Unreal, p.18
Unreal, page 18
I saw Leanne, up on the wall screen, nod.
“How are the fuzzballs going?” asked Gitte.
“I’m not seeing them much, but everything seems to be getting done efficiently. Why?”
“Just curious.”
I looked at Uchawi, and she winked. Maybe she was trying to get some of them to take over some of her load at the shipyard? I could imagine how that would go down on Karn. Or Kelewan, for that matter.
“What about the not-crocs?” asked Jon.
“They scare the hell out of the Ralnor. Not as much as a dragon did, but it seems they’ve never seen either sort of species.”
“We knew the Ralnor had never met a dragon,” said Jane. “And we also know the Keerah fear them, and why now.”
“Sorry about that,” said Bud, interrupting her. “Willow was in my office when the request for a senior mage came in. We couldn’t resist just jumping in abruptly. She needs the practice doing large magic anyway, so it was timely.”
“The Ralnor have been running from the not-crocs when they see them the first time. I’m not sure they have anything like them in their space.”
“How many are you deploying at the moment?” asked Leanne.
“A division. But they keep rotating them after every mission, so it’s not like having a division which is steadily improving. But they get the job done. And at the rate the Ralnor are paying, we can afford them too. I’m not sure what the casualty rate is though. They’re only wearing their own armour and their version of merc clothing. It’s not as good as combat suits.”
“Queen Jane is addressing that,” said Jane. “They’ll all get their own combat suit in due course. In the meantime, she’s happy with the experience they’re gaining. The big cats are still not happy with their combat suits either, so haven’t started mass production yet either.”
“Isn’t there a need for the not-crocs in Gaia these days?”
“Not that much. There are threats out in other sectors, but nothing happening at the moment. The Badlands situation is being watched, in case troops are needed there, but no-one’s found where those pirates are coming from yet. The saurians in Sector Seven are still sabre rattling, but nothing’s kicked off there. So the not-crocs are available, and willing. Your gain.”
“I guess so. Now, what am I really here for?”
I was sick of dancing around the elephant in the room.
“You sealed off a long stretch of the Ralnor frontier today,” said Bud. “Was that really necessary?”
“Yes. Whoever has taken over the nearest sector capital was prepared to sacrifice eight recent Ralnor colonies in order to have Wonderland and us threatened, and hopefully destroyed. That didn’t go unnoticed by the planets which provided the colonists, some of the corporations based in the same area, and many of the non-Ralnor planets as well.”
I paused, but they waited for me to go on.
“We supplied jump ferries and shuttles to supply instant communications, the Ralnor two star admiral we’d had previous dealings with organised the civilians to talk to each other, and they decided to create a new cluster, joined only to Wonderland and Karn. I’m not sure the Karn join has gone in yet.”
I looked at Gitte.
“It hasn’t. Most likely it will go in on the Ralnor side of our border, within the new five sector cluster. That will allow trade to go both ways for the cluster and us, without changing anything for Karn. Are they talking about formal relations with the League?”
“It came up. They’re losing a large chunk of their normal markets, and while they’ll get some of it back with the big cluster through the Karn end link, I’m not sure that will be enough for them. But that’s not my concern. Once they ask for a meeting, it’s up to someone else to talk trade with them.”
“And we will,” said Jane. “You haven’t answered the question yet.”
Damn it, she noticed.
“The civilian governments decided on the closed cluster. They didn’t even want doors they needed to protect. Just a completely closed cluster. They especially wanted the war ended for them, with no chance of it ever starting again. Since I’m able to deliver that, we did.”
“Doesn’t George get a royalty on every use?” asked Jon.
“Yes. And we make a profit on that as well. The contract agreed to the per system rate, without specifying the number of systems involved. The new cluster capital guaranteed the payment. I was pretty surprised at that, but the Ralnor have never not paid us what they agreed to, so I’m not expecting any problem this time.”
“That’s a long wall you put up,” said Bud.
“It’s not that long. What? A couple of hundred light years?”
“Closer to five hundred,” corrected Jane.
“That’s still nothing out of ten thousand by one thousand.”
“It’s a big nothing,” said Bud. “And it establishes a precedent. One we can’t ignore.”
“Why did you send the Keerah home?” asked Jon.
“They wanted to talk.”
“How did you know?”
“I guessed, from the fact they stopped, and then formed a defensive formation even though they knew we could just move them all anywhere we liked. Then when I jumped in, they didn’t fire any missiles. It seemed obvious to me.”
“Why send them home anyway?”
“What was the point of just massacring them? Their side of the line is now at peace, and they’ve got their own problems there anyway. I didn’t see any reason for more killing. They were cut off, and at our mercy. I showed some.”
“No-one’s questioning that,” said Jon. “But Bud is wondering why you told them he’d stop harassing that area.”
I looked at Bud, and he nodded, looking serious.
“Is there any reason to now? I mean, sure, they may send their fleets to do an end run around, but that’s a long way to send them. Most likely, those fleets will stabilize that section of their space inward from the frontier, and you’ll have no need to go there anymore.”
“You’re guessing,” said Bud.
“Of course I am. But my people had fought twice already, and I didn’t see any reason for going in a third time when it could be avoided. That decision isn’t coming back to bite me anytime soon.”
Jon and Bud shared a glance.
“Okay,” said Bud, “I’ll stop going anywhere near that area. Leanne will continue to monitor it though. If they can get a stable peace going there, we’ll try talking to them. You never know, that mutual trade thing might be possible at some point.”
“Good. Have you started hitting shipyards again?”
“No. That planet we sent the tigers back to still has one, by the way. It wasn’t big enough to get my attention yet. I’m rethinking what we’re doing now.”
“That entire frontier is just a fortified position with very little behind it anywhere now,” said Leanne. “Both sides have stripped a lot of systems to try and break through somewhere. Half the time they choose the same systems, so it’s just a disaster for both of them, but we’ll see more places where both of them break through now. And like what you saw, in most places there will be nothing immediately behind to fill the hole.”
“That’s not my problem,” I told them. “I told you what would happen. It’s happening. It could have been prevented. Never get me involved in politics, because no-one is going to like that.”
“At least we agree on that,” said Jane.
They all laughed.
Forty Two
There was a gathering around one of the tables when I walked into the mess.
Nell beckoned me over, so I went that way instead of to my own table. The crowd parted to let me through, and I found Muffin sitting on the table lapping up the attention. He wasn’t going very far from Nell though. I looked around, but didn’t see Sprite anywhere. Nell grinned.
“I introduced Muffin to Sprite before I brought him here. With Muffin safely in an introduction enclosure, they hissed at each other, then stared each other down for a bit. Then Sprite went off in a huff.”
“He’s down on the planet now,” said Trip. He looked at Nell. “The butlers want to start serving.”
Nell laughed, and scooped her cat up.
“Visiting time is over. If anyone wants to visit him, just yell. At least until he starts getting used to walking around. I’m going to try and get him and Sprite to like each other first though.”
“Good luck with that,” I said.
She nodded, touched her belt, and vanished. The crowd headed for their seats, and she was back again before most people got to theirs. I found I was hungry, but also distracted.
I felt like the senior League military were playing games with me, and I didn’t like it one bit. So conversation went around me as people recognised my mood.
The bottom line was, if they didn’t want me closing part of the frontier, they shouldn’t have authorised me getting the means to do it. Except maybe that was the unreal thing. They wanted me to do it, but couldn’t say that. That led to another thought, and I stopped chewing, and had to make an effort to keep my mouth closed.
Surely they didn’t think I’d progressively do the entire frontier for them, did they?
I forced myself to start chewing again, and firmly told myself that wasn’t an option. Or anything which could be done in any sort of reasonable time frame. If they wanted it done, they could do it themselves. At most, small chunks like we’d already done might happen.
But it made me think of something else. I wasn’t paying Trip anywhere near what he was worth in terms of what he was doing now. I pinged him to meet me in my office after dinner. I didn’t linger after finishing eating like I normally did, and I found him waiting there.
“Metunga bought all the Keerah ships,” he said. “He said you knew and authorised it?”
“It came up in the meeting. I more or less had to agree to it. At least I couldn’t refute the argument. The Ralnor ships are just as useful for us. Probably more so as the designs are done already.”
“The next batch of ships are coming along, and the next dozen Unbounds are already sold. We’re doing another eight ship-stations, and four more battleships. We’re also doing the version of Camel after the first major upgrade for each of the new Unbounds, and those will get live in crews, and as I understand it, will do their own small scale carry jobs as well.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about. I just realized I’m not paying you enough. I should be paying you a senior administrator salary which covers all the things you do now. In addition to what the company pays you.”
“You already do. It was one of the first things White did. I’m more than happy with what I’m earning. One of those Unbounds coming out next is mine. I’m going to crew it and the basic Camel with avatars, and send it to Gaia to help Snark.”
I was going to say ‘too much information’, but bit it off.
“Basic Camel? What version is mine now?”
“The mark four, and the AI’s got those. What we’re building now is more like a mark two. Still has the living facilities for six people.”
“Call it a mark two then. As long as you’re happy with our arrangement, then good. It suddenly occurred to me you might not be, or thought it inappropriate to ask or something.”
“I’d have said something. You should be paying Dean more though. All that screen moving on Lone Wolf is coming from him, not me. He’s technically a sub-contractor still, but doing an employee’s job.”
“Tell Red or whoever to fix that, will you? Wait. Lone Wolf is mine, not the companies?” He nodded. “Then tell White to fix it. Thanks for pointing it out.”
“No problem. Willow wants you to meet her for a drink. She sent a jump icon.”
“Is that the new reality these days? Send a jump icon when you want to meet someone?”
“Seems to be. At least for those who have the facility. Shall I tell her you’re coming?”
“May as well.”
The pulse came in, and as I was becoming used to, I selected the icon, and pushed the button, with no idea where I was going.
I found myself standing next to a bar, and a full sized red dragon.
“Hey, you came,” sounded in my head. “Give me a moment.”
The dragon grabbed what looked like a barrel from a much larger and higher up bar than this one, and tipped the contents into its mouth. There was a belch as the barrel was put back, and then a small flame.
“You get used to it,” said the butler bartender, in a very British accent.
Forty Three
It looked like someone had designed a bar that suited every size of being.
Lengths of bar top were along the wall, one above the other, with a bartender butler of a normal human size at each. Although how a butler poured a drink that size for a dragon was totally beyond me, but then I couldn’t see up that high properly from down here.
Further along the bar were some big cats, and they were getting drinks from the next level up. Beyond that was a group of wyvern at a bar several higher again. The dragon next to me was actually standing well out into the middle of the giant sized room. And now I looked, there were colour coded lines and warning signs for them. A human crossing the wrong line was probably going to be fatal, especially if the bigger drinkers were drunk.
I checked the navmap, and found I was actually on the station over Dragon Home, which had once been called Keerah. It appeared to be a Haven class station like mine was, but this was definitely not a normal room for that sort of station.
The dragon shimmered, and became a tall humanoid wearing silver Knight armour. She hastily moved inside the human line, and joined me at the bottom level bar.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come.”
“I’m getting used to being summoned by people who just send me a jump icon.”
Another tallish person came in, walked across the lines, shimmered, and became a brown dragon. I swear I felt the floor vibrate as it moved to the bar further down from where Willow had been. I knew this was Willow because I’d seen her before in media reports.
“That would be very annoying.”
“Tell me about it.”
She laughed.
“Mine’s our local brew. We’ve only recently started selling what’s grown and brewed here. Oh, this is Dragon Home, by the way, and I’m Willow.”
“I recognised you, and had already looked up where I was. Should every station have a place like this?”
“We’d like them to, but most of the well-established stations are never going to. Some of the more recent ones are. Didn’t I hear you’ve got one now?”
I looked at the barkeep.
“Two of the local beer, please.”
As if anticipated, two mugs were placed in front of us. The invoice pulsed in, and I paid it. We picked one up at the same time, and clinked mugs before sampling. It wasn’t the same as what we had in the mess, but it was just as good. Something about the planet below was obviously different.
“Yeah. I was conned into buying a planet, and the station was included in the deal. Most of it is closed up. So if we ever get a call for a bar like this one, it shouldn’t be any problems making it. I’d just get Trip to dedicate the tower to larger folk. Actually…”
I stopped and did some quick thinking. We had larger folk already. Big cats and not-crocs. And also smaller folk like the mice and fuzzballs.
“Get whoever has the specs for this place to send them to Trip. He’s my AI. We don’t need your end of things as yet, but the next level up would certainly be used, and we need a level down from here as well. Or a smaller variation of this where humans are the tall ones.”
“I’ll do that. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about.”
“You wanted to talk bars?”
She laughed.
“No. But that’s a bonus if you can do something like this. There’s two things I can suggest to you. The first is dragon rides off your station as a tourist attraction. They can carry people down to the planet, and do a much better sightseeing experience around the terrain than a shuttle ever can.”
That might be thrilling to try.
“If there’s operators looking for somewhere new, then have them contact White. She’s the fuzzball running my station’s operations. Though I’m not sure there’ll be much business for a while yet. We’re very new, and very ‘way out in the boonies’.”
“That sounds like something George would say.”
“You know him?”
“He’s hard to avoid. But yes, he’s been involved in some of our, shall we say, development.”
Which could mean anything, and was presumably private.
“Put your people in touch with White. I really don’t get involved in that side of things.”
“No surprise there. I don’t know how Jodie Mills can spend so much time running her station. I certainly couldn’t, not that I’m going to let anyone saddle me with one.”
“I’m beginning to think I was mind controlled when I agreed to mine. But what’s done is done, and I’ll deal with it. Or not, as much as I can get away with.”
She chuckled.
“The other thing is about your mercenary company. We have dragons of all sizes that are not mastering the magic side of things in training, and who are not that suited to being in large armies. We’ve expanded to multiple divisions quite rapidly, which also operate as fleets. But the ones who fail are just ground troops, and like all troops, some are better suited to be multi-purpose marines than being ground pounders. We can’t offer them the diversity you can.”
That sounded a bit odd. I’d heard stories of them running down the middle of ships punching holes in the hulls. And we didn’t need that once we poked them. On the ground, our needs had to be pretty much the same as within a division. Still…
“And you want me to take some of them on?”
“I thought I’d suggest it. Some of ours could carry some of your not-crocs or marines, and we’re good for rescue work as well.”
“I’m not opposed to it, but Pete Dunne is the one to convince. He’s a lieutenant colonel. He’d probably trial a battalion if there were that many. The only problem would be accommodation and deployment.”
