XD:317 (Fourth Fleet Irregulars)

by S J MacDonald

‘They really have, you know, given every possible effort to investigating ship losses here, far more so than is usual in other sectors, and that is in direct response to your government’s insistence that there is piracy going on here. Normally, by the time a ship is reported missing it’s far too late to do anything about it. A Fleet patrol will do no more than a routine sweep of the area of shipping lane they were believed to be on, hoping to pick up some anomaly in radioactivity scans that will identify a spreading cloud of sub atomic debris. If they’re off route, generally, the Fleet doesn’t even consider it worth our while trying to look. But in these cases, at least, they knew the intended routes and destinations of the yachts, because they’d filed ‘claim plans’ with Divers Anonymous, their club at Canelon. And yes sir, absolutely, dongers, spacers would agree with you entirely on that.’

  ‘And these three?’ The president indicated the remaining freighters on the list. ‘The Fleet reports say they were in such poor condition they weren’t safe to be out in space anyway, just an accident waiting to happen, but how is that possible? Aren’t ships required to have annual safety inspections, and certificates?’

  ‘Bi-annual, yes, you have to get a launch safety certificate every two years from a port authority in order to be allowed to use launch and deceleration tunnels,’ Alex confirmed. ‘But what happens, you see, is that as starships get older they become increasingly expensive to repair and keep up to certificate standard. A lot of older ships like this are owned by their skippers, operating them as independent tramp freighters. They’re the chancers of the spacer world, always chasing the next big deal, the cargo that’s going to make them rich. At the point where their ship becomes more expensive to repair than it’s actually worth, it’s technically a write-off. But insurance companies won’t pay out on it, see, because the write-off is through normal wear and tear, natural decay, not any kind of accident. So owners either have to get what they can by selling the ship for spare parts, taking a major financial loss, or continue to operate it without a certificate. At the point where they are no longer covered by safety certificates, of course, insurance companies will no longer insure them.

  ‘What that means is that they can only trade between ISiS – there’s no launch tunnel involved there, see, and so long as they don’t attempt to enter a port using a launch tunnel, nobody can stop them continuing to operate out in deep space. So they go between ISiS, always in the hope of scoring that huge-profit cargo that will give them the money they need to buy a new ship.

  ‘Spacers have a name for ships in that condition – it’s ‘coffin ship’. No spacer with any sense will serve on them, so they end up employing crew nobody else will have, often drunk or incompetent, and often taking on rookie kids, too, without the sense to realise what they’re getting into. The Demella Enterprise, the freighter we blew up during our Karadon operations, was exactly that, exactly like these three ships. I wouldn’t even allow my crew to take the cargo off that ship once I saw the state it was in. They had a vital high-energy telemetry cable being held together with tape, sir, just ordinary electrical tape. That ship was a death trap, an accident waiting to happen, and if we hadn’t taken the crew off it and put it out of its misery, I have no doubt at all that it too would have become a ‘lost ship’ statistic. And that might well have been in your sector, too, because other than for ISiS, there are only two places uncertified ships can go for cargo, remaining superlight. One of them is Cwmbracha, though that’s primarily a leisure resort. The other is Tolmer’s Drift.’

  He paused, looking at the very thoughtful look on the president’s face.

  ‘So those are the ‘risk factors’ the Fleet goes on about,’ President Tanaya observed. ‘People coming here either to do this donger diving thing or bringing ships that are falling apart, because they can buy cargo at Tolmer’s. And nobody – not the Fleet, nor any authorities – can do anything about this?’

  ‘Sir, do not get me started,’ Alex said, drily. ‘If it was possible to arrest skippers either for suicidally stupid manoeuvring or operating a ship that isn’t safe to navigate, believe me, I would be out there right now doing just that. You just can’t imagine how frustrating it is, seeing a yacht that you know is out on a diving run, trying to talk sense to them and getting nothing but beer-fuelled yelling and raspberries. Or, for that matter, how frightening it is to cruise alongside a coffin ship, knowing very well that there are teenagers aboard it, vulnerable kids, whose lives are at real and serious danger, and you can’t do anything, anything about it, other than to try to persuade the skipper to let you aboard. We have no automatic right of boarding, you see, we can only board a ship without the skipper’s consent if we have grounds that would satisfy a judge, groundside, to issue a search warrant for a private home or place of business. ‘It looks as if it’s dangerous’ doesn’t cut it, even if you can see from the state of hull systems that it’s in a bad way and you know very well it will be a lot worse internally. If the skipper refuses permission to board, that’s it. If they do let you aboard, of course, you can act on what you see there, declaring the ship unsafe under salvage laws. But unless you can get aboard in the first place...’ he shrugged.

  ‘Spacers do everything they can to prevent kids ending up on coffin ships like that, and they make their own feelings known about it to the skippers of those ships, too. It is recognised by all responsible spacers as a serious problem, a real issue. But until or unless the law is changed, we are powerless to do anything. We were only able to board the Dirty D, the Demella Enterprise, because we had evidence that they had drugs aboard. These three, honestly...’ he touched the list, with a regretful note, ‘even if we’d been here at the time and come up alongside them, if they refused to allow us aboard, there would have been nothing we could do.’

  ‘That’s just wrong,’ said the president, and spent some time telling Alex how wrong it was and what should be done about it, which Alex listened to politely, even nodding agreement at times.

  ‘You won’t find many Fleet officers who disagree with you, sir,’ he told him. ‘But those decisions are made at Senate level, and no attempt of the Fleet’s, historically, to give us boarding powers when we feel lives are at risk has ever been successful. Well, obviously not. But it’s a fundamental constitutional issue, you see, the right to free use of space, as it says, without let or hindrance from any authority. There are fears, obviously, that the Fleet would misuse any such rights and use ‘we feel lives may be at risk’ as justification to board any ship we wanted, anytime. That’s like giving the police the right to break down people’s doors and search their homes without a warrant, just on their saying that they thought the house might be unsafe.’

  ‘So – that’s why the Fleet has put you on this irregular thing,’ the president said, slowly. ‘To give you special powers for dealing with things like this?’

  ‘Actually, no, sir, we don’t have any more powers, legally, than any other Fleet ship,’ Alex said. ‘Though I do, admittedly, take full advantage of spacers believing that we do. I would have no scruples about attempting to convince the skipper of a coffin ship that he could either let us aboard willingly or be boarded by force, without, of course, ever actually lying or threatening them.’

  ‘Oh. So – are you going to try to sort this out, then? To stop the dongers and the coffin ships using this sector?’

  ‘No, sir, that really would be beyond us,’ Alex said. ‘The dongers may be anywhere at all, and the coffin ships are unpredictable. Those are situations best handled at the Canelon end, in dealing with the dongers, and at Tolmer’s, where the coffin ships are concerned. It may be months, though, even years, before any coffin ship turns up there, particularly since they know that we are on operations here. That will scare them off for quite a while. If you are looking to address issues of ship safety in the sector, really, the best suggestion I could make is to have at least one of your extra patrol ships based at Tolmer’s, ready to intervene, particularly in chasing divers. They can arrest them if th
ey can catch them, if they’ve put others at obvious risk by reckless navigation.’

  ‘We have had patrol ships at Tolmer’s,’ the president confirmed. ‘But Admiral Vickers, he said that was just encouraging ships to go there because it was seen as a patrolled route, so he pulled them back. They’ve been patrolling around the system, which I must say I felt was a good decision at the time, however pathetic they might be, they’re at least some protection. He brought them back into port, though, when you were coming in, said it was a Fourth’s operations zone now and Fleet ships just stay out of the way.’ He looked intently at Alex. ‘Stuff going on with you and him, I reckon,’ he observed, shrewdly. ‘I don’t need to hear the ins and outs of it. Just tell me that whatever it is going on between you isn’t putting my world at any risk.’

  ‘I do not believe that your world is at any risk, sir,’ Alex assured him. ‘And any conflict there may be between Admiral Vickers and myself is a matter of internal Fleet politics and would certainly not affect the efficiency of the homeworld defence squadron or of the Fourth.’

  ‘Hmmn,’ said the president. ‘Look me in the eye,’ he demanded, ‘and tell me that you honestly believe that Admiral Vickers is doing the best job possible for my world, right now.’

  Alex looked him straight in the eye.

  ‘It would not be appropriate for me to comment on the performance of a superior officer, sir.’

  The president nodded.

  ‘That’s what I thought,’ he said. ‘He’s always been a moody twander – if he went about carrying a sign saying ‘Didn’t want to be posted to Novamas. Hate it here.’ he couldn’t be more obvious about his feelings, and we’ve not taken to him, either. But he seemed to talk sense, bringing the patrol ships back, so we’ve put up with him. Now, though...’ he shook his head. ‘It’s like you being here has made him ten times worse. The way he spoke to me the other day was like, way out of line. He’s supposed to be supporting you, isn’t he? But it’s like he’s doing everything he can to make your job harder. But you’re the one actually fixing things, so whose side is he on?’ He looked alertly at Alex. ‘You said there were three things you’d been sent out here to sort out,’ he said. ‘Is that the third, or part of it?’

  ‘No sir, really not,’ Alex assured him. ‘There were, I will admit, concerns expressed about the possibility of conflict between Admiral Vickers and myself, but with every expectation that both of us would rise above that and conduct ourselves professionally. His support, or otherwise, is a matter to be properly reviewed by the Admiralty and really isn’t something I am in a position to discuss, even in a confidential meeting like this. The third thing on our task-assignment relates to the exo-glimpses reported in this sector. I can tell you, hand on heart, word of honour, that there is no, no risk of any kind to your world. No more recent sightings have been reported, and no sightings that you are not already informed about. It is just something we’ve been asked to investigate, while we’re out here.’

  That was disingenuous, making it sound as if it was the least important of the Fourth’s tasks, hardly more than an afterthought, rather than the real reason they had been sent. The president nodded, though.

  ‘We’ve heard rumours,’ he said, ‘coming out of the Admiral’s office, that you have some kind of orders about that, exo-stuff. I thought it was a wind-up. When I had one of my staff ask about it, off the record, like, she was told of course not, don’t be a donger.’

  Alex looked at him, feeling quite amazed, still, by the staggering lack of any real communication between the Novamasian government and the League authorities represented here.

  ‘It’s a waste of time asking Fleet people to give you classified information off the record, sir,’ he told him. ‘We do not do that, not ever, under any circumstances. Even if your member of staff had the necessary security clearance, the only way she would be given that information would be through proper procedure and with full record of that happening. That’s why we’re meeting here, even this most confidential level of meeting a matter of official record. I could not and would not have had this conversation with you myself, sir, no way, if it was being held in a groundside office with no facility for me to make an official recording of it. If I was to be having this meeting with you off the ship, discussing classified matters on an entirely off-the-record basis, I would be court martialled and dismissed the Fleet, no question. I could even end up in prison, if it was felt that I had compromised League security by revealing classified material improperly.’

  ‘Yes, that’s what we’ve always been told, when our people have tried to talk to Fleet people here unofficial, like,’ the president conceded. ‘But that ties us in knots. I mean, you can’t just send people a memo saying ‘Re threat of alien invasion’ can you? You just can’t put that stuff on record, it’s too...’ he shook his head.

  ‘But we do put it on record, sir, we do that quite routinely,’ Alex assured him. ‘You just put ‘XD’ on the file and that classifies it into exodiplomacy. I appreciate, I really do, how awkward it is for you, and has been for your predecessors, too – I mean, obviously, very sensitive issues there which you have found in the past that League authorities have not taken seriously and have been dismissive and offensive about. But personally awkward, too – just embarrassing, having to try to discuss these issues when ‘believing in aliens’ is regarded as on a par with ‘believing in ice elves and pixies.’’

  The president nodded ruefully.

  ‘I even think I’m a donger myself, sometimes, thinking these things,’ he confessed. ‘I know what people would think, if they found out I’m worried that our world is going to be invaded by Sola-runs. That’s the kind of thing that dongers on a bus go on about. It’s just not the kind of thing you want to talk about on record, is what I’m saying. I don’t know what it’s like on other worlds but here, presidents stand for something, and we know that future generations will look back at our time in office, remembering the contribution that we made to our world’s development. And me, frankly, I would rather not go down in history as the prezzo who had to quit when it was found he believed in alien invaders. At the same time, of course, we have to express our concerns, as little notice as we know that Chartsey ever takes of them. So we usually tell our guy at Chartsey – our Senator there – to tell the powers that be about our concerns and demand more Fleet protection.’

  Alex nodded.

  ‘The trouble is, if you’ll forgive me saying so, that all the other worlds I know have had the benefit of open dialogue in this, full and frank discussion at the highest level,’ he said. ‘Many worlds have also had the opportunity to meet Solarans for themselves, ask their own questions and do their own risk evaluations. Even worlds where they haven’t had Solaran visitors have sent people to worlds where we do, to meet them. Novamas, as far as I can tell, has never done that. And you are quite extraordinarily isolated, here, not just in the limited numbers of ships that come here but in the contact between even the ones who do come, and your people.

  ‘Or rather, the lack of contact. Few spacers even set foot on Novamas. Even the Fleet tends to take our shoreleave on the station or at our own base there. And there’s a process, see – it’s called social osmosis, and spacers are a vital part of it. Put simply, spacers go to spaceport bars and they talk, they talk about the things they’ve seen, swap stories and spacer gossip. Groundsiders hear those stories and they pass them on. At first it’s just laughed at, lunatic stuff the weirdo spacers are on about, but gradually, over time, those stories spread out through the population by word of mouth, odd mentions in the media, fringe beliefs building up around them, and people become increasingly aware of things. On some of the central worlds, a significant proportion of the public is already at the ‘Well, you never know’ phase of assimilating information about Solarans visiting our worlds, moving from denial that such a thing could be happening towards the point at which the majority of people know it is, and the government can confirm that without fear of it causin
g planet-wide panic. That just isn’t happening on Novamas. You don’t have an open dialogue going on at any level, official or social.’

  ‘Well, you’re not the first to tell us that we’re way behind the times,’ the president observed, drily. ‘Though thank you for saying it tactfully, at least. You are, though, saying that we’re way behind the times and don’t even know what we’re talking about, aren’t you?’

  ‘Well, tact has never been one of my strengths, so I’ll just say yes, sir, that is what I mean,’ Alex admitted. ‘I do believe that once you’ve established an open dialogue and can ask your questions, get the answers and see the evidence for yourself, your fears will be allayed. It’s the unknown, really, that’s so frightening, and the more you learn about Solarans, the less frightening they become. I know you think they’re putting on an act, fooling us, gathering intel for an invasion, but honestly, sir, quite apart from anything else, if they really did have any desire whatsoever to invade or take us over they could have done that at any time in the last ten thousand years. And they didn’t allow us to capture them so that they could gather intel about us, either. Our ships captured them even though their own technology is so immensely superior to ours that we stand no chance of understanding it, because every time, every time, they would fall for the most rudimentary tricks like coming to a proposed meeting, entirely unarmed. Their ships just do not have any weapons, of any kind.

  ‘And you know what they do, when they are captured, don’t you? They just die. You can, quite literally, frighten Solarans to death – seriously, honestly. If you take them prisoner, shout at them, threaten them with weapons, they die. They just stop breathing, like a massive panic-attack. Can you imagine the courage it takes for them to come into our space, put themselves into our hands? These are not people we need to be afraid of, sir, really they’re not.’

  ‘What ... seriously?’ The president was staring at him. ‘You yell at them, they keel over and drop dead?’