Terledrom's gray skies were storming. . .
. . .And damaged sections of Grountz City's underground monorail network were letting through a perpetual seepage that chimed off copper pipes and hollow rails.
A sleek white train scraped to a halt, whisking open a panel that made way for a single eight-legged insectoid, wrapped in a brown raincoat. The man-sized insectoid clutched himself against the cold, his antennae drawn tensely back. He then watched with the insect equivalent of sad puppy eyes as the train whistled out of sight.
The insectoid lifted a small wrist communicator to his mandibles and watched it like a statue. His other hand clutched the handle of his anesthetic needler pistol--hidden in his pocket. His mind kept playing scenes of the panic he might cause by pulling it out.
There were more people in the underground terminal than he expected. If he could dissolve into the crowd, vanish into anonymity, maybe he could forget the assignment on which he was sent--and those who sent him could forget as well. . .
"Look out, you moron!" A rubbery gray ameboid crashed into the insectoid, bearing no apology. "Some of us got places to go! Stupid Vrusk!"
The ameboid passed through and was re-absorbed into the crowd.
The bug plucked himself up from an icy puddle and tried to brush the mud from his jacket.
A glowing monitor snagged the attention of the insectoid's compound eyes. He waded through the masses until his nimble, star-shaped hands could reach the controls below the monitor. A search criterium was entered in at the touchpad: "STARPORT TERMINAL." A wire diagram of the monorail network appeared on the screen, and an alternating red-green line designated the quickest path to the starport terminal.
The walk to the terminal was uncomfortably short, and the insectoid soon found himself face to face with his assignment. There could be no turning back now. He took in two lungfuls of the chilled air and advanced toward the incoming train.
The train came to a stop. Another ameboid was sitting in the control booth and was about to let some of the passengers off, but the insectoid blocked the door. "Uh, excuse me sir. Everyone needs to stay here for a second."
"Huh?" The ameboid gave him a perplexed look. "What's going on?"
The insectoid searched frantically for his ID card and brought it into view. "My name's Jecc Weep. I'm with Star Law. I've got to do a quick search on this train before any of the passengers get off. I'll try to make it as quick as--"
A window near the back of the train burst into shards.
"Hey!" yelled the ameboid conductor. The response was a vermillion energy bolt, taking the conductor square in the chest.
The Human who had fired the shot advanced through the crowd, closer and closer to the insectoid Star Law officer, but a stir of unrest aboard the train knocked the pistol from the Human's grasp.
In the meantime, two passengers--a different Human and a maned, monkey-like humanoid--had jumped through the broken window and were darting away like Lacos desert rats.
Monorail security officers swarmed to the scene with screaming lights and brandished weapons. The Human who had lost his pistol thought better to make his exit through the broken window. Hitting the thick of the crowd outside, he ducked down and slipped out of sight.
Insectoid security officers burst into the train. "What happened here?"
Jecc Weep was under one of the seats, still fumbling for his needler.
"But mom!" wailed Jecc Weep into the visicom.
"I won't hear another word of this nonsense, Jecc!" said the holographic image of his mother. "Do you want to be like your father, who never amounted to a Laconian dust heap? Do you?"
Jecc tried to answer, but his mother beat him to it.
"You spent two years at Gollwin Academy so you could be something. You are not giving up on it now! Am I understood?" The insectoid woman's tone instantly sweetened. "Oh, by the way dear, I haven't seen your last paycheck."
"It's on it's way, mom," mumbled the young officer, closing the communication.
Weep stepped out of the communication booth and into a wide corridor. He was on one of the many commercial decks aboard the space station Fromeltar 7. Hundreds of insectoids, members of the Vrusk race, were bustling about in business attire--intermixed with Dralasites, the ameboid race so prevalent in the Fromeltar star system.
Off to the side, segregated from the Vrusk-Dralasite crowds, roamed a few Humans and monkey-like Yazirians, looking grimy and out of place. Anyone familiar with Terledrom society would easily recognize these outsiders as so-called "Journeymen."
Fromeltar was a star system with a rigid economy built on interstellar trade. As a result, the local bureaucratic councils feared smuggling and piracy like the Blue Plague.
Rapid advances in nuclear technology had put the Fromeltar system at a serious disadvantage, as the system's natural supplies of uranium and other nuclear fuels were limited at best. Since almost all nuclear fuel in the system was imported, the local costs of these substances shot through the stratosphere. This made shipments of nuclear fuel a very tempting target for smugglers and raiders. Illegal trafficking and outright attacks on freighters became common.
To reduce this criminal threat, several members of the Terledrom Supreme Council lobbied for the Barrage Act, which forbade the import of nuclear fuels to the Fromeltar system. Once in place, this act greatly alleviated the problem of pirate raiding. But the negative side effects far outweighed the good. The price of nuclear fuels soared to a prohibitive level, and the supply shrunk so severely as to impede any progress of local industy. Even worse, the ever increasing demand of nuclear fuels attracted the eye of about every smuggler in the Frontier. Within months, the smuggling of nuclear fuels was hopelessly out of control.
The time for a quick remedy had come, which led a number of Supreme Council members to come up with the Anti-Barrage Act, which allowed the legitimate import of nuclear fuels, but only when accompanied by a proportionate quantity of government certified security personnel. These security personnel would be under contract to protect the shipments against raiding at all costs, hopefully discouraging any pirate activity.
The Fromeltar governments sent out a demand for the most capable and professional security experts in the Frontier. What they got was a bizarre assortment of Human and Yazirian riffraff looking for any type of job. But the need was there, and this group of riffraff, commonly called Journeymen, filled that need.
The public's reaction was not good. The Vrusk people had gone through lifetimes of effort to establish an orderly business society on Terledrom. The Dralasites, who had inhabited the Fromeltar system for generations beyond that, were a mild, peace-faring race that molded easily to Vrusk customs. Inviting hundreds of loud, undisciplined outsiders to the Fromeltar worlds was unacceptable.
Yet there was no other solution, so for now the Journeymen were here to stay.
The Anti-Barrage Act did solve a lot of problems, but nuclear fuel smuggling still persisted.
These were Jecc Weep's thoughts as he stepped off the sky-to-surface shuttle and once again breathed the mildly polluted air of Grountz City. A taxi hovercab flew him through a maze of heavy traffic until at last he entered the local Star Law base.
Jecc hesitated at the office door of his superior, Kret'a Teel. After yesterday's incident, Teel's reasons for summoning Jecc couldn't be pleasant. Taking a shallow breath for courage, the young insectoid entered.
Kret'a Teel was speaking to someone.
"You've seen the news broadcasts on the trivid," shouted the amoeba-like Dralasite. The bulky creature was weighed down with an excess of jewelry--made from the most precious metals and stones. Jecc recognized the Dralasite as Joliasyss Blath, whose temporary elected position on the Supreme Council had been one of the strongest behind the original Barrage Act. Joliasyss was also known for ids view of protecting the local economy by imposing high tariffs on imported nuclear fuels. "We have been inactive too long and have let this situation run amuck! Something has to be done NOW!" The Dralasite's rubbery gray flesh rippled with the last word.
The other Vrusk in the room was Zyluss Zek'et, whose permanently appointed position on the Supreme Council had been in support of the Anti-Barrage Act. The elderly insectoid spoke with pragmatic dignity. "Commander Teel, we can't go back to blockading these shipments of nuclear fuels. The Supreme Council acted wisely to re-open this system to the interstellar market. I won't argue about there being problems with our current foreign policy, but the Supreme Council is aware of these problems and capable of making decisions to alleviate them."
The Dralasite mocked him. "Capable of making decisions, ha! How can the Supreme Council do this when all it cares about is material gain? The United Planetary Federation must intervene for the welfare of this system."
Zek'et's mandibles moved to intercept--but Commander Teel cut them both off.
"Please, Mr. Zek'et, Dralasite Blath. I have to make this very clear. Star Law is a division of the United Planetary Federation, and as such has no jurisdiction in local politics. The UPF has never interfered in the decisions of the Supreme Council and will not, unless it can be proven to me that the safety of the people is truly at stake. Star Law was placed here to fight piracy and to put interstellar criminals to justice--not to manipulate economic strategies."
"The safety of the people?" protested Blath. "You saw the trivid reports! An innocent monorail conductor was shot by these Journeymen that the Council so wisely brought in." The Dralasite's rubbery fingers wiggled to put the word "wisely" in quotation marks. "I even heard that one of your officers was attacked on the scene. We had to make sacrifices for the Barrage Act, but at least we didn't invite criminals to the planet. If the UPF does not intervene in this matter, who will?"
"My officer wasn't harmed," corrected Teel.
"He could have been!"
Zek'et stepped in. "One minor incident can't be used to justify interfer--"
"An incident?" blurted Blath. "Incident? Firing blasters in a public monorail train is an incident? More like a precedent."
"I thank you for your time, gentlemen," said Teel, standing up. "Your comments will be noted. Please have a nice day."
Both visitors left the office.
It was then that Teel noticed a slouching insectoid in the corner. "Weep!" blasted the Vrusk commander. "Get over here!"
Junior Lieutenant Jecc Weep stood on all eight legs before his superior. His mandibles trembled slightly.
"Look at the mess you've caused!" continued Commander Teel. After the headache of dealing with Zek'et and Blath, Teel hoped that Weep would reply, so that Teel could yell at him and feel better. But Weep said nothing. Teel yelled at him for not answering.
"I send you on an anonymous tip about a couple uranium smugglers and what happens? One of them pulls out a blaster, and you hide under a passenger seat! You've made Star Law look very weak in the eyes of the Terledrom government, and now they expect us to redeem ourselves by interfering in local politics. Do you know how hard it is to get governments to keep recognizing the UPF's authority when you pull stunts like this? DID YOU HEAR WHAT I JUST SAID?!?" This last outburst knocked Junior Lieutenant Weep back onto his abdomen, which further enraged the Commander. "Don't fall at ease when I'm talking to you! Get up!!!"
Weep pulled himself back up, a difficult feat with the way his legs were trembling. "I'm sorr-"
"Shut up!"
Weep took the suggestion.
Commander Teel looked away with disgust. "If I'd known that tip was legitimate, I would have sent out someone with half a brain. What an embarassment. With a Star Law agent present, it's the local police that have to find the smugglers. After what happened, I'm surprised the police still turned them over to us."
Weep lit up. "You mean we have them?"
"Of course we have them! Didn't you listen to a word I said?"
"Can I see them, sir?"
"Might as well. There's little harm you can do now. The fools had a suitcase of uranium right on them. The only thing left to do is get them to confess shooting the train conductor."
Teel turned his head to find that his junior officer was gone.
The Vrusk inserted a silicon security key into a slot near the fortified entry door.
After a delayed confirmation, the door rolled open.
This wing of the detention area was considerably small:
eight cells on each side of the hallway. A humming sonic
barrier sealed off each cell.
Charl, the Dralasite warden, acknowledged Weep's arrival with the wave of a pseudopod.
"Come to see the prisoners, mate?"
Only one of the cells was occupied. A Human and a Yazirian paced inside.
"Where's the other one?" asked Weep.
"Other one what?"
"There were three people that ran from the train.
Where's the third one, the one that fired the shot?"
"Can't tell ya, mate. This is what they brought me.
Shouldn't be hard to convict these two. They've got
a history of smuggling charges as long as yer arm."
"I'm telling you, we didn't kill anybody!" protested the Yazirian, rushing toward the sonic barrier.
"Leave it," said the Human. "These guys are on a witch hunt. No one here's going to listen to us."
Weep looked up at them. "I'll listen."
"Right," said the Yazirian, baring his fangs. "Like that's going to do any good. If we're here it's because
someone wanted us here."
"There's something I don't understand," said Weep, consulting an electronic info-pad.
"It says here that you were taken in for smuggling three kilograms of uranium.
Yet you were working as security aboard a freighter that was bringing in over two metric
tons of uranium."
"So they probably took it from the freighter," suggested Charl.
"But why just take three kilograms? That's pocket change compared to what they could have
taken."
"We didn't know what it was," barked the Human.
Charl barked back. "That's brilliant. So you just happened to pick up a suitcase
you'd never seen before and brought it through the starport without ever looking inside."
"I don't have to take this crap," retorted the Human. "I'm not one of your freighter
watchdogs by profession. I had my own freighter, under my command--but it was stolen
from me in a pirate raid. My friend and I were trying to get back on our feet, so we
signed on to guard uranium shipments, just long enough to get another ship.
Someone offered us an incentive on the side, and the price was right.
Only part of the deal was, no looking in the suitcase and no questions asked."
"How much did they offer you?" asked Weep.
"Enough to get in the pilot seat of my own ship again."
Weep frowned, long and hard.
Something was wrong here. As scarce as uranium was, three kilos wouldn't buy a ship.
At most it would buy the door. And why would someone start shooting people
to protect enough uranium to buy a door?
"You don't know who paid you to smuggle in the suitcase of uranium?" asked Weep.
"No idea," replied the Human. "That was part of the bargain."
Any other reply would have surprised the Vrusk.
"Thank you," he said politely. "You've been very helpful."
The Human and Yazirian stepped up to the sonic barrier and watched the Vrusk closely as he left.
Weep stopped and looked around. No one seemed to be looking for him.
"Junior Lieutenant!"
The voice was coming from behind him. Weep turned to see the decorated bulge of Joliasyss Blath.
He was oozing in a shadowy blue corner of the room.
"Junior Lieutenant! Come, come sit down."
The young Vrusk trotted past a discreet security camera and greeted the jeweled ameboid.
He had never before spoken directly to someone of such great importance. "You needed something, sir."
"Excellent boy," said the Dralasite. "Please, have a seat. Speak with me for a while."
Weep hesitated. "If this is about the monorail incident, there's. . .not much I can say, sir."
"Oh, please sit down, Junior Lieutenant." Blath stretched a warm pseudopod about Weep's chitonous shoulders.
The Vrusk's face darkened to a deeper shade of blue.
"Our interests are not so different, my young friend.
We both want what's best for Terledrom.
My ancestors devoted lifetimes to the accumulation of enough uranium
for this planet's needs, and now others on the Council have brought
these. . .greasy thugs to the planet in hopes of lowering prices.
It's bad for our economy, and it endangers honest Terledrom citizens.
I admire you for standing up to those hoodlums on the train,
and I wanted you to know that I'm willing to help you do whatever it
takes to make this a safe planet again."
"Thank you," said Weep. "I really must be going."
"Keep in touch." The Dralasite's words vanished behind the Vrusk as he left the building.
This last phrase was aimed at Weep, who had just entered the office.
"I've been home, sir. Off duty," replied the junior officer.
Teel's mandibles clicked in disgust.
"Sir," continued Weep. "I spoke with the two detained men yesterday and I don't think they're the cause of our problems."
Teel glared at the other Vrusk in disbelief. "What universe have you been living in? Those two men--if you want to call them that--killed Charl, our detention warden."
"Excuse me, sir?"
"Right after you left. Shot him with a blaster and escaped. Go take a look for yourself! Just don't mess up the evidence."
Weep was gone at a full sprint before Teel could finish the last sentence.
Weep stopped at the fortified door to the detention area and searched himself.
"I must have lost my key card."
He headed back to ask Commander Teel to open the door for him, but by the time he reached the office, the Commander was already deep in a discussion with the holographic image of his superior.
"We can't stand idly and let this continue, Rear Admiral Kh'rane," said Teel. "Tensions between the locals and the Journeyman have been worsening for a long time. Now we're on the verge of crisis. The United Planetary Federation must intervene and see to it that the Supreme Council reinstates the Barrage Act."
The raspy voiced Admiral replied, "Commander, local politics are not under our jurisdiction."
"We have no choice, sir. If the violence continues, this situation is only going to get worse."
Weep stood motionless and absorbed the conversation. The pieces were starting to fit together.
"Excuse me a second, Admiral," said Teel, turning. "Weep, where are you going?"
"I've got to check some records, maybe do some traveling, sir."
"Records? Traveling? What? Weep!"
The Junior Lieutenant did not return for six days.
The Speaker's clicking Vrusk voice amplified itself across a packed chamber of dizzying size. Sitting in session today were 40,264 Dralasite and Vrusk Council members!
Junior Lieutenant Weep entered and listened to the Speaker's voice booming from dozens of sound relay units. He stared at the chamber's vast celestial curves, which were almost enough to drive him to the floor with vertigo.
"Let the vote be made," commanded the Speaker. The room rumbled with her words. "All points have been viewed. The United Planetary Federation has requested that we consider returning to the Barrage Act, but the final decision is ours."
"No!" hollered Weep. The chamber's acoustics carried his voice and sent it back in triple echoes.
"Who has disrupted the order?" demanded the Speaker. 40,264 heads turned towards Weep.
His voice evaporated, leaving his throat dry and limp.
"Do you have a reason for interrupting the Council?" growled the Speaker. Her voice sounded as sweet as sulfuric acid.
Hopelessly mute, Weep mustered what remained of his courage and advanced toward the Speaker. 80,528 eyes drilled into the Vrusk, standing like an ant in the massive arena.
The Council, too, was mute--for the time being. Weep fought to find his voice.
A crystalline prism rose from the glossy floor, providing Weep with an amplifier. Weep moved his thoughts to Charl, his friend and co-worker who had been murdered. He pondered the purpose that had brought him here. . .and then found his voice.
"Members of the Supreme Council," he croaked. "The recent events leading to this crisis have been fraudulent." Pandemonium stirred the masses. "Joliasyss Blath," said Weep, searching for the Dralasite among the sea of chairs.
"What is it, my young friend?" replied the fat Dralasite from a chair far back and to the left.
"I understand that your family has obtained a substantial supply of uranium. If out-of-system imports of uranium were prohibited, you would stand to profit enormously. The Anti-Barrage act risked devaluating your supply. You were unsuccessful in your attempts to convince the Council to maintain the Barrage Act, so you tried to get the United Planetary Federation to intervene. This is why you staged the monorail incident. You hoped to make it look like a number of Anti-Barrage security personnel had attacked a Star Law officer."
A wave a whispers spread through the crowd.
"Order!" One word from the Speaker doused the whispers. "That is a very serious claim you are making. The Council does not take kindly to libel. For your sake, I hope you have sufficient proof to support your claims."
Weep continued. "To orchestrate this incident, Blath did a number of things. First, id found two Anti-Barrage security personnel with an established smuggling history. Id set these two up to sneak a suitcase of unknown contents onto the planet. Then id arranged for a third person to be there, this one an assassin. Finally, id called in an anonymous tip to Star Law, reporting the smuggling and causing me to be dispatched to the scene. When I showed up, the two smugglers evacuated and the assassin began shooting--with the intention of killing a Star Law officer, me. Blath was counting on Terledrom's growing xenophobia to cause the media to link the assassin to the smugglers, but the two were unrelated.
"The assassin escaped, but his blaster was knocked loose in the monorail train and later recovered. There were no fingerprints on the weapon, but with the help of a couple friends, I was able to track the sale of the weapon on the black market. That led us to this man."
A Human and a Yazirian entered the chamber, leading another Human in a black trenchcoat. The Human in the trenchcoat had his hands behind his back, where they were firmly attached with federanium binders.
The crowd gasped, and random voices were heard. "Those are the two smugglers from the monorail." "What are they doing back here?" "Somebody apprehend those men!"
The Speaker again was forced to silence the Council.
"These are indeed the two men involved in the incident," said Weep. "Though they admit to carrying in the suitcase of uranium, they were unaware of Blath's intentions to commit murder, and they have joined with me to set things right. Let me introduce to the council, Groogash Karchudka and his associate Tiberius Grogan. These are the two friends I spoke of who were instrumental in locating and apprehending this man, the assassin Blath personally hired. The man you see bound before you is Dakka Syte--wanted in seven star systems for multiple acts of murder, computer theft, and high-profile sabotage. He has already agreed to testify that Blath hired him, in exchange for lighter sentencing."
"This is absurd!" shouted Blath from his chair. "You can't believe the testimony of this type of criminal!"
"It doesn't stop there," said Weep. "The monorail incident did not work out as Blath hoped. A Star Law agent was not killed, and Star Law seemed only minimally concerned. Blath had failed to convince Star Law to intervene, so he made another attempt."
Weep pulled a small cube from his pocket and placed it in a holographic playback device.
"This footage was taken by a security camera just outside the detention area where Mr. Grogan and Mr. Karchudka were being held. I had just spoken with the two men, and I was on my way home when Blath stopped me."
The Council watched a three dimensional image of Joliasyss Blath, sitting in the shady corner of a room and enticing Weep to come closer.
Weep froze the image. "Notice at this point how Dralasite Blath wraps a pseudopod around my shoulders and extracts a key card from my pocket. The key card you see id stealing here allows access to the detention area, even after hours. It was not until the next morning that I noticed my key was missing."
A gasp escaped the congregation.
"According to reports, the two smugglers somehow got their hands on a blaster, killed the warden and escaped. But that is not what really happened that night. . ."
Seconds before, the Dralasite had been alive.
Blath mouthed the words, "What have I done?" But no sound came out.
Id tried to revive the man, moving ids hands and mouth across Charl's still head.
But Charl was dead.
The warden's face looked so peaceful, and so in contrast with the charred cavity that was once ids chest.
Blath stared into emptiness and slowly became aware of the blaster that was still in ids hand.
The Human and Yazirian prisoners were staring over him in horror and anger.
Blath rose to ids feet. . .slowly, deliberately, and aimed the blaster at the two smugglers.
"Here are the keys to your cell," said Blath in a trance-like monotone.
"I suggest you leave the Fromeltar system. No one here will believe your innocence."
The Vrusk stood tall and confident.
"Dralasite Blath, as an officer of Star Law I am charging you with economic sabotage and murder.
I'm going to have to ask you to go with the local authorities." A number of police officers were already on the scene.
Blath's head lowered to his desk and began to jerk with sobs.
"I didn't mean to do it! I didn't mean to do it!"
The Dralasite was escorted from the area, and the Council adjourned.
Weep's expression melted with sympathy as he watched the mourning Dralasite pass beyond sight.
Weep stood alone in the vast expanses of the great hall, several minutes after everyone else was gone.
His work here was done.
He left for the nearest starport and never returned to Terledrom.
Chapter 1 - Grountz City on Planet Terledrom (Fromeltar Star System)
Chapter 2 - Fromeltar 7 Space Station, Orbiting Terledrom, the Next Day. . .
Chapter 3 - Commander Kret'a Teel's Office, Star Law Building, Grountz City
Two "someones" actually, an aging Vrusk and an overweight Dralasite.
Chapter 4 - Star Law Detention Area, Grountz City
It was getting late in Terledrom's sixty-hour day, and the Star Law Detention Area
visiting hours had ended. But as a Star Law officer, Jecc Weep had special privileges.
Chapter 5 - Hall Outside the Detention Area
"Junior Lieutenant!"
Chapter 6 - Commander Kret'a Teel's Office, the Next Morning. . .
Commander Teel was beside himself, or so it seemed since there was no one else there for him to be talking to. "This has gone too far! If I get my hands on either of those Journeymen. . . Where were you?"
Chapter 7 - Chamber of the Terledrom Supreme Council
The Terledrom Supreme Council was in session. The Council's decisions were the economic law for the entire Fromeltar system, including the independent planet Groth. And on Terledrom, the Council was the ultimate governmental power.
Chapter 8 - Star Law Detention Area, Seven Days Earlier. . .
Joliasyss Blath felt the Dralasite's fingers. They were still warm.
Chapter 9 - Chamber of the Terledrom Supreme Council
Blath was barely aware of Weep's words.
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