Spider Moon Coastguard Station, Boojum moon system (Kowloon 7), Kowloon Star system.
"you twelve are the largest shareholder coops in the system." Elizabeth Ngo was here-the Duchess was in the largest single 'meeting place' in the outer system, an action unprecedented in nearly ninety years. "between your twelve coops, is control of literally billions of Kroner worth of mineral resources, and probably no small amount of nullgee manufacturing experience, I aim to tap into that, I just need a price, and what your conditions are."
"You could've done this by radio." Lori Kinner of the Kinner/Seversky coop noted, "You came all the way out here, brought consumables and reaction mass and some parts with you just to arrange this. I think we all wanna know why you did that, and why you're not going through Li like a normal Noble would."
Liz swept the meeting room with her eyes, "None of you elected me." she said, "None of you probably would have chosen me-but you're still my people and I have an obligation to see you prosperous, protected, and thriving, just like the folks down on Kowloon. The Rockjack communities are a critical piece of our world, and you've been neglected and marginalized for far, far, too long. I..I want to help, because I think I'm going to need you."
Pillip Seventy-Five from the Egon collective in the Oort cloud, smirked, "she's honest about it." He cracked, "Duchess, has it occurred to you that we've been thriving because of that neglect? We're in the outies of the outies, the Lyrans, and god help us, the Pirates, both ignore us because they don't see what we do here as significant enough to bother most of the time-hte ones small enough to bother, among the pirates, our guys and the Coasties do short work of."
"I know." Liz said, "I want to know what you need, because Kowloon is growing-and that means more attention to the entire star system...and some of that attention will probably take the form both of larger pirate gangs, and possibly the largest Pirate gangs-the Clans. We're above the truce line-they can attack us and it won't result in all-out warfare...and they know it. You guys are 'the' spacers, you live out here all the time, you know the system in your blood and your hearts, you know things that could stop them."
"They've got warships." Kalindra-Bell from the Lutonic cooperative out of the rubble pile belt of the inner system said, "I've got a couple cousins in the LCN. What could we do against those?"
"Kind of what I'm asking." Elizabeth replied, "What could you come up with to stop a warship? and what do you need to build it-very quietly?"
"Nukes work." Philip Seventy-five spoke first, "Historically nuclear ordinance has worked consistently against warships of all sizes. Problem with nukes would be getting the heavy elements necessary out here, tooling to make them, guidance module designs, and boosters."
Kalindra Bell rubbed the shave-stubble on the side of her head, and lipped a nose-ring thoughtfully before speaking up, "Kowloon Two's a heavy body-I've droppd drones down there and there's trans-uranics on the surface, with enough delta-vee we might be able to pull some off there-shielding at that deep in the system's gonna cost though, Hull temps get ****** obscene."
"are you guys seriously talking about this?" Madelaine Truoc from the Dao Consortium asked, "Nukes, I mean? That's shit that is so controlled that possession could get Her convicted and sent to Blackgate in the Tharkan system-for life, one of us they'd just show-trial and shoot."
"True, logistics is a problem-even with distance, a test shot-and we'd need a test-shot, would be detectible for five years on RF bands, they'd see it from the early warning telescopes on Arluna only about two or three years after-once they see that, they'll send a NEST team in and find the facilities with Neutrino detectors." Grayboy Kiel from the Origin collective noted, she stopped fiddling with her personal comp, "But we don't really need nukes, we already know where they're likely to emerge. Plotting the poolballs wouldn't be too tough, and absorbent shielding is something we already fabricate-at least four coops I know of do."
"Poolballs?" Philip Seventy-five asked, "You mean beach-balls. still would need to get them up to relativistic speeds to be any good, I can plot the courses, but it's still high-end delta-vee. means lots of storage tankage, or complex organics for high-performance SRB stages."
Koren Horus from the Horus Partnership cleared her throat, "Mirrors." she said, "low cost, we can spin the mylars right in Boojum or Snark's orbit using Luten processing, assuming we can get the right metallics, there's also something you can do with nukes-which if we do the build in the inner system will be covered by the spew from the suns-even a Neutrino Detector that's properly calibrated would have a hard time finding the labs, and if we have a proper excuse, like maybe shipyard construction, the traffic won't be a blip on Elsie scans."
"Only kind of yard I know of that would need that much heavy element, would be Naval." Gray noted, "If we start building a Naval yard out here, we'll have Heinies crawling out our Hineys, no way to avoid it-and to make it look good, that yard would have to be productive."
"Jobs, contracts." Koren countered, "enough exchange to get some population-expansion going, and enough consumable traffic to support a larger population."
"Oversight, official harassment." Grayboy spat, "Dirtyfeet 'environmental' and legal interference, and the Elsies would have to put a ****** garrison out here, not just on Kowloon."
Madelaine looked at Elizabeth, "Your grace, maybe you need to step outside, this is turning into family biz, and you're, pardon my words, not one of us-you should wait somewhere quiet until we've made a few agreements."
Elizabeth closed her eyes, and bit back an acidic response, "I'll be in the lower tiers." She said, "I always wanted to visit the Memorial, and that was the excuse I used to get out here."
"That'll be perfect." Madelaine said, "This will take a while, don't forget your supplements-you're not Rockjack stock, and the lower grav isn't good for your bones."
Elizabeth rose from her cross-legged sitting position, and navigated through a pressure door to the lift going down into Spider Moon's mined-out interior.
The base predated the liberation, Liz had heard the stories from Li about it. Sometime shortly after the first ships reached, and were stranded in, hte Kowloon system, a faction of the original settlers had dug into the moon here for light metals, sealing the corridors they made with their machinery. Sometime after that, the names of the dead-first the early-wave colonists killed by the environment on Kowloon, but later, the dead from the ten year invasion by the Rim Worlds, then the uprisings over three centuries, the ones killed in the Liberation War and the Amaris War, and finally, Kowloonese who didn't come home from fighting the enemies of the Lyrans, were inscribed in the lowest chambers. A wall of memorial for all of her world's fallen, including both 'dirtyfeet' and 'Rockjacks', maintained by the Coast Guard's blackwater squadrons in trust.
Our shared history. Liz thought as the lift reached the lowest, most recent levels. These had been recently cut to account for the losses in the last forty years. Our identity, hidden from outsiders. Who we are.
Atmosphere here was at full pressure, she stepped carefully off the lift, and looked at the closest wall.
There was no rhyme nor reason to the names, except the dates. A visitor could spend weeks taking it in.
liz knew exactly which dates she was looking for.
The closest one, was Patrick's-not because he'd died first, but because they'd KNOWN first. Twenty meters from the lift, halfway up the wall.
she traced the lettering hesitantly. "I'm doing my best, Pat." she said in a whisper. She laid the first of three envelopes on the floor below it-there were no shelves or pockets for gifts, and his body had not been returned by the Clans-not even his ashes. Those were somewhere on Tamar.
A little further, she found her father's name. "I am so angry with you." she said, "I want to forgive, but every day, father, I learn what your ambitions cost us." she laid the second envelope on the floor here, near his name, which was near the floor itself. "I'm so angry but I still love you."
Elizabeth had to search for Henry, her other brother's name, it was near the site where the new tunnel was being cut. "I miss you too...why did you have to die? why did I have to take this burden?" she whispered, then she looked at the implacable letters, "MOM SHOT ME because you Died! Why did you die? why couldn't you come home?"
finally, the tears came. "Why? why did you side with them? why, big brother? you fought your rescuers and left me all alone!"
she shook as the tears flowed, "You betrayed us and they didn't wanttotellmeandwhy?!?!"
she tore the third envelope in half, and dropped it on the floor, then she began to beat the wall with her fists, "Whydidyoudothistome??"
From the stone, there would never be an answer.
