Ancient Relics (THE RIM CONFEDERACY Book 4) Page 2

  His leg began to shake again as she continued speaking.

  "Why? I have no idea other than that would have allowed him to walk off the prison world as her husband. But you should know that had that happened, there would have been major issues between Neres and the Caliphate. Major issues," she said flatly.

  Tanner was shocked. The man that he had killed had almost married the Lady.

  He sat still yet his leg now bounced, and he couldn't control it. He realized this would take more thinking as his leg bounced.

  She looked at him for a moment.

  "Ah … a surprise, I take it. Captain, loyalty is what I'm after—as a captain in my Navy and as a new Barony citizen. Loyalty to the twin crowns. Loyalty …" she said and took another sip of her drink.

  Tanner sat and stared at his untouched drink. Reaching forward, he downed it in a single gulp and then rose to take his leave.

  Moments later as Gracie again rose, stretched, and moved back to lean on the Baroness's thigh, she smiled down at her and stroked the creature as it drifted off to sleep again … and the smile stayed on her face for quite a while.

  #

  Turning to the citizen beside him, Tanner asked as nicely as he could, "Would you be able to point out the Galipedia building?"

  She turned to him and looked him up and down as they waited for the intersection lights to change.

  Dressed in the blue Barony Navy uniform, his silver eagles on his collar and twin crowns on his left breast, he looked like any other Navy man and perhaps that what surprised her.

  "You in the Navy and you don't know where the Galli is—is that right," she said, her voice sounding like she was more than surprised.

  Fashion, he thought to himself, it might be important to note that.

  Purple tights covered her legs. Her top was an ocher-colored shirt made out of a material that was both shiny and thick, yet he could see through it in some spots. Her hair was—if it really was hair—light blue of a shade that seemed to match the color of the EliteGuard boots. So perhaps she was a guard fan? She had what he would have considered nighttime makeup on, her eyes large and black rimmed, and the twin earrings that dangled from each lobe were large and greenish in shade.

  He smiled at her. File that away for modern Neres fashion, he thought.

  "Brand new to the Barony Navy, Ma’am, and new to Neres City too," he finished off and gave her a big smile.

  She nodded at him and then smiled back.

  Pointing to their left, she leaned forward and gave him directions, and it appeared he had at least been on the right track.

  "Ma’am," he said as he threw her a salute and took off in that direction.

  Neres City was, without a doubt, a beautiful, modern city, and with over a half million inhabitants, it was truly a great city here on the RIM. At the southern edge of the city lay the naval base right on the shoreline between the city and the huge Crius Ocean. Once, of course, a real Navy had coursed that ocean with its ships and submarines, but now the base held the Navy landing port that carried all military traffic. There was a smaller landing port close by that looked after all the citizen space traffic, cruisers, and recreational and tour business, but Tanner doubted he'd ever even get there.

  On one of the city's main streets, close to the Navy base, it looked normal—nice but normal. There was the usual sprinkling of cafés, stores, offices, and even one of the biggest weapon shops he'd ever seen. As he strode along, he noted the city had a mag-lev LRT as a pair of coaches went by at least half full. He also noted there was almost no advertising—none on the sides of the LRT, no billboards, and no windows full of signage. He'd have to find out why that was, but as he crossed a major intersection, he saw a large dome-covered building on the same side of the street he was on that was set back from the street. Stores ended before the dome and then took up their march farther down the street after it.

  In front of the building, a large sign simply said Gallipedia, and he smiled, as the girl with the China blue hair had been right. He moved across the large spacious walkways with benches and little sitting areas and mounted the front steps one by one to enter the lobby of the building that housed the knowledge of the galaxy.

  He didn't really know what to do. His only real introduction to the Gallipedia had been almost two decades ago back in the Earldom of Kinross as a student at the realms Navy Academy. Now, all this time gone by meant he was a bit of a neophyte, so he walked up to the woman behind the counter and waited until she looked at him.

  "Ma’am, I wonder if I might ask for some help," he said and she nodded to him and held out her hand.

  "Would you please beam me your Navy ID, please?" she said as she pointed at his wrist PDA.

  He just looked at her. He had no such ID.

  "I am sorry, but I do not as yet have one—I'm a brand new Navy officer here in the Barony, and I've barely gotten my new uniforms, Ma’am," he said and tried to look like he needed some help.

  She nodded.

  "Sounds like our Navy, Captain. Here, let me give you a visitor’s ID so you can use the consoles, and as soon as your real ID shows up, come back to see me and I can transfer all your saved files and folders for you," she said as she swiped a card and handed it to him.

  "Yes, low tech but it still works," she said and smiled at him as he pocketed the card.

  Tanner turned to the large room that lay behind the reception area. The colors here were muted and all in natural shades, which made for a relaxing atmosphere. He walked past a few citizens and a small group that looked like a family who was oohing and aahing about whatever was on their desktop screen. Mostly the room was empty, but he did see a techie or support person who had the top of a desktop console propped up to work on something within.

  Sitting, he ran through some of the options he had and decided that learning about the realm first would be a great way to be a new Barony citizen. He swiped his new visitor’s card against the ID panel, and the console lit up with the Gallipedia crest—a silver wreath of laurels around a shining blue giant sun. Moments later, the search function screen appeared, and he typed in carefully "Barony planets" and up came a list of ten names. Throth had been added and he clicked on the first name on that list, Amasis. The screen lit up with lots of information on this planet, as well as pictures, charts, and tables too. Scrolling, he went by the major sections like Atmosphere, Orbit and Rotation, and Research and Exploration to the areas like History, Geography, and Politics.

  This is going to take a while, he thought, and he read for almost an hour just on the Urbanization and Economy area. He gained quite an understanding for this historically heavy manufacturing planet.

  Over the past thousand or so years, the planet had slowly become polluted in many areas, and its climate had warmed up with heavier CO2 concentrations. This meant nothing to Tanner, but he was sure it meant something to the planet's inhabitants. It was a human world, ruled by a democratically elected parliament, that had joined the Barony hundreds of years ago and now served as one of the economic forces that made the Barony very much an important realm here on the RIM.

  He sat back as the console saved his files. He settled and went to the next planet named Tarvos, and the screen once more filled with data.

  He sat there all day. His occasional twitching of a hand or the bouncing of a leg was pretty much ignored here. Many other users had unconscious little twitches and funny methods of sitting still but not sitting still all at the same time.

  Underneath the studious facade, he was trying not to think about sleep. He instead tried to concentrate on the Tarvos issues that had recently come to light with their inability to allow immigration for some races, and that was a big deal, he realized. There was some planetary vision that the aliens who lived there would not admit anyone from UrPoPo, and that was opening up a whole can of worms. I really don’t need sleep, he thought, and he went back to the console screen.

  Planet by planet, he read up on the ten planets that were the basis of t
he Barony, and he realized a half hour or so on each was barely enough time to get a taste for the planets, five of which were alien worlds and five were human worlds. And Neres, a human world, was more multicultural, like a mosaic instead of a melting pot, and he would have to remember to look up Tarvos and their issues later.

  He closed down his console, went back to the reception desk, and waited for the same woman to be free.

  "Pardon me, Ma’am?" he said.

  She looked up at him and smiled. "Yes, Captain, what can I do for you—if you've been here all this time working on learning, you're going to be one of the smartest Navy men in the Barony."

  "Just wanted to thank you, Ma’am … for your help in getting the chance to learn too!" he said and they smiled at each other.

  Surprising himself, he held out his hand. "Captain Tanner Scott of the BN Atlas, Ma’am. Nice to meet you."

  She was taken aback but only for a second.

  "Captain, my name is Zaira Durand—Librarian Zaira Durand, and I am so pleased to make your acquaintance, Captain. Please, come back often and take a role in our Gallipedia experience. We house the knowledge of the galaxy …" She shook his hand like she hadn't shaken a hand in years, and he left the building, dome and all, and walked back to his quarters at the Navy base.

  Sleep, he thought, would be a good thing to have. Of course, there was medicine for that. Medicine that if taken in the proper dosage like doubles would bring sleep …

  #

  Bram was waiting on the other side of the door when Tanner opened it and he smiled at his captain.

  "Sir, ready, willing, and yes, as today was payday, I can buy the first round. Sir," he said and smiled.

  Bram wore the Barony uniform, Tanner noticed, and he pointed at his Adept officer and raised an eyebrow.

  "Yup, I know, there are no regs that say that an Adept has to wear the Barony Navy uniform—most just wear civvies, I'd guess. But that's not me and besides, I always heard that a young dashing officer did well with the opposite sex—hence I'm in the blues!" he said.

  Tanner noted his lieutenant had also found the Adept officer badge, and the ringed planet and those two badges were shining in his blue collar.

  "You look the part, Lieutenant, but who says there will even be any of those opposite sex citizens where we're going?" He tried to say it with an honest tone, but Bram just smiled and they left the Officers’ Quarters building on the Navy base and made their way over to the exit point to go to town.

  As they walked across the pavement, a small personnel carrier beeped and pulled up alongside them, and the driver leaned out to speak to them.

  "Sir—Captain Scott, right?" a Marine major said.

  "That's me, Major. What can I do for you?" Tanner said and noted the carrier had a few others already inside, all grinning marines.

  "I understand that you're the newest Navy captain—and wanted you to know that in our Navy the new man buys," he said and smiled broadly.

  Big man, Tanner thought. His blond hair was clipped as short as possible. His uniform was—well—tired, Tanner thought. A breast pocket had something sticking out of it that dropped crumbs on his shirt and his one collar was missing the gold oak leaf. But it appeared to Tanner that the major just didn't care.

  "Same rules in all Navies, I'd imagine. Where are you headed?" Tanner said.

  "Town. Over to the local bar that us marines kinda call home—the OneTon bar … and yes, hop in and we'd love to let you buy, Captain."

  "Tanner … call me Tanner," Tanner said as he and Bram went around to the back and hopped into the carrier.

  Introductions ensued and soon the carrier was humping it down the city streets and slowly climbing the hill that lay to the south of town. Partway up that hill, the carrier swerved to take the right-hand fork in the road and stopped just a few feet past the corner. All climbed out and the major came around to the sidewalk side of the street and grinned.

  "Major Alver Stal, Captain—and I'm told that I'll be one of your squadron commanders onboard the Atlas," he said as he pumped Tanner’s hand with vigor.

  He clapped his big arm around Tanner’s shoulders and led the way through the open doorway of the OneTon Bar & Grill and the rest followed them inside.

  Inside, Tanner noticed there were lots of Barony uniforms—Navy, Marines, even some Air Force light blues—and all seemed to know the major as they all hoisted a glass in cheers to him.

  "Seems like you're a well-known patron here, Major—"

  "Alver. Call me Alver and we'll be fine," the big man said and they moved right to the back of the tavern and joined a group of marines already there.

  Ordering the drinks took the major all of five seconds as he yelled for double beers for the room. He smiled at Tanner who grinned back and reached into a pocket to get his Navy ID card to pay for the round, and the major waved him off.

  "This one is on us. You're up next," he said as the beers arrived and the drinks began to flow.

  Tanner was glad to note that it was beer only as his capacity for beer was large. He bought every other round, and he got a glow on, but it took quite a while, which was a good thing. He met more Navy personnel that night than he'd ever remember, but some did make an impression.

  The major—Alver—was a real party animal and drank with Tanner one for one. Together, they won games of darts and billiards and even beer pong that started up around the back of the bar. Alver grabbed an Air Force colonel, one David Richards who Tanner learned would be one of his wing commanders on the Atlas. His counterpart was on his way back to Neres from a side trip over to Bottle on leave. The bird colonel was wearing his flight duty uniform and looked like he was fit too.

  "Two wing groups?" he asked and the major nodded in agreement.

  "We were told that the Atlas will hold two wings, each with fifty fighters, and they're all new to us too, Captain."

  "You mean you've never even flown these new fighters, Colonel?" Tanner said with a degree of wonder in his voice.

  "Flown everything that flies, both on and off worlds, and it's a skill set that will translate over to these new single seat fighters—or so we were told. Won't really know ‘til our shakedowns, but not expecting much that we Barony fliers can't handle," he said and drained his mug of beer.

  Tanner found Bram a half hour later, leaning on the bar and talking up a woman who was a part of a whole group of tourists, and he slid in beside him. He waited while Bram finished his story about knowing exactly what the redhead in the green chemise was thinking, and when he was wrong, he took it with much glee and the group exploded in laughter

  "Found out that the Atlas will have two wing groups of fifty fighters each—met the one colonel who will be under me, and the major says the other will be here on Neres soon too. You learn anything, Bram?" he said, chugged his beer, and nodded to the bartender to get them and the ladies another round, which brought more cheers from them.

  "Not a thing, except that if you spend time getting to know folks, it will mean that you end up with new friends."

  Tanner tilted his head at Bram as if to say "huh?"

  "I know these beautiful women will all be my friends, right, girls?" he said and that got him raised mugs and more cheers.

  Tanner left Bram and his redheaded quarry and moved up to the front of the tavern. It was mostly full and the patrons were all having fun. He glanced outside through the front window and noted a man standing by a robo-cab who was looking at the front of the bar and talking to someone via his wrist PDA.

  Strange uniform, Tanner thought, as he didn't recognize the khaki and shiny olive colorations. He moved around a couple dancing to look directly at the man through the open doorway. That put him directly into the view of the man who quickly jumped back into the robo-cab, and it sped away before Tanner could do much more than stare at the man.

  Odd, he thought and made a note to remember to ask what kind of Barony uniform that was.

  He swigged some more beer as he turned and went all t
he way to the back of the tavern to join what was becoming a badly sung sing-along and thought no more about it.

  Briefly, he felt anxious about sleeping that night but then remembered the beer would help, and he ordered another double mug and smiled as it arrived with not a lot of head. More for me …

  #

  Tanner hit the pause button on his console, stood up to stretch, went over to the windows that looked out on the side yard of the Gallipedia building, and watched the people walking there. One small child, a Quaran he could see, was running after another child and was upset about something.

  The child's mother, quickly scooped up the youngster, and trying to head off a tantrum perhaps, she buried her muzzle into the little one’s tummy. Tanner could almost hear the nuzzling sound effects.

  The little one laughed and the older one doubled back to jump up and look for mother's affection too … all which made Tanner smile.

  Seems like all children and parents, regardless of species, enjoy the same kind of love.

  He smiled even more when that thought was suddenly filled with the slow motion memory of Tibah as his Colt spoke and the impact of the bullet crashed her to the ground, her legs folding up and her arms flailing as she dropped the Merkel. She had died instantly. Tanner almost sobbed out loud, walked quickly down the long side aisle of the reading room, and found solace in the corner where he sat on a bench and kept his back to the room. One leg bounced as the adrenaline coursed through his arteries, but he knew in a few minutes he'd be slowing down.

  He'd read that the kind of event he had just been a part of could affect him for years.

  That had not been good news. He also thought, though he had no proof, if I could just sit and wait out these attacks … almost panic attacks maybe … would mean they would go away on their own.