Chapter 6

"Good morning. Do have a seat and make yourself comfortable. I'm terribly sorry, I've kept you waiting but I've been told to get to the bottom of things and enquiries do take time to do properly, don't they?

I'm Austen Neville from the Heralds' Office and you are Gunner Petra Yarrow? Good! How has the course been?"

Neville looked expectantly at young Yarrow (she should still be in short dresses) for her reply.

"The theory gets a bit complicated but working with the guns is fun."

"Yes, I found higher maths and electronics beyond my understanding at college; that's why I got a job in clerical. I've heard the cross country runs are hard work."

"They were at first but you learn to go into automatic as you run."

"They have to toughen you up a bit for the Service, I suppose, and that needs lots of physical training and that is where this mess started I'm told."

Yarrow didn't know it but she was in the hands of an expert and had just been softened up to be led into the details.

"Yes Sir, it happened in the Gym but I think it started a couple of weeks ago."

"Truly? Here let me pour you some coffee, its good stuff, not the mess swill you have been having. Cream? Sugar? There you are; sit back and tell me what you think and then what you saw during the melee."

Austen Neville built up a coherent picture of the events and, combining the interrogations of the brass down to the students plus access to the gym vids, presented a tale of low level corruption in the Admiralty protecting a small group of sadists who, as their type so often did, moved into the region of vulnerability.

At the 'public face' of it, the affair could have been started several weeks before with the Dorman assault(?) injury(??) or incident(???). Dorman was still receiving medical care but had been transferred from the Naval Hospital to the University Hospital where his injuries were being meticulously treated but with great curiousity as to how he had sustained them — an accident during hand to hand combat instruction was known but the actual method of infliction had not been detailed and Dorman was struck dumb whenever the curious asked.

His 'friends', according to information obtained from the loosest application of that term, had taken umbrage at the affront to their authority — not, Neville noticed, to the injuries inflicted on their friend — and had decided to injure the friends of the perpetrator of Dorman's injuries as the WO(D) had removed TJ from their grasp. The assessment by the revengers was —a big stupid youth, a skinny red headed bitch (Pat had dressed down a fringe dweller for an inappropriately placed hand-after twisting the offending hand through almost a full circle) and a slut who needed to be put in her place (Ivy's closeness to TJ was not a secret). There was not time to put in place separate planned 'accidents' and a "demonstration melee" was organised at the end of the course to demonstrate what had been taught.

Officially it was to be three on three but nine were hanging about with a couple standing over the cowed seated students. The Senior Instructor Physical and Recreational Training aka Senior Pertwee, described by a witness as being as big as an elephant with his face being the rear view, had laid hands upon Recruit Windsor and was attempting to throw him to the deck and a second was approaching when Morg exploded — the fellow student said he didn't actually see Morg move — and the SI fell soundlessly backwards having sustained a ruptured heart from a blow which crushed the breast bone and apparently was only stopped by the fellow's spine. As far as Neville was able to calculate it, Windsor had not moved until another of the Pertwees had laid hands upon Lady Alexandra. Windsor need not have been worried as Mad Dog Logan had been her idol, following him around like a friendly puppy when younger and Mad Dog had duly instructed her in the QO&RPS combat which style was different from the older RMA&M. Her assailant had approached apparently intending to deliver a liver strike; she brushed it aside with her hip, stepped inside her assailant's reach and then rotated the head through a half circle and let the fellow drop. She then gave her next assailant a few seconds time as she pressed a button on her PDA and then defended herself again. Windsor had smashed the shoulder of another assailant. Sorensen had removed an eyeball from one of hers proceeding to exchange grips with another and to use that upright to deliver a full force boot strike into a third's neck and, before her post recovered from his shock, brought that boot downwards onto the fellow's kneecap ripping it off the thigh muscles then using a hip and shoulder throw to get him out of the way. Lady Alexandra allowed her next assailant into reach, then stepped back pulling him slightly off balance and delivering an elbow strike to the larynx. The last three were let off lightly as the odds being now even and the trio had a bit more room to move; Windsor crushed a pelvis, Lady Alexandra bent a knee to a right angle — backwards, and Sorenson leg swept her opponent down and then fell upon his larynx side of hand first.

The one common thread of the student witnesses was the astonishment at the speed of their fellow students — the other students had never seen their Instructors move as fast and the only ones comparable were the Base Judo team at practice.

The trio had remained silent to this point and Sir Devlin was adamant that the civil rights be recognised. The fact that Constable Sorensen had been only a minute or so behind his putative superior and another 'man mountain' had appeared to stand with them might have influenced questioners just a trifle in attempts to obtain stories before time for consultation. Not that questioning Lady Alexandra had even been possible.

The spectators were impressed by the implosion of the gym doors under the impact of three power armoured Guardsmen (actually two men and one woman, but it was difficult to tell) and then three more passing through the protective cordon formed. The students were already down and no instructor in sight was able to stand — one had departed to alert the Orderly Room thereby saving his skin in more ways than one as he claimed he 'knew nothing'. The next two Guardsmen went straight to Pat, pulled her to one side and took guard on either side. Master Chief Gilmore had charged in with TJ beside him. The Officer had said a few words to Gilmore and then followed Student Sweeney and escort out, the cordon shrank and a minute or so later the scream of turbines announced the departure. Gilmore had barely enough time to scan the area before the Commandant and the Medics crashed through the already damaged doors (The doors finally just fell off their hinges — what was left of them.) closely followed by the Constabulary who began asking questions to the annoyance of the SMO who quickly made his displeasure known so the Constables had let him do his thing while the Queen's Constable removed the Commandant. There wasn't much anyone wanted to do when Bill Sorensen arrived wanting to visit with his daughter — and if any one believed that, the Herald had some old paper that might improve sometime, perhaps, in the next century or three.

The Principal King-at-arms had become aware of the involvement of a member of the Palace and sent Austen Neville as the Palace's representative. Neville's arrival was not met with rejoicing by anybody. Courteous to a fault, respectful to be almost nauseating, discreet to the 'n'th degree but let any harm at all be intended to the Monarchy and people found themselves dazedly arriving at a far flung outpost of the nation without knowing how they got there with their family and belongings being bundled out of the shuttle behind them.

The Heralds regarded themselves as the guardians of the Monarchy and took unto themselves extraordinary powers; and their tentacles spread galaxy wide. Deep in the bowels of every bureaucracy was such a department; where monarchies had been legitimately deposed they had transferred their allegiance to THE STATE and kept up their contacts both within and without their nation to protect the system of government and ultimately the subjects thus regarding themselves as the ultimate of public servants.

The Herald had attended upon the Commandant and Sir Devlin and learned the Commandant's tale of woe; that good man had not been listened to and events had not allowed him to act peremptorily and summarily transfer out the undesirables.

(Neville had later sauntered the halls of the Admiralty, dropping the odd word of advice. Two of his targets got their resignations in and departed overnight without pensions or benefits. Four others found themselves as magazine officer on the Georgipest Central Armouries [and they were over the horizon from the large Avers' farms on the edges of the wilds] storekeeper at the South Pole Authority's Dangerous Goods Storage, Keeper of Wildlife on the Phoebus asteroid orbiting around Georgipest, and Fisheries' Warden on Hoy [the quietest tide was of the order of eleven metres]. These were real positions whose duties were part of the peace, order and good government. It was just that the level of skills and expertise required to perform the duties were rudimentary, to be polite, but a certain level of authority was also required — so appointees were long on time exercising authority and short on talent. Dead end jobs for seat warmers and time servers. And, if an appointee had talent, it was possible to rehabilitate a career from such an appointment but it was not possible after a two year loss of seniority handed down by a Court-martial. Your choice, old chap.)

The Herald met his greatest opposition in the response to his request for DNA from Students Hobson, Sorensen and Windsor. It took an inordinate time for even the refusal to reach the Palace as Cmdr Knight had left the request at the back of his file box. Com messages were ignored and as time was short — the students were shipping out at endweek — Austen Neville attended personally upon the SMO at the Naval Hospital.

"Commander, I am a Herald. I hold my commission from the hands of the Sovereign in person and personally. When I speak or act, I speak and act as the Sovereign. The DNA information of Hobson, Sorensen and Windsor will not be used in any way to disadvantage or even advantage them. I will not give you that assurance as regards to any other information but I will and do give you that assurance regarding the DNA now on my word as a Herald."

The chips came through and copies were dispatched to contacts on Old Earth. The replies took seventeen months; by that time TJ and Morg were on "Naseby" and Ivy was completing her Gunnery Electronics course preparatory to joining "Monarch" as a Layer 2nd in the Gunnery Director.

The Herald had wrapped up his investigations quicker than his civilian or naval counterparts except for the genetic information. While awaiting replies from Old Earth, the Herald quietly investigated the males' families. He slipped up on the Strathlawn as there was no link he could have made through the mother leaving him rather frustrated. On the Windsor side, he was exposed to a fascinating field of exploration; he too was stymied as to Julie's origins and the partners who fathered the progeny — even Julie didn't know; but he was exposed to Bill Oscar whose genes were a match for the 'lucky leader'. Several files were tagged, timely information to be passed to the Palace and he then got on with other duties after a pleasant break from routine.

The "Old Earth" correspondent had detailed seven gene lines which had disappeared before the Diaspora Wars and the era of the 'super-soldier'. The subject female was not included in the gene lines as her gene line was not of interest to any authority — it ran well in investigation and command at very high levels of expression, rarely criminal. It was the male lines which were extremely interesting but to Old Earth 'not of interest' being extinct there. They were gene lines of super soldiers prior to the Wars when command capability and intelligence had been prized until politicians realised manipulation of these soldiers was not possible — their early emigration to the stars had been encouraged and natural attrition apparently had done the polly's work for them. Further details of their possible capabilities were enclosed and a warning added from the scientific geniuses / idiots responsible for their development that the yellow eye dominant had the capacity to develop further. Included in the warning document was advice to political leaders of a gene line of intuitive (read lucky) leaders of nondescript appearance whose only distinguishing feature was the absence thereof.