Chapter 14: A Question Of Jurisdiction
The following day, Garrett met Marshall in person in his office at the Junker's Moon facility. His shiny black shuttle ship, with a FBIS guard posted at its hatch, rested on the landing field. Garrett was a middle-aged man with grey hair which he wore in a 'flat top' cut. His black uniform was decorated with a short row of ribbons denoting some obscure FBIS commendation, and it was pressed with great precision. Marshall assumed that the depth and straightness of the creases was meant to have significance but if it was anything beyond looking well-presented, it escaped him.
Garrett refused the offer of a seat and launched immediately into a highly technical legal explanation of why, after concluding his investigations, he had found Marshall to have acted well within the law and that neither he, nor any of his employees were at fault. He regretted that no compensation for inconvenience or distress caused by the pirate attack could be offered, as no persons had been physically injured.
Inspector Garrett continued that Marshall should have no doubts about the outcome of the incident with respect to the miscreants. Firstly, under FBIS ordinances he was obliged to arrest and remove the pirates and captain Scrivens for trial. With respect to the goods involved, he was also required to confiscate the gold and take possession of Scrivens's ship, and The Black Medallion as well. He thanked Marshall for his work in apprehending the pirates and obtaining a confession from Scrivens. He regretted, however, that there would be only a small reward, about which Marshall would have to petition FBIS head office and apply for through official channels.
The whole time Garrett had been delivering his speech, Marshall had been at pains to prevent himself from smiling. Nothing the inspector said surprised Marshall in the least, however, he had something which was likely to surprise the inspector. While Garrett had been going through his deliberations the previous day, Marshall had been running investigations of his own.
Past experience with FBIS, as passed down from the previous two generations of Brions gave Marshall more than a hint that Garrett would pull some sort of confiscation stunt, leaving Junker's Moon effectively out of pocket for lost trade, work carried out on Scrivens's ship which was not paid for, and time his employees had been involved in dangerous high vacuum work under the constant danger of being shot at.
If the word got around, other pirates might pay a visit to Junker's Moon with the intention of retaliating for the capture of their friends. That risk was not quantifiable, however, and so was not worth mentioning. Marshall also had no illusions about asking for FBIS protection against such an eventuality, as it would simply be answered with a flat refusal. It was for these reasons that Marshall had asked Debbi to undertake an additional task for him.
Debbi had adjusted the access rights for Marshall's subscription to the database of SVLA ID tags with a little rather impertinent reprogramming. Her subtle manipulation of Marshall's subscription allowed him access to parts of the FBIS archive which were normally under several layers of encryption. While the FBIS ship was in close proximity, Marshall was able to gain entry to the whole FBIS legal database. He would love to have downloaded it to have it available for future reference but he dare not do so while it was in active use by the FBIS inspector.
By searching through the thousands of regulations in the database, Marshall found a law which was hundreds of years old but still in force. It stated that any ships, including pirate ships, taking part in illegal operations could be lawfully intercepted and disabled by members of the public, or by private companies. Ships which were rendered inoperable by individuals going about their legitimate business became the property of the individuals who had captured them. Similarly, a salvage company could claim ownership of a captured vessel. There were further stipulations, however. When Marshall saw the list of amendments which had been made to the original law, his heart sank, but he read on all the same.
By the time he had examined the whole entry in the database, a smile had spread over Marshall's face. It was not all bad by any means; state or federal authorities had an obligation to remove the lawbreakers, either for future trial or summary punishment. The authorities attending the incident also had the right to remove the cargo, which then became the property of 'the crown'. In the absence of a monarchy, there were precedents which allowed the authorities to dispose of the cargo as was deemed appropriate. Further amendments stipulated that 'cargo' referred to items of trade and did not include fixtures or fittings, engines or equipment used in the normal operation of the vessel.
Marshall knew exactly what that meant: the gold and any other contraband the pirates had on The Black Medallion would go straight into FBIS coffers but the ship itself and anything which was bolted down inside it was his.
The beauty of the law, as Marshall read it, was that no paperwork was required to record the fact, simply the presentation of evidence that private individuals had been instrumental in capturing the vessel in question. As a FBIS rank of no less than Inspector had previously accepted that Marshall's employees had blown a hole in the rear of The Black Medallion, and disabled most of its control systems, there was no basis for argument: the pirate ship belonged to Junker's Moon.
Marshall expressed deep regret when he informed Garrett that he had heard somewhere that private individuals responsible for the disablement of a pirate ship were permitted to claim rights of ownership to the vessel in its entirety. The claim, he added rapidly, did not include potentially valuable cargo, or personnel on whom bounty may be claimed.
Garrett's lips had become very thin during Marshall's contradiction of his ruling, and he had departed with a curt, 'We'll see about that,' before stamping away down the corridor and back to his shuttle. After more than four hours deliberation, and with great reluctance, the FBIS inspector returned once more in person. Following some prevarication, Garrett admitted that, as confirmed by FBIS Head Office, he was obliged to comply with his own laws. Marshall was granted leave to claim The Black Medallion. Garrett expressed a very keen desire to know how Marshall had heard of the law, which was certainly obscure and not widely known about. Marshall shrugged, suggesting that it had come up in his grandfather's time, but that he couldn't remember the precise circumstances.
Preparations had meanwhile been made for the FBIS ship to depart. Garrett's interceptor contained the pirate captain and his crew incarcerated in the brig. Scrivens had had his ship's engines disabled and his vessel was locked in tow with the interceptor. At a signal from Garret, the ships vanished in the usual flash of violet light generated on entry to the hyperspace pipe.
As soon as Marshall had verified on his scanner that the FBIS ship, and its captives, was moving away from Junker's Moon, he made a call to his trio of most praiseworthy employees. What Marshall did not know was, that in anticipating his desires in respect of the FBIS legal database, Debbi had remained poised until the last moments before the FBIS ship entered hyperspace, to download the complete set of files. It was something she intended keep under her hat until sometime in the future when she was in need of a very big favour indeed.
Once aboard The Black Medallion with his team of Judith, Debbi and Lucy, Marshall found out why the FBIS captain had been so unwilling to turn over the ship. It was much more heavily armed than he had anticipated, there being weapons which it was likely to take months to learn to operate with full effect. The Black Medallion was also fitted with military grade stealth technology. If the technology had not been very recently de-restricted, there is no doubt Inspector Garret would have had great pleasure in declaring that the equipment must be removed and turned over to FBIS.
Judith ran her hands over the polished metal handles of what was probably the firing mechanism of some exotic weapon. 'No wonder this ship has those weird markings. It looks as though it carries quite a sting.'
In a most satisfactory turn of events, Marshall had become the proud owner of a top-of-the-range defence fleet of one.