Angolin, p.22
Angolin, page 22
THE FALCONERPLEIN
Week’s end leave, Qi-VOS, a full one. I wonder how long these will continue?
Do you believe General Gennet will grant fewer of them in the future?
Yes. Any trouble we don’t get from one end will come from the other.
Ma’am, several Dawn Fire members have been apprehended recently, including the teenager who attempted to murder Lieutenant Commander Tate. We may be winning the fight. Your misgivings are likely unfounded.
I very much doubt that! I also doubt I can keep Dharmen in line, even if you’re right. I know him. All this pressure will get a reaction from him, and soon.
“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised,” Yos’s image said.
“No?” said Dharmen.
“No. Neuroscience in anthrotech is still highly misunderstood. It’s hard enough to design a synth’s primary reasoning functions, let alone more advanced behavioral safeguards and protocols.”
“But synths are as forbidden to harm people as robots are,” Theus said. “Regardless of any interference, that’s their prime instruction, the very first one programmed into them.”
“Nonsense,” Yos said. “No system is completely tamper-proof. Anyone with the proper skills can bypass whatever instruction they wish, including the prime. Once that’s done, AI is capable of inflicting whatever damage it’s ordered to.”
“Yos, as fascinating as this is, you realize that thing tried to kill me the other night?” Dharmen said.
“Not really. The kid controlling it tried to; the synth was just obeying its new programming. And you dispatched both nicely. Between your housekeeper and that shot you took at Port, the collaborators must think you have the gods shielding you.”
“Certain physicists shielding him, more like,” said Dori. “And you still haven’t told us how Dharm survived that hit.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Yos, come off it. We know you and Brona gave him some sort of protective device,” Dori said. “Dharm’s as tight-lipped as you are, but it was definitely your handiwork.”
Yos kept silently to his detached, mellow cloud for just a few seconds. “It’s nothing particularly mysterious or profound. It’s just a little something I designed with Brona’s help, and a bit of engineering assistance, that’s all.”
“A little something that deflects particle fire and is portable,” Dori said.
“Not just deflects. Absorbs and redistributes. Matter dispersal is still tricky, and energy consumption and transference difficulty make widespread personal use prohibitive. But give us time. We’re working on it.”
“Is that all you two are working on nowadays?” Dori said.
Yos’s image angled its head and smiled. “Have a great lunch, you three. Andren out!”
Dori frowned at the holo disappearing from in front of them as Dharmen cued Rem-E to close the channel. “We’ll deal with him later,” she said. “It’s too much bother for such a beautifully perfect day. Can’t beat a full summer for a change. ’Bout time it warmed up for good.”
“It’s too crowded for me,” Dharmen said. He and Willem were South C locals now. If the heat of his least favorite micro season didn’t try him, the crowds it pulled into the neighborhood from every nook and cranny in Angolin did.
“Maybe some sunshine and purple skies will make up for that and AI gone wrong,” Dori said, “if you’re willing to let it. I can’t help but notice the uniform. Don’t you know the meaning of week’s end pass? We don’t get many of these lately with Bemin constantly falling apart. I should think you’d want to take full advantage of—”
Voices suddenly roaring in the distance silenced her. They were coming from the direction of the Falconerplein.
“That’ll be another student protest,” Dharmen said. “Bask in the suns all you want, but do it fast. Warm days won’t prepare us for the enemy, including the ones up the street.”
“We have three days off with no responsibilities and no orders, Dharm,” Dori insisted. “Let up enough to undo your collar at least. It’s twenty-eight degrees Celsius today. Even with enviro-control, you must be baking in there. Thee, you’ve said nothing outside the subject of mad synths all morning; help me. And my eyes are up here, Lieutenant! Save the ogling for your tarts Up East. I know all about your Nieuw Kered hops; don’t think you were hiding anything from me.”
“You’ve got Nieuw Kered going on right there, Commander,” Dharmen said, eyeing Dori’s cleavage. “You really expect the lieutenant to keep his eyes to himself? You’re out all over the place. The heat is no excuse to be nearly as naked as Thee in an East Vale—”
“He’s seen me in a dress before. It may be a tad low-cut, but I’m not as underclothed as you claim. If either of you in your own ways could appreciate a real woman, I’d fall over flat!” Dori tugged at her rather low neckline. “Next time I go out with you two, I’ll leave my snag-a-man-in-public outfit on base, but at least I’m not scaring everyone away with a sword and a sour face on a day like this. Invasion’s not coming right this minute, Dharm. Couldn’t you have left that at home?” She stopped grimacing at Dharmen’s weapon for a moment to admire the planter bordering the sidewalk. The mood pavers’ warm glow beneath her matched the blooms.
“I’ll take my sword over second summer any day. We all know what’s coming, Dori. If the Carmis attack tomorrow, what will you do? Hit ’em with flowers?”
“No, but I might hit you. And can we say goodbye to paranoia just this once?”
Booms brought the whole way to attention. An outdoor café server bot fumbled with a beverage tray at the drums and shouts filtering down.
“Let’s turn at the next corner,” Dori said. “I’m in no mood for Angolin’s problems today. I’d rather go around that business than through it.”
“I’m not going out of my way for that lot. Let them do the detouring,” Dharmen said.
“Ditto me,” said Theus. “Running from protesters isn’t what I signed up for.”
“Look, you two, we’re on leave. This is no time to stir up your usual testosterone-driven trouble,” Dori said.
“Thanks for the compliment, Commander, but we don’t intend trouble. We aren’t afraid of it either,” Theus said. “And we’re meeting Will on the other end of the plein in a few minutes—why let a bunch of traitors in training come between us and lunch?”
“Listen, Thee,” Dori said, “the general is still on me about that last weapons theft. And after Dharm assaulted Armetrian during his class, he’ll be lucky to escape a JAG review, so the last thing I need as your CO right now is either of you throwing yourselves into . . . Dharmen?” She looked over her shoulder, found him already half a block away, running toward the Falconerplein. “Oh, damn, damn, damn!”
It was the largest, loudest assembly Dharmen had ever seen. The crowd spilled into the surrounding ways, hardly contained by a pitifully small police presence. He carved through it as carefully as he had through the Negaran jungle. But it was useless. The thirty-six-year-old in uniform stood out too easily among the chanting, sweaty students. Faces turned to him and hardened. He wasn’t afraid, but he did begin to realize what an affront he was.
“Who invited you, soldier boy? Go home!” someone yelled.
“Abolish the military; abolish it now, beginning with this one here!” yelled another.
Dharmen stopped. “Got any more? I’m listening!” The hecklers clamped shut. “Challenge then retreat when the challenge is met. In my line of work, that’s a coward.”
With more students suddenly supporting them, they told Dharmen what he could do with his line of work. At his back and from a distance as he moved on through the crowd. With every step, stares and taunts vied for attention. His expression silenced most of it; no one dared challenge him directly just yet.
The platform speaker paused his tirade. Drums resounded in response. Yelling, stomping, and fist shaking erupted around Dharmen and joined the remarks resuming at him. He continued forward, suffering no intimidation and ignoring his CSD. The earsplitting noise ceased.
“You all know why we’re here! Our government’s lies bring us together today,” the speaker—a short, flush-faced kid with big bushy hair—said into a hovering mouthpiece. “We sit in classes studying for meaningless professions while our leaders plan our futures—futures that benefit them, not us!” The audio bot followed his back-and-forth march across the platform. “I don’t know about all of you, but I’m not having my education wasted by old people in high places. They say the Outside World is evil. I say that’s an excuse to keep us cooped here like ancient zoo animals while the rest of the planet lives free!”
Dharmen shut his eyes at the screams and drumbeats reverberating on the surrounding buildings. He couldn’t figure out which was worse: the noise or the untruths he was hearing. He partly understood the frustrations fueling them, but expressing them like this was a sure path to insurrection. As Rem-E began an antistress treatment, Dharmen did his best to calm himself and focus.
“He’s a well-spoken young man. Misguided maybe, but bright and certainly enterprising,” a familiar voice said beside him.
“Enterprising?” Dharmen turned and hissed hotly enough to wipe the flippant smile from Dori’s face.
“Our government has been at this for ages now,” the speaker bellowed. “Centuries of withholding the Outside from our reach has taught them exactly how to control us, but there’s more to life than this tired little land stuffed between its mountains and lakes!” He moved to the platform center, close to where the three officers stood. “We can’t get what’s out there from this cage, we need to let Parliament know that the days of suppressing our rights are over and tell them where they can put their isolationism. We have the right to live our lives and go about our world as we see fit, and if freedom is denied us, then by the gods, we’ll take it!”
The crowd roared. Dharmen narrowed his eyes at the noise and nonsense. How can anyone demand something they know nothing at all about?
“There’s no truth to any of this,” Dori said, hushed and more seriously now. “Is he leading a protest or trying for a riot?”
The speaker continued . . . and spotted Dharmen. “And what about our fine military? Will we let them dictate our freedoms? They’re the government’s henchmen. When we rise up, will they put guns to our heads for it?” he said, pointing at Dharmen. “And will they conscript us men to fight imagined enemies across the Abyss while you women wake at night to find soldiers like this one climbing into your beds, with your scared little children made to watch?”
“Right!” Dharmen snarled. That one completely tore it. He shoved bodies aside as he carved a path to the platform.
He heard Theus yell after him to stop, but the jeering and booing made him too angry for that. He reached the platform, climbed the steps. A burly youth in a Mid Realm team tunic blocked his path. Until Dharmen’s punch sent him sideways. Barely slowing, Dharmen walked right up to the speaker. He and his big hair backed away as the maddened Guardsman took his spot.
“Give me that!” Dharmen snatched the audio bot controller from the kid’s belt. The tiny device floated to him. He faced the crowd. “Okaaay!” he yelled too loudly for the hovering robot to handle. “You’ve all had a great time chanting death to the Realm and listening to taroc crap. Now you’ll listen to me!” He had never addressed this kind of crowd, but that didn’t stop him. “I’ve served Angolin my whole adult life, and that includes every one of you—yes, you! And in all that time, I’ve never suppressed anyone’s freedom,” he glared at big hair, “or assaulted anyone. Loyalty, protection, and service to Angolin, that’s my charge.”
Theus and Dori moved closer to the platform. But Dharmen was too engrossed in the angry remarks flying at him to notice.
“Maybe that works for you, but no soldier’s going to tell me what I can and can’t do,” someone yelled. “You’re the government’s strong arm, and you know it! You think you can just barge up there and feed us all this? I’m not bowing to our leaders, and I won’t bow to you either!”
“Do I look like a Lenan king to you? Who asked you to bow?” Dharmen yelled back. “And who said you aren’t free? You kids are so busy spreading lies that you can’t think straight!”
Booing hit him like synth oven fumes.
“Listen to me—the Outside isn’t what any of you think,” he said, making a sweeping motion toward the East Ranges on his left. “Out there, hate is the only rule of law. The Carmogen control their people with everything you accuse me of. You say you’re cooped here against your will. Would you rather live life desperate and afraid instead? In Angolin you have homes, school, every enjoyment possible, and safe streets to enjoy it all in. Try getting that across the Abyss!”
The boos and jeers rose again.
“I don’t need your protection, and I don’t believe any of this!” a woman yelled. “If you and Parliament are so concerned for us, why keep us here and force us to stay hidden? If we’re free as you claim, then let us leave!”
Dharmen stared incredulously at her. “You really think you’ll just march across the world to welcoming arms? You think it’ll be that easy? And do you all think they’ll let any of us live freely when they come over here? The Carmogen have no pity at all. I know. I’ve fought them, and I have the battle scars and dead comrades to prove it!”
“How can you possibly understand us?” someone else yelled. “You Guard types get to go to war and leave when you please. You aren’t stranded here like the rest of us!”
Dharmen needled him across the distance. “Get to go? What do you think Negara was, a camping trip? We’re stranded risking our lives to fight for people too dumb to appreciate it!”
A horde of angry faces and shout-backs answered that.
He tried to smooth his tone. “Look, I don’t like isolation either, but I know the alternative, and so do our leaders. If the Outside were livable, Angolin would have opened up long ago. But Tentim is not a friendly planet. Don’t believe everything you’re told, and don’t think the gods will hand you an easy life in unknown lands just like that.”
“Do you really expect us to listen to you just because you wear a uniform and knock out anybody who gets in your way?” said the speaker from behind Dharmen. “All we want is what’s waiting for us. You won’t stop us with any of this!”
Dharmen eyed him, tired to Krone of it all. “Kid, you’re incredibly naive. Don’t think for a minute that wealth and power are coming to you on the fast path, because that’s what this is about, isn’t it? You and this mob want it all, right this minute, and you’ll drag your homeland down to get it. You don’t even know what’s out there, but you’ll rush out after it anyway. If you had real knowledge of the Outside, you’d hide in your parents’ pod forever!” He meant that for the speaker, but the audio bot was close enough for mass broadcast. “But don’t worry. When the Carmis get hold of you, they’ll find you a nice place on a rock pile out in some field. Or maybe in some old Lescain’s sleep-in with a chain round your stupid neck!”
Big hair glowered. The crowd ranted.
Dharmen turned back to them unfazed. “Parliament and the Guard do everything they can to protect what our ancestors gave their lives to build,” he said, still trying to get his message across. “I get that you’re angry and feel unjustly locked into Angolin, but that’s not the complete truth. Do you really want to throw everything away, just to satisfy—”
His vision flashed. He stumbled, looked down at the fist-size stone coming to rest at his feet. He put his hand to his head, felt blood on his fingers followed by pain. The projectile had shattered his patience more than anything else. He leaped from the platform to the ground and marched up to the shouting assailant. A hand reached out and shoved him. Enraged, he withdrew his sword, thrust its tip at the other’s face. “I don’t know what’s worse,” he growled, “the war that’s coming, or the one you people are starting right here!”
“Drop your weapon!”
Dharmen turned to that oddly familiar voice. Scowling at him through ice-cold gray eyes was Lieutenant Vara. She was dressed in Military Police camos, which she most certainly was not, and her sidearm was drawn. Two more MPs flanked him. Probably real ones, he considered, and does it matter?
“I said drop it!” Vara repeated.
He eyed her. He was about to defy her, and had every right to. But what an opportunity, and interestingly timed. It’s worth the risk, he decided. He acquiesced and tried to resheathe his sword.
“No! On the ground! On. The ground!” Vara gestured downward with her sidearm.
Dharmen lowered his sword to the pavement. One of the MPs stamped on the blade and wrenched it from his hand. The other secured his hands behind his back. It felt witheringly ironic to be on this end of a detainment.
“What’s going on here? Explain yourself, Lieutenant?” Dori demanded as she and Theus made it through the cheering, onlooking mass.
Vara studied their Guard holo-badges. “This one has violated code,” she answered, glancing at Dharmen. “We’re taking him into custody, and you two are stepping aside.”
Theus was closest. Vara tried to push him back, but he deflected her arm. “Forget it. Don’t even try to give us orders until you tell us what this is really about,” he said.
“And code says nothing about a soldier acting in self-defense,” Dori added. “You’re blowing this way out of proportion, Lieutenant. Just where did you get your MP training, anyway?”
“Where, indeed?” Dharmen dared to quip.
Vara ignored that and huffed at Dori, “We have jurisdiction here, not you. This officer is under arrest, period. Interfere, and you’ll join him, Commander. Superior or not.”
“Regardless of what offense you think he’s committed, the lieutenant commander is a fine officer. Treat him with dignity and respect,” Dori said, reinforcing Dharmen’s rank in the wild-eyed woman’s mind. “And don’t expect to have him long.”
Vara gazed menacingly at Dori for an insubordinately long instant. “Take him,” she ordered her people.
