Birdie Down Read online

  ***

  Scat ordered Goosen to prepare for an off-channel jump to their next target, G-eo. When everything was ready, he opened the link to the Video Exchange out at the Trevon Spaceport. He made sure Khoffi Khan, the Asian news reporter, Arthur Chan and his bugcam operator, Li, were present to prove his statement was authentic.

  The Spaceport Video Exchange operator was a little uncertain.

  ‘Come again? You’re who?’ he asked.

  ‘My name is Sebastian Scatkiewicz. I represent the Trevon rebels. This evening we hijacked the LM-V4, releasing Terrance Nettles and three other democratically elected House Representatives from unlawful detention. We then attacked the Lynthax Centre. As you will be aware, we took a great deal of care to cause the maximum damage to Lynthax’s operations but with the minimum loss of life.

  ‘We can confirm the use of a light-tug. We also confirm the whereabouts of the GCE news crew, and your recently departed Earth Representative, Khoffi Khan. They are with us, as are the crew of the V4 and several wrongfully deported security and ex-police personnel. They will be released shortly unless they volunteer to serve with us.’

  As he was saying this, he panned the video around the dimly lit room to show Khan, Chan and Li, plus members of the crew and a few ex-cops at the back of the command cabin. Li’s bugcam was up and running again, recording events off-camera, Chan having convinced Scat of the historical significance of his announcement.

  ‘We have a message for Lynthax, and it is this: We resent your abuse of privilege and your involvement in our democratic institutions and we repudiate your mandate to run Trevon as a corporate asset. Until Trevon has achieved its independence from Earth and your corrupt corporate rule, your operations are not safe, your out-of-system contractors are not safe, and your assets are not safe. You have been warned.

  ‘We also have a message for the people of Trevon: We are fighting for your freedom and your right to decide the nature and pace of planetary development. Our ultimate goal is freedom from corporate interference in the democratic process, and freedom from Earth.

  ‘We are the Trevon rebels, but we will need to take this fight to the rest of the Outer-Rim, to gain allies, and to obtain support. If you wish to support us, then make yourself heard; endorse only those representatives who are calling for autonomy and cold shoulder those who aren’t.

  ‘And to those of you who daren’t, or can’t, make a stand, I say this: We mean you no harm. Just stay out of our way.

  ‘Thank you.’

  Of course, there was no need to thank the spaceport operator. Scat was playing to a wider audience, people who would hear the message replayed, repeatedly, throughout the night—that is, if Lynthax, and the Earth Delegation, did not axe the news shows.

  Scat cut the connection and looked around the room. Grandstanding aside, there were still three other Lynthax planets they could get to over the next 12 hours. However you looked at it, four planets would make a big enough splash to grab Earth’s attention, no matter what control Lynthax had over the printing press.

  Everyone was looking at him, waiting on his orders. He took a deep breath. They had made their first strike against a corporate Empire. It was time to take the rebellion on the road.

  ‘What are we waiting for, gentlemen?’

  He gave the order to jump.