Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet (40 page)

"That's a new English phrase to us," Talker told Lee, "but it translates, no it actually transliterates, very well to Badger. It's quite an old proverbial saying."

"Good, then you understand exactly," she agreed, satisfied.

Chapter 19

The
Sharp Claws, Dart
and
Roadrunner
formed up and lifted away from the cluttered equatorial plane of the gas giant with all its moons, rings and odd pieces of debris before turning to make a jump run for the next star. Two more systems to transverse, numbers 66, 67, and 82, then they'd be back to 80 and the fleet. They were an hour and a half into their run, nothing untoward happening, no communication from the Bill station when the com tech on the
Sharp Claws
called out on the open common channel.

"Entry radiation! It's on a line from a system we haven't visited," Einstein the com tech called out. The chart says there isn't much there, so they probably just passed through it,"

"What else is out that way?" Captain Frost asked.'

"The Cats system and beyond them a Biter world," the tech answered.

"The Cats don't run their own ships, so I'll bet that is their ride coming for the Biters on the Bill's station," Frost speculated. "May the Bills have the joy of explaining their dead comrades. Especially because I suspect they were left there just to ambush us."

"Assuming there weren't other Biters to tell them on station , unseen," Chance pointed out.

The
Dart
was in the circuit, but they didn't comment on his speculation.

"Will they dock before we jump out?" Frost asked.

"Another entry right behind them!" Einstein announced.

The com tech. then bounced the data to the navigator to answer Frost. "No, we'll be gone. But they will see we are gone from station scan. It updated about every six minutes, and we hardly left on good enough terms to ask them to edit us out. Are you concerned they will change course and follow us? We are so close to jump we may not be in-system long enough to see it if they do divert from the station to follow us."

"Not at all. The strong impression I am getting is that the Bills are of a different nature than the Badgers we've come to know better. They seem," Frost hesitated and seemed to be having trouble finding words, "much more risk adverse," he finally decided. "I can't imagine them saying anything about what happened until the Biters are docked and then they will probably try to act stupid and say: Who? It will be way too late to try to catch up with us by then."

There was the huffing sound on the circuit that they'd come to recognize as Badger laughter. "You are learning things for yourselves we'd really rather not tell you, because it might seem prejudiced. I see a lot better words listed on the translator screen. But that was so
polite
. The Bills can rise to physical bravery. Look at the Captain who rammed the Bitter ship. But you are correct that if you have to bet on what reaction you will get from a Bill under stress, the likeliest response will be to avoid conflict and put off a reckoning as long as possible ."

* * *

"That isn't just radar, it's a weapon in itself!" Talker said, shocked.

"Anything can be a weapon," Gordon said with a shrug, "Our radar isn't a cost effective weapon compared to others. Get close enough and you wouldn't want to be in our exhaust cone when we fire the engines up either. But it would make a very awkward expensive weapon."

"What would your radar do to a moonlet of ice like you just hit with the peashooter?" Trader asked.

"I'm actually not sure. I don't know if anybody has tried it. It would depend on what frequency we set it and how narrow we focused the beam down. It might do anything from shatter it to slowly melt it and then boil it. I assume that you know that it takes a lot of power not just to not just heat water but to make it go through the phase changes?"

Talker nodded acknowledgement.

 "I have no desire to sit running both reactors at max sucking down fuel for
hours
to melt a big-assed snowball,"

"So you'd hope to shatter it?"

"I see no practical reason to mess with it unless we needed a lot of water for some reason. I'll worry about this problem when we find somebody who makes spaceships out of ice. I believe my clan's freighter the
Ruddy Rustic
took on a full load of water to maximize their mass as much as possible one time, but I never did talk with the Captain to learn the details of how he took it aboard, or for that matter how he got rid of it if he let it freeze again. Since it turned out he didn't need it."

"Why would anyone make a ship as heavy as possible?" Walker asked, suspiciously.

"Well, we were at war with North America over some issues of law. We felt they had broken a treaty with us. They rather disrespected us too. Things were going rather badly for them. They had attacked our territory on Derfhome and lost that force and lost a rather large tonnage of shipping and military craft, both captured and destroyed. They sent a delegation to seek an end to hostilities, but they were so arrogant we didn't feel sure they would negotiate in good faith. They were so much larger than us they assumed they would prevail."

"So we had a ship poised well outside the fringes of their star system to bombard their capital city if they refused to yield. If we'd tried to use some other more conventional weapons they might have intercepted and defeated them, so instead we determined we'd boost a ship straight in to impact their capital city at about twenty four thousand kilometers a second."

"At that velocity coming straight in we really didn't think anybody could intercept it or even deflect it enough to matter. Even if you hit it with some weapon in the last seconds that much mass at such a velocity hitting the atmosphere above the city would do the job, even if you busted it and spread it out a little. But the majority of the continent and northern hemisphere of the planet would have been OK. We're not monsters to want to wipe out a big chunk of the planet, just to decapitate their government."

"Decapitate," Talker said, feeling his throat with a telling gesture, "that's a new word. Is this a common tactic in your wars among yourselves?"

"Decapitation of an adversary's command and control is a well known strategy, but that particular way of doing it has never been used. Still, I expect such a kinetic missile would rouse less anger in the other Earth nations than using, uh, other weapons I'd rather not talk about just yet."

"This means we have yet to hear the
worst
," Talker told Trader.

"Yes, but there is no way of making them unmet."

"On the contrary. All you'd have to do is say go away and we would," Gordon told them.

"If life were only so simple," Talker said. "Your culture, or cluster of cultures, is still expanding this way. Are
all
your different planets and nations going to respect it if we say – go away? And that still leaves us to deal with the Biters, who we thought were a problem." He sighed. "Who are undoubtedly aroused in their passions by having someone they can't bully. If you went away I wouldn't expect to find our dealings with them suddenly improved."

"I can't speak for every nation and planet or corporation," Gordon admitted. "The two reps we brought along can speak for Fargone and Red Tree within certain limits. But the Little Fleet will never force themselves upon you unwanted."

"No, we are not happy with some of the things revealed, but neither does it sound like these North Americans are somebody we'd rather deal with. If you know something has negatives, that doesn't mean you jump into something else without looking. I don't mean to insult you, but you are more of a known quality than the others."

"Oh, we have a saying that conveys that sentiment pretty much," Gordon agreed. "
Better the devil you know
than the devil you don't
". It's so well known that sometimes people just say, "
Better the devil you know -"
and figure the ancillary statement  is obvious."

* * *

"I'd like return to the fleet straightaway now," Chance informed the others as they approached the jump point. "Not stopping for any but the direst necessity, so Gordon doesn't get the news about our conflict with the Biters and being kicked off the Bill's station from them first. I'm sure it will be made to sound like we were rampaging through their systems looking for trouble."

"If he hasn't figured out the fine details of Badger and Bill psychology he has surely gotten the measure of the Biters. He won't be surprised if they begged for a butt whipping," Persevere said.

"Indeed, and they know we are along as a moderating good influence," Fussy said from the
Dart
. The translation program didn't know what to do with a loud rude raspberry, but Fussy could guess.

* * *

"They want the equivalent of thirty two Earth days to get their act together and load up two ships to return with us to Fargone and New Japan," Prosperity reported. "Do you think that is reasonable, or should I ask a different time frame?

Gordon didn't answer instantly, leaning back in his seat and scratching under his chin.

"How long would it take
us
to outfit two ships to come here, if it was the Badgers who dropped in on us instead of the other way around?" Lee asked.

"Lee has the right of it," Gordon decided. I'd be amazed if Humans weren't still talking about it instead of doing it at thirty two days. Does two ships mean the Bills are coming along?"

"It does. I get the sense they are number two in the local culture and economy behind the Badgers, although nobody is supplying any numbers or saying it that bluntly. If they don't come along and get in on Human/Derf trade and technology right from the start they'll be a
distant
second in almost everything," Prosperity said. "But why do you say
Humans
would still be talking at thirty two days? I feel like there is some unwarranted prejudice there."

"Don't get your nose all bent out of shape," Gordon told him. "Most of the tech we are selling them will come from Fargone or New Japan. Derf know we are second in a lot of ways too."

"With Derf the Mothers decide what is going to happen and issue orders," Lee explained. "They may not be ahead in tech, but their system works faster than committees and consensus, and if the law needs to be changed they just declare it is so."

"Not to say they make the
right
decision," Gordon admitted, "but they can go wrong very quickly and efficiently." That cracked Thor up.

"Competition may have driven the Badgers planning," Prosperity said, looking surprised like it might be a sudden insight. "The Badgers might have pushed the schedule up, hoping the Bills couldn't get ready in time."

"Tell them yes then," Gordon decided. "But make something  clear. If they are under our protection  and we share our jump vectors and clock with them, they will take my fleet orders like everybody else. When we are in the deep unknown between the stars there will be one boss. Make that clear and don't soften it nor apologize for it. If they don't like it we'll point the right direction and they can make their own way to our home systems, unarmed and unescorted."

"Ah, you aren't going back the same route, are you?" Lee asked.

"What is the gain in that?" Gordon asked. "The Bunnies won't have had time to sort things out yet to be worth visiting so soon, we did a good enough survey on all the systems for our purposes. If we go back a slightly different route we can potentially double our profitable findings."

"Yeah, I'm totally in agreement. I know how you think. I knew you wouldn't be so concerned about it if we were going back into well known systems," Lee said like a challenge.

"True," Gordon agreed, making a gesture of surrender with both hands.

"Both the Badgers and Bills are petitioning us to leave the
Murphy's Law
here to protect the station and system from any Biter reprisals. They feel any response would be directed here, because they

Expect the Biters to see the station as colluding to allow you to visit."

Gordon blinked, speechless for a moment. "Are you sure that's the right word? Is it what they used or did you pick it?"

"No, that's what they picked from the translation program. It's really getting pretty good at fine nuances. The error is not the word, it's that the Biters are crazy."

"Indeed, it's not their station, world or system, unless they have some claim the Badgers haven't revealed," he speculated.

"I'm certain there is not. This is the essence of the sort of problems they have with them. They presume a great deal and feel anything the others do is by their leave as superiors."

"I suspect it is going to be a hard lesson to unlearn this attitude," Thor said.

"How do you feel about leaving the
Murphy's Law
behind?" Gordon asked. "Are you sure it is within your authority as Fargone Spox to order it?"

Before Prosperity could answer Thor spoke up again. "How do the
crew
feel about it? They are all volunteers. Best to
keep
it truly voluntary. To be left behind this far from home may not set well."

"I got
verbal
instructions about the internal structure of our Fargoer crew from the government and Admiralty in conference with Captain Henry. I know he got written orders, but not what. I'm not really ordering it. With Captain Henry I'm requesting it. So you may assume if he has no objection he found the suggestion within my proper purview. I was counseled to consult with Captain Henry for any major decisions, but specifically told I had no veto on his command authority. He is willing to consider remaining here for a reasonable period of time. He is not willing to stay on a hold at all cost basis, no matter how long we delay returning."

"Can't say that I blame him," Lee threw in.

"Since we can now estimate how long the return voyage would be for the fleet it would be possible to leave a portion of the excess stores for him, and the
Roadrunner
. Or as he made clear, "If Gordon and Lee approve." He realized you may feel it isn't safe to leave that much firepower behind and wouldn't approve. All the more so if you are going back a different route."