The Long War

Datum troops under my roof.’
    ‘We’re prepared to compensate you.’
    Jack looked amused. ‘With what?’
    ‘Well . . . Monetarily, obviously. I’m authorized to sign cheques, up to a limit. We carry cash.’
    ‘What cash? Dollars, right?’
    Allen said sternly, ‘The legal tender of this community, being in the US Aegis as it is, sir.’
    Jack sighed. ‘But what am I going to do with dollars? You imagine I can pay Bill here in dollars for a catch of fish? What the hell is he going to do with them? You’d end up with bits of paper circling around and around this community like flies over a cowpat . . .’
    Allen was going to snap back some angry response.
    But Fox leaned forward, interested. ‘Then how would you want paying, sir? How does that work around here?’
    ‘We call it favours,’ Jack said.
    ‘Favours?’
    ‘I give you a room for a few nights. That’s a favour. Now you owe me a favour. We agree what that is before you move in, right? If it was Bill it would be so many pounds of fish. He does the favour for me, and we’re square. Or – if I don’t need any fish, then Bill can go to old Mike Doak down the street, who can shoe horses like he was raised to it, and give him the fish, thus transferring the favour he owes me to Mike, and then when my horse throws a shoe—’
    ‘I get it.’ Allen raised his hands.
    Fox said, ‘So you don’t use paper money. But you must get outside workers coming through. Doctors, dentists—’
    ‘We support them with favours, one way or another.’
    ‘Specialists, like engineers to build you a dam. Something like that. There must be occasions when there’s nothing you can do for someone like that. You can only eat one meal at a time, wear one pair of trousers—’
    Jack winked at Fox. ‘Good question. OK, we do have stashes. Gold, silver, jewellery. Even a little paper money, if you must know – we accept all this if there’s no other way for a person to pay, who’s desperate enough. We’re not monks here, enslaved to a rule book. We cheat a little. Whatever works. But basically we’re self-sufficient, locally; almost all of it is favours.’
    Allen eyed him. ‘So you do take dollars. But you won’t take dollars from us. From members of the US armed forces.’
    Jack laughed in his face. ‘Listen, you and your paymasters in Washington forfeited any right to help from me and my community when you cut us off a dozen years ago. When you trashed Pioneer Support, and impounded my life savings. You even fired poor old Bill, here.’
    Lovell grinned. ‘Don’t bring me into it. I’m doing fine.’
    ‘And none of the “Aegis rights and responsibilities” crap spouted by President Cowley cuts any ice with me ,’ Jack said. ‘Yes, Lieutenant, I’ll give you water to relieve the discomfort of these children you’re leading astray. Other than that – I could take your dollars, but I won’t, because I don’t like you, or the Datum government you represent, and I want to see the back of you.’
    Nathan could see Lieutenant Allen’s temperature rising, like a volcano on slow heat. ‘This is all bullshit!’
    Fox said earnestly, ‘With respect, sir, it’s not. This kind of meeting of minds is precisely why—’
    ‘Shut your cakehole, sailor.’
    ‘Yes, sir.’ Fox shrank back immediately.
    Allen produced a fold of currency from an inside pocket, hundred-dollar bills. He set this on Jack’s homemade desk. ‘I’m asking you to take this, sir. Or face the consequences.’
    Jack, totally at ease, just faced him. ‘What is it that poor troll said, when the likes of you tried to take her cub away?’
    ‘That was nothing to do with the US military—’
    ‘ I will not .’ He repeated the phrase, backing it up with troll sign language. ‘ I will not , sir. I will not .’
    Allen glowered. ‘Ensign Fox, cuff this man.’
    Jack just laughed. Fox sat frozen, indecisive.
    There was a flurry in the corner where the guys were playing Scrabble. ‘McKibben, you butthole, there is no way under the sun that DUCTTAPE is a single word . . .’
    ‘I don’t think cuffing is an appropriate response, Lieutenant Allen,’ Nathan said calmly.
    Allen stalked out of the house, furious.
    Nathan wondered how the hell he was going to explain all this to Captain Kauffman.
    When he did try, the first thing she did was to put Lieutenant Sam Allen off her ship, the first opportunity she got.
    The second thing she did was to ask to meet this character Jack