April 5: A Depth of Understanding (36 page)

"It isn't much to look at is it? Don't mean a damn thing. We don't set much stock in show."

"I could get used to that," Jason said very seriously. "It grows wearisome, the displays and arguing about exactly how big a desk your pay grade entitles you."

Margaret introduced Jason, though she'd mentioned his name in the text.

"Thio! Bring this young man a chair," Jon shouted again. He had an intercom, it was in plain sight on the man's desk, with a phone and computer. Apparently he just favored yelling.

An older lady with a squinty suspicious expression brought one of the folding chairs so common on habitats and pushed it in the doorway for him.

"Thanks," the Ogre rumbled. He was large and intimidating. His head perfectly hairless and a neck like a bull. The odd thing was even speaking normally his voice had power, like a stage actor who could project without a microphone clear to the back row of seats.

"Coffee?" Jon asked. The switch was unnerving. He was suddenly the solicitous host and gave him a charming smile that appeared sincere.

"That would be most welcome." Now that he was here, it was suddenly hard to start his tale. He was more used to tea, but any distraction was welcome.

"Thio, three coffees please," he called with a bit more restraint and sat back with his huge arms folded over his chest, suddenly patient now.

"You handle yourself well in zero G," Margaret complimented him.

Jason suddenly wondered if they were working him as a team. Sort of a Mutt and Jeff...

"I was stationed with our contingent at ISSII and I've served on Chinese only stations. I may not look like it dressed like this for Earth, but I've a lot of LEO service."

"Why the grounder suit then?" Margaret asked, by all appearances honestly puzzled.

"My commander arranged travel orders back to China for me, with a transfer at New Las Vegas. I am dressed appropriately for travel, to get off the shuttle in Hong Kong and report for duty. If all goes well my orders will not show up Earthside, if we get the cooperation there we need, so it won't matter when I don't show up...I hope."

"You are AWOL then?" Jon asked. At the blank look he got Jon elaborated, "Absent Without Leave."

"Ah, yes, one never stops learning English. I am indeed illegally absent, as soon as my commanding officer can no longer cover for me. A greater risk right now for him than me, as I am outside their immediate grasp."

"What is your message that's worth such effort to bring us?" Jon finally asked.

"I am here to plead your forbearance and patience, to refrain from major actions against China for as many days as you will give me. It isn't something I ask only for us. It can have potential benefits for Home too."

"My, you'll have to elaborate on that," Jon asked.

"We are conspiring to overthrow our government. It is no easy task as you can imagine. It's actually harder because it was done so recently and the danger of it is fresh in mind, making people wary. If you are engaging in military action against China it works against us. Unfortunately, nothing unifies a people like an outside threat. It makes people willing to put up with all sorts of nonsense until the outside threat is dealt with. It is our firm intention to renounce the current position of the government with respect to both Home and claims on the rest of the solar system. There simply wasn't any other secure way to get this to you. We couldn't accept the risk of having our whole scheme laid bare. We assume all com traffic exiting Home to be insecure."

Neither Jon nor Margaret said anything, refusing to pose questions yet.

"Not that we wouldn't be happy to avoid another bombardment like Liyuan," he hastened to add into the silence, "but that isn't my purpose or primary mission."

"You just
had
a revolution or a coup, whatever you want to call it. We thought you'd leave us be for awhile, at least a few years. What happened?" Jon asked.

"The big error was moderation." He closed his eyes like it was a painful memory. "Revolution should never be moderate. They didn't go down the line and remove enough of the
bureaucracy. The two principals of the coup thought their power was consolidated, right up until their own guards arrested them. The sheer mass of reactionaries in opposition took less than a year to undo what they had accomplished. When you have layers and layers of officials who fear for their privilege and position you must purge entire
agencies
. It is
one
error I am sure my superiors will not make this time," he said, grimly.

"You want me to communicate this to Jeff Singh?" Jon asked.

"Yes, I understand you are both at war with us, but we don't understand your differences or why there are two lines of command. If you are on good terms to speak with him, would you tell him we desperately want to conduct a coup, but actively prosecuting the war will not help that happen at all? We are so close, but it could all be swept away."

"I'll let you plead your own case to him, but on com if you don't mind. I don't think I'd want to have you in the same room without a full body scan."

"You worry we'd send a suicide bomber?" he asked surprised.

"Jeff is a high value target. And he has faced assassination attempts before. So yes, that wouldn't surprise me," Jon said. "There are low volatile explosives that are quite hard to detect."

"I have never known our service to do that, but I respect your caution. Yet you bring me into your own office," His voice made it a question.

"I'm replaceable," Margaret told him, refraining from making that judgment about Jon. She left it to him to infer the balancing statement about Jeff.

"Margaret, there's a couple empty desks out there. Set Jason up with a pad and connect him to Jeff. Give them privacy. As much as anyone gets in this circus," he ordered.

Jason was taken to a corner desk, the com gear on it ignored and given a pad after Jeff was called up on it and asked if he'd speak with the man. They didn't try unduly to assure him he had privacy. There were too many ways they could eavesdrop if they wanted and he wasn't stupid. The young man spoke low and earnestly to Jeff for some minutes. When he stopped he looked stunned and pushed the pad away from him on the desk, visibly finished, but he made no move to rejoin them or get up.

Finally Margaret went over and took the interview seat beside the desk. "Is there anything else you need? Are you going to speak with him again, or waiting on a reply?"

"No. I laid my case before him and expected a bit more discussion, perhaps some token of our earnest or further proof there was such a plot hatching. Instead he just agreed. He said he'd suspend bombardment, wait at least two weeks and watch for signs there was some internal action in China. He said he'd publish a halt notice for China, but not the UN and if I had further information when the two weeks approached to contact him, because he'd resume if there was no evidence of any coup. He didn't ponder it at all, or display any emotion. He was just very decisive and so cold about it I found it frightening."

"The young man is brilliant in specific ways," Margaret assured him. "But he sometimes lacks the ability to be subtle in social things and may lack understanding of what motivates other people. I know he isn't what you would consider
normal
, but I can't always predict exactly
how
he'll be different."

"He didn't ask
any
proof of my identity or association."

"And what proof could you offer that wasn't suspect, or wouldn't destroy the secrecy that you are trying to preserve? So why waste time and effort to ask for it? Showing up in uniform, entirely out of place here was the best proof he'll get. If you should turn out to be a ploy to simply buy your nation some time and he finds later he was fooled, what has he lost by waiting a few days? And how do you think he would react to being deceived?"

"It's personal isn't it?" he asked, upset. "I've never thought of war that way. I mean, in war as in everything, we are trained that the individual is nothing and the collective everything." He stopped and thought about it a bit. "I was wrong. Even while I was speaking with him just now I was wrong. It shocked me how quickly I was able to speak to him directly and that
still
didn't instruct me how wrong I was. In China I'd have been days speaking to officials, slowly working up to somebody with command authority. Even then, that person wouldn't have the freedom to act without considering his peers and the support of all the organizations under him. He couldn't just decide what he wanted like ordering coffee or tea with his meal. That sort of power is like...well, like an Emperor. I lucked out influencing him, when I didn't really know what I was dealing with." He folded his arms around himself and rocked a bit in the seat, still overwhelmed with the enormity of his realization.

"The customs of your village are not the laws of the universe," Margaret said, amused.

"China is not a village," he still managed to automatically object.

"
Earth
is looking more and more like a single squabbling village down at the bottom of its gravity well," Margaret informed him. "The further away we get, the more it all looks the same. North America or China or Italy, Russia or Sweden. What is the real difference between them? They all are a bunch of crooks looting their peasants while bickering about their status with each other and which looting system is best. I swear sometimes I think
stupid
flows downhill too."

Jason just looked at her like she was babbling. He'd made one vast mental adjustment on his own just now and that was as much as he could absorb today.

"Look, let's get you some civilian clothing. If you keep parading around in the corridors in uniform word might get back to the wrong people. Information can find the weirdest channels and get loose. Especially if an image with your face gets out. Did you bring any luggage?"

"No, but I have funds. I didn't own any civilian dress on ISSII. You don't take uniforms back to Earth when it costs so much to bring them up, so luggage would have been out of character. It was hard enough to get me
here
with a cold trail. There was never any plan to quietly repatriate me. If the coup is defeated I'd be a dead man to go back. My commander was quite candid and said if I wait here and nothing happens but my comrades quietly disappear, I best stay and try to make the best of things. It would beat returning to slow death in a forced labor camp."

"Well that's a cheery thought. Lets me take a few basic measurements and I'll go get you a few ready to wear things at the ships chandlery. Do you have any favorite colors?"

"Anything that isn't khaki and red will be a welcome change."

"I'll bring them back and let you change in the restroom here. There's no shower, but you can wash up at the sink. Then I imagine you are hungry. You haven't had anything from before the shuttle, right?"

"Yes, but it is by no means a hardship yet. Do you intend to keep me in custody?"

"Why would we?" Margaret asked, looking at him strangely.

"You might regard me as a hazard," he started and stopped abruptly. "Why am I
asking
you to lock me up? I'm not usually this dense," he said embarrassed.

"You might wish protective custody," she suggested. "We had one sleeper come out of the woodwork recently. You don't know if there are any more by any chance? Any who could make you just by your face?"

"That sort of thing only our intelligence officer would know on ISSII and being short crewed he's the political officer too. POs don't make friends. If the PO suddenly wants to be your drinking buddy you have a problem."

"Well, I'll get you a cafeteria card on the Security Department's accounts and we can help you with a room for a few nights, but if you have a card or letter of credit I'd suggest you convert as much as can be drawn safely to cash quickly. Home is an expensive place to live. If things go to hell in a hurry, like you are hoping, your money might get cut off. Then the only option you really have is to get a job. Do you have any
skills
?" she worried.

"I'm a bilingual weapons officer on a ship. I'm really good at killing people," he admitted.

"Oh good, that's always in demand," Margaret said, relieved.

Chapter 24

Jefferson Moses Singh, Citizen of Home, Peer of Central's Sovereign 4/30/2087

To the People's Republic of China, Beijing, Earth: Through broadcast and news releases.

Active bombardment of China is suspended while we examine some ways to resolve the conflict. Hostilities to the criminal cartel known as the UN, or actions in self defense continue, as well as an active embargo of armed Earth ships past the L1 point.

Jefferson M. Singh

* * *

Jeff was having breakfast with Eddie, discussing business and intelligence that touched on business and more. They went off toward the back wall, where the Assembly platform was put up from time to time. Away from the coffee pot and too many ears. He stopped talking however because a young woman approached carrying a tray. Eddie looked over his shoulder to see what Jeff was watching. She wasn't just seeking the back wall for her own privacy. That could have been accomplished by taking a vacant table two or three away. They were available.

"Hello, you're Jeff Singh, aren't you? May I join you for lunch and ask a few questions?"

"Yes, I'm Jeff, but I was having a discussion with my associate here. Perhaps another time? What is your name and what would you like to ask me?" He was genuinely puzzled.

"I'm Joan Morgan and I'm the new stringer for BBC for Home and the moon. I wanted to ask you about your last letter to China and how you might resolve it. I'm newly registered on Home net, if you get some time drop me a message and I'll meet you anywhere. Or if you see me here give a wave and I'll join you." She didn't push, but turned and went to find another table.

"She's too polite. She wouldn't last a day, giving up so easily, trying to interview politicians Earthside," Eddie said.