Chapter 23

Jeff and April were relaxeding with drinks when Sally and Gordon arrived. Everybody waited while Gordon got a huge mug of chocolate and Sally got tea. Gordon eyeballed the finger food, decided to give the Humans a shot at it first, and sat down. Strangelove saw his inspection and gave him a wink.

“I talked with Jeff and April this morning,” Lee informed them. “The good news is they agreed to drag the Sharp Claws and Retribution to Providence so we can move forward a little faster than I thought.”

“The faster transit time will be welcome, but I still need another two weeks for provisioning,” Gordon informed them. “That is unless they intend to make supply runs to make up for the fact the ships aren’t fully provisioned.”

“How long are you intending them to be able to stay out?” Jeff asked.

“Just like when we went on the voyage to the Badgers, months,” Gordon said. “I intend to lay siege to the planet and not get into a fight, if that can be avoided.”

“Oh, that does change things. I’m not objecting,” Jeff hurried to add. “We didn’t know you didn’t intend to go in hot and get it over. Tell us more, please.”

“The exception to that is if there is still a USNA warship stationed there,” Gordon said. “It gets turned into scrap on sight. If it won’t leave dock that may be messy, but they can build a new mast for the station.”

“We have no objection to actively lending a hand,” April said. “We have jump drones that can go in and punch a gravity lance through a docked ship with no danger of damaging the station at all.”

“Sweet, we don’t need to hog all the glory. We’ll welcome some help.” Gordon agreed. “I’m also willing to take over the station if it can be done surgically and not turn it into a bloodbath and wreck it beyond a few forced locks and hatches.”

“Lee already mentioned you both agreed not to conduct a bombardment,” Jeff said. “I’m in favor of that. If they have any orbital capable interceptors would you have any objection to removing those?”

“No, though I doubt they do. What I don’t want to do is damage their water supply or power generation. If we do that, we can’t replace them easily. It would require new equipment from either New Japan or Fargone that might not be compatible with Earth systems. The delay would mean the small urban core already built would be unusable for long enough you’d have to evacuate the residential areas to the countryside. A lot of the facilities like sewage processing and fabricating shops were built with decentralized power. But if the workers can’t go home to power and water they won’t stay there working and the economy will collapse. If you remove one critical system the rest of the infrastructure becomes useless. If you do a clumsy job of it and hurt civilians you’ve created an opposition group and resistance who hate you.”

“What are your immediate needs to be ready to leave?” Jeff asked.

“With all the influx of Homies, we’re having trouble getting enough non-perishable food. We’ve added some freezer capacity to both ships and are buying fresh items to freeze but there isn’t any commercial capacity to process frozen in place. The Derf have never been big on freezing. We’ve set up in rented space and hired people to package and label to our specs and flash freeze it to lift to orbit. It’s slow.”

“Would you be satisfied with shelf-stable canned items?” April asked.

“Sure, and not too picky about the available menus as long as it isn’t the sort of survival stuff deliberately nasty so nobody wants to eat it. They do that to keep it safe from pilferage,” Gordon said. “The sort of rations they call prison bars.”

“Let me check something,” April said. She looked at the ceiling like people do to put a blank field behind their spex.

“Eileen? April here, Sweetie. How much of your food have you released to the market to moderate prices? Yeah? That much? No, that’s fine. We wanted you to moderate it not crash it. Since the boarding rush for the Out o’ My Way is over, how long do you think it would take to transport a quarter of the remainder to Derfhome station? OK, hang on while I put that to Gordon.”

April looked back down and regarded Gordon.

“I can give you twenty cubic meters of mixed shelf-stable food delivered to the port tomorrow. All high quality and safe to transport up to six g. It would be twelve commercial shuttle loads of about twenty-two and a half tons total. You can of course use your ship’s shuttles too. If you don’t mind putting the hours on them. That would work out to approximately forty thousand human meal equivalents with ship supplied water, less for Derf depending on your crew mix. Would that be helpful?”

Gordon blinked a couple of times - which was a strong reaction for him.

“That would solve my problem entirely and allow us to use the stores we already have as occasional special meals to maintain morale.”

April nodded and went back to her spex.

“OK, do it, Eileen. Have the port hold it to board for Gordon or his documented representatives. Thank you,” April said into her spex, finished.

“We didn’t ask Sally what her people budgeted for stores,” Gordon said. “I was leaving that in her hands. I do know the Mothers sent some things along for crew they supplied.”

April waved that away with a flip of her hand. “It’s a gift. We had it put aside in case we needed it. Now we do. What else do you need?”

“Very little,” Gordon admitted. “We decided to only take twenty of Strangelove’s troopers. I don’t doubt Garrett would allow him as many as he wants to use but we aren’t going to do a ground invasion any more than we wish to conduct a planetary bombardment. We only have twenty sets of lunar armor for Derf. I’m not complaining about that. I very much appreciate that you delivered after promising them your first trip here without me even needing to remind you.”

“Nineteen and me,” Strangelove interjected. “I will be there for Jeff.”

Jeff nodded and Gordon acknowledged that. “That’s plenty for any kind of action I can imagine. I’d use them to seize the station control room or to guard Lee on the ground. I do think she should have some Human guards mixed in for the sake of appearances.”

“Do you have any Humans you want to take as guards?” Jeff asked Lee.

“No, the ones I’d have picked are all off with the fleet.”

“May I ask an old friend in the business if he’d fill the assignment?” Jeff suggested.

“Have at it. Make sure he knows it could be long-term and away.”

Lee thought about it. “I can, however, sweeten the pot by offering land grants for their service.”

“That’s nice, let me inquire,” Jeff said. He let them hear the call just like April had.

“Otis, I have a possible assignment. It could be months long. Personal protection for Lee Anderson, our new ally, who is Voice for the Mothers of Red Tree and head of the new registration for explorers as well as the creator of the Little Fleet.

“Yes, yes, daughter of that Gordon. He’s sitting right here giving me the hairy eyeball.

“Well, the silly ducks cut off her payments. Cut off Gordon, too, for that matter. Since she had a contract with them on a class A planet and they defaulted, she’s going to repossess it.

“Indeed, that will involve removing the North American installed administration. It’s officially a Claims Commission overseer but you know that is a legal fiction. My understanding is the Commission has pretty much fallen apart without North America. We just had reps from Earth governments here asking about using her registry.

“You’d be working with a squad of Red Tree soldiers. Twenty of their best who might see some military action besides guarding Lee. They are kitted out for combat.

“I didn’t mean to imply that was beyond your abilities, but no, you won’t get to play with nukes. If it all goes well, there will damn well be no looting and burning. Though you should get some nice tracts of land as bonus pay.

“Would I joke about real estate? Really? Are a couple of your mates free to go too?

“That would be fine. I’ll tell her. No weight limit on personal gear, intoxicants are your business as long as you know when you are off duty. I expect the Derf will be heavy on breaching charges and other boomies if you want to go light.

“That’s not light. I doubt they have any armor, and I’d deal with that from orbit.

“I love you too, but my name is not Man. I’m sure you have two days to pack, and it wouldn’t hurt to be sober. We’ve got fast transport and you might arrive hungover.”

He looked at Lee and rolled his eyes. “Otis Duggan will bring along Eric Brockman and Christian Mackay. He has some other associates, but they are tied up working on Derfhome already. I’ll vouch for all of them being first-class security operators.”

“Did he mention a rate?” Lee worried.

“He said a solar a week plus support, but if you are cut off from your Commission payments, they are willing to negotiate for all payment in land. I’d go for that,” Jeff advised.

“You better believe it. I’ll have a lot more land than solars,” Lee said. “Sally has a clerk well trained on our registration processes who we’ll install after we’ve secured the planet. She is authorized to make land grants to the locals to pad out their current contracts and keep them on board to continue developing the planet.”

“I was thinking as I talked to Otis,” Jeff said. “If the Sharp Claws and Retribution have to stay at Providence very long, we can take jump drives to them as soon as Heather has a batch for you. They’d have to use them on their nose grapple temporarily, but that works fine. You can fit them permanently back at Derfhome after your campaign.”

“Yes, my drive on the Kurofune will still have to be mounted that way when we go. All the components are fabbed but we haven’t cut her open and installed them yet.”

She paused and frowned.

“Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Lee worried. “Do we have the crew available to do this on the time scale we’re discussing?” she asked Sally.

“I’d have spoken up and cut you off from wasting everybody’s time if we didn’t,” Sally assured her. “We’re oversubscribed. The Mothers could support the whole action if they had to. They’ve been training sufficient crew to rotate them from ship to Keep. Instead, we’re getting their most experienced Spacers, some hands from the Little Fleet who didn’t go back out and are growing restless, and a long list of Fargoers who would be happy to sign up.”

“Any Hin?” Lee asked hopefully.

“I’m not sure there is even a Hin on the planet,” Sally said. “If you want Hin in your crews you may have to send a recruiter there and seek them.”

“I may - not for Providence, but for the next time I go out,” Lee said.

That produced an indulgent smile from Gordon.

“I’m aware,” Gordon said with a grave nod. “But depending on economic circumstances and the way your ship tech changes after working with the Centralists I’m not sure you will need or want a huge support fleet. I think it may be more of a hobby the next time you venture forth. You’ve already located more assets than your race can use in a hundred years.”

“You underestimate how fast we’ll gobble those up,” Lee insisted. “The population balance is going to shift from Earth to Spacers, and their numbers won’t fall off because they’ll mostly use Life Extension. There’s still a big shortage of livable real estate.”

Sally surprised them with her assertiveness. She raised a forestalling finger and spoke.

“I think both of you are partially correct. The directors of the bank work very hard to model the future, and we’ve had some quiet successes we don’t trumpet to the world. Our consensus is there will be a vast improvement in habitats out among the brown dwarf systems you found. The mining stations you plan to put there to work those deposits will become so comfortable that the second and third generations born to the stations will wonder why anyone yearned for an open sky and the huge waste of oceans. The cubic of artificial environments will be so cheap with the abundance of materials to make them that we can have room for parks and model eco-systems so people don’t feel confined. We expect personal living space to increase six-or seven-fold.”

“We have a park at Central that was an impossible dream for years,” April said.

“Then what about the planetary property like we’re going to take back?” Lee demanded.

“That’s simply going to be very high-end property for the rich,” Sally said. “I’d like to have one of those properties you are awarding on Providence. I think they will be prized like the fancy penthouse apartments in the big Earth cities back when they were safe and clean. I think the standard for the most desirable will be to have enough land that you can’t see your neighbor’s home.”

“We don’t speak of our worlds much,” Jeff revealed. “But they are very low population, and that’s already pretty much the standard for properties there.”

Sally just smiled, unsurprised.

“I’ll make sure you have that Providence home,” Lee promised Sally. “You’ve certainly earned it, and I suspect you will all over again in the future.”

“Do we know enough to set a departure time?” Jeff asked.

Lee looked at Gordon and then Sally, thinking.

“Everybody is on Derfhome City time. I propose we wrap up loading between local sunrise and noon three days from now. How far off Derf time is their landing city?” She looked at Gordon, knowing he’d have that datum from his planning.

“We’ll arrive about two hours before their local noon if we get away at noon. The Providence day is a little longer and they use an Earth-style twenty-four-hour day.”

“So, our first day there will be stretched a bit. That’s fine. I expect we will stand off and observe and communicate the first day. I suspect from our last visit they will be slow to respond and will try to obfuscate. If there is a USNA warship still there it may run like the last time we visited. We’ll deal with it as Gordon mentioned and allow a little time for that lesson to sink in. They seem to require an amazing amount of time to come to any consensus and decision. If we push them to answer us too fast, I think it just increases the odds they will do something stupid.” Lee looked around to invite comments.

Gordon nodded his agreement.

“Everybody on the crew list is on twenty-hour recall,” Sally said.

“That’s a plan then. Is there any other business?” Lee asked.

“Yeah,” Gordon said lifting his mug. “I need another hot chocolate.”

* * *

The commercial attaché cum CIA liaison for the North American embassy was enjoying a glass of wine and small plates at a favorite sidewalk café a pleasant walk from the embassy. He had a rather pretty, new employee in communications and data support and her boss with him. They were telling her all the places in Paris she should see while she was on the posting and both were sending zero signals to her of any personal interest. North America was so deep in a strongly prudish social cycle that one wrong word could destroy your career. It was much safer to fraternize with the locals who thought the North Americans outlawing of short-sleeved shirts and their obsession with fastening the collar button even without a tie was ridiculous.

A gentleman with wrap-around spex set mirrored stopped outside the ornate handrail separating the tables from the public sidewalk and turned to them. That face covering was considered the height of rudeness in North America or France.

“Johnathan Wilde?” He got no response but a hostile glare. Apparently, the question was perfunctory, meant to confirm he wasn’t confusing Johnathan with someone else. His head turned towards Wilde’s companions even though you couldn’t see his eyes. “Tell them this was for Jean Navarre.”

He lifted a handgun, in no particular hurry, and shot Johnathan through the forehead. The report was a dull >PHUT< that barely covered the noise of the round’s impact and the action didn’t cycle to add mechanical noise. It didn’t even make people at other tables turn. Johnathan’s head jerked back slightly then rolled forward. His balance ruined, he tipped slowly forward, face to the table. The man turned and walked away at a normal pace blending into the crowd before he reached the next street.

The two Americans looked at each other too shocked to speak and uncertain what to do.

“Should we just leave?” the new employee suggested.

“There are cameras everywhere. That would just delay the inevitable questioning.”

“Then what are you going to do?” she demanded of her new boss.

“I’m going to ask the waiter to have the manager summon the police, and finish my wine,” he added on reflection. She might have regarded that as callous if his hand hadn’t been shaking so.

* * *

Dionysus’ Chariot with the Retribution in its jump field materialized in the outer system of Providence simultaneously with Hringhorni bringing along the Sharp Claws, and Kurofune on its own. After releasing the Sharp Claws, Gordon directed the Hringhorni to jump within a light hour of Providence and conduct a preliminary surveillance where he could direct his jump drones precisely.

The jump drone from Hringhorni materialized ten light seconds from Providence and scanned the vicinity of the planet with radar, making no effort to be subtle and offering no ID. It jumped across to the other side of the planet and repeated its scan before returning with its information to the Hringhorni.

Jeff sent the drone back to speak to the station and to explain it was an unmanned automated probe of the Central jump ship Hringhorni that would relay their response out-system. It requested a current system scan and information on the last known disposition of North American ships in the system.

The station shocked them by complying without hesitation.

Not only did they give the current scan but a snapshot of the last three days.

The traffic controller, Ed Polonis, informed them that a week ago the USNA destroyer Syracuse made a hot transit of the system looking for the frigate Bolton which was assigned to maintain a USNA presence at Providence station.

The Bolton, however, had already left upon receiving word from a relay jump drone that all the major ships at their forward base had been disabled by Central ships. Only minor vessels were spared for evacuation back to Earth. The Syracuse warned them the Centralist ships did not have to run to jump and had drones of similar ability. They requested any transiting USNA ships be informed of that.

The Bolton jumped out before their tour was due to end but not on an Earth vector so they were not taking the opportunity to return to Earth. They were headed to Survey System 1824, which had no habitation or development. That was likely a move to hide their ultimate destination.

The station master’s scan, Ed provided them, reported that there were no other armed ships in the system to their knowledge and that they didn’t have the means or intention to offer any resistance to armed vessels. After being abandoned by their USNA support and seeing other USNA warships pass in apparent flight, they were open to inspection and welcome to dock without any fees.

“Wow, they really are scared for a station master to volunteer free dockage,” Jeff said to his crew. “I’m relaying that out to Gordon and Lee to see what they say. I’m also jumping in to three light seconds to have a conversation with the station. I don’t believe with the Bolton gone I’m in any danger of being attacked faster than I can jump out.”

“Tell them thank you for the offer, perhaps later,” Gordon replied. “Lee says we pay for everything we get at this point until we formally change the agreements and have new contracts. For my part, you can tell them we will cautiously survey the system and planet because we’ve seen ambushes prepared in other systems. No need to tell them how, in case nobody here is bright enough to figure it out on their own. You may assure them no hostile action is planned as long as we’re not fired upon.”

“I think he’ll be happy to hear that,” Jeff said back. “Relaying that to the station. Please inform me what I should ask next.”

“See if you can ascertain the current situation on the planet.” Gordon requested.

“Providence Station, could you please describe the situation below? My people out system wonder if the planet is calm and business proceeding as normal?” Jeff inquired.

“Calm? There aren’t any mobs in the street with torches, and I doubt if there is a pitchfork on the whole planet. However, the words are getting pretty heated with the planetary manager claiming emergency powers that aren’t written into anybody’s contracts. He’s ordering people he considers essential to report to work when they have been told they are laid off by their real supervisors who can’t pay them.

“And normal? No. The last messenger drone that came in carried news of the… conflict. There weren’t even any real details about that. It didn’t have any bank transfers or market reports. It didn’t have international news. Not even business or personal correspondence. We don’t know if family and friends are safe, and they probably have no idea about us.

“We’re completely cut off from the normal flow of information. People aren’t issuing payments for wages or goods because they can’t prove they have funds on account to pay, or if they would be issuing fraudulent instruments. They just get enough to cover until the next drone comes in. Nobody keeps extra funds available locally, so we need bookkeeping reports from Earth at least weekly. There should have been an actual ship arrive with supplies also, but the lack of information is worse. It’s a mess,” Ed said.

“So, people stopped working because they weren’t getting paid?” Jeff asked. “Did they stop growing food and have to shut off the utilities?” He’d seen all sorts of stupidity but was having a hard time imagining everyone having the things at hand they needed to feed and take care of themselves and just stopping.

“Laid off more like,” Ed said. “They just stopped scheduling work because they couldn’t pay and had no credit set up if the bank transfers didn’t come in on time. Not everybody. I haven’t been paid, but here I sit like a fool, working even though there is no work schedule posted. The station-master hasn’t complained about me being here or locked me out. It beats sitting in my tiny room staring at the bulkheads. The cafeteria is still serving me so the cooks must be doing the same as me. I’m super polite and thank them, too. I suspect I wouldn’t be treated very well if I decided to go down to the surface where I have no assigned apartment and no food service card. If there is an evacuation, I’ll be much more likely to get a slot assigned if I’m on the station than if they have to haul me back up from the planet.”

“Is that the rumor, that there might be an evacuation?” Jeff asked.

“Not officially. There really haven’t been any official announcements about what might happen. They only refer to it as a temporary disruption. I suspect they don’t have any more clue than me what’s going on. They heard the same stuff from the Syracuse. People worry if things are disrupted badly enough back home that they can’t keep in contact with us, the whole process of developing the planet might be over. We might have to go back home or struggle to survive on our own. I’m not sure how that would work. Not very well I’d guess. How do you proceed, when we can’t make electronics and have no fabricators capable of making heavy equipment? Do we even have enough people to fill all the specialties we need to make stuff now? I’m pretty sure we’d run out of drugs before we could synthesize all the different sorts people need. I don’t think there is a green coffee bean on the planet and I can name a few who’d go back home if they thought they’d never have a cup of coffee again. Can you give us any news about what is happening back at Earth?”

“A moment. I’m sending your statement to my ships in the outer system. Now… We seem to be in conflict with your administration. To us, the USNA was the tail that wagged the Claims Commission dog, so being at war with North America we feel is the same as war with the Commission. If I tell you our version of events, how can you believe it with any certainty?” Jeff asked.

“If you say you are at war with them, I can believe that,” the controller said. “It doesn’t take two to agree to have a war. One side can force that just fine. Tell us the rest and it’s up to us to believe or not. But nobody else is telling us anything.”

“OK. Here’s the abbreviated version,” Jeff said. “The USNA got tired of asking our leave to take armed military vessels out of the Solar System. They refused to ask transit clearance for a vessel and it was destroyed.”

“Oh, bad,” the controller said.

“Yes. The USNA then announced the trio of Home habitats had to surrender by a deadline or be destroyed. They set up a barrage of gravel clouds to do just that timed right at the deadline. So, it was a false deadline. They had the attack in motion long before the opportunity to surrender had passed. Interestingly, they didn’t try to challenge Central, just the habs. Even though they knew we were all allies.”

“Oh crap, did they succeed? Is there blood to be avenged?” the controller asked.

“No, they were not aware we could move the habitats to other star systems. They were snatched away to safe locations.”

“Have there been strikes at the Earth? Were they bombarded?”

“The Sovereign of Central has declared North America can no longer have access to the heavens. By way of enforcing it, she has systematically destroyed or disabled every orbital capable launch site in North America. Given their apparent independence, she hasn’t acted against Mexico, but they are on notice not to aid their northern neighbor. North America will be allowed a port on each coast for international air travel but not launches.

“A campaign was initiated to remove all USNA heavy warships not only around Earth but in distant bases. As you heard, the order provided that small vessels not be destroyed to allow evacuation home. That offer was rescinded after a Central vessel was ambushed and destroyed at a USNA forward base. Our directive is now to remove all North American warships without quarter.

“There has been no general bombardment of population centers or vital infrastructure on Earth. I don’t anticipate that happening unless they are stupid enough to strike Central again with nukes.”

“Again?” the controller asked.

“China did so in the past. Not North America. Your pardon, I tend to lump Earthies all together easily. Central is of course still there,” Jeff pointed out.

“I wasn’t aware of that,” the man said.

“News on Earth is carefully controlled and sanitized,” Jeff said.

The man didn’t challenge that or any of Jeff’s other statements.

“Are you passing that information on to the planetary administration?” Jeff asked.

“Hell, no. I’m doing this gratis. I’ve already copied it to everybody I know below. If I send it to just the big boss, he’s playing turtle. He’s not going to share it with anybody. But I don’t have him on my contacts list anyway and the public net directory is down. What’s he going to do to me?” Ed asked. “He’s the planetary manager. He and my boss here long ago had it out over territory. The station is a separate authority with its own charter and contracts. If I were being paid, he couldn’t dock me. Just another reason to stay up here.”

“Indeed, I appreciate your candor,” Jeff said. “I’m going to release some drones to observe the planet. There will be a message carrier popping in and out to relay their observations. It would be taken as a token of goodwill if you refrain from destroying them. I’m going to go consult with my friends and will return and speak with you again.”

“OK, I don’t think anybody has the means to destroy them with the Bolton gone. But that would be pretty stupid for us to do at this point,” Ed agreed. “I’ve been answering your questions to the best of my ability can you tell us what you intend to do here?”

“Oh, my bad for not making that clear,” Jeff apologized. “Central has allied with the discoverers of the planet. Who were cut off from being paid. The Commission defaulted on their contract. Lee Anderson is here to repossess the planet and add it to the registry she implemented on Derfhome to replace the defunct Commission. Ms. Anderson intends to seek new contracts and agreements with the leaseholders and contractors on planet.”

Jeff didn’t insult him by pointing out how common “pretty stupid” was. Ed didn’t seem to be afflicted with it. It was a shame he wasn’t the planetary manager.

“No kidding?” Ed said slowly with a thoughtful tone. “That’s going to stir things up.”

“We very much want to avoid violence and destruction,” Jeff assured him.

“But she does jolly well want her planet back,” Ed said. He didn’t say it like a question.

“Yes, she will insist upon it most vigorously if need be. We have both Red Tree Clan and Central ships in the system to support her,” Jeff said. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“I’m seeing a situation here I didn’t expect,” Jeff said when he rejoined their fleet.

“That the Bolton ran away?” Lee asked. “They did the same thing when we came here the first time with just the Kurofune.”

“No, that the Claims Commission with their lack of planning has managed to treat their contractors and lessees here nearly as bad as they treated you and Gordon,” Jeff said.

“Oh, I hadn’t made the mental leap to see that yet. I guess I was fixated on being the offended party. But given everything that Ed fellow said it makes sense to me,” Lee agreed.

“I think they are so badly treated that what the Mothers said about them kicking the rascals out is a good possibility,” Jeff said. “We should have had a better well-thought-out announcement ready. I didn’t explain very well why we were here initially and Ed called me on it. I was just too concerned with finding out all the security issues. Perhaps you should quickly make some statements about what you intend towards the people already on the planet. Let them know they are going to be treated well, and they may be moved to have a heart to heart with the planetary manager and his support staff and encourage them to accept evacuation to Earth.”

“You better do that pretty fast,” Gordon said. “It may already be too late.”

“Why is that?” Jeff asked.

“The last drone switch brought back satellite images showing a lot of thermal sources in Providence City. I’ve seen this before. It looks just like when we upset the rule of the Teen and the crazy Bunnies started burning down their cities.”

“Oh, crap. Couldn’t they have held off a few hours and let us talk about it first?” Lee said.

“I guess they were already pretty peeved and near the tipping point,” Gordon said.

“I need to get down there and talk to them,” Lee decided.

“No, no. No indeed,” Jeff objected. “If it’s just a mob in the streets burning stuff down, they aren’t going to talk to anybody. You need to find out what is going on from orbit and see if anybody sensible is willing to talk to you. If there isn’t some sort of organization with a head guy or some sort of revolutionary committee you wait until they settle down.”

“That’s what I meant,” Lee agreed. “Down closer to the planet where we can talk real-time. I didn’t mean to just drop to the city uninvited.”

“Good, sometimes you scare me,” Jeff said.

Gordon gave him a significant look that implied he should get used to it.

“They didn’t mess with the Hringhorni. They aren’t interfering with the drones. Anybody see any problem with moving into a trailing orbit on the station with the Sharp Claws standing off five light seconds, emitting low power radar to make them aware we have an overwatch?” Gordon asked.

When nobody spoke up, Gordon ordered Dionysus’ Chariot to jump in taking them along and feeding the numbers for the move to everyone else.

OceanofPDF.com