The Empire’s Corps: Book 01 - The Empire's Corps (18 page)

She stood up. “My orders from my superiors are to make myself of use to you, Captain,” she concluded. Edward smiled inwardly at how much pride she – and her superiors – had had to swallow to issue such orders, let alone follow them. “What are your orders?”

Edward considered the matter. “I want you to prepare a briefing for my senior officers and NCOs,” he said. The briefing would be recorded and shown to the enlisted men as well. “And then I want you to sit down with some of my people and start going over maps and planning operations. I don’t intend to sit on my ass at Castle Rock doing nothing.”

Kitty stared at him. “Captain,” she said slowly, “how do you intend to send a hundred Marines against an enemy you can't even track?”

“You might be surprised,” Edward said, seriously. An idea was already forming in his mind. He’d have to study the maps before he came up with a final plan, but he was fairly sure it world work. “I think the bandit gang that hit the township would make a suitable first target for our wrath, don’t you?”

Chapter Fifteen

There are two vital elements of any colonisation project that must succeed if the world is to develop properly; the farming, to provide food, and the industry. If those two elements fail, the colony world will either stagnate or collapse. It should be evident that it is vitally important to encourage those elements at all costs, yet far too many planets are concentrating merely on the short-term and neglecting the long-term health of their colony.

- Professor Leo Caesius,
The Waning Years of Empire
(banned).

Leo stepped out of the shuttle and took a deep breath. The smell struck him at once. There was a hint of jet fuel and the ionisation caused by shuttle drives, but all of that was minor compared to the fresh wind blowing across the landing strip. Earth’s atmosphere had stunk…and he hadn’t even been aware of it until he'd set foot on a starship. The pollution had been terrible. He knew, from his own private studies, that it caused massive death rates among the Undercity dwellers, but there were always more where they came from. The stink of hydrocarbons and far too many human beings pressed together had ever-present. He had just never been aware of it until he’d smelled cleaner air.

He turned slowly, stepping away from the shuttle, and caught sight of the mountains in the distance. They were like nothing he had ever seen before. They seemed to reach up endlessly into the clouds, dominating the surrounding countryside for miles around, with green flecks of trees and grass covering their lower levels. He’d seen pictures of Earth’s mountain ranges, of course, but he’d never been able to afford a family holiday to the few remaining preserved areas of Earth. That had been the playground of the rich and famous.

“Dad,” Mandy said. It was almost a whine. “Help me down, please.”

Leo turned and held out a hand to his daughter. She was shaking, overwhelmed by her new surroundings, for she had definitely never set foot outside her home city on Earth. Avalon was vast and unspoilt by the human race, a paradise for the tired and weary, yet Mandy seemed daunted by the sight. The young were supposed to be more adaptable than the old, or so he had learned in his studies, but Mandy looked doubtful. Mindy didn’t seem to have so many doubts. She ran down the shuttle’s ramp and down onto the ground, staring around in awe.

“It’s so green,” she said. “Daddy…what is that?”

Leo followed her pointing finger and saw a strange animal moving around the edge of the spaceport’s new fence. A chill ran down his spine as it sank in that he was truly on an alien world. The animal looked like a weird combination of a dog, a horse and a donkey. It gave them a disdainful glance with fish-like eyes and wandered off, grazing as it moved. He wondered, absently, what it was called or if anyone had bothered to try to tame it and its kin. Was it even good eating?

“So,” Fiona said. “This is Avalon.”

The scorn in her voice made him wince. “Yes,” he said, silently wishing that she would shut up long enough for him to work out what to do next. They had to go into Camelot and find somewhere to live, and then start seeing about jobs. He’d checked Avalon’s local net – such as it was – and found no mention of a university. The schools seemed to be mainly technical schools, designed to turn out the next generation of industrial workers. “Welcome to our new home.”

Fiona snorted again, but mercifully kept her peace. She’d been complaining all the time since the shuttle had undocked from the massive transport, demanding that the pilot take it easy as they descended down towards the planet. Leo remembered what she’d been like when they had first married and wondered, not for the first time, what had happened to the woman he’d married. It was far too easy to understand. She’d had peace, security and wealth – at least for their class – and his actions had torn it away from her. The whole family had been exiled thousands of light years from the core of the Empire.

Mandy realised that she was clutching her father’s hand and let go of it, her eyes flickering around the spaceport. Leo watched her with some concern, but she seemed to be recovering; her eyes were following a group of Marines as they unloaded another shuttle. Leo winced inwardly again. Mandy had grown up in a world where she had had no responsibility for her actions and it showed. He had a feeling that life was going to be much more serious on Avalon than it had ever been on Earth. Mindy didn’t seem to have any problems at all. She looked as if she wanted to start running all over the spaceport. Only the possible danger kept her firmly in her place.

“Welcome to Avalon,” a voice said. Fiona jumped. Leo turned slowly to see Captain Stalker and another Marine standing behind them. He hadn’t even heard them coming up to the shuttle! “What do you make of your new home?”

“It smells strange,” Mandy said, sullenly. For once, she wasn’t eying the Marine. “I don’t want to be here.”

Leo gave the Captain a glance, silently willing him to understand. “What a remarkable coincidence,” Captain Stalker said. His voice was exaggeratedly cheerful. “I don’t want to be here either. Orders are orders.”

“Yes, but that’s different,” Mandy protested. “You have to obey orders and go where they send you. I…”

Her voice trailed off.

“I cannot prove this to you, not now, but you are far better off here than in the Undercity back on Earth, or dead,” Captain Stalker said, bluntly. He looked up at Leo. “I understand that you intend to head into Camelot as soon as possible?”

“Yes,” Leo said. He recognised the brisk businesslike tone. “We can’t presume on your hospitality forever.”

“True enough,” Captain Stalker agreed. “I have taken the liberty of asking Rifleman Jasmine Yamane to accompany you until you get your bearings. I hope you won’t find her too much of an imposition.”

Leo, who recognised an order when he heard one, however expressed, nodded slowly. “I’m sure that we won’t,” he said, ignoring Fiona’s angry look. She couldn’t wait to be away from the Marines, if only to keep Mandy out of trouble. Leo silently wished her good luck with that. His daughter seemed determined to sleep with each and every male Marine in the Company. “How do we get into town?”

“Jasmine has a locally-produced car for your service,” Captain Stalker said. “Let me know how you get on.”

He nodded briskly to his subordinate and walked away, leaving Jasmine with Leo and his family. “If you’ll come this way,” she said, politely. If she was aware of how both of Leo’s daughters were staring at her, she didn’t show it. “I can drive you into town and help you find lodgings.”

The locally-produced car turned out to be a copy of a design that had been old when the Empire was young, large enough to carry Leo’s entire family in some degree of comfort. It was a new and strange sight to both girls and they stared in awe as Jasmine steered them out of the spaceport and onto the highway leading down towards the sea. None of the family could drive. On Earth, they had been restricted to using either the transport tubes or aircars, and the aircars had been controlled by their onboard processors. Privately-owned vehicles weren't legally banned, but they were very rare outside the wealthy. The expense was just too much.

Avalon, on the other hand, seemed to have hundreds of privately-owned vehicles. The closer they got to the city, the more vehicles they saw on the road, ranging from cars to buses and trucks. He saw a van drive past carrying live horses – Mindy stared in astonishment, clearly planning to find out where she could get riding lessons – and another carrying newly-picked fruit. Some people rode animals instead, from horses to creatures that had to be native to Avalon itself. The standard colonisation program, he’d learned while he’d been carrying out his research, always included thousands of young animals, cloned and decanted on the new world. Horses, pigs, sheep and cattle reproduced naturally. It was another measure to prevent the complete collapse of a new colony world. Offhand, he couldn’t recall a colony world, one established after the rise of the Empire, that had actually failed. They were regarded as very solid investments.

The thought made him study Camelot with a new eye. Parts of the city looked strong and prosperous, other parts looked poor and downcast. He saw men and women who strode purposefully around the city, as if they had places to go, and others who loitered on street corners, without any purpose to their existence. He spotted a line of women who had to be prostitutes, selling themselves for the best that they could get, and a line of men looking for labouring positions. Camelot looked as if it was spending its seed capital, rather than investing in the future. A chill ran down his spine. He had studied how colony worlds could go bad, but seeing it in person was different. The piles of litter in some parts of the city were a very telling sign.

“This is the finest hotel in Camelot,” Jasmine said, as she pulled up in front of a blocky stone building. It looked reasonably clean, at least. “The Governor suggested that you stay here for a week while you look for somewhere more permanent.”

“Thank you,” Leo said, as they stepped out of the car. Apart from a few bags of clothing they’d brought from Earth, they had almost nothing with them. Fiona had mourned the loss of her jewels and fashionable clothes ever since the Marines had taken them in. A mob had looted their house and burned what was left of it to the ground. He looked down at his wife and scowled at her expression. “Coming?”

Jasmine followed them as they stepped into the lobby. If it was the finest hotel on Avalon, Leo would have dreaded walking into a less-prestigious hotel. The lobby was barely clean, with paint coming off the walls and carpets that had never been washed or even vacuumed. He was sure he saw something move on the table as he walked up to the single desk, operated by a girl who looked bored. Her mouth chewed incessantly on a piece of gum.

“Welcome to the Hotel Avalon,” she said. Her voice somehow suggested that their presence was an imposition. “One room for the five of you?”

“Two rooms would be fine,” Leo said. Mandy looked as if she wanted to protest, but Fiona shot her a glance that made her shut her mouth. He looked over at Jasmine. “Ah…?”

“I’ll be returning to the spaceport tonight,” Jasmine said, dryly. “I won’t have to stay here.”

The receptionist stared at Jasmine, and then looked back at Leo. “Two rooms,” she said. She quoted a price that made Leo splutter, all in credits. Avalon’s local currency clearly wasn't very strong. He named a counteroffer and she nodded, leading him to suspect that he was still overpaying them for the rooms. “If you’ll follow me…”

The rooms weren't actually as bad as he’d feared, although the chambermaid didn’t look very competent at all. Fiona spent an hour inspecting them minutely, complaining about everything, before finally admitting that they were acceptable, for the moment. Mandy had thrown herself down on her bed while Mindy bombarded Jasmine with questions about the Marine Corps and how one joined up. Jasmine answered as patiently as she could, even when Mandy started firing off questions about what it was like to serve with so many handsome men and which one was best in bed. Fiona slapped her and sent her back to her bed in a rage.

A knock on the door revealed a messenger wearing the closest thing to a formal uniform they’d seen on the planet. “Professor, Chief Councillor Ron Friedman would like the pleasure of your family’s company at Afternoon Tea,” he said, once Jasmine had checked his identity. “He wishes to welcome you to the planet personally.”

“Excellent,” Fiona said, before Leo could say anything. “Please tell the Chief Councillor that we would be happy to attend his little meeting. We’ll be along as soon as possible.”

Leo opened his mouth to object, saw his wife’s face, and knew that it would be futile. There was no stopping Fiona when she got into one of those moods. Besides, a new social life might just help her adapt to their new home.

“Very well,” he said, seriously. “When does it start?”

He’d half-expected Jasmine to object to them going to the meeting – or get-together, or whatever it was – but the Marine Rifleman said nothing. He wasn't quite sure why Captain Stalker had assigned her to look after them anyway. The town might not be as nice as the briefings from the ADC had made it sound, but they hadn’t run into any actual danger. Fiona spent the next hour trying on dresses and insisting that the girls changed as well, while Leo donned the traditional suit worn by an Imperial Professor. He might have been fired from the University of Earth – a very rare occurrence – but no one had stripped him of his professorship. Fiona’s one suggestion that Jasmine abandon her uniform for a dress was met by a harsh stare.

Chief Councillor Ron Friedman’s house was more like a castle, built out of solid stone and guarded by a number of tough-looking men carrying locally-produced weapons. Leo would have been more impressed if he hadn’t spent time with Captain Stalker during the long voyage to Avalon; the guards struck him as thugs, rather than disciplined soldiers. They wore uniforms that made them look uncomfortably like wasps – yellow and black – to make them stand out in a crowd.