A buzz from his wrist compad interrupted. It was Mya Feehn, another of the group, calling from elsewhere in the Surya. “What’s happening, Damien? Do you know?” she inquired.
“I’ve been working. What are you talking about?”
The image on the tiny screen looked away, as if wary of being overheard. “Something strange is going on. A pinnace from the Varuna docked with us a while ago. And now outgoing communications are blocked—I thought you’d have known.”
Damien could only shake his head. “As I said, I was working.” But as head of the group in Sariena’s absence, it would be up to him to find out—which was what Mya was really saying. “I’ll go to the condeck and see what it’s all about,” he said. “You’ll know more as soon as I do.”
He cleared the call and got up from the chair, pausing to let the touch of dizziness pass that came from changing attitude too quickly in a small ship. It would mean riding the booms to another module. He set off toward the elevator. But even before he had exited the section that the group’s work space was in, a general call over the address system preempted him. “Attention. This is the Captain. All ship’s officers and designated group and project heads, assemble immediately in the Command Module Control Deck. Officers and group heads, come to the condeck immediately. Thank you.”
There was some congestion at the boom capsule interchange point as persons from different places converged. Nobody knew what this was about. The capsule to the condeck was full, and Damien had to wait through one round-trip before he could board. During transit he saw the pinnace, docked with the Surya at a center port. The Varuna itself, he was told, was at present out of sight, somewhere on the far side of Earth.
He arrived to find the Command Deck crowded. But strangely, as he looked around for some clue as to what might be going on, he saw that the Captain and ship’s officers didn’t seem to be in charge of things at all, but were standing in a huddle to one side, looking agitated and subdued. Occupying the center of the floor was a blond, athletically built man in the uniform of an SA major . . . wearing a sidearm!
That was when it hit Damien that other armed figures, brandishing close-quarters automatic infantry weapons openly and ready for use, were positioned around the entire floor. Some were wearing SA uniforms; others, not. Two, standing immediately behind the Captain and officers, were holding unholstered pistols. Damien looked bemusedly at another Kronian next to him. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure. It looks like they’re taking over the ship.”
“With guns?” Such a thing was unthinkable. Damien shook his head and indicated the SA colonel in the center of the floor. “Who’s he?”
“I don’t know.”
Another man in front of them turned his head. “His name’s Kelm. Executive Officer from the Varuna.”
An amplified voice spoke from a speaker to address the room. “Remain calm. It is not our wish to harm anyone, but if resistance is encountered we will not hesitate to do so. A proclamation will be read on the main screen that should answer most of your questions.”
At first, Damien thought it was Kelm who was speaking, but then he saw that the colonel was standing alert but motionless. Before he could ascertain where the announcement had come from, the large view screen facing the commander and chief officers’ stations activated. Gasps of amazement punctuated by exclamations of disbelief sounded on all sides. Looking out from the screen was the familiar figure of former General Claud Valcroix, and in the picture a few feet behind, his political partner, Ludwig Grasse. Also in the background were faces that Damien recognized from the political campaigning of recent times as those of prominent former American names from the Pragmatist camp.
“What?”
“But they were all on that transorbital that was lost on the way to Iapetus.”
“Where’s this coming from?”
“Wait,” Kelm called out sharply.
Valcroix began speaking. “I will make this brief, since our position has long been known to everyone. If you are watching this recording, you will already have been made aware of the situation of unilaterally declared sovereignty that it has been our decision to establish over the territory of Earth. The Pragmatist Party of the Kronian world system has endeavored, through the constitutionally approved Kronian political process, to obtain a distribution of representation that would be just and equitable for all its members, regardless of origins, or of beliefs of principle that might differ from those expressed by the present holders of policymaking privileges. We were rebuffed and denied in that endeavor. Therefore, we find ourselves left with no other option but to assert forcibly those rights which we sought to have acknowledged lawfully, but which were refused.