Family Law

by Mackey Chandler

  Most importantly to the Derf, they had retained ties to North America, with a mutual defense treaty that obligated them to give first right of refusal on trade to USNA defense related industries. This applied mostly to the mining of selenium, tellurium and gold. They also retained dual citizenship and Amber citizens could enlist directly in the USNA armed forces.

  Given that local career options were to become part of a very small Terraforming Department, a government with about a hundred members, including a planetary police force of twenty, or some form of mining, many took the service option. Amber was over represented in the USNA military and they had a frigate or destroyer assigned to orbit Amber and do occasional system cruises. It was basically a recruiting office and symbol of USNA affiliation. It spent much of its time docked to the principal space station and had weekly tours for the brighter Amber school children. Its payroll and docking fees were a big boost to the Amber budget. After a six month tour it would be replaced by another frigate or destroyer.

  When four unscheduled ships appeared suddenly and immediately did a high powered radar scan with what had to be military radar, the young commander of the George Taylor, Jon Havenstein happened to be onboard. He made the correct tactical decision and ordered a ten minute recall for any personnel on the station and announced an emergency undock in fifteen minutes. This before any hail identified the incoming squadron.

  While it saved his command, it destroyed his career. He correctly surmised it could not be a friendly force and saw he could not fight and he still had time to run. Earth was on a vector much too close to the incoming force but he had several choices the other way and picked one that was a gateway system to a USNA forward supply base.

  It might have helped if he had waited another two minutes for the Derf to identify themselves, but he announced his intent to undock to station control and suggested an evacuation of dependents to the surface. It was not well received. Captain Havenstein also neglected to ask station control to censor the system traffic scan. So his departure announcement went out publically, before he even undocked.

  He departed at the seventeen minute mark, having left his hatch open for an extra five minutes, which got him three more crewmembers. It was still one of the fastest emergency departures of recent naval history. He left two crew on station and five on the surface, a full third of his ship's company. He expended two of his four drones knowing they would pass through the effective weapons envelope of the incoming ships and hoping one would get word to Earth. Gordon had no reason to keep their passage secret, so he let both pass unmolested.

  Indeed the four had not altered vector, or started decelerating to reach Amber orbit or the station, before he departed. They would have if he'd stayed put, no reason not to add a frigate to their collection, but his departure made that maneuver pointless, so they altered course unslowed to another jump point. For those eager to condemn the young Captain, it was easy to assume the Derf squadron had never intended to dock or capture him and his flight was simple cowardice. The damage to Amber-USNA trust and their relationship was total and permanent. The world would vote to go independent after a year of nasty accusations and recriminations. It was one of the most effective military actions of the war without a shot fired.

  "Station scan announces the USNA frigate George Taylor is on fifteen minute count to depart to Survey System 4802, Weisener's World. Too bad he didn't stay put," Thor said over com from the Sharp Claws. "Is there anything on station worth raiding?"

  "That's the main choke point for the USNA naval base in System 4803. They have a fuel operation and a half dozen in system ships. No telling what is there being fueled, or getting minor repair, that could give us serious trouble. Let's avoid it. No, no reason to stop here now. They may have gold on station along with other metals, but I don't want to initiate a boarding action. I bet somebody would resist on this big of a station and it would get us all the wrong sort of publicity to shoot up the station and tear it apart to find gold. We don't know but what the last shipment may have just gone out recently and we'd be fighting for an empty vault."

  "The frigate will beat us out of the system by a good forty minutes, even if we race him for the same jump point. Alter course in ten minutes for New Troy, Survey System 4807 and let's do our first synchronized jump just to give them an eyeful," Gordon ordered. "I want a triple confirmation of clock sync to go together or we spread and do a late jump."

  * * *

  The call from the guard had his superior, a sergeant-major and the State Department official next in rank under Ms. Houke, Albert Giovanni, the manager of the hotel and the head of station security all crowded into the room regarding Evelyn and wondering what to do with her.

  "Obviously, you need to arrest Ms. Houke and we shall return her to North America for trial after our negotiations are complete," Giovanni told the Marines. "I'm next in line to head this delegation and intend to proceed quickly to accomplish what we were sent to do. This is an internal matter to us and I see no reason for it to matter to the Derf at all."

  "This delegation has diplomatic immunity," said the Sergeant Major. "The Derf have no right to arrest Ms. Houke for any variety of homicide if they follow anything like Earth custom. However I can't see that I have any authority to detain her either. We are not on USNA territory, not even in an embassy. I can't see how I can force her to board a USNA ship either, unless we went through extradition with the Derf, which I was told does not exist. We're here to protect the delegation and we may answer for failing to do that, but I don't see an immediate threat upon which I should act now."

  "Station Security has very limited arrest powers," their head, a young honey-toned Derf named Michelangelo informed them. "We could hold her if we had a reasonable expectation that she was a danger to the public, until a set of clan Mothers who claim an interest agree to sit on the case and render judgment. However look at her…She laid down her weapon and offers no threat to anyone else, meekly sitting and waiting on us to sort matters out. This appears to be a political killing, not an act of a deranged person, or done for criminal profit. As such, it is not a criminal matter under Derf law. Assassination is an entirely normal process of Derf law in matters of secession. The Mothers of Red Tree obviously have an interest, but the most they would do to an envoy is declare them unwanted and expel them."

  "Well if they expel her, then she will come back into our custody and be returned to trial," Giovanni asserted again. That was obviously what he wanted. "Once on a USNA ship away from dock, she is certainly under USNA law."

  "Unless she does not volunteer to board and finds passage on a foreign ship, or goes to another clan territory or neutral trading town on Derfhome," Michelangelo pointed out. "Red Tree could only expel her from their territory."

  "Is anyone willing to hear what I have to say?" Evelyn asked a bit peevishly.

  "Don't you think it would be safer to remain silent until you have an attorney?" Giovanni asked her. "Anything you say may come out at trial and frankly it looks very bad," he told her, looking over his shoulder where Undersecretary of State Molson was still sprawled uncovered.

  "Oh bag the prissy righteous air and the long face, Al. You're thrilled, because you think you are suddenly the big cheese and you'd have shot the arrogant son-of-a-bitch yourself, if you could have gotten away with it. However I shot the man not for any trivial spite, but directly in the interests of our mission. I do not cede leadership to you. Molson intended to return to Earth immediately, without attaining the restoration of the Treaty that is our mission objective. I have him on audio recorder," she said patting her pocket, "saying he doesn't care if his action precipitates the bombardment of Vancouver, with death for millions. He then goes on a tirade which shows he had private racial prejudices, exactly like those that destroyed the previous administration. I shot a traitor, bent on destroying our mission and bringing ruin on our nation. I have no apologies at all. Who wants to hear it?" she asked, pulling out the recorder.

  "Perhaps it
would be better to hear it privately instead of involving the Derf," the Marine suggested.

  "No, they need to know who has authority to negotiate," she insisted. "If they don't hear this and get your reaction to it they are going to have doubts they are dealing with the proper authority." She switched on the recorder and let it run. She watched the expressions on their faces as they heard her trying to reason with him and his shocking willingness to risk their capitol to destruction over his pride and career.

  "Ma'am, I acknowledge you are the head of delegation and stand ready to take your orders," the sergeant-major acknowledged when it was done.

  "But you resigned," Giovanni still objected, hopefully.

  "Ah, but I didn't," Evelyn pointed out. "I said I was going to resign, as a ruse to go get a weapon," she explained. "I lied." She slowly turned her head and looked thoughtfully at the pistol. You could see Giovanni stiffen and he quickly proclaimed his acceptance and loyalty. She hadn't said a threatening word, just looked at the weapon, but he was a personal coward and he'd seen what happened when somebody got between her and her mission.

  Even with the Marines in the room he was afraid of her now.

  * * *

  "Do you know that almost a fifth of the stars in our volume of exploration have not had a System Survey done on them?" Lee asked. "A few have sketchy reports from ships that did a system transit, but mostly those are just general assessments of how much debris is in the planetary plane to be avoided and perhaps sightings of gas giants. After we get this all sorted out we should visit those unexplored systems. Especially on the Earth – Derfhome vector."

  "Most of them are of spectral types that have low-metal stony planets or little planetary material at all. A few have such intense or variable radiation that there is no reasonable zone in which useful planets could exist. They were bypassed for a reason," Gordon explained.

  "I know, but if there are any anomalies they might be valuable just because of where they are. And we know much less about those kinds of systems, because we have a preference for metals. We might find something consistently useful by examining these oddballs."

  "Well, you have enough money you can afford to waste a bunch of it on a hunch and it certainly won't ruin you. In fact no need to tie up a real explorer ship to do this. All of these are by definition among explored systems and near settled worlds, so a conventional ship could be set up to survey these very cheaply."

  "OK it's on my to do list. What is New Troy like? Are we going to zip through it too, or stop for anything?

  "That depends on the Trojans. They are a religious world, that was set up for agricultural development. They allow very limited industry, as long as it can be run without long term pollution. They are reasonable about it, but it was settled as an accommodation for Amish and Mennonite and a number of other religions that claim to be pacifist. They are by charter USNA protected, but nobody really has any reason to give them trouble. They consider themselves neutrals. We'll see if they want anything to do with us. If we are welcome we'll see about getting provisioned and kill a couple days. If not, we'll go on to Bountiful and see if the Mothers left any messages for us."

  * * *

  "We are agreed in all particulars then?" the First Mother inquired again.

  "Yes, the document we both have is identical and I will sign it with the intent of presenting it to our Congress. I see no reason they should fail to ratify it. Dr. Giovanni and Counselor Parnell will both sign also."

  "I'm stamping our chop," the First Mother explained inking the stamp and rocking it firmly on the paper. "That is binding on all three of us and any future Mothers of the Red Tree Clan. We have individual chops, but they don't bind the clan, just us."

  The lawyer Parnell carried their copy over to the Mothers and the third Mother carried their copy around to the humans. They both signed their copy and there was an audible sigh of relief from Ms. Houke.

  "This satisfies the Nation of Red Tree," the First Mother declared and added the legalistic formula, "I have spoken," which made it law. The other Mothers verbally acknowledged it. "We will send word by special drone to our space forces to stand down from initiating hostilities. If they are attacked they will attempt to inform the forces attacking them, that the war has been tentatively concluded. The same notice will be propagated through the commercial drone system, to inform all independent governments."

  "We also are at this moment loading a drone to inform Earth," Evelyn agreed. "I'm going to release most of my party to return home. I shall retain the courier and a handful of support people, who will remain here with me until we get word from Earth that the Congress has ratified the Treaty."

  "I have a couple questions if I may?" Evelyn Houke asked the Mothers.

  "Certainly. We'll entertain them and tell you why if we won't answer them."

  "Would you affirm you were prepared to strike Vancouver if there was no agreement?"

  "Absolutely. It is actually a moderate action to simply decapitate your nation, instead of destroying it totally. We were concerned a strike that would destroy most of the continent would damage other Earth nations, through climate change and economic chaos, so likely bring all the worlds of man into the fight against us."

  Evelyn nodded her thanks. "One small point that has been bothering me. Is it just an assumed extension of your laws on adoption to permit it across species, or was this something you Mothers had to decide and declare as a point of law for Lee?"

  The First Mother looked down at the table obviously upset and for a moment Evelyn thought she was going to refuse this question.

  "When Lee was sat at our table and introduced as kin by her father. The then First Mother of Red Tree was indeed disposed to reject her kinship. Adoption has a long history of custom, but had never been a subject of declared law. It is to our shame, that this is one of those very few laws, that was imposed by a male. The males very, very, rarely interfere in the governance of the women and need very strong feelings to do so. Our previous Champion, William, was old and wise and had very good instincts on issues of morality," she explained.

  "He halted our argument and informed us it was not by blood, or demand, or debt that one is family, except a debt of honor and that family is simply anyone you decide to treat as such. He ordered the Mothers to publish that as law. When the First Mother balked at that, he sank the ax you have seen my son Garrett carry, in the table before us to consider and informed us he'd follow the old law and remove us for shaming him if we did not do right. He declared himself Lee's personal Champion to defend that standing. I'm sitting here alive, so obviously we made it law. I'm sorry he found it necessary to force us to do what was correct. So on Derfhome, anyone is family who you say and accept as such. Outsiders have no say, no standing to interfere. Is our Family Law clear to you?"

  "Very clear. Nothing could be simpler."

  The First Mother nodded. "Most good law has an economy of form."

  "We are removing to the surface since we are done here. We are not going back to our Keep yet, until we have a firm commitment from your Congress. We'll be in Derfhome the capital city, at the place they call The Old Hotel. We have some business to pursue anyway, with our bank and with our city cousins. We may be making some belated adjustments to how our law treats them, as fundamental as the Family Law."

  "Might one call on you there? I think we have a great deal to learn still. This Treaty is good to have resolved, but I'm afraid there are many other assumptions, just waiting to become a problem. In fact, another very smart person here on the station suggested we look into setting up a real embassy. I'm willing to at least consider it."

  "Yes, come on down. Perhaps your wait can be productive."

  * * *

  The steam train was on pneumatic tires and the exhaust aimed straight up and just a shimmer of hot air instead of being sooty. The steam was almost a closed cycle and made very little noise. It didn't run on rails, it was a road train that was comfortable either on gravel roads or the herri
ngbone pattern of bricks they laid in the city, that softened the usual noise of tires on bricks laid square to the direction of travel. The speed limit was 50km/hr, to make the roadway safe to share with horse drawn carriages, a number of which had passed going the other way and an amazing variety of bicycles. However, pulling three trailers the driver kept it down to a sedate 30km/hr.

  Gordon was on the flat bed on the rear of the tractor unit, leaning in the open back window of the cab and chatting with the driver. A few people at liberty from each ship, sat on the benches on the first trailer. The next two trailers had their provisions from the farmer's market, piled high, ready to take a shuttle up to the ships in orbit.

  "Thou hast some musical tones about thee," the driver pointed out, "Doth one of thy devilish devices demand your attention?" He said, it with a smile and a wink, so it didn't seem likely it was a very firm point of theology with him.

  "I find it insulting when others abandon their conversation with me to answer a call. If they do so and I really need to talk to them, I just pull out my phone and call them, since that is obviously the way to be first in line," Gordon explained.

  "You have more character than most then. Very few can resist allowing a pocket phone to be a damnable electronic leash!" he groused.

  "I'll tell you a secret," Gordon confided. "If it was a matter of life and death it would have struck two chimes instead of three."

  "That's a sensible way to do it," he allowed. "The Elders were persuaded the safety they provide is worth any disruption, but I know my wife too well to carry one. She will call me every half hour with an 'emergency' if I have one in my pocket. If I break down – well, there are so many carry them, the second or third fellow along can call in for me that I'm broke down."