Downbelow Station Part 28

"Take them out," the officer said. "Search them. Dead ones too." It was over. A hundred thoughts poured through Damon's mind... going for the gun in his pocket-running for it, as far as he could get before they shot him down.

And Josh... and his mother and his brother...

They laid hands on him, turned him against the wall and made him spread his limbs, him and Josh beside him, and Kressich. They searched his pockets and took the cards and the gun, which in itself was cause for a shooting on the spot They turned him about again, back to the wall, and looked at him more carefully. "You're Konstantin?"

He gave no answer. One hit him in the belly and doubled him, and he flung himself at the man shoulder-on and low, carried him and a chair over under the table. A boot slammed into his back and he was trampled in a fight which broke above him. He tore free of the man he had stunned, tried to claw his way to his feet by the table rim, and a shot burned past his shoulder, hit Kressich in the stomach.

A rifle clubbed him. His knees loosened, refusing to drive him to his feet; a second blow, on the arm stretched on the table. He went out, doubled as a boot slammed into him, stayed doubled against the blows until they knocked him half senseless. Then they hauled him up between two of them. "Josh," he said dazedly. "Josh!"

They had Josh up too, slumped between two of them, trying to shake him into life, and he managed to get his feet under him. His head rolled drunkenly. He was bleeding from the temple. For Kressich there was no use in urging; he was still moving, gut-shot and bleeding fast. They were leaving him. Damon looked about as they were taken out into the main room. Ngo had fled or they had taken him. The patrons had fled. There was only a scattering of corpses, and a few troops standing about with rifles. The troops hauled him and Josh outside, into the corridor. A few at Ngo's stood outside to stare as they were marched along and Damon turned his face aside, shamed to be publicly paraded in his arrest.

He thought they would be taken to the ships across the docks. And then they turned the corner onto the docks and headed left, and he realized otherwise. There was a bar the troops had taken for themselves, a headquarters, a place civs avoided.

Music, drugs, liquor-anything the civ sector had to offer-Damon stared numbly as they were hauled inside, into a lowering smoke and a thunder of music. A desk was there, incredibly enough, a concession to something official. The troops brought them to it and a man carrying a drink sat down and looked them over. "Got ourselves something here," said the leader of the group which had brought them in. "Fleet's looking for these two. Konstantin, this one. And we've got ourselves a Unioner here. Adjusted man, the rumor says... but Pell did the Adjusting."

"Unioner." The sergeant at the desk looked past Damon, grinned unpleasantly at Josh. "And how did the likes of you get onto Pell? Got a good story, Union man?" Josh said nothing.

"I do," a harsh voice said from the door, fit to shake the walls. "He's Norway property."

Laughter and conversation stopped, if not the music. The newcomers, armored as most in this place were not, came in with a brusqueness that startled the rest. "Norway" someone muttered. "Get out of here, Norway b.a.s.t.a.r.ds."

"What's your name?" the newcomer bellowed.

"Or you shoot all of us?" someone else said.

The short man with the loud voice punched the com b.u.t.ton at his shoulder and spoke something the music drowned, turned and waved his hand at the dozen troopers with him, who fanned out. He looked then at the rest, a slow circuit of the room. "You're none of you in fit condition to handle anything. Straighten up this den. Any of our people in here I'll skin 'em. Is there?" "Try down the row," someone shouted. "This is Australia territory. Norway's got no call to be putting us on report."

"Hand the prisoners over," the short man said. No one moved. Rifles of the Norway troops leveled, and there were outcries of shock and rage from the Australia troopers. Damon stood with his vision hazing as two of the dozen moved in on him and Josh, as a rough grip seized his right arm and jerked him from the hand which held him, hauled him along toward the door. Josh came without struggling. He did. As long as they were together... it was the most they had left.

"Get them out," the little man bellowed at his troops. They were pushed and hastened outside; two troopers stayed with their officer, in the bar. It was not until they were pa.s.sing the niner corridor that other troops intercepted them, other Norway troopers.

"Get to the Australia post," one yelled at the others, a woman's voice. "McCarthy's. Di's got them all at rifle point. He needs some numbers in there, fast."

The troopers headed past them at a run. Four of those escorting them kept on, taking them toward the blue dock access door, where guards stood. "Pa.s.s us through," the officer of their escort demanded. "We've got a potential riot situation back there."

The guards were Australia. The lettering and emblem proclaimed it. Reluctantly the squad opened the emergency doors and let them through the pa.s.sage. Thereafter was blue dock, where Norway occupied a berth next India, Australia, and Europe. Damon walked, beginning to feel shock from his injuries, if not pain. There was only the military here, troops coming and going, supply bales being loaded by military crews in fatigues.

Norway's access tube gaped before them. They walked the ramp, into the pa.s.sage, pa.s.sed through that chill into the airlock. Others met them, troops all with Norway's emblem.

"Talley," one said with a surprised grin. "Welcome back, Talley." Josh bolted. He made it as far as the middle of the access tube before they caught him.

iv Pell: Norway; blue dock; 1/8/53; 1930 hrs.

Signy looked up from her desk, for a moment dialed down the com noise, the reports of her troops on the docks and elsewhere. She gave a quizzical smile at the guards and at Talley. He was considerably the worse for wear... unshaven, diry, b.l.o.o.d.y. There was a swelling on his jaw.

"Come to see me?" she mocked him. "I hadn't thought you'd ask again." "Damon Konstantin... they've got him aboard. The troops have got him. I thought you'd want to talk to him."

That perplexed her. "You're trying to turn him in, are you?"

"He's here. We both are. Get him out of there."

She leaned back, looked curiously at him. "So you do talk straight," she said.

"You never talked."

And now he had nothing to say.

"They played games with your mind," she observed. "And now you're a friend of Konstantin's, are you?"

"I appeal to you," he said in a faint voice.

"On what grounds?"

"Reason. He's useful to you. And they'll kill him."

She regarded him from half-lidded eyes. "Glad to be back, are you?" There was a call blinking, which was something com evidently could not handle. She dialed up the sound and punched it through. "There's a fight broken out," she heard, "at McCarthy's."

"Di out of there?" she asked. "Give me Di."

"Busy," she heard. She waved a hand at the guards, dismissing the business of Talley. Another light was flashing.

"Mallory!" Talley shouted at her, being forced out the door.

"Europe's wanting you," Com said. "Mazian's on."

She punched through. They had gotten Talley out, to lock him up somewhere, she hoped.

"Mallory here, Europe."

"What's going on over there?"

"I've got trouble on the dock, sir. Janz needs instruction, by your leave, sir."

She punched out on him. "He's down," she was hearing on another channel.

"Captain, Di's shot."

She clenched a fist and held it back from the unit "Get him out, get him out, what officer am I talking to?"

"This is Uthup," a woman's voice came back. "One of Australia's shot Di."

She punched another b.u.t.ton. "Get me Edger. Quick!"

"We're through the door," she heard from Uthup. "We got Di."

"General alert Norway troops. We have dock trouble. Get out there!"

"Edger here," she heard. "Mallory, call your hounds in."

"Call yours in, Edger, or I'll shoot them on sight. They've shot Di Janz." "I'll stop it," he said, and cut out. alert was sounding in Norway's corridors, a raucous klaxon, blue lights flashing. Boards and screens in her office were coming to life as the ship turned out to emergency ready. "We're coming in," Uthup's voice came back. "He's still with us, captain."

"Get him in, Uthup, get him in."

"Going down there, captain." That was Graff, heading to the dock. She started pushing b.u.t.tons, hunting a visual and cursing at the techs; someone should have it on vid. She found it, the group coming in carrying more than one of their number, Norway troops pouring out onto the dock in haste and taking up positions around the umbilicals and access. "Get med on the com," she ordered. "Med's ready," she heard, watched a familiar figure reach the troops and take charge. Graff was out there. She found leisure for a quieter breath. "Europe's still holding," com advised her. She punched that channel.

"Captain Mallory. What war are you fighting out there?" "I don't know yet, sir. I'm going to find out as soon as I can get my troops aboard."

"You've got Australia's prisoners. Why?"

"Damon Konstantin's one, sir. I'll be back in touch as soon as I can get a word out of Janz. Your leave, sir."

"Mallory."

"Sir?"

"Australia has two casualties. I want a report."

"I'll get one to you when I can learn what happened, sir. In the meanwhile I'm dispatching troops to green dock before we have some sort of trouble with civs over there."

"India is moving forces in. Leave it at that, Mallory, and keep your troops out of there. Off the docks. Pull them all. I want to see you at soonest, hear?" "With a report, sir. By your leave, sir."

The light and the contact winked out. She slammed her fist onto the console and shoved the chair back, headed for the cubbyhole of a surgery in the half corridor off from the main lift topside.

It was not as bad as she had feared. Di kept a steady pulse under the medic's ministrations, showing no signs of leaving them. Chest wound, a few burns. There was a great deal of blood, but she had seen far worse. A chance shot, in an armor joint. She stalked over to the door where Uthup stood, smeared with blood from head to foot of her armor. "Get your filthy selves out of here," she said, herding them out into the corridor. "It's going sterile in there. Who shot first?"

"Australia b.i.t.c.h, drunk and disorderly."

"Captain."

"Captain," Uthup said thinly.

"You hit, Uthup?"

"Burns, captain. I'll check in when they're done with the major and the others, by your leave."

"I tell you to stay out of that territory?"

"Heard over com they'd picked up Konstantin and Talley, captain. A sergeant was in charge and they were drunk as stationside merchanters in there. The major went in and they said it was off-limits to us."

"Enough said," she muttered. "I want a report, trooper Uthup; and I'll back you on it. I'd have skinned you if you'd backed away from Edger's b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Quote me on that where you like." She walked off, through the troops in the corridor. "It's all right, Di's in one piece. Get yourselves out of here and let the meds work. Get back to quarters. I'm going to have a word with Edger, but if you or any of the others take to the docks I'll shoot you with my own hand. That's my word on it. Get below!"

They scattered. She walked forward to the bridge, looked about her at the crew who had gotten to stations. Graff was there, himself liberally bloodstained. "Clean yourself up," she said. "Mind your stations. Morio, get back there and interview trooper Uthup and anyone else in that detachment; I want names and id's on those Australia troops. I want a formal complaint and I want it now." "Captain," Morio acknowledged the order.

He left in haste; she stood on the bridge and looked about until heads turned to their work. Graff had left to put himself in order. She continued to pace the aisle until she realized she was doing it and stood still. There was the matter of showing up on Mazian's deck. There was blood on her uniform, Di's blood. She decided finally to go and not to clean up. "Graff's in command," she said brusquely. "McFarlane. I need an escort over to Europe. Move it."

She started for the lift, hearing the order echoing in the corridors. Troops met her in the exit corridor, fifteen of them in full rig. She walked out through the troops which guarded the access ramp on the docks. She had no armor. It was a secure dock and she was not supposed to need any, but at the moment she would have felt safer walking green dock naked.

v Pell: Europe; blue dock; 1/8/53; 2015 hrs.

Mazian was not late showing up, not this time. It was an audience of two, herself and Tom Edger, and Edger had gotten there first. That was expected. "Sit down," Mazian told her. She took a chair on the opposite side of the conference table from Edger. Mazian had his own. at the head, leaned on his folded arms, glared at her. "Well? Where's the report?" "It's coming," she said. "I'm taking the time to interview and collect positive id's. Di took names and numbers before they shot him." "Your orders that sent him in there?"

"My standing orders to my troops that they don't back off from trouble if it sets itself in front of them. Sir, my people have been systematically hara.s.sed since the incident with Goforth. I shot the man, and my people are hara.s.sed, shouldered, subtle stuff, until someone got too drunk to know the difference between hara.s.sment and outright mutiny. A trooper was asked for her number and directly refused to give it. She was arrested and she drew her gun and opened fire on an officer."

Mazian looked at Edger and back again. "I hear another story. That your troops are encouraged to stick together. That they're still under your orders even on supposed liberty. That they go in squads and under officers and throw their weight around the dock. That the whole operation of Norway troops and personnel is insubordinate and provocative, direct defiance of my order." "I have given my troops no duties during their liberties. If they're going in groups it's for self-protection. They're set upon in bars that are open to all but Norway personnel. That kind of behavior is encouraged among other crews. You have my complaint of that matter on your desk as of last week." Mazian sat and stared a moment, tapped the table in front of him, a slow, nervous gesture. Lastly he looked toward Edger.

"I've hesitated to file a protest," Edger said. "But there's a bad atmosphere building out there. Apparently there's some difference of opinion about how the Fleet as a whole is ordered. Ship loyalties-loyalties to certain captains-are encouraged in some quarters, for reasons I refuse to guess at, perhaps by certain captains."

Signy sucked air and slammed her hands down, all but out of her chair before colder sense a.s.serted itself. Much colder. Edger and Mazian had always been close... were close, she had long suspected, in a way in which she could not intervene. She evened her breath, leaned back, looked only at Mazian. It was war; it was as narrow a chute as ever Norway had run, the straits of Mazian's ambition, and Edger's. "There is something vastly amiss," she said, "when we start shooting at each other. By your leave... we're the oldest in the Fleet, the longest survivors. And I'll tell you plainly I know what's afoot and I've played your charade, gone on with this station organization, which isn't going to have any importance whatsoever when the Fleet moves. I've done your make-work operations and done them well. I've said no word to my troops or my crew about what I know; and I get the drift of things, that the troops are allowed to do what they like on this station because in the long run it doesn't matter. Because Pell has stopped mattering, and the survival of it is now contrary to our interests. We're aiming at something different now. Or maybe we always were, and you've moved us to it by degrees, never to shock us too much, when you finally propose what it is you really have in mind, the only choice you've left us with. Sol, isn't it? Earth. And it's going to be a long run and dangerous, with plenty of trouble when we get there. The Fleet-takes over the Company. So maybe you're right. Maybe it's the only thing to do. Maybe it makes sense and it began to make sense a long time ago, when the Company quit backing us. But we don't get there if Pell destroys the disciplines on which this Fleet has functioned for decades. We don't get there if the units of it are h.o.m.ogenized into something that can't work apart. And that's what this hara.s.sment does. It tells me how to run Norway. If that starts, then it all breaks down. You take from the troops their badges and their designations, their identification and their spirit and it goes, it all goes... and whatever you call it, that's what's in progress out there, when a ship is made to conform to a standard against every rule they've ever known, when captains in this Fleet are subtly encouraging their troops to the hara.s.sment of mine, and they're taking to it, in the absence of another enemy. The Fleet as a whole hasn't existed in decades, but that was our strength... the lat.i.tude to do what had to be done, across all this vast distance. h.o.m.ogenize us and we become predictable. And few as we are... then we're done."

"Amazing," Mazian said softly, "that somehow you end up arguing for separation of the crews, when you're the one complaining about lack of discipline. You're an amazing sophist."

"I'm being ordered to fall in line, to change every policy and order that exists on my ship. My troops perceive that as an insult to Norway, and they resent it. What else do you expect, sir?"

"The att.i.tude of the troops rather reflects that of the officers in charge and of the captain, doesn't it? Maybe you've encouraged it." "And maybe what happened in that bar was encouraged."

"Sir."

"With all respect-sir."

"Your men moved in and removed prisoners from the custody of the troops who performed the arrest. Credit-s.n.a.t.c.hing, doesn't it seem so?" "Removed prisoners from a drunken body of libertied troops in a bar."

"Dock headquarters," Edger muttered. "Tell it clear, Mallory." "The troops were drunk and disorderly in your dock headquarters, and one of the prisoners involved was Norway property. There was no commissioned officer in this dock headquarters. And the other prisoner was valuable and one my make-work operation on the docks would find useful. The question is why the prisoners were taken to that so-named headquarters at all, instead of to the blue dock facilities or to the nearest ship, which was Africa."

"The arresting troops were reporting to their sergeant. Who was present, when your troop major broke into the place."

"I suggest that that att.i.tude is contributory to the atmosphere in which Maj. Janz was shot. If that was dock headquarters, Maj. Janz was fully ent.i.tled to walk in there and a.s.sume command of the situation. But he was told outright on entering that the so-named dock headquarters was staked out as Australia territory; the Australia sergeant present did not object to that insubordination. Now is a troop headquarters to be the private preserve of one ship, or what? Can it be that other captains are urging their crews to separatism?"

"Mallory," Mazian cautioned her.

"The point, sir: Maj. Janz gave a proper order for surrender of the prisoners to his custody and received no cooperation from the Australia sergeant, who contributed to the trouble."

"Two of my troopers were killed in that exchange," Edger said tautly, "and how it started is still under inquiry."

"From my side also, Captain. I expect the information momentarily and I'll see that you get a copy when it goes in."

"Captain Mallory," Mazian said, "you make that report to me. At the soonest. As for the prisoners, I don't care what you do with them. Whether they're here or there is not the issue. Dissension is. Ambition ... on the part of individual captains of the Fleet... is an issue. Whether you like it or not, Captain Mallory, you will walk in line. You're right, we've operated separately, and now we have to work as a body. And certain free spirits among us are having trouble with that. Don't like taking orders. You're valuable to me. You see through to the heart of a matter, don't you? Yes, it's Sol. And by telling me that, you hope to be on the inside of councils, don't you? You want to be consulted. Want to be in the line of succession, maybe. That's very well. But to get there, captain, you have to learn to walk in line."

She sat still, returned Mazian's stare. "And not know where I'm going?"

"You know where we're going. You said as much." "All right," she said quietly. "I'm not adverse to taking orders." She looked pointedly at Tom Edger and back again to Mazian. "I take them as well as others. We may not have worked partners in the past; but I'm willing."

Mazian nodded, his handsome, actor's face quite, quite affectionate. "Good. Good. So it's settled." He rose, went to the sideboard, pulled a brandy flask from its clamps and gla.s.ses from the cabinet and poured. He brought the gla.s.ses back, set them before him, slid them in either hand to Edger and to her. "I hope it will be settled once for all," he said, sipping at his drink. "And I mean it should be. Any further complaints?"

There might be some from Tom Edger. She saw him sulk while she drank the liquid fire of the brandy. She smiled slightly. Edger did not respond. "The other matter you brought up," Mazian said, "the disposition of the station-is the case. Yes. And I'll trust that information doesn't go beyond present company."

Hence this show, she thought. "Yes, sir," she said.

"No formalities. In time all the captains will be given their instructions. You're a strategist, in many ways the best. You would have been brought in early. You know that. Would have been already, but for the unfortunate incident with Goforth and the market operation."