Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet (29 page)

"Of course he is going to try to negotiate everything he can get," the Third Mother, Madonna said, "but Prosperity did a pretty good job of making it clear he wasn't going to get our best stuff without being insulting. I think maybe the most productive thing he did, was tell Talker that one of the weapons like we used on the Biter cost over a hundred thousand ounces of silver
each
, on Fargone, plus shipping costs and the investment in maintenance tools and parts, launch tubes and the computer control systems. That seemed to cool his jets considerably. I think they'll come around to our proposal eventually."

* * *

Chance got a video of the
Dart
joining up to the fueling mechanisms. There wasn't any point in watching them fill and disconnect, so he confirmed he was safe to maneuver with station com himself, Fussy being busy with this ship. He was cleared to go around the perimeter to look for the mooring mast at no more than about three meters per second. He made a note to tell Gordon later he'd been advised against cutting across the flat of the station while close. He wondered if their artificial gravity would suck him in, but refrained from asking.

Fat definitely wanted to visit the station, neither Persevere nor Timely had clear seniority to claim the station visit. They solved it in typical Fargoer fashion by flipping a coin. In zero G that meant Chance spun a Fargone silver coin through the air to Fat, who snatched it out of the air and slapped it on the back of his other hand covered.

"Who gets to call it?" Chance asked.

Timely made a gracious wave and a little bow to Persevere granting the privilege.

"Planetary Coat of Arms," Persevere said, which was tails to most, but removed all uncertainty.

Fat tilted his fist to them and lifted the restraining hand. It was the Fargone Globe, usually called as heads being a round image. So Timely went. Fat grasped the coin between two fingers and turned it over to show it was not a trick coin with the same sides. That wasn't rude for Fargoers, it was expected.

* * *

"Talker and Trader seem to have warmed up to the idea of mere superiority over the Biters being sufficient," Prosperity reported the next day. "I'm encouraged enormously that they haven't asked if we have the means to reduce the Biter's home planet to a cinder."

"Ask them if they have any recording of Biter ships fighting each other or stopping the other race's ships. If we have to go home and ask the engineers to make special weapons systems we better know the parameters well enough to provide a good product," Gordon suggested.

"I'm assuming you have no problem allowing Fargone to get this business?" Prosperity asked.

"That's why you are along," Gordon assured him. "Despite a few hic-ups getting supplied and under way we have gone with Fargone for just about everything. You don't see much New Japan equipment or one of their nationals invited along do you?"

"Well there's Earth too," Prosperity allowed.

Lee just looked at him disgusted, until Prosperity squirmed a little.

"We may have made peace with Earth powers," she said, "but that doesn't mean we
like
them."

"No, I can see why," Prosperity agreed. "And I'm prejudiced being a Fargoer, but I think we have been consistently staying ahead of them slightly on weapon tech now for a good decade. Maybe fifteen years even. They will have numbers on us for a long time, but you have to bring those number to bear for it to mean anything."

"The total of all armed Earth ships is meaningless," Thor said, waving the idea away like a bad odor. "You could get maybe half of them to support a mass fleet for a really serious violation of the Claims agreements. Even then, half would find some reason to beg off. The only numbers that mean anything is how many ships the Chinese or North America can field in a fleet and bring to bear at one place. They aren't going to strip their bases on the far side of explored space to address a problem on this side. The volume of explored space  is big enough now that any action would be long over before word could get to the far side and the forces mobilize and respond back across the volume."

Lee perked up at that. "My dad told me back when they used sailing ships it could be
months
after a war was over before word got to everyone to stop fighting."

Gordon had that pensive, thoughtful look. "I wonder if the Badgers realize how many ships they will need to arm to make themselves safe from the Biters? How many Biter ships are there anyhow? And are the Badgers going to talk any of the other races into arming? Or are they setting up to sell protection to the others, since we don't want the job?"

"All good questions and we'll try to get answers tomorrow," Prosperity answered. The third Mum nodded solemn agreement.

Chapter 14

The
Roadrunner
grabbed the boom without any problems. Fat and Timely suited up. They didn't wear any arms externally on the suits, but Chance told them to wear side arms under, for after they removed their suits, to walk around.

"We see the Badgers and others have personal arms. No reason you should be their social inferiors. Mr. Wilson, I see you have had a sleep period recently. I intend to take a rest period now in the comfort of my bunk instead of on an acceleration couch. You are technically officer of the day at dock, but you may rest at the board if you set an alarm sufficient to wake you up for incoming calls. The
Sharp Claws
has more people than us to do shifts and can watch the radar and system com and alert us at your request  instead of just relaying data to us. Good night sir."

Persevere was resting, eyes closed, when the board jarred him awake later. It took a minute for him to read the messages and check the clock before he decided he should disturb Chance.

"Sir,"  Persevere Wilson called from the tiny flight deck of the courier, "station com reports a force of six Biter vessels was in system transit, however upon requesting recent system scan and seeing our arrival, they have changed course to make planetary orbit or dock. They asked if the
Sharp Claws
was part of the force that engaged their ship in system 80 and the station com answered them truthfully that it was."

"Well I wouldn't ask them to lie for us and if they did it would hardly be believable." Chance looked at the com clock. He'd managed less than two hours of sleep. If things went really bad he wanted a clear mind. "Ask
Sharp Claws
how long until they are in missile range if we stay put right here?"

After a short delay, to inquire, Persevere informed him seven to seven and a half hours.

"Have the Badgers finished fueling?"

"Yes and they are free to take crew back aboard on short notice and have just now asked if we would prefer to leave in approximately the opposite direction from which the Biters are approaching."

"Leave? Run from only six of them? I don't think so. If we don't deal with them here, the
Retribution
and
Murphy's Law
will
just have to deal with them back in system 80. Gordon would certainly wonder
why
we ran. Running would look really bad to our potential new allies. They can of course retreat if they have a sudden change of heart and no longer want our protection. In which case they are on their own again. Let them decide however, without suggesting the option."

"I got the impression they thought it might be the smart thing to do. Any one of the approaching Biter ships outweigh the
Sharp Claws
by at least a factor of two."

Chance ignored that. He wasn't planning on ramming them. "Have our crew on station called in?"

"Fat did a com check recently, sir. To make sure we were reachable, that's all."

"Good man. I'll call them in if it is warranted. I'm going get some more sleep. I'm sure I'll need it and appreciate it in a bit. Inform the
Sharp Claws
I'll be back up in three or four hours. If the Biters display some astonishing new capabilities you may awaken me and of course the
Sharp Claws
is weapons free to engage the Biters, if they should rudely surprise us with a longer range weapon or something. If the Bills get all nervous and decide to kick us out you may recall our crew immediately, even before awakening me. Other than that, good night Mr. Wilson," Chance said and disconnected.

After informing the
Sharp Claws
they were weapons free and the task force commander was sleeping, Persevere considered his direct orders. Chance said nothing about informing Captain Fussy or the
Dart
of
anything
. Somehow he suspected it wouldn't be appreciated if he took the initiative to contact them even to share their status. So he sat and waited to see how long it would take them to call him again. The answer was about ten minutes.

"Commander Chance?" Fussy inquired. "No your hair is a different color and your face is...longer on the vertical line," he decided. That was interesting. They had trouble telling similar Humans apart.

"I'm Persevere. I'm in charge of the vessel, what we call Officer of the Day at dock and I'm directing communications while the commander is sleeping. How may I help you?"

"Don't you think you should awaken the commander and inform him there is a Biter fleet in system and approaching?"

"The commander was awakened. He appraised the situation, had me instruct the
Sharp Claws
that they were free to engage the Biters, what we call a weapons free condition, if it should prove necessary. Also if the station folk were so afraid they didn't want us here I'm to recall our people visiting on station. He intends to get several hours more sleep before dealing with them."

There was silence for a long time. This course apparently was hard to understand, or appeared to be simple insanity to the Badgers.

"You two are the smallest vessels in your fleet," Fussy finally managed to say.

"This is true," Persevere agreed. He wasn't about to have a discussion about their ability. If the Badgers had no confidence in them that was their problem. He'd been thinking on it himself since talking to Chance. The
Sharp Claws
had two x-head weapons in ready launch tubes. Even if they dispersed widely to attempt an englobing maneuver, the Biter vessels would lose two ships to those weapons. They could also engage them at sufficient range that the crew should have plenty of time to move two more weapons forward into the tubes and launch them. That would account for four of the six right there. The peashooter might very well account for at least one more of them at shorter range. That was not even counting the beam weapon they carried and their radar alone could probably blind and burn the electronics out of any survivor who got close enough to be a threat. Upon careful counting and consideration, given what they knew about the Biter vessels, Commander Chance was right to see them as no great threat.

"What will the
Sharp Claws
do if the Biters launch weapons on them or issue a threat while the commander is sleeping?" Fussy asked.

"As regrettable as that would be, given the aggressive nature the Biters displayed before, I'm afraid he'd have no real alternative but to destroy them," Persevere said.

"I'm not sure if your commander is mentally unbalanced, or if I am," Fussy said. "But I'm going to bet my butt on him. I have six Badger years until I retire, about seven of yours, the computer tells me. If I run away when I didn't
have to
they won't retire me early. They'll put me on slop and scrub duty until I reach retirement age. I'm way too old to crawl around ducts and do physical labor. Do you people have something similar, to understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes, we have duty scrubbing down the heads and changing filters," Persevere said. "If you get stuck doing it more than your first year it is a sign you have no future in our service. I can't imagine it for six or seven years, especially when you aren't as young and flexible as you once were..."

"You understand perfectly then. If Commander Chance is wrong I'll only be dead. I'll take the risk on that, but not the other."

"I suggest sir, you observe closely if they do engage each other. I'm sure your people, whatever sort of command structure you report to, will be very interested in how it plays out."

"I am encouraged, how easily you assume I will be alive to report to them," Fussy said, and disconnected.

* * *

"I've been talking to some of my shipmates," Prosperity told them. "We are hopeful a lot of the technology to arm the Badger ships exists as legacy systems. That would cut down both the cost and the delivery delay for them. I haven't told them that, not wanting to understate the difficulty."

"They have provided some data records which give us some idea of the range and effectiveness of Biter weapons systems," the Third Mother confirmed. "We are also advised that the Biter social structure is such that they don't form continent spanning political systems with vast resources. In fact they tend to have smaller clan structures than we Derf. This puts a limit on what resources can be brought to bear on acquiring both ships and weapons."

"Or to put it another way. They are so argumentative they fall out with each other and squabble in much smaller groups than Derf or Humans," Prosperity said. "I personally am thankful they
aren't
more cooperative. They would be a much bigger threat."

"As you suspected, there is no indication they have atomic weapons," the Third Mum said.

"And some of our current production systems used to deliver nuclear weapons can be retro-fitted to deliver plain old chemical explosives," Prosperity said. "In fact, we have perhaps neglected the field because we have nukes. There have been advances in chemical explosives in mining and other fields we can bring to bear and apply now instead of automatically thinking they are obsolete. Indeed, we may acquire weapons for our own use that allow actions that are more, surgical, shall we say?"

"Define surgical," Thor said skeptically.

"One might destroy, or at least damage beyond functioning, a ship docked at a space station. Without blowing both to plasma."