by David Weber
It was hard to quarrel with Xanadu's choice of the name, though. Time after time, the war had brought large-scale space combat to this system. At the touch of the destructive energies those battles released, a living planet would wither like a leaf in a flame. Thanks to Andrew Prescott, the people of Xanadu had finally awakened one morning and known they could live and bear children without that fear.
Until now, Trevayne thought, and the bile rose in his throat. Now the fear was back, but this time it was fear of the rebellious ships of the TFN itself, the TFN which for centuries had stood between all the worlds of Man and that horror! As Sergei had stood.
His controlled face tightened as his vivid imagination pictured the loathsome mushroom clouds once more. Only the consuming demands of responsibility had kept him functioning under the shocks of the mutinies and the deaths of his wife and daughters. And then Colin.... His mind shied away from the thought like a wounded, skittish horse. In the aftermath of battle Trevayne had deliberately filled the little free time he might have had with a hectic round of self-imposed duties. Such as this one: a call on Sergefs daughter to express his condolences. It ought to fill the time between now and tonight's round of appointments and paperwork. And the time wouldn't be totally wasted. She was, after all, politically influential.
The street skirted the broad estuary of the Alph, running down to a seawall and the azure, white-capped harbor. This was one of Prescott City's oldest residential districts, and the houses were on the small side but wellbuilt, mostly of stone and wood, as first-wave houses tended to be. High-rises and fused cermacrete came later, as did the premium on space which would have doomed the large old native trees surrounding the houses. The ast'chi-tecture was vaguely neo-Tudor, and he suspected it had developed locally; it certainly fit the materials and the setting.
He drew a deep, lung-filling breath of the salt-tinged air and decided he'd been right to take the time to walk. Sensory deprivation was an ever-present danger in space; it had probably begun to catch up with him. In the midst of artificiality,, the mind tended to turn inward on itself. His native Old Terra might be out of reach, but here he could at least touch the soil of a world humans had made their own.
A few children were at play, and at the sight of them a shadow chilled his mind just as the low-flying clouds periodically blocked out the warmth of Zephrain A.
A small boy looked up and smiled at him.
Trevaeavne hurried on.
Miriam Ortega's house wasn't far from the seawall. He stepped through the old-fashioned gate in the low, stone wall along the street, noticing the faint rim of salt clinging to the seaward stones. He climbed the steps and rang for admittance, and the door swung open.
The woman in the doorway was in her middle to late thirties, he decided. She was of medium height and rather sturdy build, with thick black hair pulled back in a severe style which accentuated her high cheekbones. Those cheekbones reminded Trevayne of Sergei, but the rest of her features, including the strongly curved nose, seemed to owe more to Sergefs late wife. Ruth Ortega had been from New Sinai, and her genetic heritage was strong in her daughter's face.
Miriam Ortega, he thought, was no beauty.
"Ms. Ortega?" "Yes. You must be Admiral Trevayne. Your yeoman called earlier today. Won't you come in?" Her voice was husky but firm. Though she seemed somber, there was no quaver.
She led him down a short hallway to a siting room whose large, many-paned window overlooked the street. Though not messy, the room looked very lived-in. It was lined with old-style bookshelves, and an easel with paints and brushes stood near the window. A desk sat to one side, built around a functional data terminal and utilitarian tape and data chip racks.
"Do you paint, Ms. Ortega?" He gestured briefly at the easel. "Only as an off-and-on hobby. No real talent, I'm afraid." They sat down and she lit a cigarette. "I'm going to give it up this summer--smoking, that is, not painting. Right now, though, I seem to need ali the bad habits I've got to see me through." Trevayne was uncomfortably reminded of his reason for coming. He cleared his throat.
Including my own.
Miriam Ortega inhaled smoke and let it trickle out. "You know, Admiral, I think Dad was a bit disappointed to have produced possibly the most unmilitary offspring in the Federation, but I managed to soak up enough of his attitudes to understand him. However easygoing he sometimes seemed, he felt very strongly about certain things. One of them was the Federation, and another was his concept of what TFN service meant. He used to quote some ancient saying about placing your body in harm's way, between the horror of war and those you're sworn to protect.
He could imagine no higher calling." Her face had worn an inward look, but now she looked up at Trevayne and he could almost feel the unconquerable vitality she radiated. When she spoke again, her voice was still controlled, but the words were vibrant.
"Dad died the way he would have wanted to. I can't deny I'm grieving for him, but at the risk of seeming callous, I can't honestly say I feel sorrow. Sorrow isn't big enough... there's no room for pride in it!" Trevayne was startled by how closely she'd paralleled his own earlier thoughts. But beyond that, he suddenly wondered how he could have thought this woman unexcep-tional-looking even for a moment. She wasn't conventionally pretty, no; but her face was a strikingly vivid and expressive one, uniquely her own. She was like no one else.
For an instant he wanted to reach out to her and tell her of his own loss. She was the sort of person who inspired confidences. But no, he had no right to burden her with his problems. And he wasn't sure he was ready to expose his own wounds.
"I know you were close to your father," he said. "I recall him mentioning that you moved out here when he was first posted to Zephrain." "I suppose my closeness to him was a form of overcom-pensation. I didn't see much of him when I was young--he was in space a lot, and Mother played a much bigger role in raising me. Whenever he was around, he did his best to turn me into a tomboy." Her mobile features formed a rueful smile.
"Some would say it took. Anyway, you're fight about" my coming out here. It was just after my divorce. I was in the mood for a change of scenery, and Mother had died just before he was out-posted; he was still taking it pretty hard." She broke off for a moment, drawing on her cigarette. Her face was briefly thoughtful before she shrugged and looked up again.
"I had a law degree from New Athens and reasonably good references, so I was able to etablish myself here on Xanadu. I found I liked it here.
What started as a "stay close to Dad" sort of thing turned into something else entirely, in a sense. I landed a position with one of the better firms-- Bernbach, de Parma, and Leong--and suddenly I was one of the old hands. That doesn't take long here in the Rim, you know. And our firm's always been heavily into local polities, which is how I ended up involved in lhe formation of the provisional government." Trevayne nodded, though he suspected that wasn't the half of it. Suddenly she looked self-deprecating and waved her cigarette dismissively.
In fact, you were just coming to something I need to know more about.
I'm stfil not toe clear about the origins of your provisional government." "No?" She regarded him thoughtfully for a moment.
"How much do you know about Xanadu's history, Admiral?" "Only the bare-bones outline from the handbook, I'm afraid. His "Then you know Xanadu was setfied during the Fourth Interstellar War when the Navy built the Fleet base. What you may not realize is just what that meant for the makeup of our population. There was a tremendous amount of military construction going on sixty years ago, and that required a large labor force. People came from all over the Federation, and today's population is about as racially mixed as you'll find anywhere. Which--was a sudden smfie his-comis probably one reason I fit in so well! Anyway, the point is that this isn't one of the planets settled by closeknit ethnic or national groups. To govern themselves, this polyglot crew needed a simple pyramidal structure to interact on. Xanadu is divided into prefectures, which are grouped inff.tricts, above which ar
e provinces. Each prefecture elects a representative to the district assembly. The district assemblies each select one representative to the provincial assemblies, which each send one member to the Planetary Council.
There's also a popularly elected president, who appoints the judiciary. There's a lot more to it, of course, but that's the basic idea." As democratic systems went, Trevayne reflected, it owed more to the French than to the American model.
"Actually, it's worked pretty well," she said.
'rhe planet has taken on a sort of uniformity in diversity. The Xandies are probably on the way to developing what the anthropologists call a 'planetary ethnicity."" Seeing his puzzled look, she elaborated. "People from Xanadu are called "Xandies." It's not a slur," she added quickly. "We call ourselves that." He noted the shift from third to first person.
"Anyway," she continued, "the pro-rebel party here was extremely small and--partly as a result of being so alienated from the Xandy mainstream, I supposc extremely militant. Right after word of the mutinies arrived, a gang of fanatics tossed a bomb which killed the president and several high-ranking members of the government... not to mention a good number of innocent bystanders." She grimaced. "rhe chief conspirators fled off-planet and got as far as Aotearoa. I was a member of the delegation sent to arrange their extradition, and, in the course of the discussions, it became clear that we needed some sort of inter-system authority to deal with any further terrorist acts locally, since we were completely isolated from Old Terra. The result was the provisional government, which includes Zephrain and several of the nearer systems--the most populous and highly-developed ones in the Rim. Brilliant improvisation!" She beamed at him in mock self-satisfaction.
"Dad's support gave it some teeth, but it's still pretty chaotic." "Yes. Your father and I talked about this. As I see it, the problem is that the Rim is on its own indefinitely. We need a Rim-wide provisional government, if only to perform the kind of day-to-day functions that the Federation always provided.
We're isolated to an extent that no one in the government has ever dreamed of, much less planned for! Thank God we've got a loyalist provisional government to work with." He stopped suddenly in the middle of the room and looked at her and realized that she'd been watching him intently.
"Ms. Ortega, a while back you said something about not wishing to seem callous. Well, neither do I. But I must tell you that what I said earlier about sharing your loss was meant not just on a personal level. The fact is, I'd planned to have your father, as TFN senior officer, declared emergency governor-general of the Rim systems. It's legally defensible, but without support from local leaders, it would probably do more harm than good. With the contacts he'd built up in his years out here.... " His voice trailed off.
"Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to get carried away. And it's all a matter of might-have-been now that he's dead." Miriam Ortega's expression had become even more intent. Now her eyes flashed.
"No! It still makes sensebeautiful sense, politically as well as militarily. Your idea of a "governor-general" is per-feet. He'd represent the Federation, so he'd provide a focus for loyalist sentiment. And he'd give the provisional government exactly what it lacks: a strong executive. And @u.. we ve got the perfect man for the position." Trevayne looked at her levelly. "Me," he said, slightly more as a statement than a question.
"It's got to be you," she said emphatically.
"As the ranking TFN officer in the Rim, you're the only possible choice. And remember what I said earlier; your prestige to i couldn't be higher."" Neither of them had really noticed the courtesy call turning into a political conference, but that, Trevayne realized, was exactly what it had become. He'd already reached the same conclusions, but he'd needed to hash out the problems and objections with someone. And in the loneliness of supreme command, there had been no one.
"I can't do it alone," he began. "I don't know these people..." "But I do,"" the woman said flatly.
Two pairs of dark-brown eyes met, and they were allies. "I can't just make the proclamation out of the blue, though." He resumed his pacing. 'Fhat would defeat the whole purposccence of involving the Rim leadership. I need to meet the key people in this provisional government and arrange for a statement of solidarity from them to follow the announcement. And we need to set up an interim legislative assembly to handle inter-systemic statutory matters. Just the inflation that's bound to overtake a wartime economy will require a mass of bread-and-butter amendments to practically all Federation statutes that specify monetary amounts.
"Good point," Miriam interjected. She cocked her head to one side and looked at him. "I must say, for a professional military man you seem to have quite a good grasp of these things." "I've read a little history." He gave a deprecatory half-smile. "But as I was saying, I need to meet with the loyal leadership unofficially, so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do it at Government House his "Why not here?" she asked. Trevayne stopped in midpace. "Why not, indeed? Can you contact the people I need to talk to?" She nodded. "As to when... my schedule isn't too flexible. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to stay dirtside." No more than a few days, he thought. Maybe after the trip to Gehenna.
"We stvon't have time to bring in anybody from off-planet," she was saying, "but at least Bryan MacFarland--he's an Aotearoan--is already in Prescott City. And, of course, Barry de Parma he's a senior partner in my firm and he's got a finger in every political pie on the planet.
And..." "Make a list. I'll need a briefing on each of them. It shouldn't take too long to..
." His voice trailed off as he looked at the clock. "Bloody Goddamned hell!" he ploded. "Er... excuse me." She choked down a laugh as he adjusted his wrist communicator. "Genji?" "Admiral? I was trying to decide whether or not to call you." "Genii, I'm going to be at Ms. Ortega's a bit longer than I expected. You'd better postpone tonight's appointments. And don't schedule anything for day after tomorrow, at least not i the morning or early afternoon." Two days later, they were once again alone in her sitting room, this time among a litter of scattered chairs and heaped ashtrays. He waved a hand vaguely before his face, as if to brush away the canopy of tobacco smoke. Aside from the chairs and ashtrays, the room was much as before, except for the cloth that covered the easel.
"Well," Miriam said, "I think you've done it." "You had as much to do with it as I did," Trevayne demurred.
"No, it was you. You didn't just win them over to the idea, you overwhelmed them with it. When you announce the Rim Provisional Government, they'll come through right on schedule-and they'll do it because they know you're right.
We'll reconvene the current provisional government as a sort of committee of the whole to organize the Rim Legislative Assembly, then invite all the Rim systems to send representatives." "Good. In fact, I'd like you to move ahead on setting that up right now, but the public announcement is going to have to wait a week or so." "A week?" She cocked her head to one side thoughtfully. "No problem. I'll go ahead and get the messages out--they're going to take a month or so to reach some of the more distant systems--comb why wait that long for the initial announcement? The provisional government can be ready to go in two or three days." "I know. But for now I have to go to the RandD Station, which means a flight to Gehenna, of course.
My chief of staff is organizing a project out there one that's at least as important to the survival of the Rim as what we've started at this end." "Oh? Ready to start producing new weapons?" "How the devil did you know that?" Trevayne stared at her, reminding himself once more never to underestimate this woman.
"What else would you be doing on that dust ball?" she asked dryly. Then she shook her head at him.
"Don't worry--I won't mention a word to anyone. But every Xandy knows what Zephrain RDS has been up to for the last forty years or so, you know. Not that it matters too much, I suppose; it's hardly likely to get into the rebel news channels, now is it?" "I suppose not," he admitted with a reluctant smfie. "On the other hand, good security is as much a set of mind as
anything else, so I'd rather not discuss it just now. And I'd appreciate your keeping mum about it." "Don't worry, I will," she assured him.
Trevayne almost choked. That God-awful Anzac twang?! Then he threw back his head and laughed for the first time in far too long. She blinked at him in momentary startle-ment, then burst out laughing, too. And then his elbow brushed the easel, and the cloth slipped off.
"Oh, shit," Miriam said quietly.
Trevayne gazed at the charcoal sketch for a long moment, his taueahter dying, his face turning thoughtful. Then he eyed her quizzically.
"Do I really look that grim?" "Yup," she replied, not quite her usual brassy self, but standing her ground. He took a closer look.
"I suppose I've never thought of myself as looking that... harsh." "'Harsh" isn't the word I'd use. "Tough" comes closer. You've got the sort of face that shows absolutely no vulnerability.. And--was her voice was suddenly both gentle and bold his-comt's a pity, because I think you're a very vulnerable man in a lot of ways. One who's been hurt." She stopped abruptly, as if she had surprised herself.
Trevayne looked at the sketch a moment longer, absorbing the closed-off expression her charcoal stick had captured and feeling her words sink under the edge of his armor. The' he turned to face her.
"Yes, I have..." he began, then stopped.
Once more, he wanted to speak of how badly he'd been hurt. But he had to leave. Besides, he knew now that he would tell her everything when he saw her again... and, he realized with dawning surprise, that was enough. What really mattered was knowing there was someone he could talk freely to after so long.