By David C. Daoust
The young pilot, whom Noreen knew as Abdul Cairn, came in pretty fast. She was positive that if the other officers were not there as well, his charge would have led to a physical altercation. This was largely going off of the young pilot’s heart rate. The sheer rage, apparent upon Abdul’s face, when that physical altercation was replaced with the pilot ripping off his helmet, sent that same reasoning to the rest of those gathered within the corridor.
“You little piece of shit,” the pilot, barely holding himself back, seethed the words an inch from Danny’s face, “…you left me adrift out there!”
“You should not have tried to hack our systems then,” The much younger Danny threw back without backing off an inch.
“I’m going to bring charges against this little hacker punk…” Abdul began, though was interrupted by, not only Pete moving in to support Danny, but also the other two constables moving to either side of their upstart colleague.
“That ‘little hacker punk’ is my son,” Pete was livid, Noreen was pretty sure his anger was real this time, “And it was my order that shut your systems down.”
“Now, hang on. Everyone needs to take a beat…” Adjutant Tolemy, the Administrator of Iopa XIX, tried to interject.
“I could have died out there!” Abdul protested as his fellow officers pulled him back.
“Oh, get out of here,” Danny snorted rudely, if a little flushed at the idea of facing charges, “I did not touch your life support…” Then defended his actions, “You started it– I would not have been able to do any of it, if you weren’t routing around our firewall!”
“The boy is right,” Adjutant Tolemy pressed, “You should not have tried to gain entry to their systems. It is not part of procedure, and is, in fact, illegal search and seizure. You will only bring disciplinary action down on your own head. That is, if someone were to press the issue— are we understood?”
Abdul took the warning as it were, finally deflating a bit, he stepped back.
Noreen could detect the young pilot counting to ten under his breath.
“Do you want to press it- or should I?” Pete asked Abdul.
“No, sir,” Abdul pulled himself together enough to reply, “I think I must have been mistaken. Must have been a glitch.”
“I don’t think we’re going to need an escort,” the Adjutant dismissed the Constables.
The three men, fully decked-out in constable armor, backed off. One patted Abdul on the back, leading him away, as the young pilot replaced his helmet with a snarl. The next stepped in close to Danny and warned, “Don’t think we don’t know what those colors mean.”
The look of pure puzzlement crossed Danny’s face as he looked down at his own clothing.
The three Constables stalked off.
“What the hell was that?” Danny asked, perplexed.
“I do apologize,” Adjutant Tolemy said to Pete, reservedly, “What is it with kids and hacking people’s systems? Never changes… They’re all out to prove something.”
“Well, maybe he’ll see how dangerous it can be now,” Pete dismissed the whole incident. Clearly more interested with the reason they were actually there, “When is someone going to tell us what the hell is going on?”
“You don’t know what’s going on?” the Adjutant looked surprised.
“How would we?” Pete asked before explaining, “We’ve been in space for weeks.”
“You haven‘t heard anything about the United Moons?” Tolemy asked, bewildered.
“What about’em?” Pete asked, suddenly interested.
If Noreen had to guess the Captain of the Atlas definitely did know something about them, if not their current actions.
“Well, I’d say it’s been all over the news,” the Adjutant admitted, “But most of the major networks stopped covering it after the first week…” accepting the fact the newly arrived crew of the Atlas didn’t know anything about it, he threw out simply, “The United Moons declared independence from the Confederation.”
“Hot Dog!” Pete let out a hoot as he slapped the back of his own hand, then asked through a crooked grin, “Well, hell… what’s the problem with us?”
“Alfred Zhou,” Adjutant Tolemy Stated.
“Like, the Royal Zhou?” Pete asked.
“That’s the guy… now the ‘Prime Constable of the Protectorate’,” Adjutant Tolemy informed, before showing how he feels about it with, “Those crazy Spacers put him back in the spotlight.”
“We got a Royal calling the shots?” Pete asked a little bit mystified, a little bit angry, “Didn’t we lose enough men in the Factions War, to make sure that didn’t happen?”
Pete was a Veteran of that war– Noreen knew he’d seen more action than most.
“‘Prime Constable’– he’s the guy that ordered us ‘turned away’,” Danny interjected.
Pete nodded to his son in agreement before turning to Tolemy, “You don’t seem like you’re one of those ‘crazy spacers’. Why go along with it?”
“I am from Stormbridge,” Tolemy admitted with a nod, “I rotate up here three months out of the year… As far as I know, our moon hasn’t had much goings on with the UM, even when it was a bunch of blowhards talking over their head…”
“You should,” Danny pitched, “We should all have a say in where our taxes are going. The Confederation– it’s just going to keep going the way it’s going. ‘Keep doing whatever they can keep getting away with. They’ll never give nothing back.”
Pete put an appreciative hand on his young son’s shoulder.
Adjutant Tolemy looked pretty deep in thought, before saying, “Fact is, the Constabulary, out here, had us all in its grip long before Zhou appeared out of nowhere… You guys got it pretty good out there on Iopa’s outer rim, Umbrie being weeks away from the other colonies. The rest of us… well… what am I trying to say here? I guess… we’re all just trying to do our jobs.”
“And that job is?” Pete asked.
“Currently,” Adjutant Tolemy finally got to the meat, “That job is to make sure you’re all rested and ready for your long haul back to Umbrie– empty handed.” Then tacked on, sarcastically, “By order of the Prime Constable of the Protectorate of Second States.”
“That’s a mouth full…” Pete commented as the Adjutant led them to their quarters.
“Second to who?” Danny muttered with a dark brow.
“We need that tank,” Pete stated, adamantly.
“I don’t have the authority,” the Adjutant confessed, “Listen, I can get you a line back to Umbrie, if you want to try and talk reason. But I don’t think it’s going to do much good. This ‘Prime Constable’, he draws a hard line…”
And yet, Noreen knew, Umbrie was already on the line. She was simply waiting for the Captain of the Atlas to arrive in his quarters, to patch the call through…
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