Take The Star Road (The Maxwell Saga) (20 page)

"We never say 'no' to free food," Tomkins assured him. "Thanks. I'll just let the ship know that our return flight will be delayed, so they won't worry about us."

The food proved to be as good as the clerk had promised; a savory, paprika-rich goulash served over a local variety of rice, accompanied by salad and coffee. Both spacers cleared their plates speedily.

"You are still hungry?" one of the servers asked. She spoke a local language that Steve couldn't identify, but her PIA translated her words into a formal, precise version of Galactic Standard English and repeated them over an external speaker on her lapel.

"I sure am," he nodded, and waited while her PIA translated his words into her own language.

"Everyone has eaten by now, and there is food left. Bring your plates and I will refill them." They wasted no time accepting her invitation.

"If no-one else is likely to arrive, how about joining us?" Steve invited as she dished up the food. "I'd love to hear about Radetski from your point of view. All we've learned comes from the news media and a few short official briefings. You can add some local color for us."

She sighed. "Very well. We do not like to talk about the recent past, but you have come here to help us. You deserve answers." She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down opposite them at the table, adjusting her headscarf. "May I ask your names?"

"Sorry," Steve apologized. "I should have thought of that. I'm Steve Maxwell, and this is Dale Tomkins. He's the pilot of the cutter out there, and I'm his crewman."

"Thank you. I am Irena Kulovic." She thought for a moment. "For you to understand us will be difficult. In your Commonwealth you have free exchange of citizens between places on planets, and between planets themselves, yes?"

"That's right," Tomkins agreed. "In the Commonwealth citizens can go anywhere they like, provided they can support themselves."

"And your cultures mix freely? You are not accustomed to people of one race or language being expected, or even forced, to live apart from those of others?"

Tomkins' eyebrows rose in astonishment. "Oh, heck, no! The Lancastrian Commonwealth was initially formed by several minor colony planets. They realized they needed to band together for mutual support. They'd been settled by people from many different backgrounds, but understood right from the start that they had to set aside their differences and work together. They codified that very carefully in our constitution, along with severe restrictions on government size and powers so that no group could use the political system to dominate another. We've stuck to that.

"We recognize every group's right to their own culture, language and so on, but we insist there has to be an overarching commitment, a loyalty, to the principles of the Commonwealth as a whole. Each member planet accepts the Commonwealth Constitution in its entirety as the basis for its own laws, but it's free to add to it and establish its own internal structures and policies, as long as they don't conflict with those basic principles. We're expected to be Lancastrians just as much as we're citizens of a planet, or members of a particular ethnic group or culture. We focus on what unites us, rather than our differences."

She nodded slowly. "Our way of life was very different, although it has begun to change since the war." She fell silent for a moment, her eyes far away. "Radetski's problems go back many centuries, to two former nations on Old Home Earth called Serbia and Croatia. About three hundred years ago, both of them became provinces of the Central European Hegemony."

Steve said, "I remember studying the Hegemony Wars in school on Old Home Earth."

"Then you may know more about them than I do. I have only heard of them through the one-sided propaganda that was common here. Before the Wars, the Hegemony mounted its own colonization effort during the Scramble for Space. It claimed six planets, including Radetski. We have only one continent - this one - and several islands large enough to be habitable, with no land mass at the equator on which to base a Planetary Elevator. That made our planet-to-orbit costs much higher, so it was never as easy or as economical to develop this planet as it was the others. Instead, the Hegemony used Radetski as a dumping-ground for political prisoners and those whose loyalties it considered suspect, particularly during the Wars.

"The islands were used for smaller ethnic and national groups. The two largest groups were Serbians and Croatians. The friction between them dates back to long before the Space Age. The Hegemony could not stop it flaring up on Old Home Earth, so they exiled all the hard-line nationalists and activists they could find. The Serbs were dumped in the eastern half of this continent, while the Croats were sent to the west. Inevitably, and precisely because those sent here were selected for their intolerance and xenophobia, the rivalry between both groups was intense. Each expanded towards the center of the continent, where they eventually met."

"Sounds like a recipe for disaster," Steve observed. "Didn't the Hegemony realize what might happen?"

Irena gave a short, bitter laugh. "I think they did not care. They just did not want the conflict to erupt in their own back yard. They did not even station Hegemony police here - they simply dumped their unwanted people, then left them to their own devices." She paused to sip her coffee.

"Zaharich, the instigator of our civil war, was as much a product of those ethnic tensions as a master manipulator of them. He set himself up as some sort of prophet, preaching that people of Serb descent were to make Radetski the heart of what he called 'The Greater Serbian Empire of the Diaspora'. He was quite mad, of course, but also very, very persuasive. He duped tens of thousands into following him. He preached that the whole continent - the whole planet - should be under Serbian domination.

"The Radetskians of Croatian origin on this continent, and those from other groups on the other islands, were not going to let that happen, of course. When Zaharich realized he could not persuade or intimidate them to agree to his demands, he secretly armed and trained his followers, then launched an uprising. There were horrific atrocities, just like the history books describe the worst years of 'ethnic cleansing' or pogroms back on Old Home Earth. Extremists took over on both sides, and violence begot more and worse violence. The fighting went on for five years, during which the population of this continent was halved, until Zaharich was killed."

"It's the same old story," Tomkins observed sourly. "Megalomaniacs and demagogues almost always kill a whole lot of people before they die themselves. A lot of them are their enemies, sure, but historically at least as many have usually been their own people."

"You speak truth. By the time Zaharich was dead, neither our Serb nor our Croat communities were capable of sustaining civilized existence, much less continuing a full-scale conflict - yet even in the midst of such misery, the extremists' hatred was too strong to allow them to make peace. That is when the islands intervened."

Steve frowned. "The islands? I thought you said they were the dumping-grounds for smaller ethnic groups."

"They were. Each governed itself, trying to retain as much independence as possible. However, the war changed that. Both sides on the continent sought to gain allies among the islands, trying to force them to send weapons, material, and conscripts. They used the old threat of 'if you are not for us, you must be against us'. None of our islands was strong enough to resist such pressure on its own. They had a simple choice - they could either stand together, or fall separately. They dissembled as best they could, making excuses to avoid getting too involved with the war, while secretly they pooled their resources and trained a joint intervention force.

"They knew that sooner or later, the Serbs and Croats would weaken each other so much that they could no longer resist them. When that time came, they sent their force to the continent and drove right up the middle, forcing the two sides apart." She sighed. "Perhaps the only reason I and my children are alive is that they landed near here, and pushed the violence away from us. My husband was killed only three weeks before they arrived.

"When they had established a buffer zone, they invited the Serbs and Croats to discuss peace, but their leaders would not. The islands then formed a government of planetary unity, excluding the hard-liners, and asked the Hegemony for help. Unfortunately, its wars had reduced its power so greatly that it was no longer capable of major external operations, even if it cared about us - which it did not. Radetski also faced interference from Serbian and Croatian expatriates in the rest of the settled galaxy, wanting to help their compatriots here."

"What sort of interference?" Steve asked.

"They sent 'volunteers', arms and equipment. We had no orbital security to speak of, so we had great difficulty keeping them out. Eventually we approached the United Planets for help. They agreed to recognize the Coalition of the Islands as the
de facto
interim government of Radetski, pending democratic elections, and invited their member worlds to contribute to a peacekeeping force."

Tomkins observed, "I guess that's how the Lancastrian Fleet got involved. Radetski's in Vesta's back yard, so to speak - close enough that if your security troubles had continued, pirates and other low-lifes might have taken advantage of the confusion and lack of security to base themselves here, and mount raids into the Commonwealth."

"Yes. We are very grateful to you. Most worlds were reluctant to commit themselves to a minor, unimportant planet like Radetski, but your Fleet immediately sent patrol craft and spacers, so we could have proper orbital and system security for the first time. I understand that the patrol ships are to be given to our government in a few years time, once we have recruited and trained our own spacers. Your Commonwealth is very generous."

"It's in their interest to help you," Steve pointed out. "If you can secure your own system, the Fleet doesn't have to keep looking over its shoulder in this direction."

Irena smiled. "It is honest of you to admit that, but frankly I do not care. No matter why your forces came, I am very glad they did! Anyway, with their external support now cut off, most of the Serb and Croat survivors realized that neither side could win. They would only destroy themselves if they continued the war. They elected new leaders who repudiated the extremists, agreed to a ceasefire, and began to work with the Coalition to form a wider planetary government. A United Planets peacekeeping force arrived a few months ago to maintain the ceasefire, patrol the demilitarized zone, begin rebuilding our infrastructure and train a unified planetary security force. Once again your Commonwealth took the lead, sending two Marine battalions and much equipment, including this hospital."

Tomkins asked, "If a ceasefire was agreed, why is fighting still going on?"

She shook her head. "Unfortunately, there are still fanatics on both sides. Their hatred and intransigence are too great to let them make peace, so they fight on as guerrillas - although 'terrorists' is a better word for them, as they mostly attack those who cannot fight back. We have established a demilitarized no-mans-land down the center of our continent, but they raid across it, seeking to inflict further misery on their enemies."

"Where are they getting their weapons and equipment?"

"They use what is left from the evil years - they stole much of it from our depots before they could be properly secured by the new government. They also work with smugglers, who bring in arms concealed among normal commercial shipments. This was a very big problem until your patrol craft arrived. They have reduced the flow, but some smuggled weapons still get through. The extremists pay for them with containers of Radetski's famous plants. Pharmaceutical companies extract valuable chemical compounds from them."

"Haven't laboratories synthesized the compounds by now?" Tomkins asked. "That would make the plants themselves unnecessary."

"I am not a biologist or chemist, but I understand they are very complex compounds, which break down quickly outside the plant. This makes them hard to produce synthetically. The plants cannot be easily grown off Radetski, either. There are symbiotic relationships with other parts of our ecosystem that are essential for their health and reproduction."

"I get it."

Steve hesitated, then asked, "You said your husband was killed. I don't want to intrude, but may I ask how he died? Was he fighting for one side or the other?"

"No. You see, there were a few communities where people of both Serbian and Croatian ancestry had learned to live together. In most cases it was because they, or an ancestor, had fallen in love with someone on the other side, and married. They could not stay in their ethnically segregated towns, so they had to move somewhere that a mixed marriage would be tolerated. Our village, just over the bluff there, is one such place.

"We grew used to rejection from the racial purists on both sides. When the war broke out, at first they were too busy hating and killing each other to bother us. Later, that changed. Several smaller communities like ours fled here and merged into a larger village, so we could work together to protect ourselves. We formed a militia to defend ourselves against both sides, arming ourselves with whatever we could obtain. Some of us produce vodka and slivovitz, and we were able to exchange them for weapons with thirsty soldiers in nearby towns. Several skirmishes took place near us, so when night fell, our hunters would creep out and steal weapons from the dead before their comrades could collect them. We obtained explosives and fuses from miners in the mountains, and used them to prepare land-mines and other devices. Most of the fighting was north of here, so we were left alone for almost five years to prepare our defenses.