Metal Boxes - Trapped Outside (5 page)

TEN

Stone sat at the head of the conference table waiting for his command staff to arrive. He hated staff meetings, but the Iridium Rock would arrive tomorrow with more people and he wanted to make sure they were ready for the personnel influx. The base was designed to hold more than twice the number of people they already had plus what was coming, so there was room for everyone. He hoped this transition would go smoother than the last one and certainly much smoother than his first visit to Allie’s World.

He glanced out the window overlooking the parade ground. Jay lay in the shade gnawing on a tree trunk, going at it like a two-year-old child on a peppermint stick. Peebee lay in the sun, stretched out on her back, belly to the sun, snoozing in the warmth. Both drascos were tired after a hard morning of play with a full platoon of marines.

At first, the marines of Allie’s world were hesitant around his drascos. Their only contact with drascos had been the wild variety offered by the planet. Local female drascos were only dangerous when cornered or when their young were threatened. Male drascos required calling in artillery. 1LT Hammermill vouched for Jay and Peebee and before long, the platoons were competing to see who played with his drascos.

The local marines, not having known them as babies, played harder than Hammermill’s platoon. As hard as they played, no one had found the drasco’s breaking point, or even how to hurt them without using weapons. The fauna experts with Dr. Triplett’s team poked and prodded his drascos—being careful not to poke any sensitive areas.

Triplett tried to continue her conversation from the doctor’s office back on Lazzaroni Base and take ownership of Jay and Peebee. There was a long discussion about what to do with a pet who bites. The civilians wanted to euthanize Peebee and perform an autopsy for biting Dr. Emmons on Lazzaroni. Stone thought that was their plan from the beginning, even to the extent of having one of the researchers deliberately provoke Peebee into biting. The marines sided with Stone declaring the behaviorist should be euthanized and autopsied for prodding Peebee in places she didn’t like being poked. The civilians dropped the conversation when the marines gave them a freshly killed, wild drasco to autopsy and compare against existing autopsy recordings.

Stone sighed. Being in charge of this conglomeration wasn’t easy. If it had been all marines, all navy or even all medical corps it would be easier. Even if everyone were all military it would have been doable. The marines were there for base protection and did things one way. The navy provided support and did things another way. The military medical staff wanted to do everything another way. Three branches of the military fighting over protocol and resources was bad enough, but the Emperor had also saddled him with the oversight of a ship in orbit and a gaggle of civilian scientists.

Tomorrow he would get a new set of civilians. Heading the incoming personnel group were his cousins, Vance and Marvin. He had verified the family connection through his family database, as he barely remembered the men. They were brothers and his mother’s second cousins, so the relationship was close enough to know them, yet they were older by twenty years. They were interested in the planet from a profit standpoint. Their only interest in the scientific studies of Allie’s World was how it affected the bottom line. Their whole staff was focused on how to exploit the planet. Was it ripe for colonization? Was it best used for mining and manufacturing? Was farming and ranching feasible? Which of the hundred types of planetary uses would best serve their family coffers? And almost as important, what profit could be squeezed from the other planetary bodies in this system?

Stone did have a vested interest in profit. However, as the Emperor’s appointed governor, he had to keep in mind his responsibility for ensuring both minor partners received the maximum benefit from their participation. Danielle Wright owned twenty-five percent of the planet. Whatever they did, she would be richer than she ever dreamed possible. The Emperor owned ten percent of the planet. He wasn’t a business novice, nor were any of his financial advisers. He had already invested significant funds for planetary pacification. After all, the navy ship in orbit above was his. The marines who flew shuttle flights overhead and walked the defensive parapets were his. The navy providing support, from EJG Blackmon Perry Stone in command to PO3 Tammie Ryte in communications to S3C Dollish the lowest pot washer in the galley, was his. The medical staff and the smallest bottle of aspirin had been sent at the Emperor’s expense. He paid the civilian scientists, so their discoveries and delays couldn’t be dismissed. Stone smiled knowing the Emperor would be reimbursed for the tiniest expense at the first glimpse of profit. The quickest profit would come when the scientists discovered something to pique the Emperor’s interest so he’d buy out his other partners.

He nodded at Thomas as the master chief slipped into the chair at the foot of the conference table. The man continued to dog his every step. Except for Stone, Thomas was the highest-ranking navy person on the planet. As the governor, Stone had assigned him to manage the day-to-day activities of all support personnel. Protocol said the room should fill from lowest rank to the highest with Stone, as the commander arriving last, forcing everyone already seated to stand for him. As the only enlisted person on Stone’s staff, Thomas should have arrived at the conference room first.

Protocol be damned. Stone suppressed a smile at having beaten the NCO to the table. He was an ensign. Lingering in the corridor, staring at dust motes for amusement while waiting for a marine major to be seated, then forcing the man to jump to his feet as he walked into the room, seemed foolish. Dr. Mohamed never bothered with protocol, even sending Dr. Triplett in his stead more often than not. LCDR Butcher usually remained on the Vasco de Gama and hologrammed in on signal by Thomas. Since he wasn’t on site, snapping to attention wasn’t required.

A second member of his staff slid into the room, LTSG Dr. Menendez of the military medical corps must have been standing nearby waiting until Thomas arrived and was seated. The woman looked surprised to see Stone already there. Nodding and finding her seat on Stone’s right with her back to the window, she dug through reports on her dataport keeping her head down to cover her confusion.

Stone pulled up a message from Thomas. He expected it to be a quick note on following meeting protocol to keep people like Menendez from being confused. He was wrong, the note simply said, “interesting”. An attachment from PO3 Ryte about hearing an unusual signal over comms was clipped to the message.

He read Ryte’s report. During routine signal sweeps, she had picked up blips from an unidentified signal. She ran it through all known samples looking for a match, but she hadn’t found anything at the time of the report. The signal didn’t appear to match up with any base or ship activity and the Vasco de Gama reported clear space around the planet. The signal wasn’t human in origin, nor did it match any signal captured from known alien species. The Hyrocanians were still pursuing hostilities against humans, but so far they were a long way from Allie’s World. No other alien race offered anything more than profitable commerce, trade, and polite—if not genial—diplomatic relations.

Allie’s World was well inside human controlled space. Stone wasn’t an expert in hyperspace despite having traveled through the gray more times than he could count. Normal routes from point A to point B always took the same time to travel, yet if it took the same time to go from point C to point D, the distances weren’t the same. Even when the distances were the same, different jump points produced different travel times in the gray. Even the common term “jump point” was a misnomer. They were really navigation points since a ship could jump into hyperspace from anywhere and jump out again any time they wanted. Precise navigation points controlled the jump so a ship didn’t end up exiting hyperspace inside a sun or in an unexplored part of the galaxy. The shortest times in hyperspace within human controlled space were well mapped on everyone’s navigation charts. The shortest transit time routes were busy while a few known long transit time routes were rarely used.

This was a new world and the navigation jump points were barely mapped. The hyperspace time between Allie’s World and Brickman’s Station was only a few minutes, yet they were at opposite ends of the empire’s star charts. There may be closer habitable planets, in spite of that, their hyperspace transit times might be so long it would save time making two or three jumps to get to Brickman’s Station before jumping to Allie’s World. Hyperspace timing was confusing even to the empire’s finest scientists.

They hadn’t heard any non-human signals on Allie’s World previously, nor had they found any sign of intelligent life on the planet. The Vasco de Gama had made a few orbits and after roughly mapping the planet, they settled into a geo-synchronous orbit over the base. The other planets in the solar system were mapped by telescope, and like most planets in the galaxy, were uninhabitable. Unfit for humans didn’t mean they were without value. The system had a gas giant with a dozen or so planet-sized moons that should generate profit for everyone investing in Allie’s World, as would the small frozen rocks at the outer reaches of this solar system. The rule of thumb was that uninhabited planets were property of the nearest inhabited planet’s owners.

Stone had to be careful not to allow any permanent settlements on any of the other planets until he was well and truly reassigned somewhere else. Permanent settlements, even small mining communities would reclassify the planet as habitable and it would fall under his jurisdiction since the new community was in the same solar system.

Ruling a small settlement wouldn’t be an issue, he could delegate the responsibility of site management to someone else. However, two permanent settlements on two separate bodies in the same solar system was the empire’s litmus test for allowing the appointed planetary governor to be upgraded to king status. Stone didn’t want to be a king, whether the position was appointed by the Emperor, self-proclaimed or elected. Grandpa ruled the family with an iron fist, but he hated politics outside of the family tree and Stone agreed. People were too unpredictable and too hard to lead.

The Emperor ruled over a multitude of kingdoms: some hereditary, some appointed, some elected, and even a few who were self-proclaimed, ruling by the might and main. The Emperor also ruled over a wild hodgepodge of otherwise governed planetary systems, from the most popular system, democratic republics, to theocratic assemblies, to even a few planets who refused any law except the required adherence to the Empire Constitution, giving the Emperor his appointed powers and giving individuals their enumerated personal chartered rights.

Being emperor or empress wasn’t hereditary. The constitution required the Emperor appoint a qualified successor from among humanity’s teaming masses. The Emperor’s College was well known for sifting through tens of thousands of reports on possible heirs to the throne, but no one knew where those reports came from or who was being evaluated. Everyone knew there was always one selectee ready to ascend to the throne. The Emperor was young and he was expected to rule for decades if not longer, but human life being as fragile as it is, there had to be a selectee in the wings at all times.

Solar systems with more than one planet often started as kingdoms under the empire’s oversight. A few neighboring solar systems banded together to form kingdoms, monarchies, duchies, and princedoms, yet, all bowed their knee to the Emperor. Stone didn’t want to be a king. Being an appointed governor was bad enough, but ruling over civilian settlements wasn’t in his long-term plans. He and his family may own the vast majority of this planet, however, ownership didn’t mean he was qualified to be a king. He was sure the Emperor knew he wasn’t qualified. His inexperience and lack of political acumen were why he had been appointed governor. It would give the Emperor the leverage he needed to slant any profit schemes toward his ten percent ownership.

Stone tapped the conference table calling up an image of the solar system. There were only six planets available for exploitation, but only Allie’s World was in the Goldilocks zone, neither too cold nor too hot. He swirled a finger through the hologram picture, moving planets about to see what, if anything, might be hiding behind them. Ryte’s report said she’d done the same thing, partnering up with the communications tech on the navy ship above. There weren’t any indications of human or non-human presence except his command.

Vance and Marvin would deliver a string of satellites to spread around above Allie’s World. If someone or something was hiding behind the planet, they would remain hidden until the satellite relays were set in place. He would ask Butcher to do a closer solar system scan once the Iridium Rock and its satellites arrived. Stone wasn’t worried. Sooners often tried to sneak onto newly discovered planets to settle unmapped land, making early claims of huge homesteads, farms, and ranches for themselves. Sooners contacting other sooners using coded signals on cobbled together communications equipment might sound non-human.

Many times, such people tried to declare they were there first, filing suit in the courts alleging ownership of the planet. Rarely did they succeed, as the rightful owners usually gave them their choice plots of land or paid them a settlement to make them and their lawsuits go away. Any sooners on Allie’s World would be sorely mistaken as the Emperor wasn’t known to take kindly to extortion or blackmail, figuring graves were cheaper to dig than paying someone to go away. Grandpa had warned him this might happen. He’d stressed Stone should leave it for Vance and Marvin to settle, as the Emperor might be tempted to send in his marines to settle any disputes. Grandpa didn’t like paying tribute or nuisance suits, but sometimes under-the-table payments were cheaper than long drawn out legal affairs. Not to mention, the Emperor didn’t have to worry about the bad press like the Stone Freight Company would. Even kings had press agents to spin their news.