Homefall

by Chris Bunch

  Garvin tore paper off. Inside was a disk, and on the disk was a tiny figure of a man wearing clothing several sizes too big for him; a dancer standing on the back of a quadruped, another woman wearing tights, and in the center a man in very old-fashioned formal wear. It was made of plas, and the paint or anodizing had worn off here and there.

  "I had to get the motor replaced before it'd work," Njangu said. "Hit that button, there."

  Garvin did, and the clown in the baggy clothes pranced about, the horse ran around the ring while its rider did a handstand, the woman in tights tumbled back and forth around the ring, and the formally dressed man held out his hands here and there.

  "Well, I shall be damned," Garvin said softly. His eyes filled.

  "What is it?" Jasith asked.

  "It's the center ring of a circus," Jaansma said. "A circus from a very, very long time ago. Thank you, Njangu."

  "You see how well my plan's working," Yoshitaro said. "Almost got him blubbing like a babe. Softened the idiot up, I have."

  Garvin turned the device off.

  "This is quite a buildup."

  "This is quite a plan," Njangu agreed.

  "First, consider what we've been doing wrong. Back when we were expecting trouble with ol' Protector Redruth, we went and sent a snoopy shit out to see what was whuppin', right? And, thanks to that late and unlamented spy, they wuz lurkin' on us, and we got our butt buzz-sawed, right?

  "Now, and ladies, I'll expect you to plug your li'l bitty ears and not listen to what I'm saying, we're now engaged in a certain enterprise, being sneaky once more, and what's happening?"

  "You mean those drones we've been losing?" Maev said. "You're not supposed to know anything about Operation HOMEFALL."

  Njangu raised several eyelids.

  "Neither are you, you common bodyguard."

  "Surely am," Maev said smugly. "Who do you think Dant Angara uses for his couriers? I got a HOME-FALL clearance about a month ago."

  "And never told me?"

  "You, my dear, don't have a need to know."

  "Zeus on a poop deck," Njangu said. "You see, Jasith, m'dear, why you're best staying well away from the military? Corrupts even the most loving relationship with its insistence on dirty, dark secrets."

  "I know," Jasith agreed. "That's why I felt so bad about not telling Garvin here about the Legion contracting to have its drones built by Mellusin Yards."

  Both men stared at each other.

  "Thank any species of gods we don't believe in there aren't any spies about anymore," Garvin said finally. "This goddamned society leaks like… like a noncom with bladder problems."

  "How can we have spies if we don't even know who the frigging villains are yet?" Njangu asked reasonably, drained his beer, got another from the cooler.

  "Having been thoroughly sidetracked, I might as well stay that way. Jasith, my love, my darling, my bestest friend's delight, could I borrow a ship from you?"

  "What sort?"

  "Something big and clunky. Some power to it. Interstellar, of course. Doesn't have to be too fast or maneuverable."

  "What shape are you going to bring it back in?"

  "Damfino," Njangu said. "Maybe perfect. Maybe in a collection of brown paper bags. Maybe not at all, although if that happens, you won't be able to rack my heinie, since I plan on being aboard it."

  Jasith grinned.

  "I think I've got what you need.

  "I happen to have a certain clunker in the yards right now. Commissioned right after the war. De-signed to carry and deploy, without a dock, mining machinery… I mean big mining machinery, like self-contained drilling units, even full mills… D- to E-Cumbre and to the outworlds for exploration. It's huge, almost three kilometers long, and gives ugly a hard way to go. Best description I could have is it looks like the universe's biggest nose cone, with landing-support fins that nobody built the rest of the ship for. Lotsa bulges and extrusions. Since it was to be the ultimate pig, and a good tax writeoff, we went ahead and put stardrive in it.

  "You could fit a whole handful of patrol ships, plus maybe a couple-four aksai in it. Takes a smallish crew to run… I don't remember just how many… and has living space that can be configured as dorms, cubicles, or even single bedrooms. It'll sleep fifteen hundred or more… in comfort and happily, since nobody wants to be around a smelly, angry miner.

  "The holds can be sectioned, and, since we sometimes tote delicate stuff around, there's triply redundant antigrav," she added. "I'll lease the Heavy Hauler VI to the Force for, oh, ten credits a year, being the sentimental patriotic sort that I am."

  "Step one is now accomplished," Njangu announced. "By the way, I admire the romantic names you Mellusins give your spaceships."

  "You want to tell me what some lardpig of a spaceship has got to do with a circus?" Garvin asked.

  "Why, we'll need a lardpig to haul our circus around in."

  "Our circus?" Garvin said.

  "What a very thick young caud you be, Caud Jaan-sma," Njangu said. "What do you think I've been hinting broadly about? And aren't you the one who's always been nattering on, whenever you get drunk and maudlin, about giving all this up and running away and joining the circus, like the ones your family used to run?"

  "Mmmh." Garvin considered.

  "What we do," Njangu went on, getting more enthusiastic, "is we put together a troupe… I went and looked that word up… made up of Forcemen, and then we go out, hiding in plain sight, doing a show here, a show there, and all the time we're working our way closer to, maybe the Capella system and Centrum.

  "We don't have to be very good, just not visibly anyone interested in anything other than a quick credit.

  "We'd best put in some crooked games," he said thoughtfully. "First, nobody'd expect a Confed soldier to be crooked; second, that could be some good coinage for our retirement.

  "When we get an eyeful and an earful on what's happening out there in the great beyond, we slide on back home, report, and let Dant Angara figure out what to do next. But at least we get an idea of what's out there… besides blackness and nothing."

  Maev nodded understanding, coming from another system herself. Jasith, who'd known nothing but Cum-bre her entire life, shrugged.

  "Interesting," Garvin said after being silent for a while. "Very interesting."

  "You want to go for it?" Njangu asked.

  "Some of it," Garvin said, pretending utter casu-alness. "I've got a few ideas of my own, you know."

  "The last time you tried some of them, you damned near got yourself executed, remember?" Njangu said. "I'm the brains of this operation, right?"

  Maev started laughing. "If that's true, boy are you two clowns in trouble."

  "Clowns," Garvin said, a bit dreamily. "I've always dreamed of having a center ring full of clowns, so many when they shivaree nobody'll be able to make me out.

  "You'll make a good clown, Njangu."

  "Me? Uh-uh. I'm gonna be the guy who goes in front, getting the people ready."

  "Boss hostler? Dunno if you've got the talent," Garvin said, mock-seriously.

  "Wait a minute," Jasith said. "You two are talking about going out, running around, and having fun."

  "Oh no," Njangu said piously. "Lotsa big risks out there. We're laughing, ho-ho, in the face of danger."

  "Fine," Jasith said. "Change one. You want my ship, you're taking me with you."

  "Huh?" Garvin said.

  "You're always the ones having adventures," Jasith said. "No more."

  "What sort of slot would you want?" he said.

  "Are you going to have dancing girls?"

  "Sure," Garvin said. "What's a good circus without a little bit of sex around the edges. Most respectable, of course," he added hastily.

  "And with me along, it'll be doubly so," Jasith said firmly.

  "I have learned," Garvin said to Njangu, "never to argue with Mellusin when she gets that tone of voice to her voice."

  " 'Kay," Njangu said. "She goes. That'll keep yo
u straight. Plus she can run payroll and the books, being the business yoink she is."

  "And I'll take care of you," Maev said. "Since you said something about recruiting from the Force."

  Njangu grinned and kissed her.

  "If Dant Angara turns you loose, why not?"

  "Lions and horses and maybe even bears," Garvin said, lost in his vision.

  "Yeh," Njangu said. "Sure. Just where on Cumbre are you gonna find any of them?"

  Garvin smiled mysteriously, then came to his feet. "Come on. Let's go tell Angara about your latest craziness."

  Dant Grig Angara, the Legion's Commander, stared at the small holo of the Heavy Hauler VI as it went through its paces—extruding ramps, opening huge ports, its decks changing— without seeing it.

  "My parents took me to a circus once, when I was a kid," he said slowly. "And the prettiest lady in the world, who wore white tights, gave me some candy that was like a pink cloud when you bit into it."

  "You see?" Garvin said to Njangu. "Everybody loves a circus. Cotton candy for all."

  Angara brought himself back.

  "An interesting idea," he mused. "Of course you'd punt out without leaving any tracks so you could be followed back to Cumbre."

  "Of course, sir."

  "And we could hold a Field Day for the Force, and you could pick any athletes you want."

  "Actually," Njangu said, "we could do it for the whole system, since we don't have to worry about this having any kind of security hold."

  Angara made a face. "I don't know if I agree. I don't like everybody knowing our business. But maybe you're right."

  "If you want to have a mass tryout, sir," Garvin said, "that's fine. But our first stop… unless you order otherwise… will be at one of the circus worlds."

  "Circus worlds?" Angara said, a note of incredulity to his voice.

  "Yessir. I know of three. Circus people have to have a place to get away from the flatties… the crowd. Even in olden times there were circus towns where the troupers and their animals would go in the off-season.

  "That's where they recruit people, practice new tricks, change jobs, catch up on the gossip."

  "What will that give you?"

  "Animal acts," Garvin said. "Trapeze artists. Flash."

  "How will you pay for that?" Angara asked. "It's peacetime, and PlanGov is getting a little tight with the budget. I don't want to have to stand up and say, 'fine, ladies, gentlemen, we're going to put on a show you'll never see.' "

  "Mellusin Mining has already agreed to fund us," Garvin said. "Plus I&R's got a ton of money in a discretionary fund that was given us by Mellusin back during the Musth war."

  "I am getting very fond of this idea," Cent Erik Penwyth, one of Angara's aides said. He was a member of Cumbre's elite, the Rentiers, and ex-member of the elite I&R Company, sometimes considered the most handsome man in the Force.

  "And we'd love to have you," Garvin said. "Maybe as advance man."

  "Hey," Njangu said. "I thought that was my slot."

  "Not a chance," Garvin said. "I wasn't kidding when I said I want clowns. Plus," he added thoughtfully, "I want somebody close at hand for security."

  "Oh. Oh," Njangu said in a mollified tone. "That's different."

  "Which brings up another problem," Angara said. "This little mission is going to strip the Force clean of some of its best troops. I've got to assume worst case, and you'll have problems. I agree this mission is important—but I don't want it accomplished with the loss of some fine soldiers a long way from home."

  Garvin inclined his head in agreement. "First, I plan on bringing everyone back. Second is that some of what I'll call best may not be on your roster."

  "A good point," Angara agreed after a bit of thought. "I&R troops don't always make the best line soldiers. I assume you'll be taking a lot of them with you."

  "With your permission, sir," Garvin said. "Since we're at peace, that'll give them something to keep out of trouble."

  "Bigger trouble generally does," Angara said. "So you'll collect a team… a troupe, you called it, and start gathering intelligence. Let's for the sake of argument, and to keep one small measure of security of things, call the operation HOMEFALL, like another, similar one we have running presently. That should thoroughly confuse the issue.

  "But back to the matter at hand. What happens if, or when, you run into trouble?"

  "We'll have the ship armed to the eyebrows," Gar-vin said. "With all the goodies out of sight. I'll take some aksai, some of the Nana-class patrol boats we took back from Redruth's mob."

  "Won't that appear suspicious?"

  "If the Confederation has fallen apart," Garvin said, "which seems a little more than logical, considering the drones I know nothing about that have been getting disappeared lately, I'd assume anybody going anywhere off their own homeworlds goes armed these days."

  " 'Kay," Angara agreed. "Probably right on that one."

  "By the way, we're going to rename the Hauler, for good luck," Garvin said. "It'll be Big Bertha:?

  "Damned romantic," Penwyth said sarcastically.

  "Named after the biggest circus of them all," Garvin said. "Way back on Earth. Ringling Brothers and Bailey and Barnum."

  "Whatever you want," Angara said.

  "There is one other thing I'd like, sir," Garvin said diffidently. "This whole situation might get a little… tense. And I'm just a young trooper. Shouldn't we find some diplomat to go with us? Just to make sure we don't make any mistakes. Soldiers have a, well—"

  "Tendency to pull triggers when in question or in doubt," Angara finished.

  "Well… yessir."

  Angara considered for a moment. "Not a bad idea, Caud. There's only one problem. I can't think of any politico in this system who qualifies as any kind of subtle peacemaker or -keeper. Cumbre's history over the past few years doesn't exactly suggest any names to me. Do you have any candidates?"

  Garvin shook his head, looked at Njangu.

  "Other than me," Yoshitaro said, "sorry, sir. My files are empty."

  "So I'm afraid," Angara said, "you'll have to play things as best they appear to you. How far do you want to go?"

  "As far as I can get, sir," Garvin said firmly. "Hopefully, all the way to the heart of the Confederation, to Centrum itself."

  Chapter 3

  "At the moment," Caud Fitzgerald said to Garvin, "you are not one of my favorite Regimental Commanders."

  "No, ma'am."

  "And you, Haut Yoshitaro, are on the same shit list."

  "Yes, ma'am," Njangu said. Both Jaansma and Yoshitaro stood at rigid attention in front of their Brigade Commander.

  "Once again, I've got to remind both of you. This Force has something called a chain of command. That means when you two thugs have an idea, it is supposed to go to me, then, and only then, assuming I approve, up the chain of command to Dant Angara.

  "Instead, I find I'm losing both of you to go haring out into the unknown as if you were both still with I&R… and the scheme was your idea in the first place."

  "Sorry, Caud," Garvin tried. "I forgot."

  "Old habits die hard," Njangu hurried.

  "It's a pity that Dant Angara doesn't approve of some field punishments other armies used, such as crucifixion."

  Garvin looked into the woman's hard eyes, not sure if she was joking, and said nothing.

  "Very well," Fitzgerald said. "Since Angara's already approved, there's nothing I can do but rail at you.

  "Don't fail… or, if you do, come back dead.

  Otherwise, I might have to remember this conversation when it's time for your next fitness reports.

  "Now get your asses out of here… and, incidentally, the best of luck."

  Ben Dill shambled into Garvin's office, something just bigger than a cubicle, with an inspiring view of the Second Regiment's motor pool. He managed a salute, didn't wait for Jaansma to return it, and sat down.

  " 'Kay," he growled. "First, I'll listen to you tell me why I can't go o
n this wildhair trip of yours, then I'll tell you why I'm going."

  "Save it, Ben," Garvin advised. "You're already on the roster."

  Dill blinked. "Howcum I don't have to threaten you, like usual?"

  "I need a good pilot," Garvin said, "but I'll take you. We're bringing along three aksai, plus a hangar queen for spare parts, and I understand you know which end of those evil-flying bastards goes first."

  "I am only the best aksai pilot in the cosmos, including any Musth that might think, just 'cause he invented those evil pigs, he's better than me."

  "Which is why I put you down, right after Alikhan and Boursier."

  "Alikhan, 'kay," Dill said. "But Boursier? I can fly circles around her butt without power."

  "I just wanted to wait to see how long it took you to show up," Garvin said, suppressing a grin. "You want to know your other slot?

  "We'll need a strongman."

  "You mean, like in the holos, stripped to the waist, all oiled up, with big ol' iron rings on my arms to show off my perfect physique?"

  "Plus a corset to hold in your gut."

  "Damn," Dill said, oblivious. "I get to show off."

  "Within reason."

  "Hey," the big man said, "I got a great idea. Since you're taking Alikhan already, and nobody needs to know he speaks Common Speech, you could use him—"

  "As an exhibit," Garvin interrupted. "Meet Man's Deadliest Foe… See Him in an Orgy of Decayed Flesh… a Cannibal Fiend from a Nightmare Beyond the Stars. And anybody who comes close to his cage will talk freely, not knowing he's got big ears on 'em."

  "Aw shit," Dill said. "You went and beat me to it."

  "Always," Garvin said.

  Dill chortled. "It'll be worth the price of admission just seeing him in a cage."

  "Only when the gilly-galloos are around."

  " 'At'U be enough. I'll bring… what're they… nutpeas to throw at him."

  "I suppose," Njangu said, "all this is in the noble tradition of I&R volunteering for everything." His hand swept out, indicated the company formation in front of him. "Is there anybody missing?"

  "Nossir," Cent Monique Lir said briskly. "Other than one man in hospital who won't be discharged before takeoff time."