Finity's End

Fletcher ducked into the door-recess of a shop, nearest refuge, got down with arms across Jeremy, and Chad and Nike came in, flung themselves down as a barricade as all hell broke loose outside. Others spotted their shelter, younger crew, not Finity juniors, not even all of the same ship, but just at that moment a pressure window exploded right across the aisle of shop fronts.

“They’re shooting!” Nike cried.

Chains were out of pockets among the spacers and people were yelling. Jeremy’s head came up and Fletcher shoved it down again. He was shaking. He’d seen riot break out. He saw this one. People with no idea what the fight was were arming themselves, spacers aiming at whatever spacers had at issue.

Like stationers with guns.

“The whole damn dock !” Chad said between his teeth. “God, Fletcher. How’d you manage this one?”

“They’re trying to kill us!” Jeremy said indignantly.

Then the police showed up, a lot of police, with stu

Nike risked her skull to reach up and try to shove the shop door open. It was locked, people inside with the door barred. She slammed the door with her fist, yelling, “We got kids , you damn fools! Open the door!”

Riot spilled past them, police literally stumbling into their shallow shelter, being pushed there by the crowd, driven in retreat by chain-swinging spacers. Someone stepped on Fletcher’s leg and a chain cracked against the window over their heads.

Then to a shout of “There they are!” silver-suits showed up.

Bucklin reached them, Bucklin, Wayne, and a handful of Finity seniors, creating a barrier between them and the fight.

“Hold it!” Fletcher heard someone shout, then, a voice that hit nerves and stopped bodies in mid-impulse, and he knew that voice… he thought he knew it. “We’ve got kids here! Hold it, hold it, stop right there, you !”

JR. And Finity perso

But in the fading of riot around them, Chad and Nike got up. Toby did. Fletcher let Jeremy and the kids up, then, and hauled himself to his feet, with an ankle swollen tight against his boot.

“Hold it!” a voice yelled. The police advanced on the small collection they made, police, with stu

“Hold it!” JR said, interposing himself, and Bucklin and the other Finity perso

“Who are you?” The age-old police voice.

“Captain James Neihart, merchanter Finity’s End , and those are kids , here. Nobody’s pulling a weapon on our perso

“ Rose’s kids, too,” a spacer said, and came in close, “Damned if you wave a weapon near Rose’s juniors, mister. Just stow it.”

“Get out of there,” the lead officer said, and two of the kids who’d run in for shelter scrambled up and walked over to the man who spoke for Scottish Rose .

A lot more spacers had gathered, most in civvies, Finity perso

“Break it up,” the lead cop said, and Jeremy yelled: “Those guys back there’s trying to kill us!” And to JR: “This shop had the stick, sir! It’s back there in the shop! There’s guys chasing us.”

“Not now,” a spacer said with chilling finality.

“We have a breach in the maintenance system,” the chief of the police said. “We have windows broken. We have—”

“They shot at us!” Jeremy cried indignantly. “They were firing shots all over!”

“Jeremy found stolen property in a shop,” Fletcher said. “I went in to get Jeremy, and they took us both into the tu

“ You’re responsible,” the policeman said.

“We ran,” Fletcher said. “ We weren’t the ones with the guns.”

“You’re under arrest,” the cop said.

“No,” JR said, and stepped between. So did Bucklin. In two blinks a wall of Finity officers and assorted spacers had interposed themselves, blocking the police from action.

“We’ve had a breach of the tu

“We have larceny of Finity property and assault against underage crew,” JR said.

“Where’s your ID?” the policeman asked. “You’re not wearing any insignia. How do we know who you are?”

“See the black patch?” a spacer said, not even theirs. “That’s Finity . He says he’s a captain, mister, you get out of his way.”

A policeman was using his clip-com. An electronic voice gave orders.

“We’ve got an impasse here,” JR said. “And it’s not going to budge. You can try to arrest a handful of kids, which is not going to happen. On the other hand, you can walk back to the five hundreds and take a look at Arnason Imports. And you can start with treaty violation, which is a little out of your territory, but I can guarantee Stationmaster Oser-Hayes will want all the information and evidence he can get. I can add traffic in illicit goods, handling stolen property, and all the way up to attempted murder. Finity’s End is sovereign territory, gentlemen, and we don’t surrender our perso

There was a muttering among the spacers, silence among the police. Fletcher kept right beside Jeremy. It wasn’t a time to say anything. But there was also a human being he’d shoved off a ledge. While they were accounting for things—he might have killed somebody.

“The tu

“We’ll want a statement.”

“ Our command will file a complaint in their name,” JR said. “Meanwhile they’re complaining of stolen goods at Arnason’s and we’re filing charges right now. You want a statement, I’ll give you a statement. We want an immediate search of the premises. I can assure you there’ll be a warrant. Our legal office will be contacting your legal office in short order, and I’d suggest the Stationmaster may want answers from inside that shop.”

The police were dubious.

“You get in there or we will,” a spacer said. “They take spacer property in there, we’ll go in after it”

And weakening. “We need a complaint and a warrant.”

“You’ve got a complaint. Your warrant should be in progress.”

A new group showed up. With a lot of silver hair involved. A lot of flash uniforms.

Ship’s officers. A lot of them, Fletcher thought. He saw Captain James Robert at the head of it. Madison.

There was a muttering of amazement among the spacers. The station cops didn’t initially, perhaps, know what they were facing.

“I’d say hurry with that warrant,” JR said.