Chapter 38 - Threats and Bluster

I wanted to speak up once we were past the marines, but before I could gather my courage James turned to Yvette. "It's clear that our friend the governor is out to cause trouble. We should not let him know about the fact that we have access to the three common rooms just yet. However, make sure that all citizens use the ice rink to move back and forth for now. I don't want us confronting his goon squad just yet."

Yvette nodded. "In fact, I'd take that further and stop all transit except as necessary to run the command post, and I recommend only using men in the command post after today."

James frowned. "We are already missing three of our four best teams. We do that and we remove the twins." He reached up with his left hand to rub his chin. Finally, he looked over at Yvette and nodded. "No, you're right. It's extremely unfair to put the twins in that situation. And many of the other young ladies would fare no better. Our governor clearly doesn't respect young women. I just hope the men can handle the situation."

"We still have our usual command post," Esther said quietly. "We can always have people working in there as backup."

James nodded at that, but continued to frown. "I know, and I guess we'll have to do that, but I really don't want Governor Johanes thinking we are trying to go around him. I get a feeling that the man won't take it well."

Yvette coughed as we continued to walk down the corridor. My grip on James' arm tightened until I noticed him grimacing in pain. I relaxed my grip slightly, but pressed my body close to his as we approached the command post where we found two more marines stationed.

One of the marines looked up as we approached. He immediately waved the rifle he was carrying. "Go to the lab. Governor Johanes will meet you there."

James immediately turned around, almost knocking me down in his haste. I released his arm as he spun and then latched on again as we started back down the passage. Beside him Yvette turned a bit more slowly, but caught up to him quickly. "Why did you do that?" I heard Esther ask as we turned a corner.

"I just want to get to our governor and get this meeting over with," James muttered. "He's entirely too happy to play games."

Yvette said nothing in response. I tried to reach up with my free hand to touch James' shoulder, but the quick pace he was setting prevented me from stroking him. With little chance to offer him comfort, I ran alongside him as we approached the door to the lab. It stood open and unguarded.

James did not pause, but led us into the room before he came to a halt. He stood at attention, but was shaking slightly as we watched our new governor gaze intently into a viewscreen. Minutes passed while the man made adjustments to the picture. Around the room six other men gazed into their own viewscreens. Many were using tablets to write notes as they examined the pictures. As this went on James and Yvette stood silently.

Terrence was sitting alone at a table. He had nodded when we entered, but then turned his attention to the back of Governor Johanes. Terrence looked composed as he sat quietly.

Eventually, the scientist must have completed his examination. He leaned back in his chair and spun it around. When he noticed James and Yvette standing in the room he scowled. "Took you long enough," he said gruffly as he stood up.

"I came right after I woke," James said. "I haven't even had breakfast yet."

"That's not my problem," the scientist growled. He waved at Terrence. "You! Get to the screen I was using and switch to the flat disk in quadrant four. See if you can get a refined scan of the indentations on the side." He then turned back to James. "Let's sit, this will probably be a long conversation."

James nodded, but then touched my shoulder. He leaned down and whispered in my ear. "Bring me some breakfast."

I looked around to find the replicator as James and Yvette followed the scientist to the table Terrence had been sitting at. Terrence noticed my confusion and walked by me. "There is one in the hallway. Just go out the door and turn right. That will avoid any problems in here," he whispered before heading to the viewscreen the governor had abandoned.

Esther smiled and moved next to me. "Let's go together. We can bring Yvette and the scientist something to drink. That might help keep him calm."

I nodded. "Let's do it quickly. The men on this side of our door seem..." I was unable to finish the thought and took off for the door at a run.

Esther immediately started to chase me. She quickly caught up to me and matched my pace as we left the room and then followed the walls for twenty feet or so until we found the replicator. She giggled as I stopped in front of the replicator and put my hands on my knees. "Say no more," she gasped out. "I understand the feeling completely."

She caught her breath while I was still gasping a little. With a smile she turned to the replicator and touched the panel we used to activate the public area units. "I need some hot orange tea, a lemonade, and a cup of coffee the way Governor Johanes likes it."

"What if he doesn't like coffee?" I asked with a giggle as I stood back up.

"Men like him always like coffee," Esther said mockingly. "And most take it black just to show how manly they are."

The replicator hummed for a moment and then dispensed a tray holding three drinks. "Hot tea spiced with orange, lemonade and strong unsweetened coffee," the AI said.

Esther stepped away from the replicator with a knowing smile as I stepped up to it and put my palm on the activation pad. "Ham and cheese omelet, toasted English muffin and crispy hash browns," I started. "For drinks can I get two cups of hot oolong tea?"

Esther giggled. "No bacon for James?"

I shrugged. "Not today. I just want him to have something that will get him started."

We turned back towards the lab. As we started to walk, we could hear footsteps behind us. The sound indicated that the person was moving faster than us, so we tried to walk a bit faster. We had just about reached the open doorway when a man called out. "Halt concubine! What are you doing in these halls?"

Esther bumped my hip lightly. "Go and let James and Yvette know. I'll try to get him to let us go."

I nodded and kept going. Esther paused and turned, holding her tray out so it blocked the hallway. "I'm taking drinks to Governor Johanes and my master. They are in a meeting in the lab. May I complete my task?"

"I need a concubine to help me," the man called out as I entered the laboratory.

James and Yvette looked up as I entered. James smiled and waved me over. "Meiko! Perfect, I was wondering if I was going to get to eat this morning. Where is Esther?"

I walked up and placed the tray in front of James. "Some marine accosted us in the hallway. She paused to tell him that we were bringing food and drinks to a meeting in here."

"I see no drinks!" Governor Johanes growled.

"Esther has them," I replied placidly as I knelt next to James. He put a hand on my head as I reached out to take one of the cups of tea.

Yvette sighed and stood up. "Excuse me for a moment, Governor," she said.

The man did not respond as Yvette walked over to the doorway and glanced out. She then shouted. "Concubine, what are you delaying for? Governor Johanes is thirsty. Get in there with that tray and serve him!"

There was a very feminine squeak of dismay and a moment later Esther entered the room. She was moving quickly, but somehow made it seem like she was gliding effortlessly across the floor.

As Esther entered the room and passed Yvette, we could hear a male voice shout. "Hey, I did not give you leave to depart! I told you I had need of a concubine!"

Yvette seemed to grow as she stood there. She stepped into the hallway. "Marine! Did I give you permission to talk to my concubine? Did your training not tell you that you could only give commands to your own concubines? And why are you telling my concubine what she can do in the hallways here? Why don't you get to your duty post?"

I could not hear the response, but Yvette must have been satisfied, because she returned to the table with a smirk on her face. Governor Johanes was clearly upset and scowled as Yvette accepted the lemonade that Esther was holding out for her.

"Was that necessary?" the governor asked.

"I believe I have the right to decide who talks to my concubine," Yvette said. "At least that was my understanding of Confed law when I was picked up. If your marines need concubines to help them, why did they not bring them?"

"No one told me that it was permitted," the governor growled. "Normally, marines do not take concubines with them on deployments."

"Is this a combat deployment or just a scientific mission?" James asked. "When we were informed you were coming, it was supposed to be merely a scientific mission."

"That's for me to worry about," the governor said as he picked up the coffee cup that Esther had set on the table. "Now, we still haven't had time for a complete briefing. I need to know what you do here, and then I will issue a few orders."

James and Yvette glanced at each other. Both shrugged and then James turned to look at the governor. "It's not that complex," James began. "When we were first dropped, we were told that this base has the dual purpose of acting as a listening and scanning post for this area of space while also providing a repair and refit station for Confederacy Naval Ships in the sector. We have the command post that must be manned by two people at all times. One maintains a communications watch while the other monitors all of the sensors we have deployed."

"How far out is your scanning?" the governor asked.

Yvette shrugged. "About twenty astronomical units for gravatic scanners that can give us real-time information. That gives us a scanning area of more than two and a half light hours where we see any ship movements as they occur. The Sa'arm use a hyperdrive that leaves a rather obvious footprint, so we can usually see their gates open up to fifteen minutes before the ship emerges from their jumps."

"You scan beyond that limit?" the governor asked.

"Ishtarat is a smaller system than Earthat. Kali is only about fourteen astronomical units from our sun. Back at Earthat Uranus orbits at twenty astronomical units, and Neptune orbits beyond Uranus," James said. "Beyond the limit we've set there is only the various belts of debris, and it's so far from any gravitational field that the only reason a ship would emerge that far out was if it wanted to use stealth. We�ve never had a Sa�arm ship appear more than seventeen astronomical units from our sun. Why scan further out?"

"Now we have used some of our replicator capacity to build probes that had hyperdrives. These we sent to local systems in Sa'arm controlled space. They were programmed to scan any moons and planets they found and report back. That is how we obtained the artifacts," Yvette said as James paused to eat some of the omelet.

The scientist appeared puzzled. "So sending out the probes was not part of your duties?"

"We never had our duties officially spelled out," James admitted. "Initially, we were one hundred citizens dropped onto a hostile planet who were ordered to man and maintain the communications and scanning stations for passing ships. The repair station is automated and could probably survive without our help."

"It wouldn't be there though if we had not been here," Yvette said. "The Sa'arm might not be trying to exploit any planet in the system, but we saw scouts before we had been here two months. At that time the scouts took a few shots at one of the orbital drydocks that was set up around Clarke."

"The second planet?" the scientist asked. "But you have both of the ships currently being repaired in docks that are orbiting one of the moons. Astarte wasn't it?"

"After that first attack we started to actively try to protect the repair docks. One of the first actions we took was to have all of the dry-dock units move to Astarte and Inanna. This made them easier to defend and also helped when we acted to relieve injured crews," James told the governor.

"That was my next question," the governor said. "Why do you provide medical assistance?"

I stiffened a little as James pressed down on me. Yvette's eyes widened at the callous disregard for others in the man's voice. I could see the muscles in her neck tighten for a moment, but then she let out a long, slow sigh. "That started with the first ship we helped," she said. "Nassau was so badly damaged that they had no working medical pods. Two of their crew were critically injured and needed immediate care. We had pods available, so we took them in."

"Took the whole crew in," James added. "It was easier to repair the ship when there was no one on it. When it arrived, only the bridge still held atmosphere."

"You accepted visitors?" the Governor snapped.

"Of course," James replied. "There was no reason to force the crew to remain on a ship that's locked into a dry dock. And this was back when we only had a limited amount of space available."

"Wait! What does that mean?" the governor asked, turning to glare at James.

"How much did you learn about Ishtar before you came?" James asked.

"There was nothing on the colony in the records," the governor replied. "In fact, when I tried to get details, the AI informed me that the pickup records were sealed by a joint order from Fleet Admiral Tucker and that idiot who heads DECO. All I was able to find out was that you had found some artifacts that came from an alien race that isn't part of the Confederacy."

I gasped. The governor immediately glared at me. "Concubine, it seems you are surprised by this. What is it that I don't know?"

James' hand offered me support as I tried to hide from the governor's accusing eyes. He kept me from turning away. The others sat silent until finally I set my cup of tea back on the table.

"One hundred citizens were brought to Ishtar," I said. "But originally only twenty lived in the area that comprises the heart of the colony now. We were separated from the others."

"Who authorized the separation?" the governor asked.

"I never asked," I admitted. "I know that James and Yvette were part of the core group that came up with the idea of staying separate, and that the AI appeared to agree with the plan. Now, when James and Yvette talk about the early days, they are only talking about the citizens who were on our side of the colony."

"What happened to the others?" the governor asked.

"Two different citizens tried to become the leader of the colony," Esther said. "On the other side of the colony, a war broke out between the followers of those leaders. Any citizen who tried to remain neutral was captured. Many were forced to fight for the side that captured them. The fighting ended when a tunnel breach allowed the atmosphere into the halls."

"But you survived?" the governor asked.

"Confederacy technology can deal with the acid," James said. "We were kept separated from the rest of the colony by some heavy pressure doors."

"Wait, are those the doors that Major Bonham insisted I place guards over?" the Governor asked.

Yvette laughed. "So he was the one wasting effort guarding the doors. Yes, those doors were originally set up to keep any of the others away from our homes. But they also are capable of standing up to the acid."

"This side was filled with the acid?" one of the other scientists said. His voice was filled with terror. "I've seen some video of a woman who was touched by the acid."

"Don't worry," James replied. "The breach was repaired a long time ago, and the acid doesn't interact with the soil above us. We are perfectly safe as long as no one uses heavy weapons and creates another breach. Right now, the Sa'arm are the real threat."

"As they have always been," Yvette said quietly. "Although after their last defeat, maybe we'll be left alone for a while."

Governor Johanes snorted. "Like you'd know. I've talked to scientists who have spent months studying Sa'arm behavior. We have no idea why they make many of the decisions they do, but we do know that they never leave any kind of barrier alone. They keep sending units out until it's removed."

"Not sure I'd describe us as a barrier to them," James said. "We can do some damage to their scouts, but that's really the limit of our combat ability. And the acid in the atmosphere does make a very effective moat. They can't exactly storm our little castle here."

The Governor had a sour expression on his face. "Fine," he snapped. "Enough talk about the former problems. At least I now know about the colony and why it's so small, but I thought you said you have twenty-two citizens. How did you get more than the twenty you started with?"

"We had three citizens from our side of the colony die during the fighting," Yvette said. "At the same time we welcomed four refugees. Amanda also turned fourteen, so she was able to test. She scored high enough to become a citizen."

"Where did she get concubines?" one of the other scientists asked. The man got up from his viewscreen and joined us at the table.

Governor Johanes scowled at the man. "Why aren't you examining the artifacts?" he asked the scientist.

The man shrugged. "How many ways can you scan a dowel that is two centimeters in diameter? The only interesting things are the levels of alpha radiation coming from it. The heavy metals that the dowel is made of are interesting, but have no uses in combat."

"Heavy metals?" Yvette asked. "Perhaps the alloy could be used in armor. Isn't that one way to make more effective armor?"

"A lot you know," Governor Johanes replied. "The alloy throws off lethal levels of radiation. It would kill anyone trying to use it as armor. Kilroy, what else have you found about this dowel?"

Kilroy shrugged. "It's hard to say. It's about forty centimeters long and tapered. Near the narrow end, there are several small ridges and that tip is rounded smooth. At the other end, there are several irregularly spaced grooves, but the grooves are smooth and rounded.

I thought about the description for a moment. A picture of the dowel appeared in my mind and I gasped.

"What!" Governor Johanes barked. "Concubine, why did you gasp?"

I blushed and tried to jump to my feet. James held me down and leaned over to whisper in my ear. "Calm Little One, you haven't done anything wrong. Just say what caused you to gasp."

I felt my face heat more. I stopped fighting James and looked at the ground for a moment. When I regained control of my emotions I looked at the scientist, Kilroy. "I'm sorry," I said. "It's just when you described the shape of the dowel" I suddenly had an image in my mind of some large alien using two of them to pick up food and put it in a mouth."

Yvette burst out laughing. "You mean that the dowel is just an alien chopstick?"

James and Esther started laughing as well. Governor Johanes looked furious. Everyone glanced over at Kilroy, who had his head on the table for a moment. He looked up and tears were pouring from his eyes. I was afraid, until I realized he was nearly hysterical with laughter.

"I can't believe I didn't see that," the man said. "It might not be, but the shape definitely is similar to a chopstick. Only, I'd hate to meet an alien race that could tolerate that level of radiation."

I giggled and settled back down next to James. He leaned over to give me a kiss on the cheek. Yvette pulled Esther down to sit on her lap. She looked up at Kilroy. "Amanda basically inherited the concubines that were left behind when Eric and Tasha died. They didn't will the concubines to her, but they were the only free concubines available when she passed her test."

Kilroy frowned and looked at Governor Johanes. "You said that concubines would be available to us."

"They will be!" Governor Johanes snapped. "There has to be at least one unattached concubine on this planet."

"All concubines on Ishtar are designated as the property of a citizen," the AI intoned.

"That's not possible!" the governor shouted. "Someone has to have gotten bored with a concubine by now. They've been on this planet for over a year!"

"No living citizen of Ishtar has ever abandoned a concubine," the AI replied.

"My men can't be expected to do their work without having concubines to fuck!" the governor snapped. He turned to point at James. "You, Private Rabb! You can loan me your concubines while we are here. You can start with that stupid chink girl kneeling next to you."

James started to rise from his chair. I threw my arms around him and held him down. My master had his hands grasping the table. As I fought to keep him from jumping over the table, I watched the knuckles of his hands turn white. He fought my embrace for several minutes and then finally sank back into the chair.

"That is a completely illegal order," James hissed dangerously. "I might not have been through training, but I remember enough Confed law and military regs to know that you are not permitted to issue orders pertaining to my concubines."

"I can do whatever I want," Governor Johanes hissed back. "I am the governor of this planet."