Family Law

by Mackey Chandler

  "There has been considerable shifting of personnel and re-appointments, since the impeachment and conviction of the President and Vice President."

  "I'd rather have expected the Secretary for Interstellar Affairs to be sitting there instead of State. Our understanding was State mostly dealt with other Earth nations now. I don't mean to be rude or belittle anyone, but how do I know you are fully authorized to speak for your nation? If things are as unstable as this suggests, will the same people be in charge by the time you carry an agreement home?" the First Mother asked.

  "Interstellar Affairs was stricken worse than State by the shake-up," Molson explained. "Three secretaries in succession quit and nobody was left of sufficient maturity to trust with a mission of such gravity. I have a letter giving me authority to re-confirm the Treaty of Man and express our commitment to it. I'll have that fetched and present it to you now."

  "That seems sufficient. Let's proceed with business then, on the assumption your letter is wide enough in power and intent to allow an agreement," the First Mother agreed. "Now, our needs are two: To reaffirm the provisions of the original Treaty of Man and to give it teeth. We found out with the seizure of Lee Anderson and the fact your government did not reprimand the official responsible for that action and move to correct it, that your laws are not always enforced. In clan custom if a law is not enforced it is void. We don't attach a specific penalty to breaking a law, because the Mothers are expected to apply a rational appraisal of intent and how badly a law was broken, before telling a law breaker what the Mothers see as necessary to correct it. It was an error expecting the same from your system, but we were too newly acquainted. Do you see any problem with agreeing to this?"

  Molson looked absolutely shell shocked by the speed with which the Mother laid out the demands. "I, uh. I'm not even sure how to address you. This is not how we are used to proceeding. Could you perhaps back up and define what you consider the problem to be first?"

  The First Mother looked at him with barely concealed contempt. "They are not complex issues. A judge of your political sub-unit of California, arrested a citizen of Red Tree when she was a victim of local crime. Her human bodyguards were cleared of any wrong doing, yet strangely she was not. He excluded her father from the hearing and declared him an animal – a non-person – expressed utter contempt for our law, which by treaty was declared binding on all matters involving our citizens and sent her to be forced into a foster family who she had never met. This when she was not found guilty of any wrong. He did this over the objections of their own prosecutor, who did not wish to pursue the matter. Yet your central government did nothing to correct the situation."

  "Actually she wasn't arrested," Molson argued. "She was held in protective custody, because she was a minor."

  "If I seize you and lock you up right now in a room – just for your own safety," she said in a mocking tone. "Exactly how many days will it take you to understand locked up, is frigging LOCKED UP! - No matter how many cute weasel words you use to excuse what was done?"

  "I don't believe you'd do that," he said, somewhat uncertainly.

  "Why not? Derf have their share of utter fools the same as Humans. Don't we have the right to have a turn at being just as duplicitous and asinine as you? Must it fall on us to be the only plain-speaking reasonable party? It is not an enjoyable role to carry alone, let me assure you."

  "I, I object to that characterization. We tried to recover the girl and our recovery team was assaulted and killed to the man in Michigan."

  "Ah, how many Derf did you say attacked this group?"

  "Uh, none."

  "Was that team then intent on restoring her to us?" she asked.

  "I'd assume so," Molson agreed.

  "Then it seems strange an armed group from the Office of Naval Intelligence tried to seize her again, when she was safely off planet and headed home. The skeptic in me thinks they would have returned her to Federal custody, not helped speed her on her way home. In any case they left you with a rather unhappy neighbor in the Lunar Republic and another broken treaty with the Hinth didn't they?"

  "That is something that last I heard we're still not sure what happened. The President and Vice President accepted an invitation to emigrate to Mars and the Secretary of the Navy committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. We may never know what happened. All I can assure you, is that the current administration has no desire to regain custody of Miss Anderson and we want to put this entire thing behind us."

  "That should be easy. Draft a document affirming all the same terms of the previous treaty and append a declaration that acting against the terms of the Treaty of Man, or trying to subvert it, is the same as treason against your own state. We'll be happy to sign it."

  "There are also the matters of ships taken and reparations for losses, including the man your guard killed a few days ago in the corridor outside this room. We ask for a armistice also, until our Legislature can ratify the Treaty."

  "No, no and no. If you start a war you can't finish you will take your lumps and live with it. The fellow trying to break in and bug our rooms here fits the definition of a spy in your law. We were perfectly legal in your own laws of war to execute him out of hand. If you want to compensate his family for sending him to be killed that is your concern. An armistice gives you no incentive to wrap this up. If we remove the pressure from you, I can easily see you back here in a few months trying to wiggle out of what you already agreed to."

  "Surely you don't think if you continue to prosecute this war, you can stand against our superior forces?" He asked. "We have several counties, bigger and more populous than Red Tree."

  "I am growing weary," the First Mother sighed. She looked to the Third Mother. "Would you please answer him dear?"

  "Yes ma'am. I'm somewhat less gracious than my superior," she informed Molson. "We are by every measure winning," she pointed out. "We are not interested in your surrender. It would have no value to us. We offer a fair relationship, or your destruction. So accept what the First Mother offered or fight, damn you."

  "I was sent here to reaffirm the Treaty," Molson agreed. "But I was not told I could give away additional terms, or cave in to threats. If you are going to threaten me I'll pack up this mob and go back to Vancouver."

  "It * won't * be * there," said the Second Mother slowly, like to a thick child.

  "What won't?" he asked. Her change in manner got his attention.

  "Vancouver. There will be a crater there three or four miles across and a half mile or so deep. Most of Washington and a good chunk of B.C. will be wiped clean too. The weapon to do it is positioned waiting for our word, like a cocked gun pointed at your head." She illustrated with a true hand aimed between his eyes, thumb cocked back ready to fall.

  "If you want to be the man who goes down in history as bringing that down on your nation, then go home. But be aware what you will find."

  "You wouldn't dare."

  "Try us," the Third Mother said. The others nodded agreement.

  * * *

  The gas giant filled half the sky with a bright patterned wall of pale lemon streaked with white and pink and occasional flecks of green. Retribution and High Hopes orbited inside the ring system and with the natural direction of orbiting debris. The tanks of both vessels and the external tanks she both wore were full, as every crew member had been given a chance to control the winged drones that scooped and processed atmosphere to extract fuel.

  "When we get back to Fargone, how long will it take to install similar fuel mining systems on the warships?" Lee wondered. She, Gordon and both crews were all linked in a video conferencing session. Their command structure worked top down, but they didn't hoard information like a human system. It looked casual, but it allowed valuable feedback, such as when they had captured the destroyer, using the idea of forcing them to eject their lifeboats and missiles while in weapons range.

  "Only about three days, assuming they have been delivered to the repair yard. They are going
in external hangers, two drones to each ship, with no internal modifications. The wings fold so they are not that big and they will be installed opposite each other on the hull, so one strike in battle is unlikely to destroy both. A control module goes on the flight deck and some cable will be pulled down the central run to the area they weld the hangers on the outside. There will be a new antenna hung outside and a few new spares entered in stores and it will be operational."

  "Why doesn't everybody use them?"

  "Well little gal, fuel is cheap. If you just count the cost of the system it is over a seven year break-even point to pay for the investment," Gordon explained.

  "But if you honestly count the cost of idling the ships company for mining operations and down time from what you want a warship doing, then it is never going to reach a break even condition. Besides, when you set a ship up to be self sufficient on fuel it can stay out a long time. If they can set up a hydroponics system somewhere, or arrange for resupply from some friendly base, then it becomes a real possibility to have space pirates."

  Lee was quiet thinking all that over.

  "And no, I don't want to run up the Jolly Roger and try it as a lifestyle," he added.

  "Me either," she hastened to agree, "but why not fit the explorers with one of those external pea-shooters like you put on Sharp Claws?"

  "Why do they need them when they are escorted?"

  "It limits operations if we can't ever separate them when they visit a new system. I'd feel better if the explorers had at least one long range weapon and it is another external system, so it isn't a long term re-fit like adding missile bays. They're cheap. It's not like we can't afford it," she pointed out.

  "I've been mulling over the same idea myself, but after seeing Sharp Claws use theirs, I'd like a longer tube, set up to shoot a smaller projectile faster. You just need to damage a target beyond use not shatter it in tiny fragments. And if you up the velocity it is more effective against a target that may maneuver. If it cycles faster you can fire a spread to cover an area of probable maneuver, or fire them all on a single bearing for massive effect."

  "And if they are armed they can take a prize alone, should they encounter a USNA registered ship," Lee suggested.

  "Or avoid being retaken themselves, if they have to confront a USNA warship," Gordon added.

  "You going to order a couple fabricated then?" Lee said hopefully.

  "Next message drone we send out I'd add that message on," Gordon promised. "The Mothers will send it on to New Japan and I'd guess they will take three or four days to fabricate it. I remember when I first went out with your Mom And Dad, a ship yard would take a couple weeks to make something like this. Machining and assembly has gotten a lot faster. Figure we have a week to kill before we want to catch up with the drones. The Mothers won't waste the money to send a special messenger drone, so it will go out on the dailies. What can we do with a week to kill and four star ships?"

  * * *

  "Sir, the local web posted that the U of Toronto vessel Dr. Whitney was taken as a prize and the Red Tree Mothers have approved of the taking and have issued contracts for work on the vessel," Evelyn Houke announced.

  "The double crossing bastards! Sitting talking to us and hunting our shipping at the same time!" Molson growled. He bunched his fist like he was going to pound the table, then restrained himself. "That does it. I'm going to order everybody back home and recommend we prosecute this war seriously. They can't makes fools of us that easily."

  "But sir, they clearly rejected any armistice. That was not hidden."

  "Yes and I should have walked then. I thought they might have the brains to refuse an armistice for appearance sake, but quietly call their people off to avoid provoking us. It is crazy for them to refuse to acknowledge we are bigger and better armed."

  "Secretary Molson, I understand our mission is to reaffirm the Treaty of Man. I do not want to go back and announce we failed such a simple task. Surely nobody expected us to do so with absolutely no changes. We don't have a time machine to restore things like nothing has transpired. And if the Congress does not like the additional terms, they can refuse to ratify the Treaty and send another mission. Do you have some hidden instructions of which I am not aware, to refuse any agreement outside the original words of the Treaty?"

  "Not at all, but I'm not going to return in disgrace, having yielded to these primitives. My career would be over and you would be caught up in backlash too. Send another mission? Bah! That would be ruin for us. Now I'm not as fuzzy minded as our predecessors to think our furry friends are not sentient, but I'll be damned if that means they are our peers either. There is still considerable sentiment against them in the Congress and administration. I won't let them push us around anymore than I'd let Bangladesh or Belize dictate to us. They should be damned grateful we are willing to end this without making an example of them and what do I get? Belligerence!"

  "Sir, I am going to be forced to submit my resignation. I won't be going back with you."

  "What! You're going to cut and run like half the previous administration?"

  "Yes sir, those who quit were quite correct and you are wrong. When you get back and Vancouver is a glowing crater, there is going to be very little public forgiveness for calling their hand to drop a rock. And as you said, being your number two I believe the blame would attach to me also. I don't think I can escape some responsibility for not persuading you otherwise. I have every expectation if I return with you, I will be imprisoned at the very best. Executed at worst."

  "If they did manage to drop a rock on Vancouver we'd still be a nation. We wouldn't have surrendered our sovereignty to a bunch of tribal hicks."

  Evelyn thought of asking him how much of a nation they would have if Red Tree followed up with a strike on New York and New Orleans and Mexico City. It seemed futile from the look on his face. She made one modest attempt to sway him: "Setting a penalty, for what already existed in law is hardly a surrender of sovereignty."

  "It is to me. I'm not yielding a damn thing they didn't have before and if we still had that little traitor bitch I'd see her prosecuted for treason to her race and rot in a Federal prison too."

  The emotional words were a new window on his true feelings. He'd never once slipped and mentioned any feelings of racial animus before. Evelyn had a moment of panic at his words, wondering if the words would go straight back to the Mother's ears. She decided that wasn't their style. They were simply too straight forward to sneak around planting bugs. She'd thought all this posturing about racial superiority had been purged with the change of administration, but here it was again. It filled her with both dread and a sense of freedom. It changed everything. Aloud she said: "I'll write a formal resignation and submit it for your approval."

  "Whatever pleases you," he said dismissively. "I suggest you don't waste a lot of time on long winded self justification. A factual sentence or two is quite sufficient." He was obviously disgusted with her.

  "I agree. I'll turn in my ID and access cards when I return."

  She went to her room and assembled a brief case with what she needed. The audio recorder on her com with Molson's words she downloaded to mission files and backed them up with a commercial service. She mailed them to several friends, the single reporter on station and after a stomach churning hesitation, the Mothers of Red Tree.

  When she returned the Marine guard held the door for her. That was her biggest worry. She put the case down and opened it. When she lifted the pistol from it Molson barely had time to register shock in his eyes, before the first round pierced his breast bone. She followed it with two more as he slumped to the deck. She was a very good shot. She'd not wasted another word on him, because it was past any further discussion.

  She may have ruined her own life and career, but she was sure she'd saved several million lives and her own government, possibly even her nation. She laid the pistol back in the open case and stood quietly, hands empty, until the Marine came in the door carbine held at the
ready.

  "Ma'am," he said looking in the corners of the room, like there must be someone else responsible. "I'd very much appreciate it if you'd step back away from the pistol." He touched the mike at his throat and called someone.

  "No problem soldier. I think this is going to take awhile. I'll drag this chair away from the desk and sit until we sort this out." She moved the chair with ease, as it was lighter than it looked. She took it all the way against the wall, sat down and made herself comfortable. If anyone understood why she had removed the Undersecretary this way, it would be the Mothers, she thought. She smiled at the irony of it and her little smile disquieted the Marine.

  Chapter 51

  Survey System 4799 was a USNA planet colony named Amber for the coloring of the planet as seen by the discoverers. It had attained ten thousand population the third year of its settlement. In its twelfth year now it had a bit over thirty thousand in population, with about ten thousand in the area of one city on the second planet and five thousand in space throughout the system. The rest were scattered in various mines and scientific outposts.

  The surface of the world was temperate, but the atmosphere was unbreathable due to volcanism with no free oxygen, just nitrogen, carbon dioxide, argon and enough hydrogen sulfide and other sulfur compounds to require filtering to use it as a neutral base for an oxygen mix. It rained dilute sulfuric acid. There were plains where fairly pure elemental sulfur could be literally scooped up, but there was no market to justify the shipping. The oceans were heavily acidic. Fortunately oxygen was readily electrolyzed from local water.

  As was USNA policy, the colony was able to vote in any form of local government they wished at the ten thousand mark and they had opted for a city form of government, with an appointed manager and ten elected counselors advising him, able to remove him with seven of ten votes.

  They were required by charter to hold a referendum on modifying this form of governance, when their system population reached a half million. It would be awhile. Terraforming was going slowly due to the toxic nature of the atmosphere. Anaerobic bacteria and fungi did well and helped develop soil, but green plants were far too heavily stressed to survive.