Interval the First
Interval the First
Draft5/18/08
Walt Davis stood and watched the screen as the hard pad at Davis Mining’s Corporate Headquarters filled. Somehow he and Bob Williams had convinced them all to come here without knowing what it was all about, it had been difficult but not that hard.
From the Boldest to the most Timid they were all Type A overachievers, they did not Follow they Led. Some would not volunteer it but one and all they chafed at the restraints imposed by the Federation Government, Walt only hoped he could make them see the truth, he had just married off his first born daughter. If every thing went right, his Grandkids would hear only the stories.
They filled in one by one mostly but some in small groups, these were the people who would determine the future.
Walt waited until the last was seated and walked over and closed the heavy door and watched carefully as the three status lights went dark. “Ladies and Gentlemen, you may as well turn off your communications devices you have just been enclosed in what is called a Faraday Cage. If you will look out the window I am opening, you will see that the elevator ride you just went through took you down not up.”
As he opened the view windows to see the great cavern of Davis Mine #1 he saw at least five faces give a look that clearly said, “No Shit.” Andy Webb even walked up to the window and gazed not at the view but the glass itself.
“Walt, I can give you some better grid patterns for your copper inserts but, what you have will work!”
“Why thank you Andy but, this room was built when you and I were both pups. As late as last night and by tomorrow morning, this was and will be the Calibration Laboratory for our Test Measurement and Diagnostic Equipment. The FG Inspectors have never had any interest in TMD&E Labs, seems they are dreadfully boring.”
Hearing chuckles from several parts of the room Walt pressed on. “What we wish to discuss here today is no less a problem than what faced the North American Colonies in 1772. The Federation Government are the British and we are the Colonies wondering what to do. Shall we stumble to the break or shall we plan an outcome in advance.” Walt was stunned when Linda Webb stood and spoke.
“This is what I thought you wanted to discuss so I am going to ask a strange favor. Let me out of your little cocoon here while this discussion goes on. The FG spies will never believe that this kind of talk went on without me so that should give you some extra cover. I will go to a Library dedication and be very publicly visible. Believe me Walter, my Sons know where I stand and will not drift from that point. We stand united on that!”
Walt stunned just walked over to the door and opened it for the Redhead to walk out. As he turned back towards the room he caught the eyes of the Webb brothers and his spine went cold. Sitting one row behind them was Warrick Gates and if he had ever seen three colder pairs of eyes he just could not remember where.
“Once again, let me lay out our problems. The first is Security, we must be able to Communicate. On that point allow me to turn the floor over to Andrew Webb.”
“Thanks Walt, let me sum the situation up quickly. FG Communications Security is shit! They have not made any advances in 15 years and their Security rides on a patent that is mine. They had the gall to tell me I could not do research on my own work! I have sixty Molecular Beam Epitaxy rigs running three shifts a day producing chips for the Earth market overseen by the laziest FG Inspectors I have ever seen. They have no idea that three of those rigs are putting out my new designs every shift. Hell, if they went in there they have no idea what an MBE rig is actually doing. Not to mention that we have a clean room behind our clean room that they have never seen.”
Andy’s eyes blazed with the light that few in this crowd had ever seen, he was a true believer who would carry through. “I can and will provide personnel Communicators which can neither be Tracked or Broken by the FG. Is that what you were asking Walt?”
“Pretty close Andy. Now the problem shifts to the political. Robert, where do we stand?”
“The Political Situation, three simple words for an incredibly complicated system. The challenges we face, the. . .”
“Cut the stump speech Rob,” Lincoln Ditmars said rather abruptly. “Nobody here but us Indians.”
“Sorry Linc and the rest of you as well, I’m gearing up for end of the campaign and I find myself talking like this all the time. Here on New Texas we are going to win the next election but the margin will be down from last time and unless something changes we are going to lose six or seven seats in Parliament.. We’re too liberal for the conservatives and too conservative for the liberals. I’ll need to trade a few cabinet seats to manage but I will get a majority government in place.”
“Well it goes without saying you’ll get the Belt and the rest of the out-system to side with you for purely pragmatic reasons. But come the day the Conservatives and those even further to the right can come close to a majority and no mater what I say the Belt goes with them.”
Davis interrupted, “It’s not the situation on New Texas I am really concerned with, except for how stable things will be for the next few years. It’s those of us here who will be paying the upfront costs of building ships and weapon systems. And nothing big is going to be built on planet. So long as we are free enough to operate, and that means keeping your government going Rob, we can find a way to fund this and build here what we must.”
“The ships, and the weapons, and the crews to man them, will all have to be created and built in the belt away from the prying eyes of M’butu and his lackeys. Can we do that? Can we keep it a secret long enough? And how long will it take?”
Williams turned to Henry Carling and asked, “Hank, what do you think?”
“Before I talk about what I think let me show you what I know,” Hank said taking a small com unit from his pocket, and placing it on the table, and pointing it at what looked to be an empty wall, he pushed a button.
An image bright enough that the room lights did not need dimming was projected onto the screen that was a part of the walls surface, a simple bar graph showing a series labeled on the bottom in years and on the left in percentages. It covered a period of ten years and showed at first a steep steadily decreasing trend and then for the last three years it flatlined as all of the bars were the same height.
“Let me show you another,” Hank said, and the first graph was replaced with one showing a steady increase and labeled ‘Black-market Chips Seized on Earth’. “These are mostly chips for consumer items. As things are getting tighter, even with all the Federation can do, there is more economic activity going underground, and a market for what gets produced. The Federation is keeping track but not trying for a total shutdown. They need this illegal activity to continue in order to keep the lid on a potentially explosive situation.”
“So putting those two graphs together,” and he flashed the first again, but this time with a heading across the top that read, ‘Chip Defect Rate – Webb Industries’. “What it says to me is that you, Mr. Webb, are raising money by selling chips on the black market on Earth. You are hiding the fact by showing the ones going missing as part of your defect rate. It really doesn’t matter that you actually destroy as many chips as you claim you do so that the numbers come out even. I don’t know where you are getting them and I wouldn’t investigate to try and find out. The simple fact of the flatline when you should be continuing to improve efficiencies shows something is not quite right.”
“Does FG Intelligence have this information?” Davis asked with a scowl but no hint of remorse or fear.
“The information they have is the same I have. It’s all part of your production records. What they haven’t done is pulled it together and figured out what it meant or you would have had some visitors. M’butu wouldn’t really care all that much. I think he would just ask you for his own skim from the profits. With Federation Intelligence it could work the same if it came from high enough up the chain. A local learning about this would be all hot to make a bust. Being responsible for something big is a sure ticket back to Earth and all the perks.”
“Ok, so what now? Do I offer M’butu a cut of hope no one puts two and two together?”
“I recommend you up your percentage of good chips again and not go for as much extra cash from the black market. In time the data from those last couple of years will just be meaningless noise.”
Andy gave Hank a hard, almost challenging look, and said, “We need every edge we can make. With the disparity we face in population and material we are going to need to spend and we have to hide as much of the money as we can. Cash and credit from legitimate accounts are even easier to trace than production records. We need to go ahead with our plans now and as rapidly as we can make them happen for us to have a chance to bring this off.”
“I am going to have to admit to being played for a sucker though. The amount showing up back on Earth is way more than I authorized, it was supposed to be just enough to cover operations back there. The rest were supposed to be used on the out-colonies to start bringing them up to speed. It seems that I need to take a trip to Truscott to have a word or three with Paul Greene. If our tame smuggler is no more trustworthy than this it may be time to cut him out of Information flow at the very least.”
“And if he is totally untrustworthy?” Hank asked.
Andy did not even blink, “Then he has a really bad accident and we find some other way to hide the traffic we have to have!”
“We can talk later about other ways of hiding things but the problem is,” Walt explained, “without the Industrial power of Webb Enterprises this just can’t happen.”
Andrew Webb stood and walked to the window and stared out over the great working cavern.
“Warrick? “ he asked, “If we can build you a fleet can you take Sol space?”
“Yes,” was his instant reply, “give me the Fleet I want and we will take Sol space!”
“Good, Chris if he controls Sol space can you get my landing force on the planet surface?”
“Damn straight, I will land your force in the face of hell itself!”
“Then all that is left is my soul, my life and my sacred Honor!” Andy turned and stared at the room.
“Ladies and Gentlemen here is my price, meet it and I will pour the life’s blood of Clan Webb into this; reject it and I walk. We have to go to Earth to break their power or be threatened as long as we live. The power behind the throne on Earth is the family Redmond. If we do this Richard Redmond is mine.
“I do not give a damn for the current laws, nor do I care about what laws our follow on Government might enact. Nor do I give a shit about your ‘Morality’. That is my price, Redmond is MINE! That bastard and his have hidden behind privilege and wealth while breaking lives for seventeen generations. If I go for this it ends when we hit Earth! That’s my price Ladies and Gentlemen, what say you?
“I will leave to your negotiations as you know where I stand. I will not negotiate, I will not bend and I will not discuss. That is my price. I understand it might mean some compromise on your part but, Ladies and Gentlemen, I don’t give a shit. We have turned the other cheek for seventeen generations, that crap stops here or I am not in the game!”
He and Chris stood and left the room as they were leaving Chris cracked, “You sounded like a cardboard cutout back there.” Andy turned and snarled, “I don’t give a fuck, as long as they understand!”
Kirsten Winters stared at Robert Williams and asked, “What did he just say?”
Warrick Gates answered her, “What the man just said is quite plain. If we expect him to pour out the money and soul of Clan Webb to gain our freedom, then we have to keep our mouths shut while they go in and kill Family Redmond. He wants Richard Redmond’s head on a platter, which part of Blood Feud went over your head? This is just the end of a long story.”
Winters was stunned, “And you can live with this? My God that is just plain vengeance killing.”
Robert Williams stunned them all, “What I hear is a demand for simple justice and he intends to deliver it first hand. Hell, I can live with that!”
Then Walt Davis delivered the bombshell, “It’s not Andrew that wants Redmond’s head, it’s Linda Webb and her sons do not intend to let her down!”
In the break room Chris was railing at Andy, “What are you trying to do, lose half of them?”
“Hell no,” was Andy’s snarling reply, “but I damned sure ain’t gonna start this with a lie. I don’t care what Winters thinks as long as she understands. I want this revolution as much as you do and most of those people in that room do but, I will not lie to them. If I get close enough to Richard Redmond to bring his head to Mom I am going to do it and I don’t care who knows it. Like you are going to do different.”
Chris stared at the floor, the wall and out the window before he replied, “It has to end some time and I won’t let my kids get caught in it. I don’t have the level of hate that you and Mom do but yes; if I get close enough I will bring Mom his head in a box!”
The door opened and Robert Williams stuck in his head, “Gentlemen, if you would, the group has an agreement.”
Walt Davis was standing nervously as the Webb’s returned to the room, “Andy and Chris we have an almost unanimous agreement. Some are not greatly comfortable with it but have agreed. If you will agree to restrict your No Quarter declaration to the Redmond’s only, then we will agree to your terms.”
Andy stared like a gut shot deer, “Walt I will do you one better. Anyone not named Richard Redmond gets treated under the rules of the old US Uniform Code of Military Justice, hell there are some young Redmond related kids who aren’t that bad. It’s the Thain himself I want, hell half the Clan does not know what that Bastard does.”
Kirsten Winters exclaimed, “But I thought you wanted to, well you know…….”
“What, wipe out Family Redmond? You will note that none of us refer to them as a Clan unless speaking formally, No Madam. I want Richard Redmond specifically for two murders and I will have him one way or the other. What you do not know is that I have been planning a private mission to Earth to do just that. I will set that aside to allow this grand idea to work but, I reserve the right to take out Richard Redmond.”
Kirsten was stunned, this was not the warmonger she had feared. “Mr. Davis, you can remove my objecting vote, let it stand unanimous.”
To her surprise Andrew Webb turned and looked at her softly, “Then, ‘Till Gabriel blows His horn’ Madam; ‘Till Gabriel blows His horn’.”
Winters stood stunned with an non-understanding look on her face.
Then Walt Davis began to slowly chant,
“The Eyes of Texas are upon you, All the live long day.
The Eyes of Texas are upon you, You cannot get away.
Do not think you can escape them, At night, or early in the morn.
The Eyes of Texas are upon you,Till Gabriel blows his horn!”
Winters actually understood!