Protocol, page 20
part #1 of Burns Series
'A great pity to have lost so much,' he said.
'And, excidium--what does it mean?'
He drew a long slow breath, exhaled and said, 'It means destruction.'
'Destruction?'
'Hey!' someone shouted.
A strong hand was tugging at my sleeve.
'Get up, Burns,' a voice said. The accent wasn't Scottish. Not old English either. It was a modern voice with an accent from the Accord Of Nations, territory USA.
'What?' I said. I was still in the grip of the dream. I was still there on the swaying quarterdeck of HMS Vengeance, wanting to know more about the pre-Accord era. Needing to find out all I could before I returned.
Then, suddenly, I wasn't there any more.
'What's up?' I croaked.
'They want to see you.'
Two large shapes stood over me. Huge bulky individuals. Not Dr Bradall and his assistant, but two large shapes with Navy MA patches on their chests.
'Who does?'
'Now, Burns.'
'All right. Give me a minute.'
'I said now!'
42
THE TWO OF them smelled of detergent, a bubble gum scent. They were practically bursting out of their shirtsleeves, like uniformed mastiffs. One name patch read Yiu; the other read Gupta.
'On your feet, Lieutenant.'
'What's happened?' I said. 'The invasion?'
'Shut it,' said the one called Gupta.
'Octavia?'
'Hey!' said the guard named Yiu. 'We said shut it.'
I got slowly to my feet, checked myself for injuries. There was a large white bandage across my nose. My ribs, arms and legs all complained.
'Let's go,' said Gupta.
There were handcuffs hanging from Gupta's belt, but they remained there as the each took an arm and shoved me towards the door.
We walked down a passageway, climbed to the next deck and then to another set of stairs and up until we were level with the bridge itself. Then they shoved me into a cabin on the ship's starboard side and told me to wait.
The cabin had a large conference table and several chairs. There was a TV screen at one end. On the starboard side was view to the deck where crew members fussed around the ranks of Slingshot aircraft, or assembled for the morning anthem.
'Sit there and keep quiet,' said Yiu. The two guards left, locking the door behind them.
I was well and truly back in the world of the Accord and its Navy.
A few minutes passed. The door burst open. Yiu barged in, glared at me and then stood to one side. 'Atten...shun!' he or she barked.
I got to my feet. In came Admiral Zhou, Captain Paine, and Captain Odilli of Navy Spirit. They were followed by a guy in an Accord smock, and two uniformed ensigns.
Apart from the guy in the smock, everyone appeared to identify as female.
I saluted as they sat down and arranged their papers. The two MAs, Gupta and Yiu, remained either side of the door, glowering. One of them, I noticed, held the Roman rifle beside his or her leg. A small tag hung from its trigger guard, and a plastic safety brace had been fitted to prevent its use.
I looked at the angry faces of Captain Paine and Admiral Zhou, and the even angrier face of Captain Odilli.
'Captain Paine, Admiral Zhou,' I said. They looked up, looked at each other, as if they hadn't expected me to say anything. 'We have to talk about the Romans. They're...'
'Silence when you're in the presence of officers,' shouted Captain Odilli. Her voice was so loud, it rang on the room's metal walls.
Everyone took their seats. Then, the inevitable happened.
'Lieutenant Burns,' said Captain Paine, 'exactly what do you think you are doing?'
'Captain?' I said.
'Don't mess us around, Burns. We've heard all about it from our galactic allies.'
'Stealing a shuttle, stealing a weapon, firing at Roman Marines,' said Admiral Zhou.
'Participating in a foreign war,' said Captain Paine.
'Returning to Earth without orders,' said Admiral Zhou.
'Stealing a spacecraft from our allies and crashing it,' said Captain Paine.
'Endangering the lives of Captain Le Seaux and Andrew Chen,' said Captain Odilli.
'You mean Le Seaux and Chen are alive?' I said. 'Is my mother alive? Octavia sent a beam at her house.'
'Shut it, Burns,' said Captain Paine. 'We are still reading your many charges. We haven't mentioned the Navy Spirit Code violations regarding xenophobia, mansplaining, deliberate misuse of pronouns and misogyny. We'll get to those in a minute. First, we want to be fair. We want to give you a chance to explain yourself, which is far more than you deserve.'
'Well, Burns? Can you explain yourself?' said Admiral Zhou.
I cleared my throat. Took a breath. Told myself to calm down and speak slowly and deliberately, not like the madman I must I appear to be.
'Captain Paine, Admiral Zhou, sir, and samma,' I said, ignoring Odilli, 'the Romans are not what they seem.'
'No?' said Captain Paine. 'What are they?'
'They pretend to be friendly visitors, but they are in fact a hostile force, sirra. They aren't here to make friends. They are planning an invasion. You've seen the size of their ship. You saw how they acted regarding Blairia and Le Seaux and Chen. Those weren't the customs of their people. They were a display of force, and a test to see how we would respond. Their actual fighting force is large. Hundreds of thousands of Marines.'
'And what evidence do you have that they will invade us?' said Admiral Zhou, one eyebrow raised in derision. I ignored and pressed on.
'I heard it from Admiral Octavia herself. She told me they are here to invade. She said she was relying on our values of tolerance to invade unopposed. That is why we must get our defenses ready or it will be a complete walkover.'
'You heard it from Admiral Octavia herself?'
'Yes.'
'You're quite sure about that, Burns?' said Admiral Zhou.
'Yes, samma.'
She turned to one of the ensigns.
'Play the transmission.'
The adjutant pressed some handheld device and the TV screen came alive. After a few seconds, it showed Le Seaux. She was standing with Captain Drusilla and some of the officers. They were waving and smiling like old friends, like nothing was wrong. 'We'll see you tomorrow in Hong Kong for the big day,' said Le Seaux, meaning today.
'We are really looking forward to it,' said Drusilla. 'Thank you for inviting us.'
'Best wishes to Lieutenant Burns. We hope he got back OK.'
They all smiled as the image on the screen faded to black.
Everyone in the room turned to face me. Paine. Zhou. Odilli. The smock guy. The two ensigns. Gupta and Yiu.
'Well?' said Captain Paine.
This was not going well.
'It's a trick.' I said. 'A trick to bring the full force of their weapons and army right into our midst unopposed, and right when the Accord Commissioners and senior military people will be in the one place for the Establishment Day ceremony.'
'Really?'
'Yes, sirra. Really.'
'You think Le Seaux's being forced to play along?' said Admiral Zhou. 'Is that what you're saying, Burns? Our allies are forcing Le Seaux to smile and wave for the camera, but there's really a gun being pointed at her, just out of the frame? Is that what you're saying?'
Outside, the Accord anthem began to play. The sailors on the deck sang the words. 'Equality of outcome; Accord values for all; Nations without borders; The patriarchy must fall.'
'That person in the video is not Le Seaux, I said. When Chen and I escaped, Le Seaux had been shot by a Roman Marine. The blast knocked her off her feet. We saw her fall.'
'Did you see her die?'
'I didn't need to. No-one, no human could survive a blast from one of those weapons.'
'Of course,' said Captain Paine. 'Because you fired one of those weapons several times, didn't you? Illegally and against Captain Le Seaux's orders. Ze told us, Burns.'
'Sirra, the Romans have the ability to change their size and appearances. Chen and I saw it on the ship on the way back. The pilot we captured changed into Le Seaux's form and even to Admiral Octavia's. It might have actually been Admiral Octavia.'
'The same Le Seaux who just appeared in the video?'
'Yes,' I said. 'I know how that sounds, but yes.'
'And then you fired your unauthorized shots from a stolen weapon.'
'We were attacked,' I said. 'It attacked us.'
'"It!"' said Captain Odilli raising her hands in exasperation. 'That person has a preferred pronoun, Burns.'
'All right, Kayla,' said Admiral Zhou. 'I think Lieutenant Burns understands the charges. And I think we have heard enough.' She turned to me. 'Lieutenant, you have been given every opportunity that the Accord and its Navy can afford a straight male. You have taken those opportunities and misused them in the worst possible ways, especially by abusing the hospitality of our new galactic friends, and in the process you have almost ruined the great achievement we are about to make for intra galactic diversity.'
'Hear, hear,' said Captain Odilli.
'You mean, you're not going to do anything?' I said.
Odilli's face was almost quivering with rage.
'Intra-galactic tolerance. Intra-galactic equality. Intra-galactic diversity,' she bellowed, as if the words themselves were weapons.
I stared back at her. 'Diversity, Captain, is not always a strength.'
At the sound of the words the world seemed to skip a heart beat. The room came to a total silence, the faces of Admiral Zhou, Captain Paine, Captain Odilli, the Accord emissary in the smock, even the bulldogs, Yiu and Gupta, all looked as if they had been slapped.
This was not going to end well.
43
'WHAT DID YOU say?' said Admiral Zhou.
'Diversity is not always a strength,' I said.
'Say it again, Burns. I don't think the world heard you.'
'Not when the people you're inviting don't share the same values, it isn't. It's a weakness. Our weakness. These galactic visitors are our enemies. They want to invade us, to enslave us. Surely you can see that in this case diversity is not a strength. This kind of diversity is making us participate in our own destruction. Same with tolerance. You can't tolerate the intolerable. But you and the Accord are so used to throwing these phrases at people to silence them that you don't question them anymore. You heard Admiral Octavia's reaction. She said...'
Admiral Zhou was on her feet. 'We've heard enough. More than enough. I don't know what happened to you, Burns, to turn you into a misogynist, a xenophobe and a racist, but we are not going to tolerate it in this room, on this ship, or in the Accord. Diversity is a strength. That's an axiom, Burns. It's never not true.'
'Hear, hear,' said Captain Odilli.
'Well said, samma,' said Captain Paine.
The two ensigns and the smocked Accord representatives were nodding to each other.
'And you'll be saying it as the blue beams burn our cities,' I said.
Admiral Zhou's righteous indignation gained new strength.
'One more word, Burns, and I'll have you gagged. Our galactic friends will be in Hong Kong today as our guests. They will join us as we mark the founding of the Accord and celebrate the values of tolerance, equality and diversity. And while we are conducting these celebrations, Burns, we don't want you around, not even as a prisoner, not even as a memory. Not in any presence at all. You will be transported immediately to AONS Schumer on AONT USA, and incarcerated there until your court martial, which I can assure you will be thorough. Then your Navy career will be over, and your civilian existence will be over too. The world will no longer have to tolerate you.'
'Not even for reasons of diversity?' I said. 'Diversity of thought?'
She looked at me with eyebrows raised, shaking her head left and right, disgusted. 'Is that it?'
'Just one thing more, Admiral'
'Admiral, I think we've heard enough,' said Odilli.
I spoke over the top of her.
'The Roman pilot aboard the shuttle, Admiral--her, she or it, might have survived the crash. If it did, Admiral, we should be on alert because...'
'We don't want to hear it, Burns,' said Captain Paine. 'Not one word of it.' She looked over at Gupta and Chen by the door, who unfolded their arms and hulked towards to me. Gupta reached behind his back and brought out the handcuffs, and took the first few steps towards me.
And that's when I heard the first bang.
It wasn't an explosion. It was like a heavy metal object being thrown against another object.
Over the edge of the window, the bodies of several crew members flew like rag dolls. One actually hit the window with a sickening bang and left a smear of grease and blood. At the same moment, the entire ship pitched forward as if it had plunged over a wave and into a deep trough.
'What's going on?' said Captain Paine.
'I told you already,' I said.
'Told us what?'
'It's the creature that was on the shuttle with Chen and me.'
'You just want to keep adding to your charges, don't you Burns,' said Odilli.
I came to a decision. The only one I could make, really. I could go quietly, or I could speak the words that had been lurking in my mind my whole adult life. Then, I could do my best to get out.
'What can I expect,' I said, 'from a military and a whole government so deluded by its own ideology that it can no longer believe its own eyes and ears?'
'What?' Captain Odilli screamed. 'What did you say?' she yelled. 'What did you just say to me?'
Then she actually stood and slapped me. The thick palm landed across my face, squashing my nose for the second time in two days, but I wasn't going to let her see me as much as a flinch.
'I see who you are,' I said. 'I see all of you and I know what you want.' Odilli, Paine, Zhou, De Soto from the Accord--all stood watching, their faces stunned, watching the maniac, Burns, speak the unspeakable heresies. Even the two guards, Gupta and Chen froze. 'You want power and nothing more. You don't really believe all this nonsense. Not really. No-one can believe if they think about it.'
'Sergeant,' Odilli said. 'Now.'
Gupta and Yiu unfolded their arms. Smiles appeared on both their faces. I knew they were going to enjoy bouncing me around. I also knew this might be my last chance to do something about Octavia. Better to die on your feet I thought, than to live in prison on your knees.
I turned to Captain Odilli.
'Get the fuck out of my face!' I said.
And then I broke the worst of the Navy Spirit Code violations. I stood up to my full height, raised my hands, put one palm against Odilli's astonished face, the other on her shoulder, and shoved her backward into the advancing bulk of Yiu and Gupta.
44
I'D CROSSED A line. No, not just crossed it. I'd jumped over the line and then turned around and spat on it.
Shoving Odilli was an unthinkable act. No-one ever touched a woman, even if the woman was biologically a man. To do so meant an instant sexual harassment charge. But that's what I did. I shoved Captain Odilli backward--not hard enough to cause harm, and careful where I put my hands, but hard enough to knock him/her/it off his/her/its feet.
The shove put Yiu and Gupta into confusion. They had to catch Odilli; but at the same time, they knew they couldn't touch her either. What to do? They chose to catch her, which created just the distraction I needed. I stepped around them, yanking out Gupta's handcuffs from his belt, and headed for the door.
Ten feet from it, Captain Paine was already standing up, moving to block me. I didn't dislike Captain Paine, but I wasn't going to be stopped by zee.
'Don't even think about it, Burns.'
'Too late, Captain,' I replied and carefully grabbed her by the shoulders. They were surprisingly narrow. No doubt about it, she was still a female underneath all the talk. I expected a knee in the groin or a claw to the face, but instead she went rigid, like a plank. Her mouth was stuck in the shape of a wide ellipse as I swung her around into the advancing form of Yiu, who had rested Captain Odilli back in her seat, and was now coming after me.
I could hardly believe what I was doing. Captain Paine struggled, but there was no way zee was getting out of my grip.
'Sorry, Captain,' I heard Yiu say as he put out his hands to prevent avoid another collision.
With Yiu's hands full of Captain Paine, I stepped the final ten feet to the door. Now the smocked emissary from the Accord Commission made his move to stop me. Like Paine, he stepped in front and stood in the way, but he was yet another guy without a clue how to fight. And he was barely as tall as my shoulders, and almost as thin as Captain Paine. I slapped aside his pathetic outstretched arms and flung him behind me. I heard his pathetic, outraged shout of 'Hey!' as he fell.
'The weapon!' called Admiral Zhou. 'Stop him getting the weapon!'
Too late. I grabbed the Roman rifle where it leaned against the bulkhead. It felt even stranger than I remembered, with its swirling metal carvings and weight.
At the same time, it felt reassuring to have it my hands again. What a weapon it was! What damage it could do! How foolish they were to bring it to this hearing. But that was the Navy all over. It had cowed the people so much they didn't know what proper security was any more.
But not me. I was getting away. I pulled open the door and then pulled it shut before Gupta reached it from the inside. Then, I looked for a way to clamp the handcuffs on the handle to stop it from opening. No chance. The bulkhead beside it was smooth. There was nothing on which to clamp the cuffs--nothing but a sign that read, 'Remember the four Ps. Proper Preferred Pronouns make a Perfect voyage.'
So, I raised a boot and shoved on the door so that it crushed Gupta's grasping hands. 'Owww!' he yelled. 'Hey! Come on! Stop the violence.'
'You stop the violence,' I said.
I put the handcuffs in my pocket and rushed up the passageway, carrying the rifle.
I had to get to the main deck and to the rows of Slingshots. If I could just get to Hong Kong before they began...
