Free The Princess of Caldris by Dante D'Anthony Page A

and what is your
anticipated stay?"
    "Two criminal acts of extreme violence
against law officers-one at Caldris, and one near Fort Oort. We
traced the vessel to a possible source and wish to confer with same
in system" she replied coolly. "A week perhaps."
    I smiled. Police, they stick together no
matter what star system they were from. An unwritten code-police
were attacked, you have to let us hunt down the buggers.
    "Registration confirmed,
keep us updated weekly. The warship is to port at system security
station main. You have shuttles down-world we presume?"
    She hesitated, "One Hammerhead."
    Now they hesitated. The holos looked back
and forth at each other, finally one shrugged-the cop code
prevailed- "Yeah, well, alright, please confer any suspects before
engaging fire."
    "Absolutely." She smiled.
    Now she owed them one, but
we were in. In for a long docking protocol at the security station
and finally after red tape, tiddly winks, dirty looks, and berthing
fees, they let us take the Hammerhead downworld with a bit of
finger wagging and "if there is any untoward activity please...no
interplanetary incidents!" Don't kill any bad guys, leave that for
us. Hammerstein nodded and nodded and nodded and sighed and finally
Coco-butter got his music playing and we were airborne over the
bright arc of the planet, "Going down, baby!" Coco-butter informed
us as if the whole brilliant planet in front of us was
invisible.
    "So we are...." Hammerstein smiled.
    Coco-butter looked at him
expectantly, "Any place in particular...Sir?"
    The Hammerhead was heating
up and I sensed Coco-butter Parson's flight instincts easing the
gravity repulsion field to counter the pull of the planet. He
played with the controls a bit and the craft turned into a huge
spiraling corkscrew slowly down.
    From Hammerstein came a
flood of memories. Herb arriving at the
fleet after the enemy wormhole massacre. Herb's glassy-eyed orders
for the counter strike. Herb's surprising declaration after the
counter strike's success, "All those men and women-on both sides,
dead. For what?
    Some piss-ant real estate?
Look around, kid. the universe is overflowing with worlds and
resources. At the end of the day, when people go about killing each
other, it's because someone somewhere simply WANTS to. I didn't
sign up to be a butcher for fools and monsters. I'm out, after this
tour, I'm out...you can take the King's Navy and--"
    Hammerstein's thoughts
raced back across the decades to the present, "There, where the
Yellow Seas meet the delta. Take the flight pattern over there.
You'll find a city." They hovered over a vast spread of warehouse
blocks serviced by canals, the fjords shouldering the sea. The city
was built into the rock of the cliff sides, canals carved through
solid stone bluffs. On the pinnacles of stone buttes, spires and
domes proliferated. Air transports buzzed about, some in streams,
others freely. A metropolis carved into and piled on the limestone
crags.
    We put down in an open fish
market at the delta which included some flats with waterships dry
docked, busy wharf and a number of small transports such as
ourselves.
    I reached out to the ether,
as it were. I sensed no malice or subterfuge. We were barely
raising notice. We were just another transport at a busy port. I
felt a couple of the fishermen’s thoughts take small ire at a
military vehicle taking up space in their work areas, but that was
mere annoyance.
    It seems we had arrived on world and none of
the police at the station forewarned any criminals-a good sign they
were an honest bunch.
    Peering from a window I got my first look at
Langley Stay for myself. It was as the stories said; everyone was
wearing masks….
    We made due with flight
helmets. I felt quite ridiculous, Tokushima, Hammerstein, and
myself making our way casually onto the wharf and open spaces…with
flight helmets on. Not even the possibly stylish MERGE helmets, but
second rate crash helmets.
    “ We need to buys