The Far Side (59 page)

“Even if three thousand Arvalans are shooting off their crossbows?”

“More targets for the cannons, Andie,” Ezra told her.  “More targets for the muskets.  You’d probably win, but it would cost a lot of lives.”

“In short, if we had weapons from home, we could do it easily, and kill Tengri and not our allies, but we can’t use them because those fucking assholes have the wind up?” Andie said, back to being angry.

“That’s about it, Andie.  And really, you’d have a lot of trouble convincing them that it would be a good idea.  You’d have a lot of trouble convincing anyone that it’s a good idea.  I’m not sure, but it might also be that Collum and Melek would object.”

“Why would they object?” Andie said, still furious.

“I can’t speak for you, Andie, but when I was twelve my mother decided that I needed to learn how to cook.  She would stand over me and make comments about everything I did.  I shouldn’t do this, I should do that.  It was dispiriting and I quickly grew to hate cooking.  When I came home after I got out of the army, my mother came in and found me boiling water for tea in the microwave.  She got on my case, saying that the tea tasted funny, brewed like that.  I ask you -- hot water is hot water!”

Kris laughed.  “I’m not sure but what I agree with her.  But I think I see your point.  If we do all the hard things for them, they are going to think that we’ll do it for them all the time and that all they have to do is sit back and relax.”

“Exactly.”

“Except if they try it on their own, they’ll get hammered,” Kris went on.

“Yes.”

“So, Mr. Fucking Know-it-All -- tell me, do you have a way to do something, or just an endless stream of excuses about how you can’t?” Andie said, and spit at his feet.

“Now that, Andie, is another question altogether.  In a bit we’ll be talking to the people back home.  I don’t think we should go into the military situation just now.  The King of Arvala and his most trusted lieutenant are going to escort us south with a large force of men to keep us safe.  Because there are so many, it’s going to take a couple of weeks.

“Once we’ve finished talking to them, we can talk to Kurt and Jake, without worrying about eavesdropping.  They can go back and forth, although they have to stay in the containment area.  If there’s a way to talk to others without the government listening in, they’ll know a way.”

“And how do we make Collum and Melek think they are risking as much in an attack?  Even while we’re doing our best to keep them safe?” Kris asked.

“You have to understand, if some of their men don’t bleed and die, it won’t make any difference.  They’ll know that they were just a fucking chess piece, like the Marines were in the first Gulf War.  I’m pretty sure we can take out the cannons or their crews with RPGs -- and let Arvalans deal with the soldiers on the walls.

“That won’t be cheap, but without those cannon, the Tengri aren’t going to like what happens.”

They talked more until it was time to talk to their parents.

Andie didn’t want to go first, but Kris and Ezra insisted.  It was like watching two strange cats meeting each other in a dark alley -- much hissing and spitting, but there was too much at stake to do that for very long.  Andie told him she was coming as fast as he could.  Otto Schulz had laughed.  “You wouldn’t know how to hurry if it slapped you in the face!  Take your own sweet time!”

It left Andie in tears, but she was back from the radio when Kris talked to her father and mother.

“I’m fine,” Kris told her parents.  “It’s been exciting a few times, but I’m fine.  So are Andie and Ezra.”

“You’re getting enough to eat?” Helen Boyle asked.

“Yes, we’re about out of MREs, as we’ve been eating some no matter what.  The local food seems filling but there is no way to know if the local vitamins and minerals are the same as ours.  So we’ve kept up a steady diet of stuff from home -- if just not in as large of quantities as we’d like.”

“And the people are human?”

“Well, pretty much.  I haven’t, you know, examined all the anatomical details,” Kris told her mother.

“Any allergies?”

“Not so as I’ve noticed.  Neither Andie nor I were prone to getting sick before and we haven’t gotten sick here.  I don’t think pathogens are a problem, at least not as big as everyone seems to be making out back home.”

“Water?  Have you been drinking boiled water?”

Kris swallowed.  “Ah, no.  Sorry, I forgot about it.”

“And you’ve had no GI troubles?” her mother pressed.

“None,” Kris told her.  “Is that important?”

“Let’s just say that the flora and fauna of the human gut is quite varied and unless you have a modern water distribution system, said intestinal flora and fauna have a tendency to appear in drinking water.”

Kris decided to edit things a bit.  “They have public outhouses, divided by sex.”

Andie raised an eyebrow and Ezra snickered.  They had public outhouses, not divided by sex.

“Well, do be careful dear.  The larger animals bite, so it is certain that the microscopic ones are at least trying to.”

“I have been very careful, Mom,” Kris replied.  “We had to walk about four hundred miles to get here.  We didn’t get a single blister.  We have been real careful.”

“Well, you keep it up.  Here’s your father.”

Oliver Boyle said hello and Kris did the same.  “Is your hand okay?” Kris asked.

“Yes, thanks.  It was just a cracked bone.  I’m sorry about the young Chinese fellow who was killed.  Otto and I have done something for his family.  Not to mention we’re suing the pants off the City of Los Angeles, the LAPD and the LA County Sheriff’s Department and a great many individuals who were our guards.”

“It is my understanding that the government is listening in,” Kris told him.

“Well, they’re being unobtrusive about it.  Here in Otto’s hospital room with us is Jon Bullman, a technical representative from the government who is supervising the operation of the fusor.”

“Well, I’ll address him then, but they are free to monitor this and take what I have to say under advisement.  Mr. Bullman, hello, I’m Kris Boyle.”

“Miss Boyle, you have my deepest regard.”

“I do?  Can we count on you, then, ignoring a government order to turn off the fusor, an order that would strand us?”

“Yes, if I knew there was a possibility of your rescue without excessive casualties.  I don’t think my bosses realize quite how much people like me admire people like you -- and not those who are sitting on their big fat
behinds and who never go out and doing something worthwhile.”

“Well, we have about four hundred miles of territory to cover before we can reach the Far Side Door.  There are predatory dinosaurs out there, do you understand?”

“I understand.  I’m sorry about the young man who was killed the other day.  My wife and I sent his parents flowers and a donation in his name.”

“Further, there are people close to where we are going who believe people who look like me should be dead or enslaved.  They have superior weapons to the local technology, they have sailing ships... they have all sorts of things.

“I want you to know that I personally killed one of those slave-holding scum and freed a slave when I did so.  If I had to do it over again, I’d hope they’d line up so I can kill more of them.  As far as I’m concerned, for one group of people to hold others in bondage is something I object to in the strongest possible terms.  Throw in a racial component and my feelings run very strong.  Andie’s do as well, as do Ezra’s -- although in their cases I’ll let them speak to how much this offends them for themselves.

“I am, Mr. Bullman, going to oppose those people.  Andie is opposing those people.  I’m teaching school, Mr. Bullman.  I’m teaching people reading and writing, I’m teaching them arithmetic, geometry and leaving notes about advanced math.  We have a general science class where we discuss physics, chemistry, biology and astronomy.  Andie teaches similar classes on other things.

“I am, in short, going to make sure that slavery here meets the same fate it did in our country a hundred and fifty years ago.  I know Andie and Ezra feel the same way, but again, they can speak for themselves about their commitment to the ideal.

“I’m a fan of pop culture -- it’s what I grew up with.  I’ve watched all of the Star Trek episodes, and most episodes of the other science fiction series.

“There is this thing in some stories with various names, but the Star Trek term suffices: the Prime Directive.  That is, not messing with less advanced cultures.  Supposedly, if we do that, we’ll mess them up.

“A hundred and fifty years ago, the US sent Commodore Perry to Japan to open the country to trade.  It was then a feudal country, about two hundred years or more, behind Europe and America.

“Fifty years later, Japan beat the pants off the Russians and a few decades beyond that, tried to do it to the US, Australia, the Dutch and Great Britain.

“I submit that bad results are when you don’t take due cognizance of the local culture.  I dare anyone to tell me that the Japanese haven’t retained a large part of their original culture, and where they’ve changed, it was by the wishes of the people -- even if Japan hasn’t always been a democracy.

“Andie and I, perhaps Ezra as well, intend to help these people.  With knowledge, and, if possible with material goods.  We’re here, we know them.  Sure, you’re going to say who are we?  Two eighteen year old girls!  Hey, how old was Alexander when he conquered the world?  Andie has conquered big chunks of the universe, if you weren’t such wusses that it scares you.  She has given humanity plentiful electrical power for not very much.  If the research on fusor progresses like that on hand-held calculators, in twenty years they’ll be giving them out as freebies.

“History is going forward, ladies and gentleman.  You have the option to either get out of the way or get run over.  I understand that more than a few people have black eyes over this.  Trust me, black eyes are painful.”

Kris grinned at Andie and Ezra.  “And, on that cheerful note, I end my lecture.”

She paused, “Oh, and Mom, this one is for you.  I know you want me to go to a good school, and maybe someday I will.  But right now, contemplate what I’d have to say if I had an English essay topic: ‘What I did this summer.’”

She was sure that one of the guffaws was her father.  She’d forgotten what her mother was like and her set of priorities.  Kris was riding an emotional high, one like she’d never felt before.  She knew that no matter what was said, her words were going to be heard by the President of the United States, and probably a whole lot of people as well.  She was feeling good.

“Kris -- did you just say you killed someone?” her mother asked.

Kris was under full steam and not thinking entirely.  “Actually, I’ve killed several,” she said cheerfully.

There was a gasp, then an odd set of sounds.  Jon Bullman’s voice came over the radio.  “Wait one, Mrs. Boyle needs some smelling salts.”

Kris nearly fainted herself.  Her mother was a doctor!  She didn’t believe in violence, no matter what.

Oliver Boyle spoke a few seconds later.  “She’ll be all right, Kris; she just had a bit of a shock.”

“Dad, it was a choice I had to make -- let them kill me or do it to them first.  I want nothing more than to come back home and I’m not taking too well to people who try to stop me.”

Ezra blinked and Andie giggled.  That was an implied threat to the powers-that-be at home.  Well, if she’d had balls, maybe, she’d have made it explicit.

“I understand, Kris, and when your mother thinks about it -- especially considering the alternative -- I do believe she’ll come around.”  There was a slight hesitation in his voice and then he finished, “Your mother and I raised you well, and while we didn’t always agree on goals and methods, mostly we were together.”

“Dad, you and I haven’t always agreed on goals and methods
, either.”

“There’s that.  Both of us, I think, have learned a lot.  Mr. Sandusky said we shouldn’t talk too long, because you are a long way from fresh batteries and that we should save them for emergencies.”

“We’re starting back the day after tomorrow, Dad.  We’ll keep you up updated.  Tell Mom I love her, and I wish I hadn’t had to do what I had to do, but...”

“Kris, you were there.  The next time you have to make that decision, go with your best instincts -- don’t worry about being second-guessed by those of us here.”

A few moments later, Linda Walsh’s voice announced that the link back to Earth was broken.

Ezra was right there.  “Kurt, Jake, listen up.  We need to be able to take out those cannons at the fort, and maybe apply a little hurt to those warships.  I was thinking at least some RPGs and maybe some 81s.”

“They will shit bricks, you understand?”

“So, they shit bricks.  If they get too constipated, they can come here and shoot RPGs at guys who will be shooting back.

“Do you have enough boots on the ground?”

“Well, a C-130 tricked out to bring the rain -- that would do it for me.  But, no.  This is going to either turn into a bloody mess or a slam dunk.  More boots -- that just means more people who can get hurt.”