“Huh?” Jim said, staring directly into the woman’s eyes.
“I had better get straight to the point to clear up the confusion. I represent a rather large faction in the Arab League that has sent me here with a proposition. That is, if you take over the Commonwealth, we will succeed from the Alliance.”
“Time for a beer,” Jim said, walking toward the lift tube.
* * *
“You know what my opponents in the council would say.” Jim said, sipping his beer. He looked across at Colonel Nazari. A feeling of uneasiness caught him as he remembered that the woman had seen him naked.
“Consorting with the enemy?” she replied.
“Negotiating with the enemy,” Peter said. He was the only other person on the observation deck.
“Doing something behind their backs then,” Jim said.
“Now dishy,” Peter said. “It is not….”
“I told you, don’t call me dishy!” Jim shouted.
“We are a grouch today, aren’t we? Looks like you need a vacation. You never used to be like this.”
Jim laughed. He remembered years before deciding to make the best out of any situation. There were times when most would have given up and wallowed in self-pity. He never did. He was a survivor.
“I’m on vacation. I have since I got to this time. This is Disneyland.” He looked at Peter and chuckled. “Are you’re my fairy Godmother, or is it Tinkerbelle?” He leaned back and continued to laugh.
“I wish I did have a magic wand,” Peter said. “I’d wave it and things would actually work for a change.”
Jim sat back and thought for a moment. “Peter, why do you sound so enthusiastic about this meeting?”
“Well sweets, I also represent a faction, a very large faction.”
“You’re Secret Service. You have sworn allegiance to the Commonwealth.”
“I do have my own political views.”
“Which are?”
“Since Chairwoman Rossetti retired, we’ve had a whole string of idiots in charge. The infrastructure has gone to hell.”
“Look, I do my best in the Council. Every time I introduce a bill that’ll streamline or improve some part of the bureaucracy, I’m slammed down by Buckley, Wu or Haugen. They keep accusing me of designing the Commonwealth to advantage my own wealth.”
“You are not?” Nazari said.
“Hell no. What do I need with more money?” Jim leaned back in his seat and chuckled to himself. “Eight years ago I would’ve been satisfied with a house where someone in the shower didn’t scream when you flushed the toilet.”
“A what?” Nazari said.
“A house without a malfunctioning water system,” Peter said.
“Any word from the Bund?” Jim said.
“No,” Nazari replied. “They’ll fight, even without us.”
“And the Irish?”
“Probably sit on the sidelines and wait for an outcome.”
Jim looked up at Nazari. “Giving up?”
“Not yet, just lost heart. They took one hell of a beating at the battle of Casia. They had the smallest of the three fleets and lost a greater percent of their ships than the other two.”
“Well, we’ve got the English Speaking Confederation, the Asian Conference, the French…”
“Don’t trust the French,” Nazari interrupted.
Peter laughed. “So, our intelligence is true,” he said. “They’re trying to cut a private deal to become neutrals.”
Nazari nodded.
“Israel and the Japanese will stay no matter what,” Peter said. “Especially the Japanese who’re hyped on their newly rediscovered code of bushido, the way of the samurai.”
“So, the expansionist Bund is the big problem.”
“Not just them,” Nazari said. “The faction I represent has an opposition. It’s the council of Muslim clerics who are pressing President Shadid to declare strict Sharia law throughout the League of Arab planets and declare an Islamic Caliphate.”
“Again?” Jim exclaimed.
“Dishy,” Peter said. “It appears they’ve been reading your encyclopedia as well as the newspapers you used to wrap your possessions.”
“They’re also pressing President Shadid to declare himself the Mahdi, the rightly guided one, the messiah of Islam. They want him to declare Jihad, conquer the other planets and declare Sharia law throughout the galaxy.”
“Again?” Jim exclaimed.
“They’ll not get far,” Nazari said, “Eighty percent of the population strongly support a secular government, but it could cause a lot of trouble.”
“So that leaves us with the Bund,” Jim said.
“Yes,” Nazari said, “Chancellor Schroeder keeps yelling that they need breathing room. They have taken Reins, Hebram and Chance. He says they need one more planet, Nibaru, and they’ll sue for peace.”
“Jim,” Peter said. “Your friends Buckley, Wu and Haugen want to give it to them.”
“Damn dictators, and they are dictators, all of them, no matter how many voted for them. What’s their psychotic thing? They have some Freudian insecurity because they have a small penis?”
“Many suffer insecurity,” Nazari said. “You are less insecure than the others. That is why many factions want you to take over.”
“And I saw your penis on Tranquility,” Peter chuckled. “You have no problems there.”
Nazari started to laugh. “I’ve seen it too.”
Peter and Nazari continued laughing as Jim sat in embarrassed irritation.
“So what’s the new emblem of the Commonwealth going to be?” Jim said. “My penis on a green background?” Jim started to laugh with them.
“The Commonwealth will no longer exist,” Nazari said. “Some things aren’t worth fixing.”
Jim’s face dropped. “I’m going to overthrow an elected government?”
“Oops,” Peter said. “Mood swing. Well, mild psychotic behavior is expected from an Emperor.”
“Emperor? Are you on about that again?”
“Emperor James the First.”
Jim’s eyebrows shot up. “It’s Jim. My third grade teacher used to call me James, and I hated her.”
“No, no, no,” Peter said. “Emperor Jim the First will not make it. Too familiar.”
“No way. I’m not going to replace a bunch of dictators with another dictator.”
“Something has to be done,” Peter said. “Corruption doesn’t run in our governments, it gallops. We have proof of illegal dealings involving about a quarter of the council. Accepting bribes, money laundering, skimming from public funds, the black market and we even know a couple involved in blockade running, shipping the Bund new technology.”
“How can they get away with it?”
“It’s the total mess the bureaucracy is in. The corrupt government members have created the situation for that purpose, it’s a cover. No one knows where the money’s going so it ends up in their pockets.”
“Report it,” Jim said. “Hand the information over to the various prosecutors’ offices.”
“And have the governments sit on it,” Peter said. “They all protect each other.”
“So what do I do?”
“What else?” Peter said. “Forcefully dissolve the Commonwealth Council and half the governments of the planetary unions. Rebuild things from the ground up.”
Nazari nodded. “Do that and the board of Generals of the Arab League will overthrow the government and offer an alliance with Casia. Your planet’s government is one of the few in the Commonwealth that isn’t corrupt.”
“You’re all nuts,” Jim said.
Nazari stood. “My job here is done. Deliver our proposal and establish a liaison.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jim said. “I’ve got your number on my rolodex.”
Nazari gave him a confused look.
“Old Earth joke,” Jim said. “We’ll be in touch.”
Nazari’s smile returned. “In that case, I shall return your ship to you and, as you
Earth people say, get the fuck out of Dodge.”
Jim watched Nazari’s back as she strode to the lift tube. As the door shut, he turned to Peter. “Everyone else seems to be supporting me. Do I get the gay vote too?”
Peter laughed. “An Emperor is not elected sweetie, an Emperor elects himself.”
“That’s ‘isn’t elected’,” Jim said. “Contractions make speech flow better. It’s ‘isn’t’ and ‘won’t’, not ‘is not’ and ‘will not’.”
“That’s a historical anomaly,” Peter said. “The fashion is swinging the other way. Only older people speak that way now.”
“I can’t figure that out. Doc told me it was due to early colonial computers with a limited vocabulary, but the primitive computers we had on Earth were more than capable of understanding contractions.”
“They found that out when they studied the computers on the colony ship the Casians came in. There’s another historic factor that brought about the habit. It started as a code. That religious group you exposed, the Children of the Prophet Elijah. We found it in their records. They used the lack of contractions as a handshake, so one member could identify another.”
“So how did it spread to the general population?”
“Due to the member’s connections with the recourses of the church, they became the wealthy, the upper class. Their way of speaking was seen as more sophisticated and stylish. The middle class copied them. That church then had to switch to less obvious coded handshakes so one member could recognize another.”
“Like what?” Jim said. “Can you give me an example?”
“Yes… I can, and I just did. If they speak a sentence that starts with either the word ‘yes’ or ‘no’ they insert a fraction of a second delay after the first word.”
“What if a non-member did that normally?”
“There were half a dozen more codes in their mannerisms of speech, like using the word ‘congenial’ instead of the more commonly used word ‘friendly’. When one member heard one handshake they were conditioned to steer a conversation in such a way as to bring out others. That on top of hand gestures and facial expressions was very effective.”
“And the slow influx of money into the circle led to wealth and power.”
“It was only a tendency, help in business for members at the expense of non-members. And it was totally without their knowing. That alien device they found implanted the conditioning directly into their brain.”
“Then I show up and blew their cover,” Jim chucked. “And met a gay Secret Service agent that started our relationship by coming on to me.”
“Hey, I knew your real identity and the fact that you were straight. I was playing a role. I had to maintain my cover.”
“I can understand that,” Jim said. “I was playing the role of Frank Dollison, the neurotic businessman open to conversion to their church. But I still don’t understand why I wasn’t converted. That alien device sounds very efficient.”
“You weren’t there long enough. You just went through the preparatory phase.”
“I did occasionally feel a little weird,” Jim said.
“There’s one thing that really amused me. When I said I thought Jim Young was handsome, you kept fishing for more complements. It was all I could do to stop myself from laughing.”
“That was a definite boost to my ego,” Jim chuckled.
“That was intentional. You looked so uptight, as you Earth people say, I had to do something to relieve your stress. Gay tolerant heterosexual males tend to find complements from gay males very amusing.”
“There’s something I’ve been curious about for years. You prance around like a limp wristed fairy, make comments about good looking men, but I’ve never seen you with a guy. No fellow gay suddenly exiting your room in the middle of the night. No moonlight walks and kisses with good looking men.”
“Can I let you in on a secret, sweets?”
“By all means.”
“I’m actually as straight as you are. I have a wife and two kids on Ploshard.” Peter suddenly dropped the effeminate intonation in his voice and continued. “We’re expecting a third in a couple of months.”
Jim burst out laughing. “I had a feeling about that. Why the hell have you been running around pretending you’re gay?”
“It started with my mission to look after you on the planet Tranquility. My mission coordination team decided gay would stand out and catch your attention. I wouldn’t be just a face in the crowd. Your psych profile showed you were hetro but extremely gay tolerant.”
“But why gay? You could have found another way of getting my attention.”
“It was also a matter of confidence. Gay tolerant heterosexual men, once the bounds of the relationship are solidly established tend to trust gay men more than fellow heterosexuals.”
“What? We’re not afraid of you running off with our women?”
“That’s part of it. For the rest, you’ll have to consult a psychologist that specializes in sexuality.”
“So, how hard was it playing the part of a raving queer for eight years?”
“It was horrendous and still is. The role was only supposed to last a couple of weeks on Tranquility. I didn’t think I’d be assigned to you and your family for this length of time.”
“You’ve only been with us about four months out of each year. Doesn’t the rest of the time give you a break?”
“When I get home it takes me a good week to adjust and play my normal self. It’s good I have an understanding wife.”
“Does she know your mission?”
“No, she just takes it as it comes, doesn’t ask questions. She knows all about you from the news but she has no idea I have even met you.”
Jim started laughing. “So, now I know you’re a closet heterosexual, how do you want me to act?”
Peter suddenly switched back to his effeminate tone. “Just keep my secret dishy.”
Chapter 9
A slight breeze rustled through the living pine needles over their heads. A smell of smoke from a cooking fire met Michael’s nostrils. He thought of the smell. It brought back memories of Earth. Seldom did the current humans cook outdoors. It was considered beneath them. Even the old videos his family brought from the past failed to create an enthusiasm for the barbecue. It was one of the few Old Earth traditions that hadn’t caught on in recent times.
“Who’s got the compass?” Kevin asked with a tone of urgency.
“I picked it up,” Michael replied.
“And I’ve got the map,” Tara said. “But, I still say it doesn’t look like a map. It’s made of paper. You can’t touch it and have the computer tell you which direction to go.” She wrinkled her nose and looked down at the neatly folded piece of paper in her left hand. “What’s the use of it?”
Michael laughed. “Remember what the councilor said, we have a computer in our head. We have to work things out ourselves.”
“And get lost,” Kevin said with a chuckle. “Or at least my father would. He’d get himself lost at the Mall if he didn’t have a pen phone to get directions.”
“Ok,” Michael said, “time to spread the map out and see where we’re going.”
The threesome sat in a circle. Tara placed the map in the center carefully unfolding it as if it were a priceless artifact.
“Orient it,” Michael said. “Top of it facing north.”
“Which way’s north?” She asked, looking around.
“That way,” Michael answered, pointing to his left.
“Are you cheating?” Kevin exclaimed. “You’ve got one of those satellite navigator implants. If you cheat like that, we’ll be disqualified from the orienteering course. You have to use a magnetic compass.”
Michael shook his head. “There’s no electronic implants in my brain.”
“Then how did you know which way was north without looking at a compass?”
Michael looked up. “Which way does the sun rise?”
“East.”
&nbs
p; “What’s that over there?” Michael asked, pointing.
“This planet’s sun.”
“What’s it doing?”
“Ah… Rising.”
“If that’s east, then north is that way.”
Kevin burst out laughing. “Hey, I’m glad you’re on our team. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
Michael looked up. “Darn modern guys, too much convenience. You’ve all forgotten the simple facts.”
Tara frowned. “Why didn’t they mention that in the classes?”
“Guess a compass was primitive enough.” Michael thought again of the classes they’d taken at the camp. His father had taught him to navigate by the sun, moon and stars before he let him even look at a compass. He thought of his father’s words: “A compass can get lost; the sun and stars are always there.” The only reason he thought that navigating by natural signs was omitted was that modern society was so gadget oriented that using nature didn’t occur to them.
Michael stood and adjusted the rucksack on his back. “So?” he said. “Which way do we go?”
Tara looked at the map and then at the hill in front of them. “First checkpoint is to the right about five kilometers.”
“Grid bearing?” Michael asked.
Tara produced a protractor from the pouch on her belt and placed it on the map. She carefully aligned it and read off a direction. “Forty three degrees, grid.”
“What’s that on a compass?” Michael asked.
“One hundred and eight degrees.”
Michael smiled. He remembered walking the woods back on Earth. The magnetic variation between north on a map and north on a compass was only six degrees. On this planet, at their current location, magnetic north was closer to west than north; most unusual for a planet of its age.
* * *
The sun set early behind the mountains. The threesome paused for a break. A shallow ravine blocked their way. It wasn’t deep, but deep enough to stop them.
“We could rappel down,” Kevin said. “We have enough rope.”
“But we can’t rappel up the other side,” Michael said. “That embankment is too steep to climb.”
“And it looks slippery too,” Kevin said.
Tara smiled and shook her head. “Why don’t we just sit here until someone invents a way of rappelling up a cliff?”
Victim of Circumstance (The Time Stone Trilogy Book 3) Page 12
