Chapter 22
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When the tour of dignitaries was complete, Harden Salton entered the room. After a thunderous applause, the room went quickly silent.
Harden Salton said, “Governors, Senators, and other honored guests, we are here this evening to celebrate this Grunta man for what he has done for the New Alliance. His efforts have strengthened our position at a time of unrest in many sectors. Mr. Beutcher represents the backbone of the Alliance, and tonight we honor him with an accomplishment that has only been awarded four times, not only in the short history of the New Alliance, but also in that of the former AMP. Mr. Beutcher, may I present to you this fifth and final star!”
I was completely caught off guard. I looked over at Joni, whose eyes were wide. I stood in stunned silence for several seconds before she began to clap her hands. As the crowd joined in, I stepped up to the podium.
Harden Salton continued, “Mr. Beutcher, for your many years of outstanding service to the New Alliance, and for your recent efforts to established a stronger relationship between our colonies and planets, I award this fifth star. I personally thank you for your service. I would also like to honor you with this Salton family pin. You will find it opens many doors in our sectors. And if it doesn’t, just give me a call, and I will take care of it!”
Harden Salton was all smiles as the crowd erupted in laughter and applause. I had a sudden taste of what had soured Joni’s outlook on the whole ruling-family affair. Her father and uncle were politicians. They kept a close group of friends in powerful positions and rewarded them often when things went their way. I had a sickening feeling the New Alliance was indeed doomed if the other families conducted their business in a similar manner.
As the gala began to wind down, I took note that every waiter or waitress who carried a tray of refreshments had several frozen drinks on the tray. I grabbed a Frozen Fruiteda from the next passing waiter and downed it in two gulps. The cold sensation was refreshing and took the edge off my otherwise slightly contemptuous attitude.
After Harden Salton made his way into a back room, the remaining crowd thinned out quickly.
An attendant came over to our small group. “Mr. Beutcher, Mr. Harden would like a word with you in private. Please come with me.”
I followed the attendant into the same room that Harden Salton had gone into only a few minutes earlier. He was seated in a lounge chair that looked out over the outside gardens.
Harden Salton spoke. “Mr. Beutcher, I can’t thank you enough for capturing that Orwallian freighter. That could easily have been the beginning of the end of the New Alliance.”
“May I speak frankly, sir?”
Harden nodded. “Of course. Say whatever is on your mind.”
I cleared my throat. “I believe your empire, or whatever you would like to call it, is in real trouble. The people are unhappy; taxes and restrictions on movement are increasing every day. If you want the Salton planets and colonies to stick together, you need a unifying reason, something that makes them want to be a part of it. At the moment, they don’t see any real advantage.”
Harden shook his head. “I’ve stated such to my advisers a hundred times over, but they keep going back to the same thing. We have a war to fight, Mr. Beutcher. The other families don’t see the danger in losing the Andromeda galaxy to an external force. I do. The taxes and restrictions all have purpose. We have to build an army and a navy. For centuries there has been no need for such. The setup of the security stations ensured peace and tranquility in the AMP. The AMP never had an external threat.”
I continued, “Perhaps it is your approach. History shows that conscripted armies make poor armies. If a soldier’s reason for fighting is only to stay alive, he will only commit his full efforts at the moment his life is threatened. A volunteer army is far more powerful and motivated to succeed.”
Harden held up his right hand and waved it around. “All of this is not so simple, Mr. Beutcher. The New Alliance treaties state that no armies shall be raised. Security is to be provided through the security stations as before. The others fear that if we each raise armies, we will war amongst ourselves. I believe them to be correct on that, but how are we supposed to defend ourselves from an outside threat?”
“Aren’t you already raising an army through conscription?”
Harden nodded. “Yes, but they don’t know that. There is no evidence of an army in this sector. They're taken through to Andromeda, and after a few weeks’ training they go right into battle. It sickens me to send so many to their certain death, but we have no other way to try to slow the attackers down.
“I have two of the other families almost convinced to join the cause. I fear they are only stringing me along, as their spies can see we are losing control here at home. I'm stuck as to what to do. Every option seems worse than what we are already doing.”
I sat silent for several seconds as I thought. “I looked around in your ballroom out there this evening. What I saw told me that you only have loyal followers so long as you're keeping them in their high lifestyles. True loyalty cannot be bought, Mr. Salton. It has to be earned. There has to be a reason people support you that's beyond a simple payout. Those loyalists will always go to the highest bidder at the worst possible moment.”
Harden looked at me. “Are you saying I should fire my staff and shed my ungrateful friends?”
“I’m saying a leader will naturally draw good people to his service. You should be taking the advisement of those who surround you and use that to shape your decisions. Knowing the motives behind those advisers should be taken into consideration. If those motivations aren’t pure, you should seek other council.”
Harden offered a half laugh. “It seems I have to go to the people for any sound advice, Mr. Beutcher. Would you consider joining my staff as a personal adviser?”
I held up my hand. “I'm not well suited to politics, Mr. Salton. I think you'll do well if you stick to what your gut and common sense tell you to do. The masses of the people loved the AMP. You might try returning some of your policies to match those that were in place then, and at the same time shed some of those leeches who are attached to your treasury.
“When others get wealthy through government service, it's at the expense of everyone else. Your actions are what will bring back the people's respect. In your dealings with the other families, gaining their respect through the strength of your economy is what they will follow. If you're struggling, they will look to take every advantage.”
Harden sat back in his chair as he looked out over the gardens. “Wise words, Mr. Beutcher. I’m glad we had this talk. I do have one question, though.”
“What would that be?”
Harden continued, “You are calm and collected sitting here next to me. Are all Grunta like that?”
I shook my head. “The Grunta are much like the Humans in that regard. Personalities range from those who will not listen, to those who will not act, to those who do too much and those who don’t do enough. I think those are universal traits in most sentient species.
“As for me, I came to the conclusion long ago that while your station in life might command some level of respect from others, you as an individual have to earn the rest. You and I both came into this life as equals, infants dependent on others for our survival. What we have accomplished, and how we treat others, determines how much respect we earn. You and I both know what is good and right. Make your decisions based on those ideals, and the masses will flock to your support.”
Harden Salton had one final thing to say before his departure for an important meeting. “I also want to thank you for taking care of my niece. I’m very fond of her, and I want her to be kept safe. She is young and strong-willed. Try to keep her from getting herself in too deep. If I am to one day pass all this on to another family member, she is the only one who shows enough guts to make the tough decisions.”
I departed the meeting with more respect than I had come in wi
th. Harden Salton was in a precarious position, not only with his own people, but with the other families as well. I felt his biggest problem was those he had surrounded himself with. He was in need of a wholesale replacement of his staff and friends. It was that need that would be the most difficult to satisfy. We departed soon after the gala ended for SS5.
As we rode in the transport toward the portal gates, the Chief said, “I don’t know what to say, Knog. A personal meeting with Harden Salton. That has to be the accomplishment of a lifetime.”
“As it turns out, Mr. Salton is no different than anyone else. He has the same struggles, and the same things make him happy. He just needs to surround himself with a better group of people.”
Jamia shook her head. “OK, I can tell you right now, you're going to have to watch what you say. Those other people can be ruthless and won’t have issue with doing away with anyone who gets in their way. They're powerful in their own right.”
Joni said, “Knog is right, Chief. He needs to clean out his cabinet and bring in people who aren’t so political. Of course, that will never happen. That's the only support he has right now, and they'll go running to the other families to betray him if they think he is going to make any changes they don’t like.”
The chief leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. “I’m just saying you need to watch who you repeat that to. I’ve been in this politics game for a while now, and I know how dirty it can get. Just watch yourself; don’t needlessly make enemies.”
The remaining ride was mostly silent. I walked up the steps into the Daunte and smiled as I rubbed a waiting Raptor on the forehead. The assistant we had hired to watch over him was eager to leave.
I asked, “How was he? Did he give you any trouble?”
The assistant moved slowly over to the steps and only turned to answer when he had reached the deck. “Please don’t ask me to do that again. He just stared at me the entire time. I felt like I couldn’t do anything, or he was going to attack. I’ve been sitting in that chair with my hands in my lap for nine hours. I would thank you to not call me again.”
Joni came up the steps as the hired assistant departed. “He’s leaving in a hurry. Looks like he’s in some discomfort.”
I laughed. “I think the poor guy was too intimidated by our furry friend here to get out of his chair the entire time we were gone.”
Joni shook her head. “Raptor wouldn’t hurt a fly unless one of us or this ship was threatened.”
Joni leaned over to rub Raptor behind the ears. “You're just misunderstood, aren’t you. Can’t get anyone to play with you, poor thing.”
Joni looked up at my shoulder. “Wow, five stars. You're truly in a unique group now. I may be a little intimidated by that myself.”
I sighed as I sat in my chair. “The last two should be a different color.”
“Why do you say that?”
I brushed the stars with my fingers. “Those two weren’t earned, they were political awards.”
Joni shook her head as she laughed. “Please. If anything, those are the two that you did earn. You stopped the pirating of a shipload of cesium, you pulled thirty thousand liters of bleurgh from misuse, and this last one, you stopped a revolution. I’m sorry, but those last two stars were earned. You're just too humble to accept that, which is a good thing, by the way.”
The chief was eager to parade her new five-star detective around the office for all to see. She was instead directed to get us back out in the field. I sat back in my chair wondering what would be coming our way. With the state of the New Alliance, I was certain we would see action soon enough.
Our next assignment was a week on Cardello. We would be spending our time in the main shipping terminal where all interstellar cargoes were being loaded and unloaded. I wondered if our time could not better be spent elsewhere, but I also had to believe the intel people who had given us this assignment had reason to do so. I made an effort to check that every manifest matched the cargo it supposedly listed. I was not making any friends.
Joni had spent most of her time in the transport office, ensuring that the manifests coming out to me were not being altered in any way. Again, her every request was being made to angry glances. After the first contraband had been found, the captains and manifest administrators cleaned up their acts. In my mind, it was exactly the way every port should have been run. An independent team of auditors would bring smuggling through the main ports to a halt.
Five days into our assignment, I saw a small freighter coming in from Orwall. I was eager to get a look at its cargo. As the ship was landing, a Cardellian came out to meet me.
“Mr. Beutcher. You and your partner are to accompany me to a meeting with the port authority administrator. He would like to have a short discussion with the two of you.”
I pointed at the Orwallian freighter. “I would be happy to meet with the administrator after this inspection.”
“I have been told to escort you to the meeting and that any inspections could wait until the meeting is over. The administrator sends his assurance that no ships will be loaded or unloaded in your absence. The meeting is to be brief.”
I looked back at the freighter and then back again at the Cardellian. “We come straight back here when we're done.”
“I will bring you back personally.”
We arrived in the conference room and were seated at the table. The Cardellian offered to get us a beverage. We both declined. We were then informed the administrator was on his way.
Joni said, “We finally get a ship in from Orwall, and they drag us away. I can’t say I like that.”
“I find it suspicious as well. I know the administrator to be a busy man, but I have to wonder if his not being here is just a delay tactic while they're unloading that cargo.”
Ten minutes passed while we waited patiently for whatever purpose the administrator had called the meeting. I was agitated to the point of getting out of my chair to walk toward the door. The Cardellian was waiting just outside.
“I apologize, Mr. Beutcher. Administrator Ballis was held up in a meeting that ran long. He should be here momentarily.”
I returned to my chair with an angry expression on my face. “If he isn’t here in the next three minutes, we're going back out to that shipping bay.”
The Cardellian nodded.
Three minutes to the second later, the administrator entered the conference room. “I am so sorry. I was delayed in a discussion about meeting our shipping quotas. It seems your checks have slowed things down to the point of delaying some shipments. However, you're not to worry over it, we are making adjustments.”
I said, “Why did you call us in here?”
The Cardellian standing at the door stepped in and whispered to the administrator.
The administrator smiled and said, “I just wanted to thank you for doing such a thorough job. It has brought many of the captains in line with policy, and for that I would like to thank you.”
Joni frowned. “That’s it? You called us in here for almost twenty minutes for that?”
The administrator raised his hands as he smiled. “That is all. I just wanted to thank you personally for your service.”
We stood and exited the room, moving in a hurried walk back to the shipping bay. When we arrived, I caught a glimpse of a container being pushed into a warehouse. I was certain it had come from the Orwallian freighter. I was also sure the Administrator would not allow a search of the warehouse. Our jurisdiction ended in the shipping bay itself.
Joni retrieved the manifest log for the freighter and joined me as we boarded. “What do you want to bet the bays are empty.”
I replied, “Pull up the manifest, and let’s see what it says.”
The log was soon floating in the holo-display over Joni’s arm pad. “I see a count of fifteen hundred utility amplifiers and five thousand kilograms of that Bakka root you mentioned before. This is a small freighter, but that is a ridiculously small cargo for this ship.”
The cargo holds were inspected, and they matched exactly to the manifest logs. I was certain there was other cargo that had been unloaded; however, I had no proof. The Cardellians had worked the system to move in a cargo from Orwall. I could only guess it was a load of the same illegal blaster tips we had confiscated before.
I punched a few numbers into my holo-display. “Given the size of that empty cargo space, I would say they have enough tips to build anywhere from two to four million blasters.”
I pulled up a list of shipping schedules. “I see that an identical-sized freighter, listing the same cargo, just landed on Zanus about an hour ago. I think we'll be seeing our revolution anyway. The New Alliance will have enough weapons to counter a spread by these three rebel planets, but they won’t be able to prevent a revolution here. I think it best we pack up and head back to SS5. We may only be weeks away from something getting started, and the Cardellians are going to become very unfriendly the closer that time gets.”
We departed the freighter and walked back to the Daunte. A request was made for a sweep back to SS5. The request was quickly granted.
Gretchin was waiting with a new assignment. “Hello, gang. We are moving you to Adicus, where you will meet up with a liaison. They will fill you in on what's expected in the coming weeks. Your report from Cardello is troubling, to say the least.”
I replied, “I just hope our report was in time for the organization to do something about it.”