Jethro 3: No Place Like Home (24 page)

“Antigua sir. No, it wasn't stupid.”

“They...we need that ship here! Where she belongs! Standing shoulder to shoulder defending our people! Not some strangers!” Walker growled.

“Oh hell no! First off, Firefly did the right thing. You really want the pirates to have that station? A full-on factory city? Can you just imagine what they'd do with it?” Logan demanded.

Walker's eyes cut to his industrialist backers. Lake made a motion of agreement with his fingers. Dean winced and then nodded. Madra said nothing.

“Hell no, we're not standing on the defense here; like I said, I believe in taking the fight to the enemy. That's what Firefly's going to do. She's going to find out what is there, rip them a new one, then run for home. If they are stupid enough to follow, well, that's their funeral isn't it?” he asked, with a feral smile. “I've got my people putting in the goodies for them to walk into.”

“It'll be a slaughter,” Nelson murmured.

“Who asked you,” Walker growled, glaring at his chief of staff. Nelson hunched his shoulders, head down as he clutched at his tablet.

“What you are saying, the risk involved. No. It's suicide. We'll lose Firefly for sure and this system. You are gambling the lives of everyone here...”

“Hell no, spoiler attack, we're going to jump them before they can get here and pound them into rubble. I'd rather have the battle there, but here it's on our turf under our own rules and time. Or as close as we can arrange it like that,” Logan said, shrugging.

“I order you...” Walker started, voice rising in a crescendo of fury. He didn't like to be stymied, and in front of his backers, he knew his impotency could be the death of his career, if not his own very real death.

“It's funny. You kick us in peace time, but now that war is at your front door, you scream, hoot, holler, yelp, and make all sorts of noises. Well Governor, space is a vacuum, sound doesn't travel in it. And guess what? There is a lot of that between you and me.
I'm
the Commander in charge of the Navy assets in this system. I say go. Firefly goes.
End
of discussion,” Logan replied coldly, stepping on the Governor's signal with his own override.

“I see,” the Governor said coldly, glancing at the others. He hit the mute button with a stab of a manicured finger.

Nelson, the chief of staff, spread his hands apart helplessly. “Hey, you wanted him to do something, he's doing it. On his own. Either get behind him or step aside. You'll get run over by the polls if you don't, sir. If this gets public, you'll look like a fool,” the Governor's chief of staff warned.

The Governor's eyes cut to the industrialists. They nodded reluctantly. He hit the mute button again. “You still there, Commander?”

“Yes. I have nothing better to do then sit around listening to myself talk,” Horatio replied with a drawl.

“Insolent as usual. I've reconsidered the situation, Commander. Although my concerns that Firefly will pass the ships in transit are still there, I believe your arguments are sound. You are correct, something has to be done. I approve of your decision, Commander,” the Governor said, sitting up straight as he smoothed his shirt.

“Glad you approve. It's not your decision to make though,
Governor
, let's be clear on that,” Horatio warned. He was fairly certain Walker was setting him up. He would try to steal Horatio's thunder by making it out as his decision. If it failed he'd pass the blame onto Horatio of course.

“I know,” the Governor replied, forcing himself not to grind his teeth in suppressed rage. “Is there anything else?”

“No, not that I can think of. Unless you'd like to lend your hand in building the fleet. We could use those funds that are
still
stalled in congress,” Commander Logan said.

The chief of staff winced theatrically. The Governor's eyes cut to the others in the room. Madra spread his long thin hands apart slightly. Lake shrugged. The others gave small signs of assent, indifference or negativity. One even rolled his eyes.

“I'll take that under consideration. It's really a matter of Congress; it hasn't hit my desk yet. But I'll see if we can identify the logjam and get things moving again,” Walker replied with a slight hint of amusement in his voice. It would be a cold day in space before he let that money slip through his fingers. It wasn't just the interest he was skimming off of it, it was the sheer amusement over pissing Logan off about denying him it.

“Yes, you do that,
sir,
” the Commander replied, snide reply clear in his voice.

“I've been considering a few things, Commander. I'll get back to you,” Walker said.

“I'll be here,” Horatio said, sounding like he was warning the Governor. Walker snorted and stabbed his finger down, ending the transmission.

“Damn,” he said mildly.

“Well, that went well,” Lake said in a glorified understatement.

“Did you expect it any other way? He's pretty much used up all the credit he has with the Navy, which he didn't have to begin with. Throwing his nonexistent weight around was stupid. We should have nipped this in the bud ages ago.” Madra said, throwing his hands up in the air.

“What do you propose?” Lake asked as the Governor closed his eyes. He knew better than to bring up trying to remove Logan again. Madra was an indirect action sort of guy. He was a snake, but a smart and smooth one. He was adapting quite well to the changing climate in the capital colony and system.

“Clearing the air,” Madra said slowly. “Getting it all out into the open, spinning it our way, laying it out, and then moving on. It should help with the polls and kill the investigations in the house.”

“What do you mean? The truth? Are you mad? They can't
handle
the truth! I'll be ruined! Impeached!” Walker snarled as he threw his hands up in the air in disgust.

“There is truth, and then there is truth,” Lake drawled. “It's all a matter of your point of view...” he said with a hint of amusement in his voice. “And about timing. If we get it right, say dump it in the Friday afternoon news, we'll let them air it all weekend and by the time Monday rolls around it will be a nonissue. People will be tired of it and ready to move on.”

Walker opened his eyes to stare at him. He straightened attentively. “All right, I'm listening...”

---( | ) --- ( | )---

Firefly took on new shuttles including two Warhawks to replace the shuttles left behind in Agnosta. Corporal Hurranna heard about the duty and put in for it but was denied. She had just been transferred to the Set Alpha 4 carrier orbital fortress for training and was too far away. She sent her regrets to Valenko and the others.

---( | ) --- ( | )---

Enrique Salazar Fernando heard his boss's speech and grimaced. The guy was good; he'd give him that. Damn good. One hell of an orator, better than Enrique.

He'd tried to keep the number two slot, to keep his head down, do his best to keep the system running smoothly as he'd done so often before in the fat bastard Port Admiral's shadow. But he'd come to realize the Lieutenant Governor's role wasn't as an XO but more of an understudy. He was a stand-in, go where he's told, a mouth piece with little power, yet one heartbeat away from the true throne.

Ever since Admiral Irons had been exiled, hell, even before that he'd gotten indicators that he wasn't a part of the
in-club
. He'd tried to play the role, be a good boy, but increasingly he'd resented the way things were run and he'd become more and more vocal about it in the cabinet, which hadn't helped make him many friends though. Nara Thornby had appreciated it, but they'd known each other for decades.

About the turn of the new year he'd picked up scuttlebutt that he was on the way out. Ralkin was looking at his job with hungry eyes, and Walker and his cronies were sharpening their knives. He'd been certain they'd set him up for the long fall, or hell, a short walk out of an airlock. He'd been careful though.

He had tried to change his name, going with the Salazar surname when he put in his bid for the high office. His speech announcing his entry into the race had kicked off a fire storm, and he'd risen through the polls rather quickly. He'd held onto the lead for a while, but Walker was now getting dirty, pulling in all sorts of favors. He didn't like how desperate the man was becoming. Desperate dangerous men did all sorts of things. Bad things, to him and others around him.

Enrique frowned. He had to hold on though; men like Walker couldn't be allowed to hold office any longer. This system needed an enema, a good clean out and flush. Hell, level everything and start over. The corruption alone was bad enough; he knew you had to live with some of it on some level. But the graft, greed, and outright dirty dealings and criminal activity he'd gotten tired of. He'd lived with it under the Port Admiral, enough was enough.

One of the biggest regrets he had was not warning Irons. He'd tried but apparently not hard enough. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He'd try again when he got the top office, first a general house cleaning and then invite the Admiral back. Together they'd turn things around. He checked his implants. He had another round of campaign stops and then he'd be able to return to Anvil for a day or two off to rest and regroup. Then on to the next circuit.

---( | ) --- ( | )---

Jethro heard about the furor and a speech by Governor Walker through the ship's grapevine and picked up the download as he prepared for bed. He started to watch it but was distracted by the ongoing activity in the troop bay so he paused the file. He made certain the Marines were aware he was watching. The scuffle ended abruptly, and the parties separated. He nodded.

Everyone was tired and short tempered. Spitterman was finally coming along as a noncom, though he still had a long ways to go. He'd shed a lot of weight though. The constant pounding by Jethro and his squads had gotten him to get his act together.

Since the cargo bays and other large areas were busy the Marines had taken to training in the Annex simulators and even in the park. But getting the troops from point A to point B was a bit of a hassle, something or other would always get in the way. An old friend passing by, a prickly officer who insisted that protocol be followed so they could go by first, whatever. The panther heard another argument forming and turned to look.

Later when he was in his rack he picked the video up from beginning. At first he was confused, his tired mind was having trouble coping with the concepts Walker seemed to be putting out. But then he picked up on the feelings that went with the speech. It embodied many things he wished Walker had done earlier.

He now understood why others were enthused by it as the speech progressed. The human did have a presence, a certain charm about him. Jethro however attributed it to a snake since he had inside information about
Paul the People's Man
that others didn't or discounted.

Governor Walker admitted to knowing of the plot a day before it transpired but did nothing to do stop it since it had been vague and undetailed. “That's my sin. I screwed up, I admit that. It's hard to admit when you are wrong, especially in my job. There was some regrettable confusion with the record; Admiral Irons actions were being confused with those actions of the cloned Port Admiral who proceeded him. That has since been rectified.” He paused, one hand over his heart. “For the record, Admiral Irons is innocent of all charges, and I deeply regret my standing silent on this for so long. No longer. As Governor of this system I formally pardon him for any crime involved in this event and extend that for any alleged crime for his entire stay here. We need to put this entire sordid business firmly into the past and move on to a bright new future together.”

Jethro felt like cheering over that simple admission and statement. It was clearing the way for the Admiral to return to where he belonged. Cynicism be damned; for once a politician was doing the right thing for the right reasons.

“We have a bad habit of tearing down our heroes, people who show us up, who show us we can be
better
than we are. They show us mere mortals that we can do more if we just stepped up. For seven centuries we've wallowed in the darkness. Wallowed in it, knowing nothing could be done. Waiting for someone else to come along and do something. Well, Admiral Irons is one such hero; he came here with the singular purpose of making our lives better. He succeeded. He succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. But some short-sighted people tried to end that.”

“We drove him out. Cast him out because we couldn't bear the thought of a hero, because it is in our nature to tear them down, to make them equal to our own inadequacies. It is a terrible fact of nature, instead of rising to his example, we failed.
I
failed,” the Governor said, one hand over his heart.

He looked uncomfortable for a long moment before he cleared his throat and then nodded sharply, hand falling once more to his side. “That ends today. As of today I am going to do better, for myself and my family.” He indicated his wife and kids. The image cut to them and then back. “The Admiral has lit the way. I extend the invitation to him to return to do so again.”