Unsupported Inventory

"A border guard becomes involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs/immigrants."

UNSUPPORTED INVENTORY

Approx. 1,952 words

The air within the conference room was cool; a gentle breeze wafting through the open windows. The windows were open mainly to clear the air, heavily filled with the smoke from several pipes and cigarettes. General Kincaid did not allow cigars in his morning staff meetings.

"The next item on the agenda is a major problem reported to me three weeks ago by our Provost Marshal, Major Lewis. Until this morning, I asked Tony to keep quiet on the subject until an investigation could be completed. Tony, will you present your report at this time?"

"Thank you, General Kincaid," Lewis said as he rose to address the members of the staff conference. "Sgt. Winters, front and center if you please."

From the rear of the room, where he had been sitting quietly throughout the boring details preceding the Provost Marshal's report, a young MP rose and marched quickly to the front of the conference table. Once there, he halted and un-slung the weapon over his shoulder and executed a perfect inspection arms movement, according to the manual for drill and ceremonies. The MP stood there with the weapon cradled in his left hand and the empty magazine in his right.

Tony Lewis approached Sgt. Winters and took the weapon. "Thank you, sergeant. At ease." Winters lowered his right hand and stood with his feet apart.

"Gentlemen," Major Lewis said, "you're all familiar with this weapon, its standard issue to all our security personnel. The issuance of weapons is tightly controlled at all times. We have a security force of less than 500 personnel to maintain order among a prison population exceeding 30,000 transportees, with new ships arriving twice each year and adding another 1,500 convicts to the population. Perhaps as many as 3,000 of our prisoners have fled our jurisdiction and are roaming freely in the unsettled areas away from the city and the spaceport.

"We can not allow weapons to fall into the hands of our prisoners. Pendl's World is a prison colony and the convicted criminals of Earth are transported for life. To create a habitable planet using these workers, labor parties are supervised by security personnel armed with night-sticks and short swords to maintain order. Security troops are only issued weapons as needed, and any use is strictly supervised by commissioned officers."

"Yes, yes, the staff knows all about our procedures," Lieutenant Colonel Anderson interrupted. "As Deputy Chief for Operations and Training, my section conducts all training for riot control, including the use of individual weapons. In twenty years there has never been a successful assault on our guards and no weapons have fallen into the hands of rebellious inmates."

"Not according to our inventory records," Lieutenant Colonel Sam Eriksson said. "So where is this presentation heading? What's the problem, Tony?"

"The problem is this weapon, sir. It was taken from our armory three weeks ago during a routine inspection. We have no record of the serial number of this weapon, and one weapon is unaccounted for."

"A mistake in record keeping," Colonel Dempsey, the Chief of Staff, offered. "Some clerk has transposed the digits in the computer logs. It's nothing to get steamed up about."

"No, sir, that is impossible. We ran a check of all serial numbers, 460 weapons, and the first six digits of this weapon are not in our inventory. Worse, the serial number indicates this weapon was manufactured approximately twelve years after our inventory of weapons left Earth. It's obvious this particular weapon has been smuggled to this planet."

The number of suppressed gasps among the eight staff officers was highly audible. A prison population of more than 30,000 convicts and only 500 troops to protect the administrators? The only thing preventing a general uprising and riot were the weapons available to the guards. If the prisoners had one weapon, they could assault the guards and steal more, which was the primary reason guards were only issued weapons during tightly controlled operations where there could be no possible chance of a successful attack by prisoners. At worst, a few prisoners could acquire swords and night-sticks, but armed guards could quickly subdue them. The governing policy was such that an unarmed population is a controlled population.

"So, how could this happen, Tony?" LTC Erickson was the staff officer in charge of logistics and supply and was unwilling to accept the charge that any of his supply personnel could be involved with this monstrous breech of security. "Isn't your command responsible for inspection of all personnel and supplies arriving at the space-port? How could anything get out of an area that tightly quarantined?"

"Yes, Maj. Lewis, how could that happen? LTC Anderson developed the receiving procedures to insure nothing like this could possibly happen." Colonel Dempsey briefly reviewed the operating procedures for the arrival of new personnel and equipment.

"When a ship is scheduled for arrival, a heavily guarded wagon is sent to the armory to draw 80 weapons. One hundred guards are marched from the MP barracks to the landing field, armed only with night-sticks and swords. Only when they are at the landing field are they issued weapons. This prevents an ambush party from assaulting the guards and acquiring fire arms. The guards are well trained and able to beat off anything less than a genuinely determined riot force, and even if a riot took place and swords were taken, the rioters could be quickly overwhelmed by reinforcements armed with assault rifles.

"At the landing field, the convicts are unloaded from the transport ship and held in confinement on the field while 80 armed guards maintain order from the surrounding guard towers. Twenty guards, with night-sticks and swords intermingle with the prisoners for control while the Adjutant informs the new fish of the rules of conduct on Pendl's Planet.

"Groups of twenty-five prisoners are escorted for processing, again by guards without weapons, while the remaining prisoners unload cargo from the ship, which is thoroughly inspected by your guards before it is released from the impound area. Only when all prisoners have been processed are the guards released to the barracks, and only after they have returned their weapons to the transport wagon for return to the armory where all weapons are checked in again. If a single weapon has been smuggled to this planet, and it cannot be identified as a record keeping error, then it must certainly involve bribery or collusion among your security forces." Colonel Dempsey had finished, but he had leveled a strong charge against Major Lewis.

"Entirely correct, Colonel. Our standing operating procedures have been in effect for several decades and apparently have been completely satisfactory. We're all aware that a rebellious element does exist, probably out numbering our security personnel ten or twenty to one, but lacking weapons, they cannot be considered a threat."

"Quit avoiding the subject," LTC Anderson complained. "If a weapon, unsupported by our inventory has turned up, there could be more. What are we going to do to protect ourselves?" Each member of the prison staff wanted to know the answer to that question, they knew their lives would not be worth scrap-paper if the convicts could wage a successful rebellion.

"I guess it's time to let them know we're all safe," General Kincaid put in. "Get to the summary of your investigation, Tony."

"Yes, sir," the Provost Marshal said. "Last week, another 1,478 prisoners were processed when the latest transport ship arrived. Routine procedures were followed, except Colonel Dempsey made the Adjutant's greeting to the prisoners, as he has done many times in the past."

"I do like to make my presence and position as Chief of Staff known to the new fish," the Colonel replied.

"Of course, sir, and we've all considered it as the mark of an efficient officer assigned to the general's staff. However, after an incident of unsupported inventory was reported to me, I assigned four of my investigator's to conduct surveillance while the transport ship was planet-side.

"You reported to the armory with twelve enlisted guards and signed for 80 assault rifles, and then proceeded to the space port an hour before the ship touched down. When security forces later arrived, you issued all weapons to them and they took their positions in the guard towers surrounding the landing field. When processing and unloading had been completed, the weapons were returned to the wagon, transported to the armory and exchanged for your receipt."

"Of course, major! All strictly according to regulation." Colonel Dempsey appeared uncomfortable in his cushioned chair… even more so when the Major snapped his fingers and four MP's armed with assault rifles entered the room.

"According to regulation, on the surface, Colonel. But, what was not according to regulation, was your unauthorized detour between drawing the weapons and arriving at the space port."

"What are you saying?" Dempsey shouted.

"You were followed to a wooded area along the road between the city and the space port. My agents saw you and your guards unload the weapons from the wagon. When you arrived at the space port, the wagon was empty. Then you drove up to the transport ship where an additional 80 weapons were unloaded from the ship and placed in your wagon. The convict transportees had no idea what was going on, they were simply assisting in unloading cargo.

"When the security forces arrived at the space port, they were issued weapons from the wagon, having no idea of the switch. When unloading was completed, the weapons were returned and your wagon again made an unauthorized detour on the way back to the armory, where the smuggled weapons were unloaded and the weapons you had signed for were put back into the wagon. Then you turned them in at the armory and all serial numbers correctly matched the weapons you had been issued."

"That's outrageous!" Colonel Dempsey shouted. "General, I cannot stand here and allow my reputation to be sullied in this manner! I want Major Lewis arrested and I'll have charges prepared immediately!"

"Please sit down, Colonel," General Kincaid said. "Based upon the surveillance by Major Lewis's agents, an armed force secretly left the city last night. The stash of smuggled weapons in possession of the rebels has been confiscated, and the executive officer of the transport ship has been arrested and interrogated. These military police are here to arrest you, Colonel Dempsey. Thanks to Major Lewis, I know how and when the weapons were smuggled to the rebels, what I don't know is why, Dempsey. What could persuade a trusted member of my staff to violate his oath and engage in a conspiracy with criminals to overthrow this military government?"

"Because you're a fool, Kincaid! We have 500 personnel to protect us from 30,000! Our convicts' mine the raw materials which we ship to Earth aboard the returning transport ships, and you take nothing in return, nothing more than what the authorities on Earth feel we need for administration of this penal colony. We should be land barons! We ship the refined ores which Earth requires to generate nuclear power. They cannot survive without us! We should be royalty on this planet, not virtual convicts ourselves!"

"You will not be a convict, Dempsey. The rebels' leaders you have conspired with have been rounded up and sentenced to solitary confinement for a period I've yet to determine, but you will not be imprisoned. Mutiny and sedition are among the few capital crimes covered in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and you will be hanged at the conclusion of your Court Martial.

"Major Lewis, please have your guards escort the prisoner to the detention barracks to await trial."

Tony Lewis snapped a smart salute. "Yes, sir!" he acknowledged before waving his MP's to take the prisoner into custody.