A Hop, Skip and a Jump (Family Law Book 4)

by Mackey Chandler

  "Respectfully, we would have been saving the Hinth from themselves," April answered. "They gave away the store and asked to be subjugated. Your anger is valid, but misplaced. Blame your priesthood for welcoming the boot on their neck," April said.

  Ha-bob-bob-brie opened his beak wide, showing a tongue that was seldom seen. Then he snapped it shut with an audible clack. "I spoke for myself in anger, and I withdraw my complaint," he decided. "It hurts, but there is truth in what you say."

  "So, tell me why we should shield Derfhome any more than Hin," April asked, because she was irritated to have been called to justify their actions toward the Hinth. She knew Heather already intended to protect them, but she felt like making them justify it now.

  "It serves your stated interest of protecting Earth from their own folly," Lee said. "If they try to assert control over us, and the string of claims the Little Fleet made, then it can come to war. They might find themselves opposed by not only Derfhome but all the nations I mentioned, the Derf and Fargone, Talker's civilization, and maybe even New Japan. There's nothing like a common enemy to bring people together. How do you think they will fare if we all unite against them? As I said, we'd be happy to be assured of neutrality. Just knowing you won't actively oppose us defending ourselves if the Earthies try to dominate us."

  "You think we'd take their side against you?" Heather asked, disturbed.

  "You do seem awfully attached to that cesspool as a repository of biodiversity, human genotypes and the physical record of most of human history. We're not terribly sure what value we have in your eyes. The Mothers wouldn't have sent me to demand an answer where we stand with each other if it was obvious to them. You'd like the Earthies to mature into a reasonable non-aggressive civilization, safe to let loose on the Galaxy. Yeah, sure," Lee sneered. "I want lots of things too, while we are wishing for fantasies.

  "Has it escaped your notice that we have pretty much achieved what you claim to want? We have the kernel of a star spanning, cooperative, multiracial civilization started and working hard to succeed, without waiting for one to emerge from Earth. That may be a fairy tale ending that never happens. There may be too many cultural roadblocks for them to fix. I've been down there and tried to deal with them. I think it would be an absolute miracle for them to get their act together."

  "No, I must object," Heather said. "No matter how much we value that biosphere and cultural relics, we'd never support evil over good to preserve it. I'm hurt you'd think that of us."

  "How well can we know you?" Lee asked. "You're rather secretive. It's difficult to find out enough from the web to draw many conclusions. There's a lot of contradictory things in the record. Even as well off as Gordon and I are, we are usually dealing with very limited fractions of the English web. I've never met anyone from Central or Home, except by actually visiting here. Do your people even visit the Lunar Republic or Fargone? I hear you have a relationship with those nations, but do you really go there for business or pleasure?"

  "Not enough you'd ever know," Heather admitted. "Maybe a dozen or so a week to the Republic, but they blend in there, and you'd never know a lady shopping or a man in a restaurant was from Central to see them. I'd be surprised if Fargone saw one of us a month over a year. There just isn't much need of it. I do see what you mean though. We are as exotic and unlikely as finding a Chinese person of the Ming dynasty in Medieval Europe. And if you did find one it wouldn't be in the marketplace, it would be at court, away from the public eye."

  "There are so many questions unanswered," Lee said, "so many things that don't make sense. I read the book you gave me," Lee directed at April, "But it raised more questions than it answered. We read about the Chinese sending a fleet on behalf of the United Nations. I'd never heard of them until then. But that was so long ago, not long after you moved Home out past the Moon. It's not believable Earth has stayed submissive to you since then. If there's anything consistent about them it's that they have a short memory and will be back to test you again before very long. How have you kept them afraid of you?"

  "Let me get back to that in a moment," Heather said. "Let me address my own people first." She looked around the room. "You are my peers and trusted sworn subjects. You may advise me against it if you wish, but it is my firm opinion given the direction of this conversation, that we must make significant changes. Circumstances have changed. As Miss Anderson said, the Claims Commission has been a stabilizing force. It was a gift to us really, a phase of expansion with controls that molded the growth of human influence and expansion in ways for which we hoped. But now, it has reached a crisis point in excluding the claims of those its minor members were unwilling to support. In hindsight it has all the characteristics of any empire whose grasp exceeds the ability of its policy makers to control the fringes of the empire. The response time to hear of events, and issue orders in response, runs consistently behind those events. How will they respond? And how must we respond?"

  "The Commission allowances to the small countries always did amount to charity," Jeff said. "The cost of maintaining a small armed ship that mostly loitered around Earth or went on a mission of limited scope to show the flag at a colony world was always far less than the benefits from the Claims Commission. Even the credits to non-space nations when there was a really major find were pretty generous. It simply bought peace and quiet from them.

  "The question now is, how will they change? Human nature being what it is, they will look at the wealth in the Little Fleet claims, and psychologically it devalues exploring off the other directions where the benefits are unknown."

  "I had a very perceptive gentleman on Fargone tell me the same thing," Lee admitted. "I found his more detailed explanation very persuasive."

  Jeff did a little bow with his head to acknowledge that.

  "There is an unfortunate tendency to resolve any loss of authority by applying more. Even though they foolishly initiated it this time, I expect them to try to rescind their error and decree the Commission will now extend their authority without distance limits. Really, the initial response of the small countries was probably more rational. It has surpassed the limits of their control given ship transit times. If they demand the Claims Commission be used it changes everything. It worked as voluntary association. It won't work when imposed. It's entirely predictable that once it is mandatory the payout to explorers and welfare to non-participating states will both plummet. That is on top of the problem that new claims were already being made at further and further distances where transportation costs eat up the profit margins.

  "We speculated the commission would reverse their decision before you ever came and brought these issues up, Miss Anderson. The severity of the problems that would create is not something we saw in the same depth you suggest, but you are most persuasive," Jeff said.

  "Have you considered ways to respond to them reasserting authority?" Lee asked.

  "Yes, but I'll let my sovereign address that."

  "Very well," Heather said. "I'll address this in informal language. We're not at court and even if someone is making a recording this isn't going to be released as an official public file like my court hearings.

  "I'm inclined to do a rare intervention and inform the Earthies they will not try to impose themselves on distant worlds and associations which don't want the gift of their supervision. I'd do that starting with both Derfhome and Fargone by establishing embassies and recognizing their territorial integrity. There would be a Central flagged ship kept accessible for my voice and ambassador, which would see to your territorial integrity. I know the people at Fargone well enough to be sure they will welcome such a thing. We already have a relationship with them. Perhaps we can do the same with you, some minimal agreement one hopes, but if I send a voice and military support to Derfhome, will they be accepted?" Heather asked Lee. "I am informed they never acknowledged Fargone aid."

  "I speak with the voice of the Mothers," Lee assured her. "They will be made welcome. However, I suggest you place such
an embassy at a trade town so it is available to all the clans. That is what Talker did and it seems a good pattern to establish not to look too attached to any one clan to be able to welcome others. Red Tree made public their approval of the embassy, and would do the same for yours."

  "How do we know the Mothers won't reject your arrangements if you get back and they aren't pleased and feel you overstepped?" Heather asked.

  "It doesn't matter. I have their chop," Lee said, extending her hand with the seal for them to see. "If they don't like what I've committed them to they're still bound by their word on a public contract when this marks it. To repudiate it would destroy their standing with the other Mothers. Do you understand the concept?"

  "Yes, we'd call that a hanko. Why didn't you show that to us at the start?" Heather asked.

  "Look who is with me," Lee said. "I'm riding a Red Tree warship, and I have the Fleet Master and Badger spox with me, an officer of a well known bank, a Hin telling you my safety is a concern of his race. Do I really need other bona fides? My cousin, who I very much respect, once remarked to me that if you have to tell people you have power, you don't."

  Ha-bob-bob-brie made a explosive little noise like a sneeze, and then looked away like nothing had happened. The Lunarians all looked at him and decided not to inquire what that meant. They all perceived it was likely laughter, if not outright derision.

  "A suggestion if I may," Gordon interjected. "You should not wait to announce this. If they try to retract their decision on excluding us then it is much harder to back down from it after public statements are made. You shouldn't even reference your position as a response to theirs, that hands them power as the architect of the idea. As if it's theirs to reject or modify. Frame it as your own primary policy. You gain advantage by stating your position, and then whatever they say about it is a response. A rebuttal never has the power of a primary statement. To a lot of people who follow such things it would even look like they are just being petty and hypocritical by just automatically taking the opposite position from you."

  "You're right. Last chance to speak against pursuing this," Heather warned, looking around at her people. She got a wave of negative head shakes and wave offs. "Dakota, start preparing a very simple statement covering the things I mentioned. Try not to allow room for any legalistic exclusions or mis-interpretations. No need to put it in polite diplomatic euphemisms. I'd like to look at it, and release it, if we can come to a final agreement. Just a framework is sufficient. I'm sure we'll need to alter it after we talk."

  "While Dakota does that lets take a break. I'm hungry if nobody else is, and I intend to satisfy Lee's curiosity about at least one thing. That will require watching a rather lengthy video I don't want to sit through hungry. Gabriel dear, do you want to tell the caterers to serve now? I'll rejoin you in a moment," and she left to what Lee assumed were her private rooms.

  Chapter 25

  Lee was going to ask where there was a restroom, as that was where she suspected Heather had retreated. But looking around she spotted the Lady introduced as Eileen exiting a door on the other side of the room. The light remained on long enough to show it was what she needed.

  When Lee came out the caterers had most of the buffet laid out, cold stuff mainly. Cold cuts, cheeses, all sorts of little bite size vegetables sculpted in decorative shapes, and prawns, which Lee hardly ever got, so she mentally marked them to try.

  Eileen was waiting for the last caterer to leave, standing with a plate in her hands. Lee walked up behind her and was going to get a plate. She glanced down at the other end of the buffet table. The last worker laid a tray down and pulled his phone out. That wasn't professional, but it didn't surprise her. Some people are slaves to their phone, but he looked back at Eileen and lifted it like he was taking her picture. Lee was about ready to say something to Eileen about it, but he jammed the phone back in his pocket. When his hand came back out he lifted it again with something in it.

  Eileen whipped the plate backhand, hard, putting a spin on it. It must have been hard to see, edge-on, because the man made no effort to duck at all. The plate hit him dead on, right across the bridge of his nose. He didn't have time to fall. One of Ha-bob-bob-brie's taloned feet took him around the front of his neck and slammed his head backward to the floor. Gunny dove through where the man had been standing, too committed to alter course, arms outstretched to tackle, and landed belly first on the buffet table, sliding halfway down the table in a tsunami of flying dishes and splashed sauces.

  Heather came back through the door from her quarters just then, as Gunny slid to a stop. There were splatters of sauces up the wall halfway to the ceiling. Everything was pushed in a pile in front of Gunny. He raised himself slowly, half his face red from cocktail sauce and a prawn draped over one ear.

  "Damn, but you're a messy eater," Heather scolded him.

  "Phoenix is unbelievably fast," Gunny said. "I had a target, was all lined up to hit him like a ton of bricks, and suddenly he wasn't there."

  "Ha-bob-bob-brie to you brother," the Hin said. "I think it was wasted effort for both of us. Lady Eileen seems to have put paid to him before we got there."

  "I'm just sworn," Eileen objected. "I'm not Lady Eileen."

  "You are, forevermore, Lady to me, Sister," Ha-bob-bob-brie insisted, and bowed deeply.

  "The Hin has taste," Heather said. "Let's not gainsay him. Consider yourself elevated."

  Then it was Eileen's turn to bow to her sovereign.

  Another caterer appeared at the door and was looking at three pistol muzzles fixed on him.

  "We were sitting on the cart," the catering boss said, "and Frederick never came back. I was coming to ask if there was a problem." He looked deeply shocked at the buffet's destruction.

  "I'm sorry, but Frederick isn't coming back," Gunny said, making a theatrically slow, open palmed gesture, at the body on the floor. "Has he been working for you long?"

  "Almost two years. He came from Camelot, and had lived in Armstrong before. There was nothing remarkable about him at all, except maybe that nobody would play poker with him."

  "He cheated?" Gunny inquired.

  "No, he just won all the time. I'd have never thought him a . . . What do you call it? Somebody who lives very normally, waiting to do a mission."

  "A sleeper," Gunny said. You need to read more spy novels."

  "What a mess. Do you want me to call security? Shall I call my fellows in the corridor to clean up? Should I see what I can salvage off the other end there and send my people for replacements?" He asked at a rush, suddenly recovered.

  "Security is called," Heather said. "They'll remove Frederick. Why don't you just leave the sandwich things on the end? It looks like they survived. We'll manage with that. I'll call for you to send somebody back to clear the whole mess up when we're done."

  He nodded, looking at Frederick and then the buffet that had been perfect when he'd walked out the door. It obviously bothered him to walk away with it looking like that, but he did.

  "I take it you have enemies," Lee said to Eileen.

  Eileen looked at her in shocked silent for a few breaths. "He was aiming at you!"

  "Are you sure?" Lee asked, unbelieving.

  "Mistress . . . he was aiming at you," Ha-bob-bob-brie assured her. "Hinth visual acuity is very fine. The reason he hesitated was Mrs. Foy was spoiling his aim at you."

  "They would have to hold a grudge for years to have me on an assassination list," Lee protested.

  "Or just not bother to take you off the old one," Gunny said. "I'm sure I'm still on somebody's shoot on sight list from a hundred years ago."

  "None of you seem all that upset over it," Lee said. "I was rattled even before I knew it was directed at me. But I think all of you are right about that."

  "Gunny, go in my rooms and use a real shower. That's way beyond cleaning up at a sink," Heather told him. "Besides, you are dripping."

  "All of us have been targeted," April volunteered, since Gunny was follo
wing instructions. "I guess I should say, welcome to the club."

  Security came in then. Scanned the man carefully for booby traps before moving him, and brought his tiny gun to Eileen after inquiring who had trophy rights.

  Dakota came back and stopped staring. "You let the guys eat first again didn't you?" she asked the room. Nobody bothered to answer.

  "How do you live like that?" Lee asked. "Never knowing when an assassin will pop up?"

  "What choice do we have? Isolate ourselves with only the closest security? Hide in the other room while they set up a buffet table? No thanks. It's been much better once we aren't in LEO. When it was a cheap shuttle ride to Home we had all kinds of agents crawling out of the air vents. There've been a lot fewer spy bots too, now that we don't get as much supply from Earth. Come on now. Make a sandwich with me. If you let them spoil your lunch the terrorists have won." April solemnly declared.

  There was plenty to eat just in the half a buffet left, though the prawns were history, trampled on the floor. It reminded Lee these folks weren't afraid of being rich and didn't care who had a fit over them laying out a nice table. Lee strongly suspected that normally little of it would go to waste after it was cleared away. The cold stuff was kept cold, and the hot stuff safely hot, so it didn't have to be tossed out unless nobody wanted it. Lee managed two tall sandwiches with a little bit of everything on them and the good pickles that had survived. There was still plenty when Gunny came back with a clean face and a damp shirt. But then Gordon went back for seconds, which pretty much finished it.

  "You wanted to know why the Earthies have been reluctant to challenge us," Heather reminded Lee, after everyone had a chance to eat something.

  "It's one of the things we couldn't find any explanation for in the records," Lee admitted. "It seems contrary to their entire record of behavior. They have a clear pattern of quickly forgetting any difficulty or agreement and returning to baiting and aggressive behavior."

  "It takes a lot to impress them, we have to admit. I'll show you a video. This is off our scan feed. It was taken at a system we thought far enough from Earth we didn't expect to see any humans for some time. Instead it was just a few decades. North America sent an expedition deep. Deeper than your Little Fleet went, but then they weren't taking the time to look for assets. They intended to blow through every system without stopping until they needed to fuel. They were all military vessels and ran light crews with extra consumables. They were a mapping expedition and North America had plans to keep sending a group like this out on a regular basis."