“They are Lawrence’s people,” Rebecca managed to cry. “Would you happen to have any water to spare?”
Sandra looked at Dennis, a grin further splitting her dry lips. “Your gun is empty anyway, Mr. Silva, and your gunpowder is all wet!”
“A good thing too,” Silva replied, strength seeming to surge back into his limbs as he stared at the battered wreck before him. Clearly, the old submarine had been through hell. He couldn’t wait to hear her story. “I bet one shot would’ve finished her.”
Petey squirmed out from under the heaped canvas and sluggishly hopped to the bulwark beside Rebecca, where he goggled at the submarine. “Eat?” he moaned plaintively.
EPILOGUE
Baalkpan
Alan Letts, chief of staff to Adar-the High Chief and Sky Priest of Baalkpan and chairman of the Grand Alliance-bounced the burbling infant in his arms. Across from him on a similar, decidedly human-style chair, Adar himself lounged awkwardly, but as comfortably as he could. They were in the “living room” of Alan’s new “house,” provided by the “grateful people of Baalkpan.” Alan and his wife, Karen, had both refused the gift as originally presented, but Adar assured them that homes such as theirs would eventually be available to all “mated” officers. There was already a bachelor officers’ quarters and numerous barracks for the single enlisted soldiers, sailors, and Marines. The small female bachelor officers’ quarters, or “fem-box” as it was called, had been around ever since the human females spent their first night ashore. Now there’d be quarters for married officers, according to Adar. Something like “base housing.”
Alan wasn’t sure that was the original plan, and frankly doubted it would be the case if he and Karen hadn’t raised a stink. He was pretty sure the initial idea arose because Adar wanted his chief of staff and his family- particularly young Allison Verdia-to have a suitable roof over their heads. The home was relatively modest-by an admiral’s standards-and would have been “suitable” for a very extended Lemurian family, but Adar had hinted more than once that Alan and Karen should quickly add to their brood. Alan wondered how Adar would cope with the anticipated flood of mated officers once the “liberated” women of Respite began to arrive-and, of course, there were already plenty of mated Lemurian officers, though most had homes of their own.
A lot would depend on how the fragile new “financial system” they’d created held up. The Alliance was now officially on the “gold standard,” and the transition from the age-old barter system was moving in fits and starts. Gold was recognized as “pretty” by the aesthetic Lemurians, but with the possible exception of the Maa-ni-los, few ’Cats recognized the metal as possessing any intrinsic value, particularly when compared to iron. Gold was easy to form and didn’t corrode, but it made poor tools and weapons. Alan explained that besides its value as a “pretty,” decorative, metal, gold could be used as a symbol to represent the relative value of goods and services that Lemurians had always kept up with by means of a complex system of tabulated obligations. Gold would eliminate the need for that-once they calculated a baseline for what a given quantity of gold should be worth. Adar complained that “anybody” could just go out and “find” gold, but Alan countered that simply finding the stuff required labor too, and maybe that time and effort might be used to establish a “baseline” of sorts.
It was all very complicated, and Letts was no economist. His experience as a Navy supply officer actually had more in common with the old Lemurian system. He’d always relied on sometimes complex and overlapping commitments and favors to get what he needed for the ship before their “old” war with the Japanese began, but that experience had also reinforced his firm commitment to the capitalist system. He’d been lazy then, because he was good at his job and hadn’t had to work very hard. Besides, there’d been an all-pervading “what’s the point?” attitude in the Asiatic Fleet. Still, with his family’s farming roots, he knew that the harder you worked, the more you should make, and the more you made, the more people you could hire to help you make more. He devoutly despised the socialist systems in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and like most of his human destroyermen comrades, didn’t see much distinction between the two. Both were brutal totalitarian regimes, and he blamed the socialist- leaning American “progressives” for his own country’s utter unpreparedness for war. He knew something had to be done, and gold was the simplest, most obvious answer.
The likely inclusion of the Empire of the New Britain Isles in the Grand Alliance reinforced that conclusion, since gold and silver were their only currency. There’d be “growing pains” and a lot of confusion at first, but at least those with property and goods wouldn’t “lose” anything, and services would have immediate value. The value was yet to be determined, but Alan had faith that the free market would quickly establish that on its own. A lot of “debt” would have to be forgiven at first, since the war effort had required much of everyone without anyone being paid, but at least the “government” would start with a surplus. It would retain ownership of all community industry created for, and essential to, the war effort. That meant Adar would still control those industries over which he’d placed the various ministers, at least until they were sold to budding “industrialists.” Needless to say, all military assets already complete, the ships, ordnance, fortifications, dry dock, etc., as well as Amagi ’s steel, would remain the property of the Allied powers and the US Navy.
“I never tire of looking at your delightful youngling!” Adar practically gushed, leaning forward to stare at the squirming, cooing creature. They’d already kicked around a few more of Adar’s concerns about the economic revolution, and they’d settled into a simple, friendly visit. Adar stopped by several times a week now, mostly for that very purpose, and Alan suspected the chairman needed the break. Adar’s own residence was within the Great Hall itself, so he was never truly off duty even at home.
“Neither do I,” Letts confessed, “but the… smell gets old. Ah
… Karen?” he said, raising his voice.
Karen Theimer Letts swept into the room and snatched the child away. “There’s no law that says you can’t change a diaper now and then,” she scolded.
“I do!” Alan replied in his defense, “but I can’t do it here, in front of the Chairman!”
Karen harrumphed, but Adar saw a smile on her face as she retreated from the room.
Letts sighed, his eyes following the pair. “You know,” he said softly, “in spite of everything, these last few months have been the happiest of my whole life.”
“All the more reason why I do not understand this request of yours,” Adar said, just as quietly. They were resuming a conversation that wasn’t for Karen to hear… yet. “I do not know how I would ever manage without you. If you join First Fleet now, all we have accomplished, all we have set in motion, might be undone.”
“We’ve already been over this,” Letts insisted. “I’m not ‘essential’ here anymore. Brister, Riggs, or even Sandison has a better handle on this economic stuff than I do, and with their greater combat experience, they’ll be better advisors on defense. My staff can easily take up the logistical slack around here.” He paused. “Besides, you read General Alden’s report. Logistics on the sharp end is a mess. They do need me in the fleet, and… damn it, I’ve been on the sidelines almost from the start! It isn’t right and it’s not fair!”
“Fair? To whom?” Adar almost snapped. “Fair to you?”
“No! It’s not fair to all the guys who’ve been putting their lives on the line while I sit here, nice and comfortable, with a wife I love and a kid I adore! It’s eating me alive! I’ve done some good work here,” Alan admitted. “I’m not complaining about my job. It’s just.. . It’s time for me to ‘pitch in,’ to ‘do my part.’ ” He rubbed his eyes. “We don’t know what’s going on in the east yet. Captain Reddy’s helped the Imperials win a battle, but that’s all we really know. What’s next? There’s a real mess out there, and we may have a whole other war on our hands! In the meantime, General Alden and Admiral Keje are building for their push against Ceylon!”
“All the more reason you should remain here!” Adar argued. “Coordinating logistics for two possible fronts should be at least twice as difficult!”
Letts shook his head. “There’s nothing we can do for Captain Reddy; any help he gets will have to come directly from Saan-Kakja, not through here-and Saan-Kakja’s got problems of her own, after that damn volcano went off. That’s going to make it even harder on First Fleet, because who knows when we’ll get the promised reinforcements?” He shrugged. “That might sort itself out over time, as the Fil-pin Lands get over their current emergency. If we get sucked into a full-blown war in the east, it’s liable to be a Navy show for the most part, at least for a while. Saan-Kakja is better situated to support that. The war in the west is about to become increasingly land-oriented, though, and that’s where I need to be! We can’t afford another logistical fiasco like the one at
