Let there be coffee

Corrine doesn't look especially happy. We've been having these meetings infrequently since giving her the initial briefing, usually at a coffee house somewhere where we won't really be noticed. Today, she looks mildly annoyed. Not so much at me, it seems, but at life in general. Or, perhaps, more specifically, the continuing situation in her patrol sector.

"Seriously, Seana. Why are my men still playing babysitter? Three colonies now. All of them low population, low risk, low priority. No offense."

I waved off the apology with a faint smile. "None taken." We both know the way of things out here. Hale's Moon, for all intents and purposes, should have been a low risk, low priority, colony on anyone's list. By Rim Districts standards, we should have seen a four man patrol boat maybe once a month. They wouldn't have even ponied up for a hired security force. The colony was just that small.

"There's nothing on Hale's Moon preventing us from giving control of the colony back to your local people. Nothing. Except the Department of State won't sign off. Same with the other two colonies we're shepherding. Liaison's aren't hearing anything from their brass and our's are silent, so we keep patrolling."

I could sympathize, nodding over my coffee, seeing the frustration. Silvermane was a good officer. More level headed and cognizant of the needs of the people in her patrol sector than most. Her original idea for Martial Law had been to dispatch the platoon stationed on the IAV Abraham Sinkov, who was already patrolling our space, and have them work directly with the town elders. They wouldn't have been here to supplant our authority, but to augment it.

It just hadn't worked out that way. She'd been ordered to take over and, rather than directly do so, she'd gotten a Department of State liaison to stand between her people and ours. It was a move I readily concurred with, letting her maintain the working relationship she'd developed with the locals without directly disobeying High Command.

"Wish I knew, Corrine. What's up with the other two colonies? I'd seen the reports, but hadn't dug into them very far." Which was perfectly true. I'd seen the reports in passing, but they hadn't been flagged. Either I'd missed something setting up the Expert System that handled report mediation or there really wasn't anything standing out on those two colonies.

"Even less reason to put boots on the ground on either of those worlds than on Hale's. Both colonies were in the two to five thousand resident's range. One had an earthquake that left a handful of people homeless. Other had a couple of raiders come in back to back and clean out a fair bit of their supplies. Neither of them justified imposing Martial Law, or even a full contingent. Been up to me I'd have sent an Engineering unit to one and a couple of patrol boats to the other. But High Command said full martial law. Best I could do was get another Diplomat to try and smooth things over."

"Curious." Which was, of course, a major understatement. There had to be something deeper going on, but it hadn't popped up high enough to hit Intel's radar. Gut suspicion was someone in Parliament, possibly with Loyalist leanings, setting up for a power play. Either trying to get a heavier influence in the sector, or setting wheels in motion that'd get Colonel Silvemane transferred.

Either way, I'd do what I could. It was to our advantage to keep Silvermane militarily in charge of the sector. She'd earned more respect from the Rim worlders than most Alliance officers could claim. No small feat given the Independent leanings of most folk in the Kalidasa system. That, and I'd come to trust her. At least as far as I could ever trust anyone in her position.

Just wish there was less on my plate. . .