Chapter 49

TJ had finished yet another lecture in the pilot instruction course and after obtaining a container of reinforced caffeine replenishment, removing sundry pieces of feminine coverings from his favourite lift chair (well, it had to be, there was only room for one in his cabin) and mentally relaxing, he activated his com 'puter, entered his code (useless really, his women all knew it but respected his privacy) and digested his morning read.

His attention focussed on the first item.

There had been an assassination attempt on the Mounty Queen during her official visit to Renmark. She was uninjured but only because of the intervention of Cunningham who had been visiting her Renmark holding — not unusually, she had been flitting / skylarking / relaxing in a new flivver and had taken out the homing missile headed for the Lord Protector's yacht. Another missile had destroyed the Mounty royal yacht and with it, Anton Hawkins, the Mounty Prime Minister and the Renmark equivalent plus numerous members of the peerages.

The second item caused TJ's hackles to erupt. Brown Hollow was calling for a new government with him as PM and the dispassionate summaries of the bureaucrats indicated he would.

TJ went over his memory banks with occasional 'puter help to clarify the recollection. His summary which he put on the 'net was:-

1. Almost certainly an Harbourian exercise;

2. Mounty administration in disarray and Brown Hollow would form a government — antagonistic to the Sovereign;

3. No chance now of enlisting Amaranti to the Mounty cause;

4. Bhute would require "careful handling' which a Brown Hollow administration would not consider and Bhute might change sides — unlikely — more likely to go neutral; initially;

5. Renmark and the other Allies would probably stay the course but Brown Hollow could antagonise them to the point of neutrality — Mountserrat Renmark relationships would be strained but probably survive because of the links between the rulers and

6. The next six months would determine the fate of the Harbourian hegemony — the instability in their cabinet would undergo change one way or the other.

TJ had to also revise his opinion of the status of the war in the south. Recent victories for the Mounties using new technology had shifted the tactical situation to positive for the Mounties but the strategic balance had shifted only to neutral — there was a tremendous untapped Harbourian potential if only the present regime would use it. They appeared not to trust their own people and if they persisted in this, then they would be defeated.

Mounty — Harbourian relationships would probably not affect the south west but that anti-Mounty influence was not going to go away. Any Mounty instability would only benefit Sol. Increased Solarian pressure / presence in the area? Not yet possible to assess. Independence moves by the Cluster? — been doing that anyway. Swing to Sol? — unlikely but would defuse the situation. Swing to Mountserrat? — possible and in some places, likely; cat among pigeons time then; Sol interests and that influence would not accept it. War? Frontier Fleet sure they would prevail particularly if Mounties have to concentrate on Harbouria but TJ wasn't sure — at least in short term. RMN was a cohesive battle hardened modern force with technology equal and in many fields superior to Sol's. 'puter technology on Sol was ahead but the USN didn't have the latest; the Senate, for reasons of self preservation had starved the USN of the best equipment; but there was a quality in numbers and there Sol was way ahead. Variables too many to make sound assessment but it really boiled down to how much interest the southwest held for the Solarian states — moderate at present.

Interesting times.

...

"Sundowner" swung through back into the "independent" Cluster after a very successful stopover in Inverness. The musicians' gigs had done extremely well and the feel from the local young people was they wanted to be able to control their own destinies but outside interests were putting their spokes in.

The same attitude prevailed during the progression through New Spain, Fort, Goya, Cardinal and Walton's Star where TJ met up with Bill Hitchen again.

Bill had gone up in the world and was Fleet Captain now with his own command, a CA, which Bill cheerfully admitted would last about ten minutes against either an RMN or PRHN equivalent and that would depend on how fast the overtake velocity the other bloke used.

Bill brought TJ up to date from a military perspective. The Cluster needed to be under the protection of a super power or either Harbouria or Sema would take over. TJ came upright at the mention of Sema. He had considered Sema as the influence but had reserved opinion for lack of clear straws. Now, Bill put the statement clearly on the table and built the haystack. Sema Ambassadors were spreading about the Cluster with promises of help and financial aid (aka bribes to stick to fingers) but they weren't all pushing the same barrow. Some offered support against Solarian hegemony and others against Mounty hegemony. A strong likelihood was Sema was sowing discord hoping to stir up a Mounty Solarian conflict and planning on taking the crumbs left over. The local planets were aware of this and had been "talking" but the force strength was hopelessly inadequate as a Cluster defence. Walton's Star being on the eastern edge of the Cluster had been reticent to make its feelings clear as opposed to Bottle itself in the middle of the Cluster who felt safer in declaring for Mountserrat. The breaking news of the assassination attempt had stirred the pot about and Bill hadn't been able to detect any changes except uncertainty. The exposure to carpetbaggers had tended to reflect badly on the USW Senate as a protecting power and the feelings toward the USN was a combination of loathing and fear.

Of course, a Mounty Solarian conflict would mean Mountserrat was history as the Harbourians would destroy any survivors and it was that possibility that held the Cluster in a state of chaos but cessation of Mounty Harbourian conflict would bring almost instant requests for Mountserrat protection.

While at Walton's, TJ's old friend, the spider man, posted the news of a failed coup in New Liege and TJ and Bill Hitchin discussed the event but could come to no conclusion as the new leader did not have a public history on which to base assumptions.

"Sundowner" departed with the friends promising to keep in touch.

...

"Sundowner" had barely cleared Walton's Star when Clare was again confronted by yet another student delegation.

The students were objecting to not being informed that "Sundowner" was armed. Clare gently pointed out that "Sundowner" possessed energy gun turrets and PD weapons on its hull for all the world to see and had done so long before the students had joined; she also made the observation that several of the parents were officers in USN and Noramcon Navy in addition to fully a fifth of the student body having as parents long term senior NCOs in the USN and "Sundowner's" capabilities, while not painted on her hull, were no secret. And those capabilities had been a factor in using "Sundowner"; many merchant ships were armed against pirate attack.

"But they don't have ninety seven missiles in a hidden magazine" reposited one vociferous female as if that settled the point.

Clare had not kept accurate count of the stored missiles and was a little taken aback by the number — she had a memory of sixty being mentioned. As the missiles were not readily available tactically, Clare had not kept the tally in her memory banks.

She knew there were now three hundred missiles forward in sixty manoeuvrable clusters, one hundred and eighty aft in similar clusters, the four scouts mounted on the hull (reconnaissance missiles) and twenty banks of antimissiles with four each also on the hull. The anti missile banks were skilfully blended into the hull disguised as such things as exhaust vents and cooling grids.

Orville had been using the Engineer Course to manufacture power packs using reaction mass and held a store of twenty four (not yet fueled) with the last class going through now to add five more. Cedric was planning on eventually mounting these in control missiles to be seeded among the clusters to further extend the range of the 'attack' missiles. (Cedric did not like "fire and forget"; he wanted every missile to at least hit ship screens.)

It was basically the musicians objecting. They had discovered the forward recess in the false deck in C and rather than lugging the heavier instruments back and forth, had, without bringing it to a Sundowner's notice, taken the opportunity to store them in the recess. As not all the musicians played at the same time during rehearsals, certain adventurous / hormone driven(?) souls had gone exploring.

'In the magazine. The control pads have keyed covers. Keyed covers to this lot? Challenge!'

The tannoy had a peculiar snarl in it,

"Mr Cahlewis!! Mr Cahlewis!! Captain's office! STAT!! D' ye hear there, Mr Cahlewis to my office. STAT."

In a few minutes there was the sound of the after bulkhead airlock cycling and the pounding feet as a worried Cedric confronted his Captain, who gazed upon him with a most sweet benign expression. Cedric knew that expression — he was going to be dumped into a deep dark hole and covered with the brown stuff.

"Boss?"

"Mr Cahlewis. These little cherubs have just informed me that they have counted the number of missiles in the C forward magazine. Ninety seven."

Cedric had for many years given the impression of being Clueless to cover a brain, which although at times gave rise to convoluted thought, was extremely quick when presented with a problem when he began to take note of the ramifications. It was almost as if you could look through his pupils and see the wheels spinning. His face went suddenly pale and sweaty as he turned a horrified gaze upon the students gathered.

"Oh. Ssshhhhiiiiiitttttttttt!!" came the agonised scream from Cedric's lips. He then went on resignedly "Boss, I'm gonna need TJ, Morg and Orville to get this done."

"Stat! Mr Cahlewis. Stat."

Cedric took off at a run and Clare turned for the bridge followed by a group of worried students.

"Miss James, engines all stop and take the way off her as quickly as possible without reversing the pods."

"Stop all, aye, Ma'am" came the reflex reply.

Clare activated the tannoy and in tones as still as death,

"Do you hear there, do you hear there. This is the Captain. All hands muster immediately at your boat stations. All hands muster immediately at your boat stations. Boat and shuttle crews close up. Prepare to abandon ship."

Clare saw the students and gently shooed them off

"Your boat stations, ladies and gentlemen. Stat!"

...

"The others are checked out." Morg tiredly informed Clare. "Just the one and it was alongside the recess. We took gravity and atmosphere off C forward and opened the forward bulkhead to nose the missile in there to get it horizontal and then were able to back it and then out the hull airlock with a push and its still moving away."

"Can I recall the boats?"

"Yeh. No problem, Boss. They must be crowded; been a while getting this sorted out."

"Not as long as they would have been going to the PHD beacon." Clare snarled. "Bring 'em 'Nita"