Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades

by Randolph Lalonde

  “You expect us to waste our lives fighting with you on that planet hopper?” shouted a woman behind Minh-Chu.

  “No, and we’re not going out just to fight those whoresons, we’re going out to steal their supplies, their machinery, their ships. And we’ll be slagging what we leave behind. This isn’t a fight for revenge, my good lass, this is a fight for hard cash. Our service to war comes in close second. We take more loot on one run than any ship here does in three, and we have our own safe harbour.”

  “Here they go,” Stephanie whispered to Minh-Chu. Dozens of crewmembers were making their way out of the barroom, most of them wearing company uniforms. They weren’t lining up to volunteer, they were leaving the presence of a pirate, a crewman who would, under different circumstances, be blasting their ships and stealing their cargo. “We’re up, Agameg,” she told him, and they both casually left the table to follow the larger crews while avoiding notice.

  “This is a just war,” Frost shouted. “One that should be fought by every able body, but that doesnae mean we can’t make a killing while we’re fighting for the right side!” His conclusion was met with cheers, applause, and jeers in nearly equal measure. Minh-Chu was starting to understand the motivation behind the over-the-top reaction Frost got out of crowds every time he put on his show. The people weren’t reacting to the contents of his speech – well, most of them weren’t – but the theatrical presentation. Live entertainment was still worth something, perhaps more than ever in the absence of artificial intelligences, and Minh-Chu had to admit: Frost knew how to put on a show.

  “I’ll be at that table, right there,” Frost announced, pointing to a nearby table that only moments ago had a crew from a Noro Co. ship sitting around it. “Line up if you think you’re ready to kick some ass and make some cash.”

  “Why doesn’t he just post a notice on the board like everyone else?” Kipley asked, annoyed.

  “Because the people we want are here, dumbass. We don’t need some innocent scrub from Harvest Side who thinks he’s signing up for adventure and profit,” replied Shanda, one of the only security officers who were registered with Haven Shore before signing up for service on the Warlord.

  Kipley glared at her. “You watch that mouth, little miss,” he started.

  Minh-Chu took Kipley’s freshly refilled mug out of his hand and splashed the contents on the floor. “You’re done, and on your way back to the ship.”

  “You mother-“

  “I’ll freeze your suit and leave you behind,” Minh-Chu said, slamming the mug on the table. “Test me.”

  Kipley and Minh-Chu stared at each other for the better part of a minute. The eight crewmembers from the Warlord didn’t even consider interrupting. “Back. To. The. Shuttle. Now,” Minh-Chu finally grunted, so fed up with the man that he was beyond tempted to harden Kipley’s vacsuit so he couldn’t move, an act called ‘freezing,’ strip him of the little gear he had, and leave him behind, damn the consequences.

  Kipley abruptly stood and started for the exit. Minh-Chu followed. “Watch Frost’s operation then follow him back,” he said to the Warlord crewmembers left at the table. He didn’t realize his hand was resting on his sidearm until Shanda glanced at it, wide eyed. Minh-Chu left it there as he followed a dozen paces behind the tantrum-driven Kipley.

  CHAPTER 3

  Perspective

  It was sometimes difficult for Ayan to believe that the Everin Building existed at all. The circular structure looked like it belonged underwater. Hundreds of oval, bubble-like segments seemed to rest atop each other in a slow taper from bottom to top, as though they were the eggs of some giant sea creature that artfully laid them in a tall pile. The old cargo container homes that brought most of the refugees to Haven Shore were abandoned months ago as families moved into the lower levels of the Everin Building. The battered ships were stored in the nearby temporary port, where they were still being slowly repaired. Lacey, Ayan’s right hand in official matters and companion, thought they were an eyesore, a reminder that – no matter how much progress they made in Haven Shore – they had to be ready to escape at any moment.

  Ayan looked across the circle of segments at the top of the building. There were hundreds of families living in the structure below, and the feedback from the residents was positive overall.

  As the segments were inhabited, the resilient skin of the building changed colour depending on what the residents wanted their home to look like. The energy collection technologies built into the outer skin still lent an opalescent sheen to whatever colour was chosen, but that only made the outside look more spectacular. The changing temperature of the Tamber moon, any light, and any pressure contributed to the energy of the building, and the skin of the outer walls could emit energy as well. It was the combined technology of Freeground and Earth, as well as a few things Ayan and her people had learned along the way. The most impressive thing was that the walls, floors, and ceilings were laid as pliable sheets, then hardened and thickened once they were properly shaped. They would thicken further over the next few years, and the building would shift little by little to accommodate.

  Ayan dared a glance towards the centre of the building, at the mouth of the wide hole running down the interior of the structure. Vertigo threatened to overtake her as she leaned towards it, though the edge was still ten metres away. She leaned back towards the walkway.

  The wind picked up, whipping a lock of red ringlets into her face and she couldn’t help but chuckle at herself and her fear of getting blown down the hole. It would be over a hundred metre drop, but she knew there was no way a gust would send her tumbling off the temporary walkway, across the tops of a few segments. The wind was soothing in the heat of the day, and it brought the mild, earthy scent of the nearby jungle.

  Her gaze fell on the lush green expanse to the west. Thick, untamed jungle that was centuries old as far as they could determine, it had taken on characteristics all its own as the terraforming material that started that growth interacted with the unique mixture of nutrients and bacteria in the soil. There was no place exactly like it in the universe, and Ayan wished the first colonists who settled Tamber could be around to see it. The trees and hearty undergrowth provided a vast bounty of fruit, nuts and vegetables, more than the inhabitants of Haven Shore and the Triton could consume. The engineering in the expansive rain forest was only evident when someone realized how efficient the jungle was at providing food. At any time, there were three major food crops ready to pick. As they went past their season, another three or more crops were ready. The creatures of the jungle kept much of it in balance, as the jungle grew wild for the long time it was uninhabited. Birds of all kinds picked near the top of the tall trees, a variety of small mammals and monkeys ate fruit and whatever else they could find in the middle, while great cats and other beasts roamed the jungle floor.

  What the pickers from Haven Shore took from the jungle made little difference to the inhabitants; it was easy to pick a little and move on instead of stripping areas. Ayan sometimes wished she could remove herself from the Haven Shore Council and join them. The life of a picker was part labour, and part exploration, and the people who stayed past their first week stint in the jungle claimed to love the work, the challenge, and the jungle they depended on.

  The cliffs running roughly through the middle of their island had sheltered over half of the jungle from the ecological damage from the attack on Tamber months before, and never had she seen a more vibrant place as she did when she looked to the untamed side of the island. The Everin Building straddled a narrow part of the cliffs where stable rock jutted upward, as though trying to become a mountain. Most of the homes had a view overlooking the jungle on the west side, while east facing homes had a view of the other buildings, temporary shelters, and administration centres that would eventually be replaced, and the shoreline in the distance.

  “Commodore?” asked Lee Romita, the project manager in charge of constructing the Everin Building. He was a tall, wiry man w
ith grey-black hair that seemed to have an escape plan from his scalp that varied from strand to strand. He approached her with a grin that told her that he didn’t have anything to hide, and he was glad to see her. “I wasn’t expecting you for an hour.”

  Hearing her rank, and remembering that she was still in uniform - a white, fitted one-piece vacsuit with gold rank insignia with her modified violator handgun hanging on her thigh - brought her back down to reality. “I wanted to take a look before you started putting in the supports for the top,” Ayan told him.

  He greeted her properly with a friendly hug and stepped back to arms’ length. “From the trouble I hear on Crewcast about city council and all that malarkey, I don’t blame you for seeking high places. This vote’s got a burr in people’s shoes, there’s a big group against and a group just as big for.”

  “I know, maybe if they could all stand here for awhile I could be more certain about how it’s going to turn out,” Ayan said, looking eastward, into the wind and towards the distant shoreline. Deep waters kissed the white, blue, green, and yellow quartz beach sands there.

  “I’m sure it’ll turn out right, whatever the outcome,” Lee said. “As for the building, we’re at decision-making time again, and I’d rather you make this one.”

  “Start working on the transit system,” Ayan said. “Or concentrate on building the spiral frame.”

  “Yep. I know my Trina wants to get around faster, takes forever to get to the Medical Centre in the morning. Still, she says all the walking’s given her a girl’s bum again for the first time since she gave birth to our first, and neither of us are complaining about that.”

  Ayan couldn’t help but laugh at his frank speech, but he had a point. The occupancy level of the Everin Building was rising, and the temporary elevators were always crowded. Connecting and building the permanent transit system, at least inside the main structure, would alleviate a lot of frustration. The spiral frame, a new foundation to connect more segments to the Everin Building on arms stretching away from the main structure, was something that she’d like to see happen soon too, but she had to consider the whole picture. “Let’s get people movers built. The tram and permanent elevators should be finished before we consider expanding the habitat. Oh, and add more safety systems for our skidways, a lot of people who should be driving using autopilots aren’t. We have to add course locking to more lanes.”

  “What about the military features?” Lee asked. He was referring to a system Ayan, Liam Grady, and several other experienced engineers had added to the Everin Building’s design that could move military vehicles around the inside of the building for servicing, launching, and storage.

  “I think that’ll keep for another week. We don’t have the service personnel or ships to fill a quarter of the building’s capacity yet, so there’s not much point. I think people will feel safe enough when the shield’s final test passes tomorrow.”

  “Glad you’re finally feeling right about that thing, watching Liam second guessing your design, making you run through the details like a race course over and over,” Lee shrugged; Ayan could tell he was choosing his words carefully. “There were days when I wanted to shut him up in a closet for awhile.”

  “Sometimes we need to be questioned so we can see our own mistakes,” Ayan said. Defending him was a reflex, one she was still trying to get past. “He didn’t agree on a few of the details, but I had more experience with combat shielding, and I think he had trouble realizing that. Didn’t help that he was stubborn about it either, but we’re past that now. The shield is working better than expected, thanks to your people.”

  “We’re only as good as the plans we’re working from. I can’t wait to prove that the shield can protect the entire island. Gets the whole question of safety here off the table.”

  “True, and I’m sure we’ll have even more people trying to move in to Haven Shore. I’m surprised at how many off-worlders are applying for citizenship, I thought it would mostly be people from Kambis and Tamber looking to move in.”

  “Are you going to take more people in?” Lee asked her.

  “Eventually, as our own aquaponic food production comes online, but until then it’ll be slow, unless the Council starts pushing for more immigration, but I don’t know why they would.”

  “I’ll put a rush on finishing transportation systems for this building and the outer port just in case. With my skitters on the job, it shouldn’t take more than twenty-eight hours,” Lee replied. “I’ll have my people stay up here, getting things ready for the final steps before putting the top on this place in the meantime.”

  “Thank you, Lee. You and Trina have done incredible work here.”

  “Ah, I’m just glad there’s something to build, and she’s happy to be somewhere that has a use for a doctor again. Bots with thoughts kept most of her patients away in Glinn Shire. She thought she’d be a career mom for the rest of her life, just to keep busy. Now she’s got our four teenagers and two wee ones plus a couple hundred patients.”

  “So it’s going well in the Medical Centre?” Ayan asked.

  “Yep, most docs have never been happier, even though there are still bunches of people who are a little shy at being treated by anything other than a medical android, or an internal repair thing.”

  “Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about while I’m here? This’ll probably be the last bit of free time I have until the votes are in.”

  “No, nothing comes to mind,” Lee said. “You just concentrate on getting bots out into the rest of the workforce, and if they have a doubt as to how good that would be, well you just point to this building. If it weren’t for skitter bots, lifters, and VAPs we’d still be working on the foundations.”

  “I will. Wish me luck, here comes my shuttle.”

  “You knew I’d notice you up here and we’d have our meeting early,” Lee said, smirking accusingly.

  “I didn’t, I should have had an hour up here for some quiet,” Ayan replied. “Something’s brewing.” She turned her Crewcast feed back on and cringed. There were eight urgent messages waiting for her, including one breakthrough that played through the comm node in a jade and silver clasp she kept on her left ear. It was Lacey Rosendale, her secretary and overall right hand, one of only three people who could send her a breakthrough message, made to play the moment someone was in range of, or turned on, the Crewcast network. “Cory Greene has called a supplementary meeting of the Haven Shore Council, it has something to do with Liam. He’s already got Vic and Mischa there. You’re ignoring Crewcast, so I’m coming to get you.”

  The newly refurbished, angular six-person shuttle set down on a temporary landing pad. “Good luck,” Lee said before moving off to round up his foreman and forewoman.

  Lacey, a woman that made Ayan feel short on occasion even though she wasn’t overly tall, was a mess of irritation and windswept black hair as she leaned out of the shuttle’s side door. “The Council is stirring early, probably thanks to some back-room meeting.”

  Lacey matched Ayan’s mode of dress ever since she started working for her six months before, but she didn’t normally bear arms when she was in Haven Shore. Ayan couldn’t help but notice the sidearm on the woman’s hip, and she glanced at it, then at Lacey.

  “Something serious is going on,” Lacey said, recognizing the glance. “With the way you’ve been treated in Council chambers the last few weeks, I’m not taking chances.”

  Ayan took a seat and pulled the side hatch closed. The shuttle was off the landing pad before it finished sealing. “They’re only words, we knew there would be a lot of contention surrounding this referendum. There always is when a Council surrenders an issue to the public, and my personal life has made me unpopular.”

  “That was what? Four months ago? If the public’s still sore about you breaking off from Liam, they should bloody damn well grow up. It’s none of their business, and no reason to oppose your side of the issue. You should have the qualifying system take pet
tiness into account.”

  “You’re right, but some people have long memories, and Liam is very charismatic. There’s also a whole set who believe I betrayed Jake.” Ayan took a breath, deciding to move on from that over-examined topic. Lacey was more angry about the lingering disapproval towards Ayan concerning her short romantic relationship with Liam Grady than Ayan was.

  “I’ve held off on asking,” Lacey said tentatively. “But I’d like to know so I can have all the facts while I stand on your side.”

  Ayan had a feeling she knew what her aide was about to ask and nodded her encouragement as she scrolled through Crewcast highlights. “I can’t see why, you know more about me than anyone.”

  “Well, in that case, why did you break things off from Jake? Even you said you were happy when you were together.”

  The question stung. Lacey’s instinct to sidestep that question for months had been right. If there was one thing Ayan regretted since she got together with Liam, it was that she had to leave Jake. She was even more remorseful after she split from Liam, something that wasn’t supposed to be public, but became the topic of conversation for half of Tamber just the same. “I took some bad advice,” Ayan replied. “I was told that I had to free Jake so he could do what he had to in this war. Little did I know it would be stalled for the better part of a year.”

  “That advice didn’t come from that thing that could see the future, did it?” Lacey said.

  “I know what you think of the information I got from the machine,” Ayan said, trying to sidestep another short lecture on how nothing can tell people the future. It was Lacey’s steadfast opinion, and it came up whenever Ayan was caught looking at her extensive notes on the Victory Machine and her encounter. “You have to understand, when I came away from that experience it was as real as you and I sitting here, and I wouldn’t have followed its instructions if I knew it would land us here. What’s worse, I wouldn’t have ended up with Liam at all if I just stayed the course and stayed with Jake. But-“