BeyHop Chpt 52

Beyond Hope

- Chapter 52 - Greed

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Dispute between what Courts

Federated Commonwealth Space (Federated Suns State)
3063

"My client is not in the correct facility, Herr Gefängnisdirektor. You placed her in a men's facility. If there is an incident, you could find yourself a guest in your own facility." Cecilia was quietly livid.

“I have already issued the orders to get your client out of there and into the proper facilities. Here. My copy of the orders so you can see for yourself since everything must be filed in triplicate.”

She glanced at the orders, then handed them to the Judge Advocate officer. "Not good enough," she enunciated. "Errors on this scale raise serious issues regarding the safety of my client. Commander?"

“You sir, have a house that is out of order. She needs to be in the proper facility now, and in solitary so no incidents happen,” Commander Bernie Haugen said.

“A thorough investigation is already underway to find out how this happened.”

Commander Haugen reached into his uniform jacket, and produced an envelope. "Open it and read it, Herr Gefängnisdirektor. I have a patrol ready to take her into custody right at the gate."

“Now I admit there has been a mistake, but she’s charged for civilian crimes, not military crimes. Handing her over to you would be highly improper.”

"The words 'Active Duty' should mean something," Cecilia said. "But the important words are the ones on the bottom of that page. Right below 'Signed'."

The prison's governor scanned the order sheet again, and reddened. "The Duchess??"

"Elizabeth Anne Ngo Steiner-Davion has written an executive order directing that my client be taken into Coast Guard Custody at Vin Drin Lap. Are you going to argue with your Liege Lord, sir?"

“Fine. If she wishes to meddle in the law and uproot it despite her proclamations of rule of law, I have no choice do I?”

"Article Two," Cecilia said quietly. "As Chief Executive, it's her job to meddle in this subject, per the Law. I would think a senior civil servant would have at least read the Charter Constitution, being as you did swear to uphold and defend it."

“Article Two is ambiguous in a situation such as this.”

"It's pretty explicit to me, how about you, Bernie? Is there anything ambiguous in the wording?"

Haugen shook his head, "Not to my eye, but then, I'm just a Coastie Judge Advocate officer. I'm not exactly familiar with the idea of nuances."

“Take her. Go. Celebrate how you’ve perverted due process. But what about the other one??" the prison governor asked. "Vanh?"

"I don't have orders relating to the former Chief Gunnery Sergeant, but I imagine things might become complicated if he doesn't show up for court in one piece. It may draw enough attention to have the Duchess intervene more directly in how this particular facility is run. I imagine Duchess Ngo might even decide to emulate her esteemed grandfather in how she deals with it… is your life insurance paid up?" Haugen asked casually.

“Threats too? She should have stopped when she was ahead.”

"No, just an observation," Bernie said quietly. "Cecilia, go wait at the boat."

"Commander-"

"You're not qualified, trained, or equipped to handle a prisoner. You're a lawyer, go wait at the boat," he said gently. "Herr Gefängnisdirektor and I have a conversation not fit for your ears."

“I’m a big girl, I can decide what’s fit for my ears.”

"Yes, but if you're not at the boat when they bring our client, she may get nervous," the Commander persisted.

“Alright.” Cecilia nodded.

Haugen waited for the door to close, and remained seated. "What the hell, Phillip?" he demanded quietly. "Are you trying to get relieved? That wasn't a 'simple mistake', and you ****** well know it wasn't. And this chest-beating is verging on acts of sedition."

“I could ask the same of you for laying all this crap on my desk. She’s overreaching and you know it. I was handling it and now the Duchess has escalated to levels of abuse of authority.”

"Ordering a transfer of a prisoner? That's not even uncommon, and you damned well know it."

“From civilian prison when charged with civilian crime? I have more than one Coastie in my prison because they are waiting for trial or because they broke civilian law. Because that’s where they belong when it is a non-military matter.”

"Yes, but they were convicted first, Phil." Haugen enunciated. "This woman is still only accused. She should've been in solitary until the trial, the same way we've handled every other case like this for the last couple generations-minus the Regency."

“So rather than trust me to take care of it, you come in here with guns loaded looking to shoot me in the back.”

"Phil, you missed something there. I didn't request the transfer, and neither did Cecilia. The transfer complaint was filed by Cogsley and Sawyer, the Vanh kid's lawyers."

“Yet I have this signed letter from the Duchess on my desk. Like I wasn’t even going to try and fix this.”

"Yes, because Cogsley and Shaw's legal clerks know how to get their petitions expedited through Her Grace's bureaucrats," Haugen said. "Which is also not that unusual for the most expensive lawyers on the Continent."

“Well maybe if she increased our funding so I could hire more staff we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

"We wouldn't be in this mess, Haugen, if someone wasn't financing it. Force-feeding it through the media. And we both know the signs," Haugen observed.

“Yeah. Maybe warn the Duchess that being so heavy handed is not a good counterplay?”

"Did you forget the first six months after she took over already? This is still lighter than what she was doing then."

“No, but this is different. This time she’s giving her opponents ammunition to paint her as another tyrant playing favorites. Not cleaning house.”

"I see your position, Phil, I do… but I've got my orders, and they're printed and legal. You need to clean house here, because someone acted on unwritten orders from someone else to humiliate you."

“Not hard, we’re the most underfunded prison in the system.”

"I'll talk to someone in the Assembly, maybe Carthy or Nghien, about that," Haugen promised. "I can't claim it'll do any good, but if you're that far under water here, then it's a thing that needs to be addressed in the budget committee. In the meantime, find your crooked clerk and find out who paid them to take orders you didn't give."

“That’s the worst part. I think someone targeted this prison on purpose for whatever game they’re playing. Next to the police and military, prison funding is in the hunt for least popular thing to use taxpayer money on.”

"I understand that, but it gets geometrically more difficult if we can't prove that the funding shortfalls are creating a corruption problem. Give me something I can use to make them listen, Phil. I don't want to see OCB having to take this place apart, and I sure as hell don't want you having to have a 'meeting' like Gary Condit did."

“I’ll do what I can. Maybe something will come up from the voluntary investigation request. I’m a warden, so there are limits on what I’m legally allowed to do.”

"I'll loan you an investigator or three if you want. It won't be hard to get Chan Huyn to assign a team to help you out. And we ARE within twenty kilometers of a navigable waterway, so it's not like I can't have him claim jurisdiction if you need the cover."

“Thanks. I just might need it. I need to know how she got in my prison too.”

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Ambitions for Recruitment

Kowloon, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
3063

Janet found herself walking out under escort. These weren't guards from the prison. They were Coast Guard Marines in riot gear, down to a dock where a one hundred fifty ton Cayman hydrofoil was parked, waiting for her.

“Sir, I would salute but given the restraints I hope you understand that I am not able.” Janet did her best to at least stand at attention.

"It's all right," Commander Haugen said. "Get on the boat. We've got a two hundred kilometer run to VDL… Chief, she can have her hands free, the Sergeant isn't going to attempt an escape."

"Ayeh, Sirrah."

“Thank you sir. I understand there will still be protocol to be observed.”

"While we're going up-stream to the Lake, you can tell me everything you saw and heard in that facility, Sergeant. Focus on unusual things that don’t fit with what you know of proper procedure and conduct by the staff," Bernie told her. "And while you're talking, this nice gentleman," he gestured at a mid-thirties man in civilian wear. "Will be recording and taking notes on this debrief. Understood?"

“Yes sir,” Janet nodded.

Janet’s account of events was detailed. Despite her many attempts to pass certain classes in training she proved to be observant and very detail oriented in her recounting of events.

Cecilia joined them partway through the debrief, and took her own notes.

"Okay… so Chief Vanh positively identified Erich Kraus?" the plainly dressed man asked.

“Aff. He was certain.”

"Hm, problematic," the plain man said. "I think my investigation is about to grow larger, Commander. Erich Kraus was supposed to be sent to the Federated Commonwealth almost three years ago."

“Mister Vanh indicated it was highly unusual,” Janet nodded.

"It’s unusual here. In other parts of the Federated Commonwealth, it's not… But those parts are closer to the Core Worlds, or under an entirely different administrative regime."

“Mister Vanh did have to inflict injuries on other inmates while we were in there. I am afraid they will try and twist those into additional charges as he was technically the one who initiated physical confrontation but in my assessment he had no alternative.”

'Huh, Eddie Vanh start a fight?" Cecilia rolled her eyes. "That's on-brand for him. Whether they can leverage it is an open question."

“If you see a coiled snake in the grass poised to strike, you strike first lest you get bitten,” Janet recited an old proverb.

“Funny. I would have said, 'You see a fursnake, you leave it be'... And Eddie Vanh's like his old man, he's a fursnake." Cecilia commented. "So, I have to wonder who wants to poke him with a stick."

“I believe we are merely convenient targets of opportunity. The inciting incident was random. There was no way for anyone to know Eddie Vanh would be in that bar at that time. Conspiracies tend to take time. There was none,” Janet shook her head.

"When we finish, I think I've got a job just for you." the plain man said to Janet. "Of course, it'll require some additional training, but your instincts are on, and we get so few candidates who come with that quality already in place."

"Cham, you're already looking to nab her from the Regulars?" Haugen laughed.

"Yeah. I'd grab both of 'em, but Eddie got out."

“I do enjoy a challenge,” Janet smiled.

"Janet, this is Cham Huyn. He's the regional director for the OCB-that's the Coast Guard's intelligence service," Cecilia told her. "Kind of like your 'Watch', but… y'know… competent."

Janet laughed.

"See, what this has given us, is a pretext to engage in an internal investigation of something we've been suspecting for a while," Cham explained. "Cecilia's not part of the agency, but she's adjacent enough thanks to a family connection. We're a little underfunded and small, so 'competent' is relative. Most of my prior work was investigating Pirate fencing networks."

“Aff. But it is true. The Watch of my former affiliation utterly failed to understand your world. And in doing so put me on this path. So in a way, I am grateful for their incompetence.”

"Cee, mind going to the bow, for a while? Some of this might compromise your legal obligations," Cham said.

Cecilia hesitated, then, "You're recruiting her… fine…"

She got up and headed to the front of the hydrofoil.

“Sir, I am flattered and I am willing, but…”

“Janet, I know what your jacket says about a learning disability, I also know you’ve been getting help for it. You don’t have to worry about that. You’re sharper than you give yourself credit for. Because of that we actually want you more.”

Janet nodded.

"We knew Erich Kraus was being held in that facility, Janet, he's a Lohengrin NOC agent. He was also Stonecipher's contact man with Henrik Grimm's organization. We established that the black marketeering being done was arms transfers to Pirates in an effort to create problems for the Clans in their rear areas. It was authorized from Tharkad and New Avalon. His non-transfer was not a mistake. It was LIC keeping him here because he's burned. No good for returning to the Regulars, and too much classified info to risk not keeping track of him. Phil Lerner is also a Lohengrin operative, and he's the prison governor."

“There is also another aspect to his being there, I suspect. Prisons can be a good place to maintain contacts with the underworld.”

"Yep," Cham nodded. "Bernie almost screwed up and let Phil know we know."

“Hmmm. Why would… Oh, right…"

"We're about seventy percent sure that LIC or Lohengrin are funding the scandal… and we don't think the top bosses in whichever agency is involved, know they're doing it."

“I see. How can I help?”

"For now, do everything you were going to do before you knew about this, except keep your eyes and ears open. My working theory is that when Her Grace shut down the arms conduit to the 'irregular forces' in the Clan backfield, it cost some senior agents credibility and prestige. The success of the Smoke Jaguar war let them start thinking about 'making up for it', especially since Kowloon was cut loose. They're targeting the independent status of Kowloon, and looking to get Her Grace removed quietly from power here. Probably think they're actually doing everyone a favor."

“Aff. I will do as my lawyers instruct.”

Festering Anger

New Avalon, Federated Commonwealth (Federated Suns State - Capital)
3063

Elizabeth was finally asleep. Arthur was sitting in the lounge area with the lights down, reading her Noteputer, when Helena came out.

He was reading it, and quietly getting angrier.

"What's going on?"

"Victor and I, we're going to have words." Arthur stated.

“About what’s going on, I take it?”

"Yes," he laid the PADD on his knee, and poured a tumbler of scotch. "All about it."

“How can special advisor to the First Lord and special advisor to the SLN, Helena Cameron help?”

"This is internal to the Federated Commonwealth," Arthur told her. "Though you should know, Lizzie's private spies identified a hell of a lot that I should've been questioning all along. Starting with why Dad would send someone ill-prepared to govern to act as a Regent on any world at all… It was a ****** spy mission. They were funneling those stolen military supplies to irregulars behind Clan lines, using pirates."

“It makes a certain amount of cruel logical sense.”

"Yeah?" he bit his lip, then he took a drink. "Maybe it does, but nobody told Liz until after she'd executed those men for doing it, Helena. Nobody warned her she was making that kind of enemy and somehow, despite Victor sending MIIO and LIC teams to help our security, that her enemies were right here being bodyguards!"

“This is troubling. Because we found evidence, Melissa sanctioned Elizabeth’s killing of those men. Which tells me either Melissa didn’t know, or she wanted the mission shut down but couldn’t do it herself.

Descending down to Unpleasant Place

Kowloon, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
3063

Giao kept her hands on the stick all the way down through the atmosphere, despite having a perfectly good homing beacon from South Continental ATC. One strong enough she could reach down, flip a switch, and ground control's controllers could do her flying for her.

It was a measure, a means to exert power in an environment where she felt both helpless, and endangered.

"Hue Traffic control, this is Shuttle N113351A request clearance for final approach, over." She kept the quivers she was feeling out of her voice.

Small Craft in atmosphere

Maybe they'll wave me off, let me go back up.

<<"Shuttle November One One Tree Tree Fife One Alpha, this is Hue Municipal ATC, you are clear for final approach on Runway Two One North, Over.">>

"Acknowledged, Hue Municipal, over." The HUD showed her where the ATC controllers wanted her to line up for her approach. She brought the nose over five degrees and reduced main power, bleeding off velocity with the flaps instead of engaging the retros. A slight buffeting rippled her fingers and toes, not enough to need a fight, more of a reminder of that OTHER thing Planets have.

Wind shear.

She added a small amount of power and cleared the downdraft without pancaking into the suburban play-field, picked up a tiny bit of altitude to get back in the dead-middle of the approach, banked to port, straightened, and lowered her gear as the designated runway rose up.

Her tires made contact right as she dropped below stall speed. She popped airbrakes and the retractable chute, keeping nose-and-undercarriage wheels in contact as the ground velocity meter spun down below 20 KM/Hour with the chute retracting now that speed was low enough for it to do so.

A modified Coventry Motors scrambler Jeep with flashing yellows caught up, fell in, and led her under her powered tire ground gear off the runway and onto a taxi-way.

As her Father would have said, Smooth like buttah.

Now I really AM stuck down here. The anvil shape of storm clouds forming to the North emphasized this.

She followed the line truck to a parking space, and let the ground crew hook up, turning two hundred tons of Aerodyne shuttle into a trailer so it could be backed into a parking slip next to a power point and fuel hookup.

She went through powering down by rote, running the fusion generator down to minimum power output, flushing the Heat-sink stacks, de-powering the external controls, and running a shutdown on her main thrust engine in an order that would let it cool off at a reasonable rate, instead of risking cracks in the ceramic aerospike nozzles.

The last bit was lowering the ramp and undogging the exterior lock so she could get out.

Outside. ******. I need to get up. It took mastering her whole concentration to make her hands move, then her arms and legs.

Outside. ******.

While the Star League Corps of Engineers were building Kowloon's fifth-youngest city, the capital at Nha Tranh, for a Rim Worlder governor in 2730 through 45, Kowloon's second city, Hue, had served the Rimjobs as an administrative center, and got a series of Star League era brutalist architecture high-rise residences made of cast ferrocrete and just-below-armor grade ferroglass.

These loomed over the city to the East, while the Three Kilometer tall sheer wall of the Ia Drang Plateau loomed just across the river to the west.

Here on the north side, it was possible to see the frantic, vivid red-orange-and-dark green of the rainforests. Up Highway Two, about five hundred kilometers, was New Saigon, Kowloon's third oldest human settlement. Built into the river delta on a series of hard, stone islands wrapped in sedimentary deposits soaked by the Little Yangtze River-a river that rivaled the Nile in length, and the Amazon in bulk.

To the south, was the rain-shadow of the Plateau and the bowl rise of the Iron Hills. Giao had the map memorized. The warm water of the massive river was cooled in part by the Ia Drang Falls, where the rivers upland on the Plateau emptied into the main river by going over a falls that stood two thousand meters above the terrain here.

The rumble of the falls was a constant drum-beat, like white noise on an open channel turned up to eleven.

“Ma’am, we have a car waiting for you, if you’ll follow me.” The small man wore a formal suit with a pin identifying him as from Judicial Services.

"Thank you." Giao resisted the urge to don her helmet, but held it close under her arm as she followed the Judicial Services man to a car with official markings.

“I am Reinhart Gettlemen. I have been assigned as your clerk and attache. If there is anything you need while serving as Magistrate I will do my best to get it for you.”

"I'll need the workspace, and the dockets, and anything new that's come up since the charges were filed, delivered to that workspace, Reinhardt." Giao kept her voice from quavering.

“I anticipated as much. We have an office for you in the Courts building itself, and here are the dockets as well as everything else I was able to gather for official reports before having to come meet you.” Reinhart handed over a stack of folders and a portable reader.

"Thank you again." She sat in the car with him, and began reading as the car began moving. The words on the display pages kept her from glancing nervously at the riot of natural environment outside the vehicle.

"Most visitors to Hue at least try to have a look at Oldtown, or the reconstruction by the riverside…"

"I… am sure they are lovely," she tried to deflect, as she focused her eyes on the page. "You're local, Reinhardt?"

"Ja, Southeast side of town, near the offramp into wine country, in the foothills," he said with some pride.

"Good. I'll be asking you to do a great many things on my behalf while I'm here. Some of them may strike you as being very mundane…"

“I understand. If you need a script for your planetphobia, I know a sympathetic doctor who can see you right away.”

"To perform my duties, alas, I have to maintain absolute sobriety, but thank you for the kind offer. I'll need you to fetch me things from the store, and arrange some means of blocking the windows."

“I understand. If you wish I can arrange for a more generalized personal assistant, one who can help you with certain more private tasks.”

"I would appreciate that, thank you, Reinhardt," she said with a nod. "I, in turn, will do my best to work with you in harmony."

“Greta, your cousin Reinhart. I need to collect on that solid you owe me. And it comes with a paycheck.” Reinhart had the phone pulled and dialed almost before Giao realized it. “Yeah. Rockjack. You know where the Court building is? Thanks.”

The need to nurture

You go back to sleep. You need it.” Jakob said as Jonathan began wailing in the night.

He walked to the crib and picked up his son.

“You don’t need changing. You’ve been fed.” Jakob checked him over. “I see, teething pains.”

Jacob Fletcher, husband of Helena Cameron (Drillson)

Jakob took Jonathan out to the lounge area and fished a teething ring from the refrigerator.

“This will help,” Jakob said as he put the cool ring in Jonathan’s mouth.

“I must admit I’m jealous of Helena. Most guys would not be the kind of doting father you are for another guy’s kid.” Samantha said as she was working late.

“It’s not the kid’s fault his dad is a scumbag,” Jakob answered as Jonathan was quieter now. “To be honest I’m surprised you’re still with us.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I was born infertile and I can adopt later, when I reach muster out age.” Samantha shook her head. “Bertha’s the one I think we need to worry about leaving us next. It’s not that she isn’t dedicated, or that she’s disloyal but…”

“She’s starting to feel a need to be more than Helena’s gatekeeper and personal driver,” Jakob nodded. “I think I know what to do with her. With all these foreign intel agents around us now that are supposed to be part of Helena and Liz’s protection details, I think sending her to spook school is in order.”

“Yeah. I don’t think we have to worry about her getting ideas about becoming a mom anytime soon.” Samantha looked at Jonathan who was still quietly fussing.

“Here. You’re clearly feeling the need.” Jakob passed Jonathan over to Samantha.

“But…” she began.

“You may have been born infertile but you still clearly have maternal instincts, and being around so many children as you have been, you’re feeling left out.”

Samantha nervously and slowly adjusted Jonathan until they were both comfortable.

“See. You’re a natural.”

“Here, keep chewing on this. It will help.” Samantha put the teething ring back in Jonathan’s mouth.

“I think he’s going to be a heartbreaker when he gets old enough to start being interested in girls.” Jakob smiled.

“He’s on the spectrum too isn’t he?” Samantha inferred.

“Majery’s certain of it. Says that too is a side effect of the medications Helena was on at the time. Poor kid has a bad cardiovascular system, and he’s showing signs of being a savant. He’s clearly gifted with language.” Jakob sighed.

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