Christopher Nuttall: Picking Up the Pieces

“No,” I agreed. I frowned and dropped a name. “What does John — sorry, Admiral Walker — want from this situation?”

Daniel clicked the display until it became a star chart. “At the moment, Svergie is simply not very important in the Human Sphere,” he said. “The planet is actually quite far from Earth and… well, while it is closer to Williamson’s World and New Paris, it’s not close enough to make shipping easier — now. Fleet’s projections are that interstellar trade will actually increase in this sector over the next twenty years and Svergie will be in line for a share of the benefits, if they have a united government. Chaos in this sector, on the other hand, will lead to Svergie being isolated or even dampen the development of the entire sector.”

Muna was nodding. No shipping line in their right mind would have a starship come out of its wormhole in interstellar space. Modern drives weren’t as prone to burning out as some of the early designs, but it still happened and being stranded in interstellar space would mean certain disaster. Svergie would definitely benefit from increased interstellar trade, but only if there was a united government in place to deal with the Merchant Guilds and the shipping lines. Without one, the shipping lines would be able to name their own terms.

“On a different note,” Daniel added, “we believe that the Independence Party has some links with off-world groups. The Freedom Alliance never went away and they’re currently opposed to what they call Fleet’s hegemony. They may be linked with the Independence Party, or it might be another government attempting to spread chaos, or even someone working for the shipping lines. There’s no clear proof yet, but if we find it…”

I nodded. John Walker hadn’t made many mistakes in his coup, but one of them might come back to haunt him. He’d dictated terms to governments in a manner that would certainly cause resentment, even hatred. Fleet was still the strongest military force in known space, but it had limits, not least the lack of any major ground-combat force. The Marines couldn’t take and hold an entire planet. He had also agreed to leave internal planetary affairs strictly alone. Whatever happened on Svergie, Fleet couldn’t be seen to interfere.

“I understand,” I said, without demur. The planetary government had hired me, not Fleet. Fleet couldn’t be blamed if something went wrong, although I was still unsure of what the planetary government wanted from me. I decided to ask. “Tell me something. Do you know what they hired us for?”

Daniel shrugged. “Not directly,” he admitted. “The general theory held by Fleet’s analysts on the William Tell is that the planetary government wants you to serve as a deterrent to the Independence Party, although a minority opinion says that they want you to take out the Independence Party, or even support the Progressive Party.”

“We do have minds of our own,” Peter protested.

“Hush,” I said. I couldn’t dispute his logic. I was even rather insulted that someone would see us as nothing more than guns for hire, even if I wanted them to see us as mercenaries. “What does Fleet think is going to happen here?”

“The Progressive Party may well win the next election,” Daniel said. “If that happens, they will probably push ahead with their program… and push the planet into civil war. The analysts have simulated the war extensively, despite our limited knowledge, and they’ve concluded that the most likely outcome will be absolute chaos. I doubt that the planet could afford two nations on one continent. We’ll be looking down from orbit at mass slaughter.”

“Like a dozen other worlds,” Muna said, coldly. “What makes this one so special?”

“Nothing,” Daniel said. “Our hands are tied, legally. We cannot interfere unless one side breaks the Federation Protocols. Even so, it would be chancy. The current situation is so unstable that if Svergie were to go under, it might have serious repercussions for Fleet… and the whole Federation. The best we can do is give you what information we have and hope.”

He smiled, thinly. “Good luck, sir,” he added. “You’re going to need it.”

I mulled over what Daniel had told us as we were driven into town by the local trooper, who kept eyeing our weapons with a bemused respect. I was used to that kind of treatment on Earth — the few times I had been allowed to go armed on the planet’s surface — but Svergie was a frontier world. It should have had a more robust attitude towards weapons, even ones that looked intimidating as hell. Even the UN hadn’t been able to come up with a non-threatening assault rifle.

New Copenhagen was an interesting mix of styles. Some of the buildings looked as if they were built on stilts, although I was at a loss as to why, and others looked as if they were built out of wood. A massive wooden church dominated one corner and glowered at us as we drove past. I decided it had to serve a religious function, although I wouldn’t have trusted an entirely wooden building in a modern city if I could avoid it. Someone with a can of gasoline could have burned it to the ground. The locals looked to be surprisingly diverse; there were blonde-haired, blue eyed men and women, intermixed with short brown women and paler men. The latter had to be the results of intermarriage, which seemed to have had a happier result than on some other planets. It might cause them problems in the future, though; the economic report of the planet’s future was not encouraging.

“This isn’t going to be an easy city to defend,” Peter muttered, low enough so that our driver couldn’t hear. “I wouldn’t care to defend it with anything less than a full army and even if we did, half the city would burn down around us. I wonder how much trouble they actually have here.”

I shrugged. “That’s why they’re paying us,” I reminded him. As galling as it was to be thought of as nothing more than a mercenary, it did have its advantages. I didn’t have to pretend to be polite to assholes if I didn’t want to. “I wouldn’t want to take a tank through these streets if I could avoid it.”

“You could take a tank through the houses,” Peter said, dryly. I nodded in agreement. The houses looked surprisingly flimsy compared to a tank. “The more I look at this place, the more I think that there are unpleasant surprises waiting for us.”

“Look on the bright side,” I said. “We could be back on Botany.”

The driver took us directly into the centre of the city and, for the first time, I was vaguely impressed. The governing complex had been built for defence and a few hundred soldiers could have held it easily. The UN had probably started using the original buildings and then found that they needed to be sealed off and defended, just to keep the bureaucrats from being lynched by the people they were trying to help. The handful of policemen on duty looked professional enough, but they carried nothing heavier than pistols. A single platoon could have wiped them out in a quick action. I just hoped that they had reinforcements ready and waiting somewhere out of sight.

Or maybe they don’t have a real army , I thought, dispassionately. It boded ill for the future if that were true, but why else would they have hired us? Mercenaries didn’t come cheap these days, not when there was more work to do than there were mercenary organisations. The civilians hadn’t looked oppressed, or unhappy, but that might not have meant anything. I remembered the political briefing and shivered inwardly. That might be about to change, I decided, as we climbed out of the car and walked into the building. The planet wouldn’t be peaceful for much longer.