Sol 2781: Drago Tell Dramis, #4

By Janet Edwards

Sol 2781 is the third of three full-length novels set immediately after the novelette length short story Hera 2781.

 

Major Drago Tell Dramis is celebrating the fact that the saboteur has been caught, and the Earth solar arrays will be safe now. The arrest of a member of the main board of Hospital Earth has consequences though. As Drago hits orbital levels of fury, and declares his own personal war against Hospital Earth, he's hit by even more unexpected problems.

 

There's a joke that says one birth member of the Tell clan attracts trouble, two birth members of the Tell clan invite minor disasters, while three is the critical mass that triggers cataclysmic events. As the danger mounts, the question is whether Drago and his two cousins, Jaxon and Gemelle, can prove an alternative theory. Are three members of the Tell clan really the critical mass that resolves cataclysmic events?

 

This extra-long novel concludes the Drago Tell Dramis 2781 sequence of Hera 2781, Hestia 2781, Array 2781, and Sol 2781.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wallam-Crane Press
• Release date: Jul 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201738914

Janet Edwards

Janet Edwards lives in the Midlands. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, which included the works of many of the great names of Science Fiction. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.

Book preview

Chapter One

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The emergency message came at 14:00 interstellar standard Green Time. It was a brief statement that the commanding officer of the five Earth solar arrays, Colonel Ngobi, was calling a vitally important meeting. All the Earth solar array staff, and the members of the fighter team currently assisting them with the refurbishment work, were to portal into their shift’s command section at 14:45 interstellar standard Green Time, ready to hear his announcement at 15:00.

Five members of our fighter team were already up in orbit flying solar array transport ships. The remaining ten of us gathered in the community dome of our accommodation area, and there was a babble of excited comments that were all variations of the same thing. This announcement must mean there’d been some crucial progress on the hunt for the saboteur who’d been attacking the Earth solar arrays. Hopefully that they’d been caught!

Our team leader, Commander Jaxon Tell Galad, allowed the pointless repetition to carry on for about ten minutes before bringing it firmly to a halt. We’ll be told exactly what’s happened at 15:00. This meeting is up in orbit, so we’d better wear our impact suits in case we end up doing some flying. Everyone should go and change now, and we’ll meet in our interplanetary portal dome at 14:40.

The rest of the team hurried off, but Jaxon and I lingered for a moment to exchange celebratory grins. We’d both been involved in a high-level meeting a few hours earlier, so we already knew that the saboteur had been caught. We couldn’t pre-empt Colonel Ngobi’s announcement by telling anyone else though, especially given that some of the details would need to be kept secret.

The solar array staff will be hugely relieved to hear the news, I said. They’ve all kept working since the shipment attack. Even the spider teams actually caught up in the attack have still been going out to the solar array wings to replace solar panels. It’s a stunning display of courage and loyalty, but my liaison officer admitted to having nightmares about what might happen next. If someone as courageous as Betha is having nightmares, then the others must be absolutely ...

I was interrupted by both our Military forearm lookups chiming for another incoming message. I tapped my lookup screen, and saw our mission controller, Major Steadman, had messaged the whole team. She said that she was already on board the Earth America solar array, discussing the delivery situation with their day shift Chief Technician. Rather than portal planetside to talk to us in person, she was messaging us with a reminder that we should wear our impact suits for the meeting in case we were needed to do some flying.

Jaxon went over to the flexiplas wall of the community dome, and theatrically banged his head on it. Drago, I realize that I shouldn’t complain about having a mission controller physically coming along with us on this mission rather than just sending us messages or speaking to us on the comms. I know the unusual arrangement is entirely due to my past behaviour, but ...

He turned to face me. It’s maddening that Major Steadman seems to interpret her instructions to keep an eye on me as meaning she should take over running my team as well. If you kept sending out messages that repeated or pre-empted my orders, our team would assume one of two things was happening. The first was that you were misjudging the duties of a deputy team leader, because you’d been promoted straight from Lieutenant to Major after Hera. The second was that I was delegating more things to you than normal, because you’re my second cousin and a member of the same Betan clan.

Jaxon waved his hands. Chaos knows what our team thinks about the way Major Steadman is behaving though. She isn’t just sending out messages. She calls team meetings without even mentioning them to me first.

Major Steadman can be a bit overzealous at times.

This is far more than being overzealous. She treats me like I’m a small child. You remember when we were children at the clan hall, and our ghastly cousin Cordelia would keep giving us orders, spying on us, and scolding us for minor transgressions?

I shuddered. How could I forget? Cordelia was horrible to all the clan children, but seemed to take especial delight in targeting the two of us.

Well, we had to keep being polite and respectful to Cordelia despite her behaviour, said Jaxon. She was old enough to be our grandmother, so clan council was bound to take her side if we complained. My point is that I’m stuck in a very similar position with Major Steadman. I know that General Renton Mai sent her here because he disapproved of the way I kept going absent without leave when I was at the Military Academy. He’s bound to take Major Steadman’s side if I complain.

He grimaced. "Even if I could tell General Renton Mai the truth about my baby sister, and explain that I kept going absent without leave to search Earth for her because it was my fault my parents missed the deadline to claim custody, my fault that Hospital Earth gave Jarra a new identity, my fault that our clan broke Fidelis ...Well, that would just convince General Renton Mai I’m totally untrustworthy."

I didn’t reply. Being assigned to Earth was making Jaxon spend an unhealthy amount of time obsessing over his past guilt, and I didn’t want to encourage him. There was nothing useful I could say anyway. It was impossible for either Jaxon or me to tell General Renton Mai that Jarra had been born with immune system problems when most of our clan still believed she’d died at birth.

Jaxon groaned. After the two of us played a key role in saving the planet Hera from destruction, General Renton Mai was forced to promote me to Commander. I suppose it’s only fair that I’m forced to put up with Major Steadman supervising me in return. We’d better go and get changed into our impact suits now.

I went off to shower and change, then joined the others at the interplanetary portal dome at 14:38. Jaxon arrived at precisely 14:40, and everyone stared hopefully at him until he surrendered.

It’s only 14:42 now, he said, and our orders are to portal aboard the solar arrays at 14:45, but it’s going to take us a couple of minutes to portal. You can start trying to dial now. Drago and I will wait to go last.

I thought that it would take us more than a couple of minutes to portal. The five Earth solar array command centres each had three identical command sections to ensure that no equipment failure or damage from space debris could leave their planetary power beam running out of control. Traditionally, the day shift of an array used the forward command section, the evening shift the centre command section, and the night shift the rear command section of their array. Given the fifteen of us were each assigned to a different solar array and shift, we’d all be portalling to different destinations. To make things worse, all the solar array staff would be trying to portal up from their accommodation areas as well, so we were bound to have to make several dialling attempts each before our destination portal was free.

Jaxon and I watched each of the others walk up to the chunky-rimmed red portal in turn, and select their destination from the list. I was surprised that only three of the team had to make a second attempt to dial the portal before it flared to life. They didn’t need the hoods of their impact suits up and sealed, because the solar array command sections were all pressurized, but they went through the portal at a cautiously slow speed because of the transition to zero gravity.

When the others had all gone, Jaxon gestured that I should go ahead of him. I selected the Earth Europe solar array evening shift from the destination list, and again it only took one dialling attempt for the portal to flare to life. After weeks of working on the Europe solar array, I’d grown confident about portalling from planetside into zero gravity, but this time I expected problems due to my destination portal room being crowded with people.

I was bewildered to arrive in a room that was completely empty except for my liaison officer, Captain Betha Ferguson, floating in midair next to one of the grab bars in the wall. I was even more bewildered when Betha shook her head reproachfully at me.

What took you so long, Drago? Everyone else portalled in ages ago.

I caught hold of another grab bar, and turned my left arm to check my forearm lookup. But I’m exactly on time. It’s 14:45.

Betha gave an impatient sigh. Colonel Ngobi has never called all three shifts into space at the same time before. He’s obviously going to announce important news about the sabotage attacks. Of course we all portalled aboard as fast as possible, so we could spend the waiting time sharing theories with each other.

She didn’t wait for a reply, just skimmed across the room to the door. I followed her, thinking this showed the difference between solar array staff and full Military officers. Our team members had been desperate for news too, but they’d obeyed orders and waited to portal in exactly on time. Well, on time apart from being an excusable minute or two early.

We’re supposed to join the spider teams in the evening shift’s observation lounge, said Betha.

When we went through the door, I saw there were groups of people blocking the main corridor. I blinked, turned towards Betha, and raised my voice so she could hear me over the sound of conversations.

Why are all these people in the corridor?

The main operations room and the observation lounge are the only rooms big enough to hold more than a handful of people, said Betha, and we can’t risk having an excited crowd near the delicate equipment in the main operations room. Chief Technician Koroleva said the spider teams were the worst affected by the shipment attack, so we could watch the announcement from the observation lounge. Everyone else has to gather in the corridor and watch it on their lookups.

I see, I said dubiously. How will we get through the main corridor to the observation lounge?

Betha shocked me by shouting at the top of her voice. Make room! Make room! Major Drago Tell Dramis, hero of Hera and expert at flying ships into large objects, is coming through.

Everyone turned to give us startled looks, and then flattened themselves against the sides of the corridor. Betha used a grab bar to send herself skimming through the gap they’d created, and hands reached out to take her arms and help her on her way. I gulped, followed Betha, and was hit by a deafening barrage of piercing whistles mixed with clapping.

I felt myself grow hot with embarrassment as I passed the figures in light blue solar array uniforms. There was a confusing blur of faces mixed with occasional feet, and then I saw the distinctive short, spiky blonde hair of Betha just ahead of me. She opened the door to the evening shift observation lounge, and went inside. I dived through the door after her, thinking I’d reached sanctuary, but the observation lounge was even more crowded with people than the corridor.

Two young men were waiting by the door, and grinned eagerly at us. One of them had neatly trimmed light brown hair, and was almost as fair-skinned as Betha, while the other was much darker, with tangled black curls brushing the collar of his tunic. Up until this moment, I’d only interacted with the leaders of the Spider 1 and Spider 2 teams, Ethan and Laird, when we were all wearing sealed impact suits. That meant I’d never seen their faces, but I’d have wagered a Pyrrhus mine on the identity of this pair.

The only question was which of them was Ethan and which was Laird. My guess was that the tangled curly hair was more consistent with Ethan’s exuberant personality. The curly-haired man confirmed my theory by giving Ethan’s distinctive laugh.

Chaos, Drago really is as sickeningly good looking as the images on the newzie channels.

Laird gave a sorrowful shake of his head. I apologize for Ethan’s bad manners, Drago. Elya and Colton are saving us spots by the window.

He turned to shout at the crowd. Let us through, people.

The crowd were so busy chattering that none of them even turned their heads. You need to shout much louder than that for people to pay attention, said Ethan.

Or just shout the right words, said Betha, in a mischievous voice.

Oh, no, I said hastily, please don’t repeat the ...

She shouted at the top of her voice just like before. Make room! Make room! Major Drago Tell Dramis is coming through.

The conversation in the room instantly stopped, and there was the same deafening whistling and clapping that had happened in the corridor.

I covered my face with my hands. I’m not here, I said plaintively. I’m far away on a beach on Zeus, sitting in the sun, and listening to the mudlawks singing.

The whistling was replaced by laughter, a hand tugged at my right arm, and Ethan’s amused voice spoke in my ear. You can’t hide by covering your face, Drago. You aren’t an emu.

I’m sure that old story about emus hiding by sticking their heads in the sand is a myth, said Laird.

I kept my hands over my face. I don’t know what an emu is, and I don’t care either. I’m far away on my beach on Zeus, eating an ice cream.

There were twin sighs from either side of me, both my arms were grabbed, and I was briefly towed along before being released to float in midair. Do you think Drago’s just acting the nardle? asked Laird anxiously. He could genuinely be horribly shy.

He’s acting the nardle, said Betha. Remember that he was perfectly happy being interviewed by Aanya on the Alpha and Omega News channel.

Drago wasn’t just perfectly happy, said Ethan. He was flirting shamelessly with Aanya.

Elya’s voice spoke from next to me. I loved that interview.

I finally took my hands away from my face, and discovered I was floating next to the window, with what had to be Elya and Colton beside me. I knew Betha was five years older than me at twenty-six, while Ethan and Laird were about twenty-seven. I’d picked up hints that the team leaders of Spider 3 and Spider 4 were significantly older. Now I saw that they were both somewhere in the range between thirty and sixty, where regular rejuvenation treatments made it hard to assess anyone’s age.

I thought that Drago had to be exaggerating that story about him and his second cousin, Jaxon, abseiling down the front wall of their clan hall in the middle of the night as children, and accidentally setting off the security defences, Elya continued. Earlier today though, Alpha and Omega News played some old vid clips they’d got from Zeus Rolling News, showing everything really did happen exactly as Drago described it.

I spoke in anguished tones. Oh chaos. If the newzie channels have started playing those old vid clips, Jaxon will murder me.

Ethan grinned. It must be against Military regulations for your team leader to murder you, Drago.

That’s true, I said gloomily, but he could do something even worse. Hiding all the cartons of chilaquiles, or ...

Laird’s lookup chimed. He stared at its screen for a moment, tapped it, and then bent his head to speak into it. Exactly what do you mean about having technical difficulties with the broadcast?

There was a sudden silence in the room as everyone turned to look at Laird. A voice babbled urgently from his lookup, and Laird, Ethan, and Betha went into a huddle to discuss the problem while the rest of us watched.

We mustn’t have technical difficulties with the broadcast, muttered Elya in alarm. I’d die of curiosity!

There’s no need to worry, said Colton. Whatever the problem is, I’m sure one of the three geniuses will fix it.

Elya made a choking noise. All three of Betha, Ethan, and Laird are talented in different ways, but calling them geniuses is a bit of an exaggeration.

Everyone is a genius compared to me, said Colton sadly. I’d still be a general maintenance worker, running errands and cleaning equipment, if I hadn’t asked to try zero gravity wings as an excuse to laze around for a week. I still don’t know who was more surprised, Chief Technician Koroleva or me, when I turned out to be among the one in ten people with the natural ability to free fly.

Elya shook her head at him. Drago, you need to ignore Colton’s self-deprecating speeches. He only started out as a general maintenance worker because he and his first wife were on Academy, doing the full solar array training course, when their baby was born among the one in a thousand with the immune system problem. The baby obviously had to be portalled to Earth to save his life, and his mother chose the easy option of abandoning him. Colton refused to do that, and dropped out from his training course so he could come to Earth to raise his son.

I was inevitably hit by thoughts of Jaxon’s missing baby sister, Jarra. She’d be nine and a half years old now, growing up in some unknown residential home, knowing nothing about her historic Betan clan or even her true name. I deeply respect that decision, Colton, I said aloud.

Colton’s Military Academy instructors deeply respected his decision too, said Elya. They said that he’d done enough of the full course to be credited as completing the shorter and easier basic training course. That meant he could get a post here on the Europe solar array, but only doing general maintenance work. Once he became a free flyer, Chief Technician Koroleva fought for him to be allowed to do a remote conversion course to get fully qualified. He may have struggled with the learning curve back then, but he’s been a perfectly competent spider team leader for years now.

That depends on your definition of perfectly competent, said Colton glumly.

My definition of perfectly competent is anyone that’s as good as me, said Elya. "And you are as good as me. Remember what happened when ..."

Their conversation got too technical for me to follow after that, so I turned to look out of the window. On my left, humanity’s home world hung like a glowing blue and white jewel in space. To my right, the solar sail formation was a set of shimmering ribbons, with the blindingly bright planetary power beam pointing to its receiving station on Earth. There was a gap in position five of the solar sail formation, where I could just make out the shadowy shape of the wing currently rotated away from the sun for repair.

The mesmerizing view was abruptly cut off by the entire window turning an opaque white. I blinked in shock, then realized some space debris must have hit the window and shattered it. I instinctively screamed a warning while pulling up my impact suit hood.

Window failing! Seal suits!

Chapter Two

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There was a burst of laughter in response to my warning cry, and Colton patted my shoulder. Don’t worry, Drago. The window has just switched to vid wall mode, ready for Colonel Ngobi’s speech.

All my Military Academy instructors had made forceful comments about nardles who didn’t check their facts before relaxing their guard, so I completed the movement sequence of sealing my suit anyway. An instant later though, the window displayed a mosaic of dozens of identical images of Earth, so I groaned and yanked my impact suit hood down again.

Sorry for the screaming, everyone. One of my clan members says I have less sense than a Zeus dodo, and she’s right.

There’s no need to apologize for reacting with fighter pilot speed to what you thought was a potential hull breach, Drago, the voice of Chief Technician Koroleva spoke from behind me. It’s vastly better to be embarrassed than dead, especially when there’s a danger of other people dying with you.

I turned, and saw Chief Technician Koroleva had joined the grouping of Betha, Ethan, and Laird. All four of them were upside down relative to me, and I saw everyone else was adjusting their orientation to match theirs. I hurriedly reached for a grab bar to make a midair turn myself. I was concentrating on not kicking or colliding with anyone during the manoeuvre, so I wasn’t prepared for the moment when the mosaic on the observation lounge window changed from showing Earth to showing the flag of humanity.

As every child learned in school, the design of the flag of humanity was updated every decade to add a set of extra stars to catch up with the number of new worlds that the Military had handed over to Colony Ten stage. Every child also learned that the flag had originally had neat formal rows of stars against a blue-black background, but there’d been a major redesign after the death of Tellon Blaze.

The stars were now fiery to represent the forever burning spirit of Tellon Blaze, and they’d been arranged into a pattern that usually appeared totally random against the blue-black background. It included an optical illusion though, so sometimes you caught sight of the flag from the right angle, or at the right size, or just gave a turn of your head that made you see the hidden figure of a man.

That figure was a message to humanity that the legendary hero who had saved us from extinction during the chimera wars might be dead and buried, but he still led us in spirit. Something about the mosaic of flags made that hidden figure appear to me now. Each of the dozens of flags showed Tellon Blaze, my ancestor and founder of my Betan clan. He was caught in mid-movement, running with one hand raised above his head, in what could either be a greeting or a gesture beckoning us to follow him.

I felt a ridiculously intense surge of emotion, and joined the solar array staff in saluting the flag. A white countdown appeared in the corner of the flag images after that, showing Colonel Ngobi’s announcement was about to start.

There’d been a mood of feverish excitement in the room, but now people grew sober and silent. They’d been convinced that Colonel Ngobi was about to tell them the saboteur had been caught. Now they were having a last-minute panic that they’d be disappointed, but I knew that wouldn’t happen.

When the countdown reached zero, the mosaic of images changed to show the dark face of Colonel Ngobi. He was looking deeply uncomfortable, either because he hated wearing dress uniform or he hated making speeches. Quite possibly both.

Thank you for portalling to your solar arrays to hear this announcement, he said. I apologize that many of you will have been asleep when the emergency messages went out. My speech needed to be carefully timed to coincide with other events, and access restricted to the secure solar array comms to maintain secrecy.

Colonel Ngobi threw a nervous glance at the curved Military lookup attached to the sleeve of his jacket, clearly reminding himself of the words of his speech. I’m delighted to tell you that everyone involved in causing problems for us has been arrested. There won’t be any more sabotage attacks or delays getting supplies.

Yes! Ethan led the jubilant cries of the spider teams.

There was a confused few seconds where everyone was hugging each other, but then Chief Technician Koroleva called out that Colonel Ngobi was speaking again. We all hastily quietened down to listen.

We don’t need to worry about sabotage any longer, said Colonel Ngobi, but there are some complicating factors with potentially grave consequences for the Earth solar arrays. Our problems were caused by a criminal group, so we’ll now join a Military live link statement about that group’s activities. I’d like you to pay close attention to this broadcast, and afterwards I’ll explain its full relevance to us.

I’d been confident that I knew what was happening here, but now I was hit by doubts. What were the complicating factors that could have grave consequences for the Earth solar arrays?

The images of Colonel Ngobi changed to images of a familiar, white-jacketed figure standing at a podium, and an announcer’s voice spoke. General Renton Mai, head of Hera Command and commanding officer of the peacekeeping forces on Hestia, will now give a statement on behalf of the Military.

A moment later, General Renton Mai began speaking. Everyone will be well aware of the peace talks on Hestia, and the ongoing problem of violent conflicts between militant supporters of the various political factions. The Military has been especially concerned by the militants’ use of some distinctive illegally manufactured guns. One of these distinctive guns was recently discovered on Earth, where it was being used in the attempted kidnapping of Ferelith Fulton, daughter of the leader of the Unite Hestia party.

The vid image panned out to show General Renton Mai had an attentive audience of seated newzie reporters.

The Military Security investigation into the presence of this weapon on Earth uncovered the manufacturing, distribution, and sales network behind these distinctive illegal weapons, said the General. All the people involved in this network have now been arrested. I regret to say that they include a handful of rogue Civilian Auxiliary Service members, who were involved in manufacturing the illegal guns.

There were audible gasps from the newzie reporters, and several of them jumped to their feet and urgently waved their hands.

Please allow me to complete my official statement before asking questions. General Renton Mai pointedly waited for the newzie reporters to sit down before speaking again. The actions of a handful of renegades cannot and must not be allowed to tarnish the unblemished reputations of the overwhelming majority of Civilian Auxiliary Service officers. The Military continues to have absolute faith in the Civilian Auxiliary Service, which has supplied us with the wide array of equipment needed to fulfil our duty to humanity ever since the chimera wars.

All of this was perfectly consistent with the facts I’d learned in the meeting earlier today. I’d still no idea what Colonel Ngobi had meant by potentially grave consequences for the Earth solar arrays.

Under cross-sector law, all those aiding in the manufacture or supply of illegal guns are automatically guilty of conspiracy in all crimes committed using the weapons, said General Renton Mai. In this case, the guns were used in multiple violent attacks, most notably the attack against the Hestia peace talks venue. Some of those attacks resulted in the deaths of unarmed civilians, so everyone involved will face charges including conspiracy to commit murder.

He paused. The criminals supplying these guns were using an illegally operating interstellar freight portal on Earth to send them to other worlds. Military ...

General Renton Mai was interrupted by another reaction from the newzie reporters. This time he didn’t say anything at all, just patiently waited for them to quieten down again before resuming his statement.

Military Security has established this unprecedented and appalling situation is the result of someone in an extremely influential position misusing their power. They furtively took control of an officially operating interstellar freight portal that was about to be retired from operation due to its age. They then kept that portal running as what was effectively a ghost portal on the system, so they could profit by charging criminal groups for the privilege of using it. A member of the main board of Hospital Earth, Weslen Mitchall, has been arrested and is currently being questioned by Military Security.

General Renton Mai’s voice took on a grim note. Unfortunately, the main board of Hospital Earth has reacted to the arrest of Weslen Mitchall by claiming legal jurisdiction over all crimes committed on Earth. The main board has now stationed minor officials at all five of Earth’s Off-worlds, to block the Military from taking Weslen Mitchall to face further questioning on Academy.

I frowned. Hospital Earth’s claim was ridiculous. Stationing officials at all Earth’s Off-worlds was even more ridiculous. Or was it? The Military wouldn’t want to use force to clear a civilian crowd blocking their way, but using an emergency pre-empt to bypass the blockade and send Weslen Mitchall directly to Academy would make it look as if the Military was scared to face Hospital Earth’s officials.

The Military has pointed out that the main board of Hospital Earth may have jurisdiction over crimes solely involving Earth, said General Renton Mai, but the Military has jurisdiction over all crimes involving more than one planet. Transporting illegal weapons between worlds is a classic example of such a crime.

He gave a depressed sigh. Sadly, the main board of Hospital Earth is still being uncooperative, arguing that the fact members of the main board are directly appointed by Parliament of Planets gives them an overriding mandate. The Military has therefore referred the jurisdictional issue to Parliament of Planets for a decision, and is continuing to hold Weslen Mitchall in custody on Earth while awaiting a response.

There were aggrieved mutterings coming from behind me, as the spider team members expressed their opinion of the main board of Hospital Earth. Now I understood Colonel Ngobi’s comment about potentially grave consequences for the Earth solar arrays. The main board of Hospital Earth was in direct conflict with the Military!

I will now take questions, said General Renton Mai.

Hands waved urgently, and the General pointed at someone. Alpha Spectrum here. It’s shocking that members of the Civilian Auxiliary Service have been involved in making some of the illegal guns used on Hestia. Why has General Marshal Ezren Tanner chosen to delegate making such a crucial statement to you rather than making it himself?

I gnawed at my bottom lip. The disgraceful truth was that General Marshal Ezren Tanner wasn’t making this statement himself because he’d abandoned his position in the middle of the Hera comet blockade. That information had to be kept a closely guarded secret to avoid shaking the confidence of both Military officers and civilians in the Military leadership. General Marshal Emeritus Cara Wade had returned from her retirement post to fill the void, and was working to get a new successor in place, so this would appear an orderly handover of command. Did this question from the Alpha Spectrum reporter mean the newzies were getting suspicious about never seeing Ezren Tanner?

General Renton Mai spoke in an untroubled voice. General Marshal Ezren Tanner delegated making this statement to me because I am the commanding officer of the peacekeeping forces on Hestia, and have special responsibility for overseeing the safety of the peace talks. All the investigations into the attempted kidnapping of Ferelith Fulton, including the origins of the gun used by the kidnappers, were carried out by a Military Security team under my command.

I’m still surprised that General Marshal Ezren Tanner isn’t making this statement himself, said the reporter stubbornly. Particularly given he hasn’t made any public appearances since the comet blockade at Hera.

Chaos, the Alpha Spectrum reporter wasn’t accepting General Renton Mai’s explanation. It would be disastrous if the newzies demanded to see Ezren Tanner now. I’d heard General Renton Mai say that Ezren Tanner wasn’t in a fit state to talk to his own daughter, let alone the newzies. The Emeritus needed to keep Ezren Tanner’s resignation secret for several more weeks, so she could both get the selection rules for the General Marshal position relaxed and increase the number of available candidates.

I knew all about the Emeritus’s plans because they directly involved me. The Hera medal ceremony had been arranged for the same day as the next meeting of Joint Sector High Congress Committee to approve new candidates for the General Marshal gold list. The Emeritus’s first objective was to persuade Joint Sector High Congress Committee to relax the rigid age and experience criteria restricting her final choice of General Marshal.

She’d then move on to putting the Alpha sector committee members under pressure about their current policy of blocking all Betan candidates for gold list. She’d ask what they’d do if I were put forward for gold list in ten years from now. Would they block someone who’d saved an Alphan colony world from destruction, someone who even had joint Alphan and Betan citizenship, simply because he’d chosen to be culturally Betan?

I was panicking that this situation would end with the Emeritus being forced to make an immediate choice of the next General Marshal. With no chance to either get the selection criteria relaxed or add the buildup of good Betan candidates to the gold list, she’d be forced into appointing someone she’d already dismissed as being worse than Ezren Tanner.

I wasn’t just stunned but totally grazzed when General Renton Mai smiled. I agree it’s surprising that General Marshal Ezren Tanner hasn’t chosen to make this statement himself, he said. We all know how much he enjoys making public speeches.

There was a burst of laughter from the massed reporters, including the one who’d asked the question. Like Colonel Ngobi, Ezren Tanner was desperately uncomfortable making speeches.

General Renton Mai had deftly turned a dangerous question into a joke about Ezren Tanner’s dislike of public speaking, and was now pointing at another reporter. A reporter that I instantly recognized because she’d recently interviewed me.

Alpha and Omega News, said Aanya. Humanity needs to know the extent of the breaches of interstellar quarantine laws. Especially whether the bio-filters on this illegal interstellar freight portal were disabled, potentially allowing random lifeforms through to reach other worlds. The illegal interstellar portal must be inspected, and Weslen Mitchall questioned!

I grimaced. I’d known that multiple criminal groups had been paying to use that illegal interstellar freight portal. I hadn’t considered the possibility that one of those groups might have been so utterly irresponsible that they’d try to tamper with the portal’s bio-filters.

Areas containing interstellar freight portals are like Off-worlds and Sector Interchanges, legally independent of the planets they’re based on, so Military experts are able to continue inspecting the illegal interstellar freight portal, said General Renton Mai, in a reassuring voice. Unfortunately, the questioning of Weslen Mitchall has had to be suspended while the Military awaits the response from Parliament of Planets on the jurisdictional issue. Either General Marshal Ezren Tanner or I will be making a further statement on this matter as soon as more facts have been determined, so I’ll take another question now.

General Renton Mai waved at another reporter.

Gamma Sector News. As the commanding officer of the Hestia peacekeeping forces, you must feel personal anger that members of the Civilian Auxiliary Service made weapons used against your officers.

I cannot adequately express my anger at the handful of renegades involved in the manufacture of those weapons, said General Renton Mai. Their actions were an unspeakable betrayal of the proud traditions of the Civilian Auxiliary Service, their own colleagues, and my officers targeted by those weapons. I ...

He was cut off in mid-sentence as the mosaic of images changed back to showing a silent Colonel Ngobi staring off to one side. Someone out of vid bee view gave a pointed cough.

We’re back from the live link now, sir.

We are? asked Colonel Ngobi, in a startled voice.

Yes, sir, said the invisible person. You said that the questions were going on for too long, and ordered me to cut the link.

I was expecting you to have to wait until ... Colonel Ngobi shook his head. Well, that doesn’t matter now.

He hastily turned to face the vid bee. Welcome back, everyone. As I said earlier, our problems were caused by a criminal group, specifically the one engaged in this illegal weapons trade. Originally, their actions were just delaying our deliveries, but things escalated to them intercepting my reports to General Amundsen, and finally the weapons trade recruited someone deeply prejudiced against Earth.

He paused. This prejudiced person arranged all our more serious problems. They made sure the fighter team helping with our refurbishment work was sent here without any dart fighters, then altered the drop portal coordinates of a shipment to send it on a collision course with the solar sails of the Europe solar array.

Colonel Ngobi sighed. We won’t have any more problems from the people involved in the weapons trade, but we may have problems with Hospital Earth. After the shipment attack, I told you all that we had to keep the sabotage attempt a strict secret amongst ourselves and the fighter pilots assisting us. The reason back then was to avoid starting a widespread panic about an Artemis-type situation happening on Earth, with a solar array being attacked and its planetary power beam being used as a weapon against the planet surface.

His voice took on an urgent note. We now have an additional reason for secrecy. Military Security has arrested Weslen Mitchall, and he’s facing charges that include conspiracy to commit murder. Most of you will know that Weslen Mitchall isn’t just a member of the main board of Hospital Earth. He’s the adored oldest son of Storban Mitchall, president of the main board of Hospital Earth, and has other relatives on the main board as well.

Everyone knows that Storban Mitchall has packed the main board of Hospital Earth with his relatives, muttered Colton’s grim voice from behind me.

Storban Mitchall is leading the main board of Hospital Earth into battle against the Military to try to protect his son, continued Colonel Ngobi. The Military has referred the legal jurisdiction issue to Parliament of Planets, which is bound to rule in our favour. After the recent attack on Adonis Off-world by Hestia militants, virtually every member of Parliament of Planets has made passionate speeches condemning the violent conflicts of one world being forced on others. Even those most closely linked to Hospital Earth, such as the members of the Hospital Earth Appointments Subcommittee, aren’t going to risk publicly defending someone who has been involved in shipping illegal weapons between worlds. Given the breaches of interstellar quarantine regulations as well ...

He didn’t bother finishing that sentence, just started another. Storban Mitchall knows Parliament of Planets will confirm the Military has jurisdiction, so he’s already prepared his next move. He called the Military Security officer in charge of the investigation, Commander Leveque, into his office to have a confidential chat about the Weslen Mitchall situation.

Colonel Ngobi winced. That conversation was unfortunately impossible to record because the office was equipped with a range of anti-eavesdropping devices. Storban Mitchall told Commander Leveque that if Military Security doesn’t announce that his son is innocent and release him from custody, he’ll take reprisals against the Military. Since there’s no Military base on Earth, those reprisals will be directed at the Earth solar arrays.

Chapter Three

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The solar array staff gasped at the news that the president of the main board of Hospital Earth was threatening them, and Colonel Ngobi gave an outraged wave of his hands. He must have accidentally hit the vid bee recording him, because there was a yelp of protest from off screen, and the vid bee image whirled violently before recovering. Colonel Ngobi hastily apologized before carrying on with his speech.

Commander Leveque pointed out that any action endangering the safe running of the solar arrays would endanger the safety of Earth itself, and the Military could and would ask Parliament of Planets to intervene. Storban Mitchall said that the main board of Hospital Earth would never take any action to endanger Earth. They’d just ban the Earth solar array staff from setting foot on the planet surface. That would simply mean the Military had to install interstellar portals on the Earth solar arrays, allowing the solar array staff to live on a colony world in another star system and commute to work.

Colonel Ngobi groaned. Storban Mitchall said that the Military couldn’t ask Parliament of Planets to intervene to prevent this. The planetary governments of several other worlds have taken the same action in the past during periods of friction between them and the Military. The Military itself has chosen to protect the staff of both the Hestia and Freya solar arrays by basing them on other worlds.

Colonel Ngobi’s voice took on a harsh, raw note. We all know that the Earth solar array staff are in a uniquely vulnerable position to this threat though. Virtually all of us have a particular reason for working on the Earth solar arrays. In some cases, that reason is just a special interest in something like history, but most of us are here because we have a family member born among the one in a thousand with immune system problems. These family members will die on any world other than Earth. If we’re forced to move to accommodation areas in another star system, then we’ll have to leave them behind, and Hospital Earth will put any underage children into residential homes.

There was a babble of angry voices, that quickly died down as Colonel Ngobi continued talking. That idea is horrific enough, but I’m afraid the situation could get even worse. If Storban Mitchall discovers the Earth solar arrays aren’t just easy targets for reprisals against the Military, but were actually connected with the discovery of the illegal weapons trade, then the attacks could become far more personal. He could identify our family members and start deliberately targeting them, ordering employees of Hospital Earth to harass them because of their connection with us.

Elya bellowed out in murderous tones. If Hospital Earth forces me to abandon my daughter, and then orders the staff of their residential homes to mistreat her ... Well, I’ll be borrowing one of the Europe solar array’s laser pulse rifles to do some targeting myself.

I understood exactly how she felt. The crucial information linking the old and new identities of wards of Hospital Earth was held in a secure master genealogy computer, and would only be released to the wards themselves when they reached the age of fourteen. The arrangement was intended to protect parents from potential embarrassment, but it meant there was no way for our clan to find my missing second cousin Jarra. However, it also meant there shouldn’t be any way for Storban Mitchall to target Jarra because of her connection to Jaxon and me. If there had been a way though ...

Chaos, if Hospital Earth had threatened to mistreat Jarra because she was Jaxon’s sister and my second cousin, then they’d have had our entire Betan Military clan converging on Earth to defend her!

Worst of all, said Colonel Ngobi, "Storban Mitchall could use the Earth law about neglectful custodial parents against us. Once he’s prevented members of solar array staff from visiting their underage children for two months, Hospital Earth will have the right to claim permanent custody of those abandoned children."

There weren’t any outbursts this time, because the solar array staff had gone from anger to utter despair.

I’ve explained my worries to both General Amundsen and General Renton Mai, said Colonel Ngobi, and they’ve agreed to do everything possible to keep the connection between the Earth solar arrays and the illegal weapons trade secret. You’ve already heard General Renton Mai’s statement focusing on the illegal gun found during the attempted kidnapping of Ferelith Fulton. That will hopefully make the main board of Hospital Earth think that gun was the only reason the weapons trade and Weslen Mitchall’s illegal interstellar portal were discovered.

Colonel Ngobi grimaced. We need to play our part in protecting our solar arrays and our families as well. Every single one of you must keep to our official story whenever you’re on the planet surface. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking to your most trusted friend. One conversation being overheard and reported to Hospital Earth could bring disaster down on all of us.

He paused. Our official story is this. The shipment attack on the Europe solar array never happened. The delays to our supplies have been mentioned to far too many people to pretend that they never happened, but we say that there haven’t been any problems for the last few weeks. Finally, when the fighter team first arrived, we were told that the number of ships damaged or destroyed at Hera meant they’d have to use our solar array transport ships to help with the refurbishment work. We now claim that we were also promised the fighter team would go to Academy to fetch new dart fighters after a few weeks.

He ran his fingers through his hair. I’m calling a meeting of all solar array Chief Technicians in two hours from now. If anyone has any questions or concerns about either the cover story or the general situation, please talk to your Chief Technician, and they’ll raise the issue with me.

Any questions or concerns, repeated Colton bitterly. Chaos, it would take me days to list all my questions and concerns.

A dozen voices agreed with him, but then Colonel Ngobi started talking again. I want to end by emphasizing that the Military are fighting on our side, they’ll soon deal with the complications of Weslen Mitchall’s arrest, and we’ll all be able to relax again. Until then, I want you all to try to focus on the positive side of the recent developments, and there are some huge positives.

He glanced at his lookup screen. Our spider teams will be able to work on the solar sails without fearing more sabotage attacks. General Amundsen has arranged for our fighter team to get a complete set of new dart fighters, which means the refurbishment work will be vastly easier and faster from now on. General Amundsen has also approved us moving from having a refurbishment every five years to having them every four years in future, and promised us top priority on all the supplies we want. Right now, we could probably get away with ordering wine for the drinks dispensers and a gold-plated solar array transport ship.

Colonel Ngobi was obviously trying to make a joke to lighten the mood, but nobody laughed. He clearly hadn’t expected the joke to work, because he was already checking his lookup again and reading the last few words of his speech.

I’m stopping the solar array refurbishment work for the next two full days. Our fighter team has to go to Academy to collect their new dart fighters, and you all need time to absorb what I’ve told you. Remember that we’ve got two Generals fighting on our side. We just need to do our part, keep to the official story, and everything will soon get back to normal.

The mosaic of images abruptly vanished, leaving the entire window the same opaque white that had panicked me earlier. A few seconds later, that opaque whiteness vanished as well. The window now showed the same stunning view as before, but I ignored it, and slapped a grab bar to turn myself to face the spider teams.

I’d thought this announcement would leave everyone joyful that their problems were over. Instead, they were depressed and silent, still absorbing the full implications of what Colonel Ngobi had said. Even the perpetually valiant Betha had a defeated air. She was being threatened with banishment from her home world, and separation from her parents and her brother who all had the immune system problem. Even worse, there was a danger that Hospital Earth would start a campaign of harassment against her family.

I can’t believe this situation, I raged. You’ve been risking your lives to solve Earth’s power problems. How the nuke can the president of the main board of Hospital Earth consider targeting you to hit back at the Military?

"He’s not just considering doing it, said Laird. He’s going to do it. Drago, it’s hard for outsiders to understand the situation on Earth. The members of the main board are given lifetime appointments, and have total power to make laws on Earth. Storban Mitchall has been president of the main board of Hospital Earth for over two decades now. He doesn’t think of himself as being entrusted with the task of administering Earth for the good of its population, but as an absolute ruler."

Ethan had been tapping at his lookup, and now made a harsh sound of disgust. Storban Mitchall has just made a statement on Earth Rolling News, saying that his son, Weslen Mitchall, is taking a short break from his duties as a member of the board to deal with some urgent personal matters.

I peered at Ethan’s lookup screen. I’d had a mental image of Storban Mitchall being somewhere past eighty and grim-faced. In reality, he was over two decades younger than that,