Jasmine nodded, impatiently. She’d probably heard it already from Darrin.
“They have the orbital station under their complete control,” Gary continued. “The station was actually powered down and left in a stable orbit shortly after the Fall of Earth - I believe the original crew went elsewhere. They powered it up again, attached a bombardment module to the underside and turned it into a base. I believe there are forty or so crew stationed there, along with a handful of ... slaves.”
“Sex slaves,” Jasmine said.
“I think so,” Gary admitted. The thought of Kailee being added to someone’s harem had horrified him. Barry had gloated, openly, about his long-term plans. They had been completely impractical, Gary knew now, but they would still have been brutally unpleasant for both Gary and Kailee. “They took a number of girls from the planet when they first arrived.”
“Don’t they always do that,” Jasmine muttered. “What about the other technical experts?”
“I think they were just shipped right out of the system,” Gary said. “They certainly haven’t managed to get back in touch with me.”
Jasmine took another sip of her tea. “Do they have anyone stationed here, in Sabre City?”
“Not as far as I know,” Gary said. “They issue orders over the communications net, such as it is, and expect us to carry them out. I don’t think they cared enough to station an occupation force in the city itself.”
“So it would seem,” Jasmine agreed. “What else do they do?”
“Every two weeks, they send down a shuttle which we load with food,” Gary said. “I imagine they check the food before eating it ...”
“I would imagine so,” Jasmine mused. “Is the shuttle crewed or automated?”
“Crewed,” Gary said. “There’s actually an advisory against using unmanned shuttles in the planet’s atmosphere. The weather changes too rapidly for autopilots to handle easily.”
“That’s a safety regulation, not a practical concern,” Jasmine said, shortly. “How many people crew the shuttle?”
“Two,” Gary said. “They stay in the cockpit while we load the craft.”
Jasmine looked at him, sharply. “And you never thought to include a large bomb in the supplies?”
“It was considered,” Darrin said, before Gary could say a word. “The resistance decided there was no way we could guarantee destroying the orbital station ... and besides, they get a ship here every couple of months. They'd know what we’d done.”
Gary nodded. The orbital station might have been tiny, compared to the giant battlestations that had surrounded Earth, but it was large enough to be dangerous, should pieces of debris start to rain down on the planet below. And even if it was blown to atoms, the Wolves would eventually send a ship to find out what had happened to their garrison. Darrin was right; they might score a short-term victory, but in the long term it would be disastrous.
Jasmine shrugged. “What make of shuttle?”
It went on and on. Gary felt exhausted at the end, as if he’d had every last piece of knowledge pulled out of his head, but he couldn't help feeling that he was finally doing something to strike back at the enemy. He sat next to Kailee and forced himself to relax as Jasmine paced the room, muttering to herself. She clearly had some kind of plan, but what?
“I’ll need to check your emergency supplies,” she said, shortly. “Did you keep everything the law insisted you keep?”
Gary shrugged. Legally, every colony world was to have two shuttles held in reserve at all times. Practically, one of Meridian’s shuttles had broken down years ago and the other had been confiscated by the Wolves. The secondary supplies might still be functional, but he wasn't sure how to check them. He’d just have to lead her to the underground storage dump and hope she knew what she was doing.
“Right,” Jasmine said, once he’d explained all that. “You can take me there this evening?”
She jerked her head at Darrin, who rose and took Kailee’s arm. Kailee rose at once, wordlessly allowing Darrin to lead her out of the room. Gary stared after her, torn between horror and a terrifying sense that his life was about to change once again. Kailee had held herself together before, when they’d faced Barry together, but now ...
“She’s had a very hard time,” Jasmine said, catching his eye. “You will have to grow used to the fact that she isn't the person you knew, not any longer. I think she can recover, but ... but it will probably take years before she’s feeling any kind of confidence in herself. You have to make allowances for her.”
“I will try,” Gary promised. “But ...”
“But nothing,” Jasmine said. “People cope with trauma in different ways. Kailee seems to have largely zoned out of the world, not helped by problems with her diet. You will take care of her and try not to push her too far.”
Gary nodded, wordlessly. He didn't dare disagree. There was something about Jasmine he found terrifyingly intimidating. He’d never really met a girl he’d thought could stand up for herself before, not when the only true protection for a girl on Earth was to ally herself with a strong man and pray he defended her against all comers. No one had ever looked to him for protection, of course. The whole idea was laughable.
And you owe Kailee more than that, he reminded himself, firmly.
“I’ll do my best,” he said. “I assume she will be kept out of sight?”
“We have her in a boarding house at the other side of the city,” Jasmine said. “A doctor will take care of her, from time to time. I do hope she recovers, but ...”
Gary nodded. He’d seen plenty of people on Earth just give up. There had been nothing to live for, not even children and grandchildren. He’d had his own escape plan, but ... in hindsight, being forced to travel to Meridian had saved his life. He would have died on Earth.
“Me too,” he said. He took one last swig of his tea. “I’ll show you the emergency supplies now?”
Jasmine smiled. “Why not?”
Chapter Ten
The laws of war, thus, insisted that soldiers had to be seen to be soldiers, if they were to be treated as soldiers. A soldier who wore civilian clothes could, legally, be shot out of hand as a spy. Furthermore, the moral blame for atrocities committed against the civilian population rested with the defender, rather than the attacker.
- Professor Leo Caesius. The Empire and its Prisoners of War.
Meridian, Year 5 (PE)
Jasmine had learned to loathe the Empire’s bureaucracy from a very early age.
It was maddening to have to do battle with both the enemy and people who were supposed to be on your side. Her father, the farmer, had known far more about running a farm than any of the bureaucrats, yet he’d sometimes had to account for everything he’d done to them, while allowing the bureaucrats any influence over military affairs was asking for trouble. The Commonwealth, at least, had managed to slim down the bureaucracy, although she had no idea how long that would last. Bureaucracies spread like cancers.
And it galled her, as she looked around the storage room, to actually have to feel grateful to the bureaucrats.
Imperial Law stated that colonies were to maintain a reasonable supply of expensive emergency gear at all times. On paper, it looked like a sensible idea, but the settlers - and not the development corporation - were responsible for paying for and maintaining the supply, something that only pushed the planet further and further into debt. They had to take out loans to pay for it ...
But now it might have worked in her favour.
“This gear hasn't been touched,” she said, as she examined a standard spacesuit. “Do you know if anyone bothered to maintain it?”
“I think it was never used,” Gary said. “The Wolves certainly never demanded we hand it over to them.”
Jasmine nodded, absently. There were thirty spacesuits, a small collection of deep-space survival gear and an emergency power generator, plus enough spare parts to be reasonably sure she could get at least ten of the spacesuits working.
The medical kits, stowed at the rear of the compartment, were modern; she was surprised they hadn't been taken and put to use long ago. God knew the doctors on Meridian had to make do with primitive equipment and self-produced medicines. The collection of ration bars - enough to keep a small army fed for several months - was just the clincher.
“We’ll have to come back and check everything,” she said. “Do they ever search the spaceport?”
“They did once, when they arrived,” Gary said. “I don’t think they’ve bothered to be concerned with anything we did after that, once they reassured themselves that we weren't a threat.”
“I see,” Jasmine said. There were no weapons in the chamber, merely a handful of tools that could be converted to weapons with a little imagination. The hoplophobic bureaucrats had probably refused to consider insisting that everyone keep a supply of weapons. “We can use these, I think.”
“Good,” Gary said. “But how do you plan to get up to the station?”
Jasmine smiled. “We will have to ride their shuttle.”
Gary looked doubtful. Jasmine wasn't too surprised. Gary and Kailee both clearly had long-term problems stemming from their upbringing on Earth; it was unlikely, she suspected, that Gary was truly capable of bravery. People who were bullied relentlessly - and Darrin had made it clear that Gary had been savagely bullied - either snapped and tried to kill someone, or lost all hope they could direct their own lives. In hindsight, it was that lack of competence that might have attracted Kailee to Gary. He wouldn't have the nerve to force himself on her.
“It sounds like madness,” he said, finally. “Are you serious?”
“Yes,” Jasmine said. She had hoped there would be a shuttle on the ground, one they could use, but the Wolves had moved it to orbit. Besides, even if they had access to a shuttle, the station was permanently in place to spot anyone trying to get off the surface. A half-imagined scheme for transporting a shuttle to the other side of the planet had been nothing more than a pipe-dream. “There’s no other way to get to the station.”
She eyed Gary’s back as he turned back to the door. Would he try to betray them? He had no reason to love the Wolves, but Stockholm Syndrome - and simple fear for Kailee’s life - might lead him to do something stupid. She’d been told, more than once, that there would come a time when she would have to make a decision between taking an innocent life and risking her mission, but she’d never had to do that. Now ... she feared that time might have come.
You need him, she reminded herself. You cannot take his life now.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Gary said. “They’re due here in a week. How do you plan to take control of the shuttle?”
“Wait and see,” Jasmine said. “Now ... I want to see your databases.”
Gary hadn’t been kidding, she discovered, when he’d described the computers as outdated and cumbersome. Someone had done their level best to prepare them for life on a very wet world, but it was clear the systems were on the verge of breaking down completely. Jasmine took the codes Gary gave her, then started to probe through the files. Most of them were completely useless - she rolled her eyes when she discovered the porn stash - but some of them were interesting. The Wolves had adapted a Mark-VIII heavy-lift shuttle for their supplies, rather than anything newer.
“That’s the shuttle they took from us,” Gary said, peering over her shoulder. “But we don't have anyone who could fly it.”
“I could,” Jasmine said. She’d never had the chance to fly a Mark-VIII shuttle before, but it didn't matter. The Empire had standardised everything years ago. There were few differences, at least in the cockpit, between a Marine Assault Shuttle and a standard civilian model. “All I’d need are the control codes and some practice. But I would also need someone to speak to them on my behalf.”
“Hold a knife to their throat,” Gary advised. There was an odd tremor in his voice. “A person will say anything if you threaten them with immediate death.”
“It depends on who you threaten,” Jasmine said. When had Gary been threatened? A school bully? Knives were banned on Earth, if she recalled correctly, but it wasn't as though it would be hard to smuggle one into a school. A bit of imagination, used correctly, would make it easy. “Someone intent on being a hero at the wrong moment could get us all killed.”
She looked up at him. “Do you know the pilots? Personally?”
“No,” Gary said. “They never really talk to me.”
Jasmine nodded. It made sense; the Wolves wouldn't want their people to form any kind of attachment to the settlers, not when it would make them reluctant to strike the planet if necessary. She had wondered why the guards - and she knew now that there was more than one POW camp - had been so isolated, but it did make sense. The only real question was why they hadn't abused the prisoners.
They may think they can get some use out of us, she thought. Keeping us unharmed would be part of the deal.
She checked the last few files, then stood. “I’ll go back to our base now,” she said, glancing at her reflection in the mirror. She looked like a teenage boy, rather than any kind of woman, but she had to admit it would probably draw less attention. “I will contact you later to discuss our plans.”
Gary looked pale. “And Kailee?”
“We’ll keep her safe,” Jasmine said. She knew, no matter how she chose to justify it, that she was effectively keeping Kailee as a hostage for the second time. Gary would know, of course, what she was doing. But she suspected they had no choice. “She will be fine, I promise.”
“She won’t be fine if they turn the planet into ash,” Gary snapped. “Will she?”
“They won’t destroy the whole planet,” Jasmine assured him. “It would be pointless devastation.”
Of course they won’t, her own thoughts mocked her. It would be much easier to drop a rock on the largest city, then wait a few years. Everyone will either die or be reduced to barbarism. And then they will just drop a few hundred thousand new settlers on the other side of the planet.
“They don’t seem to give a damn about anything, apart from power,” Gary said. He pointed upwards, towards the peeling ceiling ... and the stars beyond. “What’s happening out there?”
“War,” Jasmine said.
She told Gary everything she could about Avalon, the Commonwealth and Wolfbane as they made their way back to the cabin. Gary listened, asking questions from time to time, although he didn't seem to know much about the outside universe. Jasmine wasn't really surprised; Earthers weren't encouraged to learn for the sake of learning, while Meridian’s settlers had too much to do to worry about affairs light years from their homes. In many ways, the universe had become much bigger with the fall of Earth. Star systems that had once been known elements were now strangers ...
I need to sit down with Stubbins, she thought, and go through everything, piece by piece.
“Thank you for your help,” she said, when they reached his cabin. “We’ll get back in touch with you.”
Rain was starting to fall, once again, as she walked down the road towards the city. It was the sole modern road she'd seen, although it was clear that it had suffered from a lack of basic maintenance. Water gushed down the gutter, heading to the sea, but levels were rapidly rising and muddy liquid was starting to splash against her boots. She looked behind her as she heard the sound of hoof beats, then smiled as she saw the horse and cart approaching from one of the side roads, the rider sitting under a makeshift canopy. It looked uncomfortably primitive, but horses were much easier to maintain on a primitive world - and self-reproducing too.
“Hey,” the rider called. He was a young man, barely sixteen. “Do you want a lift?”
Jasmine smiled. “Why not?”
She scrambled up next to the rider and chatted to him, trying to keep her voice low. He didn't seem to have realised she was female, but there was no point in taking chances. It was clear that she didn't look typical, at least for a woman on Meridian, and being known as
female would cause comment. She was quite happy to stick with the cover story - that she had grown up on an isolated farm - and politely deflect his questions.
“My father wants more wood for the new barn,” Gavin said. He’d told her his name, along with so many biographical details that it was clear he was starved of company on the farm. “He’s planning a barn-raising this week. Will you be coming?”
Jasmine shrugged. She’d done barn-raisings on her homeworld, back before she’d left for good, and they’d always been special occasions. The men would raise the barn, while the women would cook a feast and the children ran around getting in the way. It was a tradition she rather wished the Empire had seen fit to spread, although the cynic in her understood why the Empire had done nothing of the sort. Anything that caused unity among the population - a unity that could be easily turned against the Empire - was discouraged on general principles.
Never Surrender (The Empire's Corps Book 10) Page 10
