Donovan Paulwell
Presidium

What you never think will happen; does. A squad of Gennie boats appear when we were two days from Cyberus.

In the emptiest part of space, three warships.

Not Pirate ships, but major official Dalmar warships. No one breathed on the bridge. And someplace I knew what would be said.

“Greetings Presidium,” came the arrogant voice of a blond Gennie, “You have something aboard I want. You call him Gye. I will send a detachment for him in fifteen minutes.”

Gye was standing by the weapon array.

“I’ll take the Viper,” he almost asked.

“You do that,” Cilla said.

“Good luck, Gye,” I called.

“Luck has nothing to do with it,” he almost smiled.

“Cilla,” I say, after Gye has been gone a good ten seconds, “when the Viper is about to leave the ship, set off two distress flares at the front of the ship…”

“They’ll track him on IR…” she poked.

“Yeah, but the flares will give him a couple of seconds to get away.”

“He can’t get away…!” Guthrie snorted.

I had a lot to say, but didn’t bother.

Cilla’s voice; “Hangar six, opening,.. firing flare one, flare two, sending distress to Hawking.”

“Now get us out of here….any way except the way Gye went, and Frank, do me a favour, shut your mouth and start firing.”

Cilla was good, maybe the best, she got us out of the blockage, shooting up, pinwheeling, Frank firing, and the rest of us holding on, while Shelly sent distress signals.

The Gennies fired, not with much interest, for they wanted Gye, we were an obstacle.

“Cilla, don’t let them follow Gye, cut them off…!”

She was good, she got between the warboat and Gye, giving him a few more seconds of lead time. Guess we annoyed the Dals pretty well, for one ship turned on us. I figured it had been a fair enough run. I couldn’t face death if I’d turned Gye over to them. I hoped the others felt the same.

We all figured, whether or not we gave them Gye, they’d fire on us. They were Dalmar, the most arrogant bastards of the arrogant bastards we call Eugenics.

They’d delayed because they wanted Gye. They wanted him alive to torture. When we annoyed them, they ignored us, because they wanted Gye. Now we were an obstacle, we’d be removed.
We’d die. At least we’d die with a sense of decency.

But Cilla wasn’t giving up. She was loping the ship to a hair from losing control, the only way to evade.
Then Shelly shouted;

“Ships ahead! Hawking Ships!”

Dalmar disengaged and departed as Cilla slowed. Before us, twelve Hawking ‘war’, (security, the polite term) ships.

Six warships took off after the Dalmar, five went in other directions, one escorted us to Cyberus.

A message direct from Ms. Anisette Rhyse, apologising for the danger we had experienced, throwing money, inviting us to enjoy a week of relaxation at a Crown Hotel on Cyberus.

Abruptly I asked; “Any information about Gye?”

“Not yet,” she said and locked off. To my eye she appeared sad and worried.

She cared about Gye. Maybe no more than I did, maybe she was in love with him, but she cared.

There was no further events. and we ported at Cyberus to begin our week of hedonism.

Three days later I was summoned, given six hours to put myself together. I don’t know what they thought I was doing that required six hours, but.

A well dressed flunkey picked me up on the roof and carried me to a palace somewhere to the west. I was met by more flunkeys and escorted to a study, served liquor, then to the dining room, where Ms. Anisette Rhyse herself sat, not at the head of the long table, but to the right of the ‘throne’.

“Good evening, Captain Paulwell,” she said in her melodious voice, “I hope you enjoy the dinner I have prepared.”

Prepared, like she stood over a range and cooked it herself.

I babbled something innocuous, she tossed back more pointless politeness.

The meal began, soup and fresh bread, a salad, a main course, a desert, each with a separate wine in a separate glass. I was pushed to the edges of my control. I could not see spending an hour eating one meal. Especially with all the different cutlery.

I was ready to leap from the table when she directed me to the study, and took a seat on one side of a small end table, directing me to take it’s brother.

“I want to apologise for the danger you were subjected to…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I flicked, sipping cognac or whatever it was.

“Of course it was my fault. I’m the one who insisted you take Gye Tomaka aboard.”

“You couldn’t know…”

“Excuse me?” she snipped as if I’d used an obscenity.

I looked at her. I looked at her and looked at her until it came clear; she had put Gye on my ship….

“Captain, I knew that the Dalmar would attack you. That is why I had a large security detachment waiting. Hawking has the justification to cease to fly Dalmar corridors.”

I guess I didn’t understand.

“Due to their attack on one of our ships; that is, the Presidium, we will no longer fly Dalmar space. Hence,
we will not need to pay them tolls.”

I almost shouted; “You want to tell me…”

“Rudeness is not tolerated, Captain. I will explain. That is the purpose of this dinner. To clarify.”

She was so fragile I could cripple her with a slap. Though I wouldn’t do it, it was taking a lot of effort not to.

“I believe Mr. Tomaka explained, in some detail, the conflict between Dalmar and Sagir. The problem is that because of Dalmar’s …response…to Sagir, those of Sagir are forced to become Pirates.”

She sipped her drink, maybe letting me simmer, maybe thinking I was so stupid I needed time to process the
data. As if cued, I’d gotten the drift, she continued;

“Pirates are not romantic when you are a merchant, likely to be the target of their attacks. Hence, the choice; destroy Sagir and each of their ships, which would be genocide, and most welcome by Dalmar. Or, weaken the Dalmar Empire to such extent it would not have the energy or ability to interfere with Sagir.”

“You used Gye, you used my ship as bait.” I charged.

“Yes, we did.”

I had never felt such rage; it paralysed me. Images flipped in and out of my mind, words I’d shared with Gye, events that had passed.

Sagirs were Pirates. That was their basic profession. Pirate. I suppose what Rhyse was explaining or what Gye had inferred, is that because the Dalmar make the life of a Sagir impossible, all that is left is Piracy.

As Hawking was the Merchant King, getting rid of piracy was more important to them then curing a disease, or preventing a Nova.

“You think your company is powerful enough to topple the Dalmar Empire?” I say quietly.

She nodded brightly, “Yes.”

I put down the glass, shook my head.

“Of course, Sagir will take the initiative.” She admitted.

“How do you know the Sags won’t become bigger Pirates than they are today?” I stabbed.

She shook her head as if I’d said there were fairies in her garden, studied me with that depreciating look I’d gotten from some of my teachers when I didn’t grasp the answer.

“Captain Paulwell, you have spent time with Gye. You must have concluded he was not a mindless beast, he was not a vicious savage, and his life rather unpleasant. That is a result of the kind of oppression the Dalmar have inflicted upon the Sagir for the past century.”

I cleaned my glass, then put it direct; “What happened to Gye?”

“I don’t know, yet. I assume he may have escaped…”

“Or he could be dead.”

“Or he could be dead,” she said softly.

“This isn’t even politics! It’s profit margin!” I couldn’t sit and listen to her. I felt as if I’d vomit on her Persian
carpet.

“Captain Paulwell, please, sit down.”

“I don’t want to sit down, Ms Rhyse! I don’t want to hear anymore! I thought I was a master of the expedient but I’m wrong. You are. Moving lives around like pieces on a chess board! Taking advantage of people who have no where to go …and don’t tell me he’s a Eugenic, he’s a human being! He has a right to life…”

“You need not tell me that, Captain.” echoed her voice, “I love him. Although my love is not carnal, it is of substantial consistency.”

She used the word love unlike I’d ever heard. It came hesitant, ponderous, I had no doubt of it. I looked at her, all the beauty money could buy. All the artifice and over concentration on manners her kind affected. But there was no fraud here, she did love him.

She considered her admission a moment, adopting a posture so like Gye, head slightly lowered, eyes looking elsewhere, then her eyes meeting mine.

“For centuries we, normals, decided Eugenics were to solve their own problems, construct their worlds as they chose, hopefully, omit us. That is not possible. What they do effects us. Just as what we do effects them.”

She stood, glided to the mantle above a fireplace, pressed a button and in the air came a hologram. Each Eugenic planet was coloured orange. Human occupied worlds were green.

“Notice our lanes, where we trade, obtain raw materials, where we bring them…” lines filled the space. “Dalmar.” She enlarged the world for a moment, then let it sink to size; “Notice how our shipping lanes pass through Dalmar Space. Notice Sagir. Notice how Dalmar prevents Sagirs from crossing this line. Hence, they can not trade. Further, they have no economy. Their currency is not accepted beyond their world. Unlike Dalmar, Molbe, Tellur…who use our currency.”

“So you think we normals can interfere in a Gennie problem?”

“Captain Paulwell, admit to me, here, in absolute privacy, that you believe Gye Tomaka, and those of Sagir deserve the treatment they receive?”

Playing devil’s advocate; “I don’t know the treatment they receive. I heard what you’ve said, and what Gye told me, but there is…”

“No proof? Of course there is proof. You prefer not to see it. But you deceive yourself. I admit my affection for Gye. Will you admit your’s?”

“Yeah, I like him.”

“Good, because I want you to take command of the Invictus, fly through Sagir space and pay them for the privilege.”

“The Invictus?” I nearly fell over.

Of all ships in creation, this was the best. It had been built on military standards and exceeded them. It’s weaponry was more diverse and better than the Admirality of the United Planets.

“I’ll give you a week to learn the ship, your Presidium will be put in dry dock and I’ll have it refitted and restocked, and you and your crew, as well as others, will board the Invictus…”

“You’re serious.” I shook my head.

“The Invictus will be the flag ship for five hundred ships, all of whom will pay Sagir to cross their space.”

“Sagir will use the money to build their military, probably with help from a Hawking subsidiary.”

She smiled slowly, then, “Jeeves will see you out.”

Up rolled a tin man and before I left I gave her a look, maybe I didn’t know what I was seeing. Then I recalled her first words to me;

” We are all mercenaries. “

Yeah.