Stand Against The Storm (The Maxwell Saga Book 4)

by Peter Grant

  “You know I can’t override Captain Davis’ orders, right?” Steve nodded. “Apart from that, yes, insofar as you’re assigned to my command at present, I’ll trust you with carte blanche. Your previous performance justifies that. Use whatever you need and do whatever you have to do to save the hostages. Can you give me an idea of what you have in mind?”

  “You really don’t want to know, Sir.”

  “Oh… You know what that may mean for you personally?”

  “What’s that when weighed against the lives of all those kids, Sir?”

  Battista sighed. “I take your point.”

  “Yes, Sir. Let me see if I can put something together. It may not be possible, but I’ll do my best. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

  “Carry on, then.”

  “Aye aye, Sir.”

  Steve looked around the commcen. “Sergeant O’Donnell, where’s the Qianjin chargé d’affaires?”

  “Last I saw of him he was headed to bed, Sir.”

  “Thank you.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Jiang was grumpy at being awoken from a sound sleep, but forgot his ill temper as he peered at Steve’s face. Even in the dim glow shed by the night lighting system, he could see that the officer’s face was lined and drawn with tension.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’d rather not talk here,” Steve replied quietly. “There are others within hearing. Will you walk with me outside the walls? There’s something very important I’ve got to discuss with you. It can’t wait.”

  “Let me put on my clothes. I’ll meet you outside.”

  They walked in silence to the depot’s main gate, nodding to the sentries on duty, who opened one leaf of the entrance to let them through. “Don’t walk too far beyond the walls, please, Sir,” one cautioned them. “Our sensors don’t show anything out there, but you never know.”

  “We’ll be careful,” Steve promised.

  He led Jiang about twenty meters clear of the wall, ensuring that no casual listener on top of or behind them could hear their conversation; then he began a circuit of the perimeter. As they walked, he explained to Jiang what the Marines had learned about events that night at the meeting of the rebel’s leadership council.

  Jiang drew in his breath with an audible hiss. “This man shot one of his own leaders because she wasn’t ruthless enough?”

  “Yes – specifically because she wouldn’t allow him to murder young children to put pressure on the Governor. Charming character, isn’t he?”

  “As you say… but what does this have to do with us?”

  Steve took a deep breath. “It means I’m going to try to find a way to mount a rescue mission, Mr. Jiang. Captain Davis has specifically ordered all Fleet personnel planetside not to intervene in the fighting between the rebels and the Administration; but I’m not prepared to stand idly by and see children get murdered. I’ve seen that before, and I’m damned if I’ll see it happen again because I was too cowardly to stop it.” He explained briefly what he’d encountered on Radetski in the early stages of his career in space. “I’m going to disobey my orders and look for volunteers among the Marines who are prepared to do the same. We’ll try to release the hostages.”

  The chargé looked at him with horror in his eyes. “But that’s suicide! You told us earlier the rebels had erected strong defenses and booby-trapped their perimeters!”

  “They have; and yes, it means many of us are going to die. The odds of survival are no better than even, and for the leaders of the attack probably less than half that.”

  “And if you fail? What if the rebels kill all the hostages before you can reach them?”

  “They’re going to kill them all anyway, Mr. Jiang, because there’s no way the Governor can recruit spacers in time to get their people off-planet. We can’t save all the hostages, but we may be able to save some of them. That’s the most we can hope for, but it’s still worth the effort.”

  “Is it worth your life?”

  Steve stopped walking and reached for his comm unit. He selected the vid clip Abha had recently sent to him and projected it above the device. Jiang watched the holographic display as if mesmerized as a lovely woman appeared, holding an infant girl in one arm and an infant boy in the other. She smiled into the lens as the children gurgled and kicked in her arms.

  “That’s my wife, Abha, and our first-born twins, Vincent and Abhilasha – Vince and Abhi for short. If they were among the hostages and I couldn’t help them, I’d be desperate for anyone to do whatever could be done to save them. If I feel that way about my children, how many parents in Surush tonight are desperate about theirs?”

  Jiang tore his gaze away from the image and stared at Steve. “But if you’re killed, your own wife and children will have to live without you. Is this worth that cost?”

  “Abha’s a Marine Corps officer in the Reserves. She’ll understand, and she’ll explain to our kids one day. Vince Cardle taught me what it means to be a man – to be a human being. He was killed in a fight with pirates the year after I met him, and I’ve missed him ever since; but I’ve tried to live up to all he taught me. If he were in my shoes now, he’d be saying that I’ve got to do whatever’s put in front of me to do today – right now. In this situation, that’s saving as many hostages as possible. If we lose eight out of ten kids, but save two, at least those two will still have a life to live. It’s worth trying to give them that chance. If we do nothing, none of them will have any chance at all.”

  “But what if you’re killed?”

  “Even if all the rescuers are killed, at least we’ll have died trying to do the right thing instead of hanging back like cowards, doing nothing while innocent children are murdered or maimed. I’ve seen that before. I don’t want to see it happen again because I wouldn’t lift a finger to stop it.”

  Jiang was silent for a moment. At last he said, “I suppose, in a way, you’re acknowledging what one of the ancient poets said: ‘Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind’.”

  “Yes, I am involved – but so is the Dragon Tong, I’m afraid. The reason I’m telling you all this is because it may impact the Tong as well.”

  Jiang’s eyes widened. “How? Why?”

  “When you looked up my name in your archives, did they tell you what I’ve been looking for?”

  “Yes; the jade knife of Lei Sik Hoi.”

  “That’s right. I hadn’t told you this earlier, because I was afraid the news might leak, but now I must. After a search lasting over a decade, I found it. In fact, I was about to hand it over to your people on Cassius when I was recalled to my ship for this emergency mission.”

  Jiang slammed to a halt. “Where is it now?” His eyes glowed with eagerness.

  “It’s in the safe aboard my ship, LCS Cybele, a Goddess class general-purpose Fleet freighter. She was sent back to Cassius to collect more supplies. She should get back here in a week to ten days.”

  “The Tong will be overjoyed – and you’re about to become very wealthy. The reward for the knife now stands at twenty thousand gold taels.” Jiang’s face suddenly clouded over. “But – but what if you’re killed during your rescue mission?”

  Steve blinked at the news that the knife was now worth more than twenty-five million Commonwealth credits to its discoverer, but thrust the thought aside. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you. In case I’m injured or incapacitated, I’m going to record a request to my Commanding Officer to hand over to you the package containing the jade knife. She doesn’t know what’s inside. However, if I’m killed Commonwealth law and Fleet regulations won’t allow that. She’ll be legally obliged to send it back to Lancaster, along with all my possessions on board the ship. The Fleet will hand them over to the probate court. It’ll retain them in its custody until my estate is finalized, when they’ll be handed over to my wife. She’s my beneficiary, of course.”

  “That may take a year or more! What if something should happen to the knife on the way there, o
r while it’s in storage?”

  Steve nodded soberly. “That’s not the worst risk. It may be described or even pictured in court documents. If someone recognizes it, every Tong and Triad in the settled galaxy will be after it.”

  Jiang visibly shivered at the thought. “Yes, and they won’t care how they get it. The knife of Lei Sik Hoi will confer enormous status upon whoever owns it. They’d gain immense ‘face’ and standing among their peers. We daren’t risk anything happening to it! You can’t go on this rescue mission!”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Jiang, but I have a duty as a human being to those hostages. I’m even going to disobey a direct order from the Senior Fleet Officer on this station, knowing it’ll mean the end of my career if I survive. This is more important. It’s a moral imperative.”

  “But… what makes saving hostages you’ve never met, and who aren’t related to you in any way, worth the sacrifice of your career, possibly your life, maybe even the jade knife?”

  Steve sighed. “I’m no preacher, and I’ve seen enough evil in my life to make me doubt that there’s a God. On the other hand I’ve seen enough good, and enough good people, to make me wonder. Is there a spark of the Divine in us? I may never know, but I do know this. Almost every major religion and philosophy of life that’s ever existed includes some version of the Golden Rule – you know, ‘do to others what you want them to do to you’. If my children were among the hostages, I’d be hoping and praying for someone to do everything possible to rescue them, rather than stand by and see them slaughtered. If I’d want that for my kids, doesn’t that make me honor bound to do all I can to help the children held hostage here? It’s part of treating others as you want them to treat you. It’d be inhuman to turn my back on them. If there’s a God at all, I reckon that’s at the heart of what he – or she, or it – would want me to do at a time like this, no matter how high the cost.”

  Jiang was staring at him as if he’d seen a ghost. “You… you really believe that? You’re not just saying it?”

  “Yes, I do.” Steve didn’t need to fake conviction. He and Abha had been raised in very different religious and cultural traditions; but in discussing their future together they’d long since decided that, no matter what each believed, the ethic of reciprocity was and would remain a bedrock element of the way they’d try to relate to each other and the world.

  The diplomat slowly shook his head. “I’m used to people who dissemble, shade the truth, wheel and deal, and generally ‘go along to get along’. You’re like a slap in the face to people like that… and to me, for that matter. You don’t play games. You mean what you say, and you live by your principles.”

  “I try to.”

  “Is there no other way?”

  “If there is, I can’t see it from here. The rebels think that by killing some of their hostages, they can force the Governor to provide spacers for the ship that’ll take them wherever they’re going. Trouble is, the Governor has no local spacers, and he can’t force the civilian spacers from Karabak to obey him. They’re not subject to military discipline. Even if he tried to arrest them and make them do as he says, they’d simply disobey the moment they got out of his reach. He couldn’t put armed guards aboard to enforce his orders, because the rebels wouldn’t trust them. That means the rebels and the Governor are like the irresistible force and the immovable object. When they collide, the hostages are going to be ground between them. In the absence of spacers for the rebels’ ship, a rescue attempt is the only way out.” He waited on tenterhooks to see if Jiang would take the hint.

  The diplomat didn’t disappoint him. “What if our people agree to crew the ship?”

  Steve looked at him in feigned surprise, trying to hide the hope leaping within him. “They’ve already refused.”

  “Yes, but none of us knew about the jade knife at the time. If this will secure it for the Dragon Tong, that changes things. What if they agree to help?”

  “It would open up a whole new range of options, and maybe let us rescue everyone over time with much less danger; but it would put some of your people at risk if anything goes wrong.”

  “Let me talk about it with the Captains and First Mates. How long can you give us?”

  “Unless something changes, I need to leave as soon as possible.”

  “Let’s get back inside.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Steve paced nervously back and forth across the floor of his office. He was distracted from his thoughts by a knock at the door. Gunnery Sergeant Kinnear put his head around it.

  “What’s this I hear about you heading out, Sir?”

  Steve explained briefly about the looming crisis with the hostages in Surush. He couldn’t tell Kinnear about the jade knife, so he settled for, “I’ve told Jiang about this and used what influence I have to ask the Qianjin spacers to reconsider. Even if that doesn’t work, I can’t just sit back and let the kids be killed. I’m going to do what I can.”

  The Gunnery Sergeant looked thoughtful. “Would a few flitterbugs and nanobugs come in handy, Sir?”

  “They sure would, but the Marines are under orders not to get involved.”

  “So are you, Sir, but I don’t see you letting that stop you.”

  “If I survive, my career will be over, but I can’t see myself building the rest of it on the bloody bodies of murdered children when I could have done something to save them.”

  “Can’t argue with that, Sir. If you’ll have me, I’m in.”

  Steve grinned. “Thanks, Gunny.” They shook hands firmly. “Hold that thought. If the Qianjin spacers agree to provide a crew for the rebels’ spaceship, it’ll buy us time – a week at least. With their help, we may be able to come up with something better than a suicide mission.”

  “I’m all in favor, Sir. Let’s keep all our fingers and toes crossed, and tie knots in whatever we can’t cross!”

  As if to echo his words, they heard footsteps approaching down the corridor. Jiang said, “The officers have made their decision, Senior Lieutenant. Would you please join us?”

  “Sure. I’ll see you in a few, Gunny.”

  “OK, Sir.”

  The two Captains and two First Mates were seated at the meeting-room table. Chun said without preamble, “Mr. Jiang has explained to us everything that you and he discussed earlier tonight. Under the circumstances, we have no choice but to provide a crew for the spaceship.”

  Steve wanted to exult, but he couldn’t. In a sense I’ve manipulated these people into helping me, he reminded himself. If anything happens to some of them, their blood will be on my hands. They deserve better than that from me. They’ve already risked their lives to stand beside me in combat. They’ve got to understand why I’m doing this. It’s got to come from the heart for them as well. I can’t just use the knife to extort their help.

  “Thank you, but… you say you have ‘no choice’. That’s wrong. You do have a choice. If you feel you don’t, I’m not sure you’re doing this for the right reasons.”

  “What do you mean?” Chun snapped indignantly.

  “I’m not accusing you of anything,” Steve hastened to reassure him. “It’s just that this isn’t primarily about the jade knife, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “It’s only about the knife as far as we’re concerned!” Chun retorted.

  Steve sighed. “Let me tell you about Radetski.” He spent several minutes describing the injured, maimed children he’d encountered on that planet many years before, and how he’d tried to help them, and how it had made a permanent impression on him. “The children Bairam and his people are holding hostage are in the same position in my book. They don’t mean a thing to their captors as human beings. They’re just bargaining chips, to be used or discarded as needed. That’s just plain evil. There’s no other word for it.

  “Compare that to the jade knife of Lei Sik Hoi. If I were to throw it out of the airlock of my ship as hard as I could towards this planet, it’d burn up in Eskishi’s atmosphere like any other small meteorite
. It’d become no more than a few charred molecules circulating in the stratosphere.” The Tong men looked horrified at the mere thought of such sacrilege, but before they could say anything Steve went on, “That wouldn’t do a single thing to help or hurt the Dragon Tong. You’d go on the next day just as you had the day before. The knife’s a piece of carved stone, not the be-all and end-all of existence. It has historical and cultural value to you, and I’m sure it’ll gain your Tong a lot of prestige among its rivals; but in and of itself it’s no reason to get yourselves killed – and believe me, if you get involved in this, that danger is real. No, if you’re going to help, do it for the right reason. Do it because you care about the children and the other hostages. Do it because you’re human beings, and you care about other innocent human beings.”

  First Mate Kun snapped irritably, “They’re not so innocent! The people of this planet have treated us like dirt since we arrived here!”

  “Have the children treated you like dirt?” Steve asked.

  “Of course not! We’ve hardly even seen any!”

  “Then how can they be anything but innocent as far as you’re concerned?”

  Kun’s mouth opened and closed as he struggled to find words. Steve pressed his advantage. “Some of the adult hostages might be meaner than sin. Some of them may even deserve to die – but not the kids. It’s because of them that I’m going to do all I can to stop the rebels. You can hate the adults all you like, although I’m willing to bet you’ve never met most of them; but don’t hate the kids because of what their parents have done. That’d be like sending your kids to jail for crimes you’ve committed. Get your priorities straight. Either this is worth doing for its own sake, or it’s not. If it is, join me. If it’s not, all the jade knives in the universe won’t justify risking your lives to do it.”

  Kun’s face was red with anger. He opened his mouth to speak, but Chun reached out and placed his hand on his arm. “The Senior Lieutenant is serious, First Mate.” Kun looked at him in surprise. “He’s not joking.”