and was one of Rouseth’s gang. Either way, the Imperium will consider me to be a traitor.

  They are going to chop my head off. Sometimes they kill everyone to the third degree of relations. They may chop off your head too, and mama and papa and...

  [1] Let me guess, your supplier was that bitch Rouseth, who had the big picture of her Sultan Mustafa up on the wall? Yes, I thought so.

  [2] Never say that name again! She removed the picture because he was a rival to the Emperor, so I am a slave to a servant of the great traitor. That makes me a traitor to the Imperium, on top of my betrayal of the company, my crimes under Terrestrial law, and my joining the pirates. There is no hope for me anymore.

  I am still a slave. I can feel the cravings starting and I will be insane before we reach the Moon. I will do anything she tells me to get another fix.

  Oh, Sasha, how did it come to this? We were the best, top of our class. I was so proud the day we won gold and silver in the Varsity Women’s Kick Boxing. We were voted “most likely to succeed” and got great jobs in space. We were going to come home rich and famous.

  Instead, it all ends here in disgrace. I am a worthless slave and I am going to be executed in front of everyone.

  [1] Damn it, Bea, STOP! Big sister of mine, we were born fighters and never ducked a scrap without at least giving an account of ourselves. You keep the image of that Angel in your mind because you are going to tell your great-grandchildren how the King of the Banshees got a hard-on for you, and afterwards we both lay in bed beside him! You are going to be someone special again. No one is going to chop off your head, because I will not let them. And I know how to make it right.

  [2] What are you raving about? You cannot punch out the Emperor and there are no meds to cure decapitation.

  [1] I am raving because the Angel told me to, and I just realized what she meant. I may have been the last one she talked to, because she had to leave in a hurry. You probably saw her in the hallway just after she left me. But before she disappeared, she stopped in the door, looked straight inside me, and said... oh God, let me get this right...

  ‘We are trying to ensure that any criminal trials happen on the Moon under Lunar law. There are lawyers coming on the LR Quetzalcoatl to take statements. If you are a material witness to a serious crime, you can provide state’s evidence under Lunar law. If you tell everything honestly, you cannot be charged for any lesser, personal offences relevant to the case under consideration that you confess to in your statement. You will still have to do therapy and make restitution, but your record will be clean. You should tell your coworkers about this option.’

  Then she squawked and went ricocheting down the hall. The whole scene was so different from everything we had been talking about, she clearly meant for me to remember it. I just thought, ‘Oh, I may be able to get free therapy from the Lunar courts, because the company is going to fire us for sure.’

  But, Bea, she was telling me to tell you about the lawyers. Rouseth is the real traitor against everyone. If we give state’s evidence against her on the Moon, they cannot charge us for anything we admit to that we did at her instigation. They cannot charge you, Bea, and so they cannot cut off your head.

  Big Sis, do not give up! The Angels did come for you. Two of them! You are that important! You and I were feeling so sorry for ourselves we hardly paid any attention, but THINK! The King came to rescue us from the cage. He was willing to risk his own life, willing to walk naked into the gunfire, and he was shot. Bea, he did all that for you! The Counsellor came to me because I get mad and am willing to start a fight. She showed herself to you to make us talk about it. That is three separate times, just for us!

  Now, you have reminded me there is a real criminal we need to fight. Rouseth is a slaver and a drug pusher under Earth law and is a traitor to the Imperium. She is a criminal no matter whose law we consider. And we are stubborn enough to take this fight the whole nine rounds and more.

  [2] Would the Imperium even allow the trial to run under Lunar law? And if they do, you know that no one would believe us. We are the two biggest screw-ups in space. Everyone thinks we are lying scums and blowhards. They all know you hate Rouseth. They will just assume we are trying to take revenge.

  [1] I don’t know what the Imperium will do, but I am damn well going to give the Moon a try. Bea, we were born with brains, but have not been using them. We need to start, right now.

  We just need to convince the lawyers to present our case. I know you watch those courtroom dramas. Don’t you remember the Officers of Truth in the Lunar courts? They monitor your brain so they know when you are lying. Hell, you cannot even tell a half truth. If we can get that far, they will believe that we mean what we say.

  They will need additional evidence. No matter how sincere we are, we might be wrong or just crazy. But there are plenty of other people who could testify, and there must be hard evidence that they can supply. You know some of the other victims of Rouseth’s treason. They and their friends will need to testify as well. In fact, anyone who walked into Rouseth’s office will know about Sultan what’s-his-face.

  Maybe we can shame them into talking by admitting publicly that we messed up and are now asking for help. We cannot hide what we have done if we want everyone else to open up to the lawyers. It would be the worst kind of false pride to cover a momentary shame by silently agreeing to have our heads chopped off.

  We are screw-ups, but we do not have to stay that way! You need drug treatment immediately, and I need therapy to keep my temper under control. We can ask for those right away. Maybe the courts will even pay for them, but it does not matter. We need to get started before you go crazy from withdrawal and I blow my top. We need to be able to face our judges as responsible human beings again.

  Yes, everyone despises us now. That is good, because it means they can provide credible, independent corroboration for our story. And that is why everyone will listen when we tell them to talk to the lawyers. The shock alone will make them think. Can you even imagine those words coming out of my mouth?

  [2] Oh, Sasha, do you really think this can work? I am going to pray to your Angel that we will be tried on the Moon.

  [1] Big sister of mine, the Angels already answered your prayer. They came to us because we needed their help more than anyone else. And together we can help everyone, whether they like us or not. The lawyers will be here soon, so we need to get busy. No one is going to chop off your head or anybody else’s if I have a say in the matter.

  There was the sound of someone unclipping from her frame and banging on the door, while the second woman sobbed quietly.

  [1] Open up. We have to talk to our coworkers about the lawyers.

  [3] Sirs, get back in your frames. You may not collude with your friends about legal matters.

  [1] Not that! We need to tell them that the Angel with the mask said to tell the lawyers everything.

  [3] Angel?

  [1] Yes, an Angel like on the Deng, like the King of the Banshees on the Columbia.

  [3] Did you talk to a Banshee on the Columbia?

  [1] Yes, my counsellor was an Angel and she told me to confess everything to the lawyers. We need to tell everyone to do it. She said so.

  [3] Damn! I thought Jaya made that up. The Banshees really are here. Even the Lord Banshee himself!

  Look, we will be leaving for the Moon when the Ashoka relieves us and will transfer your companion in the body bag to the Quetzalcoatl before we go. His heart, lungs, stomach and just about everything else inside were torn to pieces and LR has better hospital facilities. He is apparently in awful shape and the bag is for our protection more than his. We are going to do the transfer in a minute or two. Use that time to think carefully about what you need
to say, and afterwards I will take the responsibility to escort you to your coworkers. You will have only a few minutes to speak your piece in each room. Try to run or say anything more than you just told me and I will shoot you myself. You will have to be back and clipped in ten minutes before the alarms sound or we will all catch hell. Good enough?

  [1] OK, I will clip in and wait. But we really need to tell them.

  There was a buzz of frantic conversation as they worked out what to say, but also the bumping and banging of doors as I was carried out of the room and across to the Quetzalcoatl. It always amazed me what people were willing to believe when they were desperate and confused. I was going to have to be MUCH more careful. But bravo, Toyami. I could almost see the flaming, golden bricks clicking into place.

  2357-03-13 23:30

  Into the Mouth of the Dragon

  I was curious how a marine on the Hai Ba Tru’ng had heard about the Banshees, but I had worked with the TDF long enough to be aware that the grapevine was often faster than the official chain of command. We had not exactly been discreet on the earth stations. Most likely, the proto-ballads we had heard about had started to circulate informally.

  Inside an opaque body bag, I had only my own resources to keep myself entertained. I was not even sure it was safe to stir about since I might be in the middle of a loading bay or a communal bed space. I had no idea when Surgeon MacFinn would be coming to unbag me, since I was not even supposed to be awake yet.

  Poking randomly through my comm unit interface, I was startled to discover that my ID had changed. More curiously, there was a new interface that allowed me to swap the new ID with my old one. Alexander must have made the change but left so abruptly that he had never had a chance to tell me. I wondered idly what name was associated with this new ID, then thought to check my address book. There I found an entry for the new ID that gave my name as Benjamin Lomond, still following the Scottish theme but with a silly, cutesy twist that seemed likely to draw attention.

  I was ready to take offence until I remembered my own choice of tam o’shanter and sword. My unused sash, tam o’shanter, backpack and sword had all been left behind on the ESK when I had become Brian Douglas. I half-decided to get a new tam for this ID when it occurred to me that I was only supposed to be on the ship for a few days, hardly worth the trouble of arranging a new wardrobe. Besides, I was not allowed to move from the bed, much less wander loose amongst the pirates and farm workers.

  I cranked my microphones to maximum again, hoping to hear what was happening outside, then snapped it back down as an enormously loud voice demanded, “So, are ye awake yet?”

  MacFinn, of course. I replied, still wincing, “Yes, and I assume we are safely on the Quetzalcoatl now.”

  MacFinn cried, “Wah?” then peeled open the bag. I could see two assistants behind him, all three of them as startled as I had been.

  “Sorry, lad, that was s’posed t’ha been rhetorical. Ye’re not s’posed t’be awake for ‘nother hour at least. I’ll look at that soonish. For now, d’ye remember what y’name is?”

  That would be a trick question if I had just woken up, but I could reply with some confidence, “Ben Lomond.”

  “Aye! A mountain of a man, although he mostly just lies there these days. You may as well start collectin those jokes, lad. Well, d’ye remember what ye were doin’ at Thule Station to get y’insides all wrecked so bad?”

  What I had been doing at Thule Station was mostly lying clipped into a bed in the surgical theatre under MacFinn’s care, but I was pretty sure that was not what he wanted the two assistants to hear. “Ummm, no. Not clearly. Actually, not at all. What I do remember was probably from an earlier visit. Did my sash, belt and tam o’shanter come with me, or have they been lost?”

  “Ooh, lost I’m afraid.”

  I shook my head disconsolately. “Then probably the sword is gone, too. Ah, well. I could not have worn it on this ship anyway. Why can I remember being on the Columbia, coming to the Quetzalcoatl, but not what happened before?”

  “All in good time. We’ll restore that when it’s less painful. Well, me pretties, let’s get this boy onto his bed and check’im out proper.”

  MacFinn/private, “Cover is, ye were burned and bashed in an accident at Thule Station. We’re here to supply the burnin and bashin decorations, along with fixin the rest of ye. I gave these two the paper Doctor Luciana gave me, which I ha been workin on. Damn shame I canna give her credit, but the three o’us here will get it into publication within a few days. They’re shocked that a medmon could fail so bad, but after talkin wi Alexander I suspect I know how it happened.

  “More personal, Cap wants t’meet ye privately, as he do for all the injured. B’fore that, I got a message from y’team ye might want t’read.”

  Me/private, “Surgeon MacFinn, what level of pain killers am I on? I feel like I am thinking clearly but not with much focus. I have little else to do right now, so it is important to know whether I am actually in my right mind or addled on drugs.”

  MacFinn/private, “Wahh, that’s a question. You shouldna trust y’judgement right now. Ask y’self if anything hurts. If na, ye’re still on pain killers. I recommend ye wait till after the next meal. We’ll be done here in a few minutes, then half an hour to lunch. Is it breakfast? Whatever. It’ll be soft and bland, na food as I use the word, but y’first semi-solids in a while. Y’face’ll hurt a wee with bitin an chewin, but ye need t’get that stomach workin again. After that, take a snooze and things’ll be clearer.”

  Experimentally, I tried to wiggle my tongue but could barely feel my teeth. I had enough control to talk, but during our brief conversation I had risked biting my cheeks and tongue. Maybe I had and just did not know it yet.

  They floated me out of the bag. I was still in armour, so MacFinn open the suit and pulled off my helmet. I still wore the Banshee mask and told him privately to leave it in place to protect his assistants. He snorted at the concept that an LR surgeon was anybody’s assistant but agreed to leave the mask in place. I was immediately glad we had kept the exchange private.

  He also commented that the moment they took a blood or skin sample they would know more about me than could be extracted from the Genetic Database. And, of course, as soon as they removed my armour and sweaty pajamas they immediately took small samples of hair, dead skin and blood. I noted what appeared to be blood stains on the pajamas, which warned me that I had injuries I could not currently feel. I wondered how bad dreams could cause bloody injuries, but then remembered I had already had surgery to try to correct the damage done when the med monitor failed. I had a sinking feeling that Toyami and MacFinn had minimized the true extent of the damage.

  I decided that this line of thought was getting morbid and I should leave them to their work. For distraction, I read the message from the team.

  Brian,

  Luciana and the Columbia’s surgeons agree that the Quetzalcoatl is the correct place for you to be until we can get you into a proper hospital on either the Moon or the Earth. The same is true for most of the injured farmers and pirates, and LR has the facilities to hold both insane and criminal people securely, so you should not be at risk from your fellow passengers.

  Given the perilous nature of the times, the Admiralty on behalf of the TDF, and Forward Command on behalf of the Imperium, have issued a joint communique guaranteeing the legal and political neutrality of Lunar Recovery, which both parties agree to respect and, if necessary, to enforce. While you remain on LR ships, you should not be molested, but entering and leaving them may be difficult. It was our unanimous opinion that you and the other politically sensitive individuals will be safest if you remain within LR custody until you arrive at the Moon. We will work out the details of the transfer at that time.

  The Columbia and the Hai Ba Tru’ng are now in a desperate rush to beat the incoming Martian fleet to the Moon. The main fleet will arrive in about six days now, but there is a “transition team” that will arrive in less than thr
ee days. We anticipate that much of the transition team will comprise Martian Intelligence officers whose primary duty will be to protect the Viceroy. They will surely want to screen all arriving and departing passengers, making it difficult to move a large group of people through the port who are on their most-wanted list, so most of the team must be deep below the surface before they arrive.

  To ensure that Martian Intelligence are not tipped off to your location, we have requested that LR treat everyone, pirates and farmers alike, strictly according to their medical condition. The wards will be slightly overcrowded, but many of the farmers on the Quetzalcoatl, even those who received minor injuries, may be delivered back to the farm to resume their duties before the ship returns to the Moon. By acting nonchalant, as though nothing is urgent, we hope they will ignore you as legally unimportant.

  Valhalla erupted in violence right after we left. The reports are very confused, but there seems to have been a factional disagreement over who let the Ghost escape (fancy that!), about whether the Ghost was even there, and ultimately about who was the true Emperor. Someone went looking for the Ghost in the Interrogation Centre and in the process released all the prisoners, who armed themselves and went on a rampage. It ended with a big explosion and all the survivors locked in the airtight rooms. Understandably, both the TDF and Forward Command are intensely interested in what happened, who did it, and why. We consider it informative that Forward Command learned of the event at the same time as the Admiralty.