MTB was outside in his gear—though I don’t think he ever took it off. He probably showered with a gun.
“Boss, there’s trouble at the radio telescopes.”
“Whoa. Round up who you can,” I said, indicating the apartments on the street, “we’ll leave in five.”
The north edge of Belvaille was completely dominated by some relics of the Colmarian Confederation: giant telescopes.
The old empire had used them to spy on the activities of neighboring species. Now they had taken on a completely different role and were used as broadcast instruments.
Belvaille was of strategic importance for many reasons, but the telescopes were a prime one. I don’t know how they did it, but they could transmit data maybe a quarter of the way across the galaxy—as long as there was a single Portal hop in between.
So we were the media hub of the… whatever the Colmarian Confederation had devolved into.
Various parties put out propaganda, news, and entertainment shows. The telescopes were in operation every minute of the day and their use was extremely democratic: if you could pay an outrageous fee to the city, you could use the telescopes.
MTB could only get about ten people, including Valia and himself.
“What’s wrong with your toenails?” she asked, looking down.
“Shut up, new guy,” I said.
We took the train north.
When we approached the installations, it was obvious there was trouble. There was a huge crowd of armed men in the street facing another huge crowd of armed men.
Totki were on one side, as evidenced by their array of spears. Hong was whipping them into a frenzy as usual.
The other side I guessed to be Olmarr.
The Olmarr Republic concerned me more than any of the other groups. Despite what Zadeck said, I did keep some track of the goings-on outside of Belvaille. The Republic had successfully unified a fair number of planets and even whole solar systems under their administration.
And they considered Ceredus, the solar system that Belvaille resided in, their capital.
The Olmarr were not done with the civil war. They weren’t tired of it like everyone else seemed to be.
I didn’t know how to identify Olmarr. The Sublime Order of Transcendence wore robes and headdresses and other garb. The Totki were all of the same rough ethnic traits and styles and tended to live in large communities.
The Olmarr were an idea.
An understanding that there was some greater region of space that should all be aligned based on archaic historical precedence. They specifically made it hard to identify themselves. It was why I couldn’t think of how to find Two Clem. He could be anywhere, assuming the Olmarr had truly kidnapped him.
My Stair Boys elbowed through the gathering and I saw Peush, the head of the Olmarr Republic on Belvaille.
“Hank,” he said, smiling wonderfully.
He was a tall man, middle-aged, with medical implants on his face and neck. He also had a beautiful speaking voice. A valuable attribute when your job is to broadcast speeches across the galaxy.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“They racist! They going to threaten us,” Hong cut in.
“They are Blocking the Waves,” Peush countered, which was an official crime. You couldn’t interfere with telescope transmissions.
Peush had about fifteen men with him, armed variously with clubs and chainsaws. But Hong had what looked to be over twenty-five.
“You try and get us killed! Read this,” Hong thrust a dog-eared stack of papers into my face.
“What’s this?”
“That his speech.”
I read the first few sentences:
The Totki are sand rats. They spread disease and eat our food and provide no value to our great society. They must be eradicated as sand rats are, for they are not Olmarr and are not people.
There were about thirty pages past that.
“Where’d you get this?” I asked.
“Don’t matter. We protect ourselves,” Hong answered.
“Is this your real speech?” I asked Peush.
“I have no interest in his delusions,” he said calmly.
That wasn’t really a denial.
“Yeah, but is this your speech?”
“Hank, may I have a word?”
“Watch them,” I told my Stair Boys, who took up positions between the two groups.
I walked some distance away with Peush.
“Hank, we consider you a hero. You helped instigate the rise of the Second Olmarr Republic. Your name is mentioned liberally in the Noconeir.”
I so didn’t care what that was, and gave a weak smile. But then I realized this was the stuff I had to care about. I couldn’t just brush it away.
“What’s the Noconeir?”
“It is the entire history of the Olmarr Republics. First and Second.”
“Sounds long.”
“If you connected the words end-to-end it would extend from here to the planet Ue’wantasha.”
“Must use big words.”
“The point is, Hank, why are you bothering yourself with those things? It’s their kind that brought about the decline of the First Olmarr Republic. They weakened our purity until we became a Confederation. A failed Confederation. You of all people know how bad the original empire was.”
“Maybe, but I don’t know anything about Republics.”
“I’d be happy to give you a copy of the Noconeir.”
“I don’t have time to read a book that spans solar systems. And how truthful is it going to be? How many eye witness accounts do you have from that long ago?”
“A number of libraries and computers still exist, and we researched their archives diligently. You’re respected on the station, Hank, you shouldn’t be walking around every day dealing with this.”
“No?” I asked, humoring him.
“You should be taking advantage of your wisdom and experience, sitting in an office, telling others what to do. Eating. You should be Governor, let the young people handle security.”
I smiled.
“Young people like your Olmarr Republican guards?”
“I’m not suggesting that, but we do have many disciplined and principled members who would be willing to assist. Just say the word and we would back you. You have to know that you would easily win, and you could give up all… this.”
I looked over to Hong, who was doing his best to stretch the forty feet so he could overhear our conversation.
Peush was a tough character to figure out. I knew Hobardi was full of crap. I knew Hong was a zealot for his people. I had no idea where Peush was. Did he believe all this Second Republic stuff?
“Do you know Two Clem?” I asked him, and I looked closely for a reaction.
“The actor?”
I saw nothing to betray further knowledge. Hong was easy to bait. So was Hobardi, who didn’t even try to be serious. But Peush was calculating and collected. Even if he knew, even if he was carrying Two Clem on his back right now, I’m not sure he would have betrayed his poker face.
“Come on, let’s talk to Hong,” I said.
We walked back and I got the men face-to-face, though I stood nearby.
“I am losing my allotted broadcast time,” Peush complained.
“So what!” Hong fired back.
“How about this, you give your normal speech, but with a Totki observer?” I offered.
“I am not going to be censored,” Peush stated.
“How about you have me present while you give the speech? I mean, I could do that anyway, in the name of public safety.” I turned to Hong. “Does that satisfy you?”
“No, they say we rats. Say we should die. Say our children should die. Take all our property.”
“That isn’t in my speech,” Peush said. “Though it’s not a bad set of ideas.”
Three people were on the ground bleeding before I had even realized a fight started.