Phelan hesitated, remembering that the last holodisk he had received was from Cyrilla. "Do I want it?"
Ulric nodded. "I think so. Anastasius Focht had it relayed here to us. You were effective just now because you are part Clan and part Inner Sphere. I never want you to lose that." He pressed the disk into Phelan's right hand. "It is from your father and, among other things, it includes his acceptance of my invitation to visit us here."
48
ComStar First Circuit Compound, Hilton Head
Island North America, Terra
16 June 3052
The Precentor Martial watched the members of the First Circuit resume their places behind the crystal podia from which they had often interrogated him. Both Ulthan Everson and Huthrin Vandel rubbed at their wrists and looked thinner than he'd last seen them. Gardner Riis seemed to be his sullen self; weeks spent in a holding cell had done nothing to improve his disposition or mushroomlike complexion. Precentor Sian, Jen Li, and Precentor Atreus, Demona Aziz, seemed to have weathered their confinement more comfortably, but they did seem tentative as they took up their old positions.
"Welcome back to the First Circuit." Standing where the Primus normally did, Focht greeted them with open arms. "I am pleased to see you all so healthy."
"What is the meaning of this outrage, Focht?" Everson pointed back toward the doors leading into the chamber and | the two Com Guards with rifles standing there. "Why have we been held captive and why are guards posted in this chamber? Why is not the Primus here to answer for imprisoning us? Blake's Blood, I never would have expected you, of all people, to cover for her."
Focht held up his hands. "Calm yourself, Precentor Tharkad. You have been inconvenienced but not hurt. Your robe no longer strains against your belly, so I might even suggest you have benefited from your detention."
"Detention. Ha!" Huthrin Vandel braced himself against his podium. "You make it sound as if solitary confinement were a mere annoyance. The Primus will pay for this affront. Given barely enough to eat until I felt I was dead."
"How appropriate, because that's just what 40 percent of my Com Guards are." He let that sink in for a moment, then frowned heavily. "Because of you, because of actions you took or did not take, many more people lie dead right now than need be. We are going to make some changes, fundamental changes, in ComStar to be sure this never happens again."
Gardner Riis' head came up. "What are you talking about? What things? I did nothing."
"Precisely, Precentor Rasalhague, you did nothing. You did nothing to tell the Primus her ideas for dealing with the Inner Sphere and the Clans were lunacy. She had ComStar aiding the Clans because she wanted the Clans to destroy the people Jerome Blake wanted us to protect. In the name of rebuilding humanity, she tried to tear it down even further than it has done by its own hand." Pointing, Focht moved his finger from one member of the First Circuit to another, but stopped before coming to Sharilar Mori. "Though you did not protest her actions here, did any of you work against her outside?"
Everson folded his arms across his chest. "We did what we could."
"Did you? Why did people in your area place Davion stragglers in ComStar-run prison camps when they could just as easily have taken them off-world? What was in your mind when you failed to send messages telling families their warriors were alive or, worse yet, when you sent fraudulent messages saying they were dead?" He shook his head. "At times I have wondered whether you, the people who wanted to protect humanity, have forgotten what it is to be human."
Precentor Sian draped her black hair over the scarlet shoulders of her Precentor's robe. "We did as the Primus directed."
"Really?" Focht skewered her with a steely stare. "And in your case, that meant allowing a message to go out that activated an assassin to kill Justin Allard. You let Romano Liao kill a man whose skills were vital to defending the Inner Sphere from the Clans. For you, for the whole lot of you, I had boys giving their lives?"
"Why attack us? The Primus is the key to this. It is her fault." Riis looked at his fellow Precentors. "Let us strip her of her rank, get rid of her. She's been mad for years."
He glanced up at Focht. "Isn't that a step in the right direction?"
"It's a step." Focht pulled his needle pistol from the pocket on his fatigues. "A bit late, but a step nonetheless." Everson blanched. "She's dead?"
"Yes. I did your dirty work for you." He displayed the pistol, then put it back in his pocket. "Now you will do a few things for me. It is time to change ComStar."
Vandel hunched his shoulders. "If we are going to talk about substantive matters, I demand you send your gunsels out of here. Our councils are private affairs."
Focht shook his head. "They will hear only what I want them to hear."
The blond-haired Precentor Atreus shook with rage. "This is unbelievable. This man tells us the Primus is dead— murdered—and now he will dictate to us changes in the Blessed Order while his gunmen hold us hostage! We cannot condone this."
"Save your righteous indignation for later. You've condoned worse crimes in the last three years than you will condone today." Focht nodded toward Sharilar Mori. "Over the past eight days, Precentor Dieron and I have worked out a plan that will let us repair the damage done and permit us to return to our mission of playing Prometheus to a mankind who has lost technology.
"Computer, project Com Guard Abstract 1."
In response to his command, the computer materialized a table of organization and equipment for the Com Guards in the middle of the room. It spun slowly, then fragmented into smaller identical charts in front of each podium. "As you can see, the Com Guards are going to be reorganized into a highly mobile, ready-response group. Eventually we will build back up to the strength we had at Tukayyid, but for now, each of our armies will have four divisions. In the short term, we will deploy forces on Free Rasalhague Republic worlds to discourage adventurism by the Combine or Federated Commonwealth."
Demona Aziz narrowed her green eyes. "If you do this, and these forces are stationed in the places you have indicated, you will leave most of our stations unprotected."
"They won't need protection under the second half of our plan." Focht looked around the room, then smiled ironically. "When I helped clean up the horror the Primus had created in the Hall of History, I was able to sort through some of the items that had been in the Jerome Blake displays. That is how I discovered a copy of the first book Jerome Blake ever wrote. The content will probably surprise you as much as it did me. This book by Blake dealt with a highly technical subject in a way that made it comprehensible to anyone."
Vandel's fist slammed into his podium. "You lie, Focht! I am a scholar of Jerome Blake and I say no such book exists."
The guards at the door cocked their autorifles.
"To my knowledge, that is," Precentor New Avalon quickly added.
"It is true, Huthrin. This is no lie like so many others propagated under the guise of the 'discovery' of new Blake diaries. Given his obvious gift for sharing the complex with those who could barely comprehend it, we have to look at Blake's plans and intentions in a different light. No longer should we see him as a man who believed ComStar should wait until mankind had clubbed itself back into the Stone Age before we could return technology to them. Instead he was merely insisting that, if that were to happen, ComStar had to step in to share information and technology with them."
"Heresy!" Demona stared at Focht with wild eyes. "You are a viper we have clutched to our bosom. We defied the Word of Blake when we formed the Com Guards and we doomed ourselves when we placed you at their head. This is heresy and I will not stand for it."
Focht smiled at her. "If you think that is heresy, let me tell you the whole of it. Adopting a role similar to the one we played with the Clans, we will begin to instruct people throughout the Successor States in the ways of technology. We will share with them the knowledge that will help make their lives better."
Precentor Atreus turned purple.
Ri
is pursed his lips as he considered what he heard. "In essence, you want us to secularize all of ComStar?"
"Hardly. We will secularize the Com Guards, but that should not be difficult because most are recent recruits or Mech Warriors who already have a certain disdain for the magical trappings of ComStar. Unlike the majority of the populace on non-metropolitan worlds, they've seen technology work up close and they know a kick is just as likely as a prayer to get something to work. We would only teach basic, low-level information that enhances the quality of life, but absolutely nothing that would have military applications. Our Techs will still be needed to keep HPGs running, but the nation-states will administer the facilities and finance the building of new stations."
Everson chewed on his lower lip for a moment. "It would still increase our effect on society without making us a threat. It could also create some good will between us and the heads of the Successor States."
Jen Li nodded in agreement. "It is not that radical a departure from what we were doing under the Clans, but instead of propagandizing, we will actually be doing something positive. The only difficulty is that we have told our people for so long that sharing even the most trivial of technological information with outsiders is cause to excommunicate them and declare them apostate. We need to deal with that."
Demona finally found her tongue again. "I cannot believe you are talking like this! We have been entrusted with a sacred duty and you are discussing it as if ComStar were nothing but a corporation positioning itself to take better advantage in a marketplace. I pray the ghost of Jerome Blake will come to haunt you in your dreams."
Focht caught Sharilar's eye and smiled. "In fact, Precentor Atreus, I have been visited in my dreams by Jerome Blake. He said that we had gotten it all wrong. 'Technology is not to be regarded as mystical. What is mystical is that which technology enables man to accomplish. We must not be misers nor spendthrifts, but teachers.' "
"Blasphemy, but what could I expect from the man who has murdered the Primus?" Demona looked around the room at all the others. "You are in a league with him and you have Myndo Waterly's blood on your hands. I will not be a party to this."
She turned and stalked, head held high, toward the doors. The Com Guards moved to bar her, then stood aside as Focht gestured to them to let her go. The door closed behind her and Focht realized the others were straining to hear the sound of gunshots from outside.
"She will not be harmed. A squad of Com Guards will escort her to a waiting DropShip. It will take her to a Jump-Ship that should have her back in the Free Worlds League in a week or so."
Sharilar Mori nodded. "We assumed there would be some hardliners who would not brook this opening up of ComStar. We fully expect Demona to declare Thomas Marik 'Primus in exile.' Given that she will have to rely on us for spare parts for hyperpulse generators, at least in the short term, she will not break relations with us. However, she will probably provide a haven in the Free Worlds League for anyone else unable to reconcile the new ComStar with the old. Their orthodoxy will, in time, mellow if the Free Worlds League is to compete with the advances we give to the other states."
Focht adjusted his eye patch. "Does anyone else dispute the veracity of my dream?"
Everson shook his head. "It might require some expansion to fit the format of similar revelations in the past, but it will do."
"Excellent." Focht signaled the guards and they opened the doors. "It is now up to you to present our new ComStar to the leaders of your nation-states. That done, we can start to repair the damage done to mankind by our neglect."
49
New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth
17 June 3052
Victor Davion's stomach lurched up into his throat as the Ferret light scout helicopter pitched forward and out of the DropShip's starboard 'Mech bay. It fell 200 meters toward the dark, sleeping Avalon City before the pilot kicked power to the auto-rotating propeller. In doing so, he brought the nose up and jammed Victor down into his seat in the crew compartment.
Victor looked over at Galen. "See, I told you it would work."
Galen Cox, who looked paler than Victor had ever seen him in their years together, nodded weakly. "Couldn't land at the Royal Brigade Base like everyone else, could you? Just have to get chauffeured to the palace right off."
Victor shrugged. "Look, we're not even supposed to be arriving for another month. We got lucky that some of those ships were waiting around when we arrived in-system."
"I fail to see how sending a message ahead ordering them to wait can be considered luck." Galen smiled and a little color came back to his face. "Actually, I'm anxious to see Avalon City—during the day, that is. An air tour at three in the morning is fine, but it lacks the color promised in all the travel brochures."
Victor nodded sharply. "And you shall have that tour, my friend. Tomorrow night we go out and celebrate. We celebrate our being alive, and if the message from the Jade Falcons is correct, we celebrate Kai's return from the dead!"
"Only Kai." The blond Hauptmann shook his head. "He probably was killed on Alyina—several times over in fact, but he came back because you had a deal to meet in twenty years and he didn't want to disappoint you."
Victor remembered Kai's smiling face and the suicidal charge Yen-lo-wang made to save his life on Alyina. Somehow I would not put it past him to return from the dead. He sobered up for a moment. "I wonder if Kai knows his parents are dead?"
Galen shrugged. "I don't think he could get all the way to New Avalon without someone expressing their regrets to him along the way."
"Tomorrow I'll record a holovid and send it out Alpha Priority. My father had wanted me to break the news to him. If I can't do that, I can express my sympathy."
"I think Kai would like that."
Victor saw the palace swing into view through the porthole on the starboard side. "We're over the Peace Park right now. See, that's the palace. The front remains lit up at night for insomniac tourists, which is why private quarters are around back in the dark. Only offices occupy the front quarter."
Galen pointed to one set of three windows lit from inside. "Fancy that, the government has night owls."
Victor squinted and used his left hand to form a view-finder. "Not surprising. That's my father's office. He probably fell asleep at his desk again."
The two men laughed as the helicopter swooped over the palace, then settled down in the middle of a ring of lights out by the back lawn. Victor thanked the pilot, and the two of them disembarked. Running hunched over, they cleared the circle and clutched their caps against the air blast as the helicopter climbed into the air again.
As they straightened up, a man in the uniform of the Intelligence Ministry's Bodyguard service saluted. "Welcome home, Prince Victor. Per your radio instructions, no one has been notified of your arrival. The household is asleep."
Victor nodded. "My father is still in his office?"
"Yes, sir, at least he was five minutes ago. Minister Mallory brought him a priority holodisk about an hour ago, but your father viewed it in private."
"As you said, the household is asleep."
The bodyguard smiled. "I believe so, sir." He looked over at Galen. "We have Hauptmann Cox billeted in the suite down the hall from your rooms. Just use your service number as your lock code, Hauptmann."
"Thank you, Leftenant."
Victor started walking toward the Palace's rear entrance, and the security man fell into step on his left while Galen secured his right. "I think we will slip in and surprise my father, then retire for the night."
"Perhaps you will be more successful at persuading him to get some proper rest, Highness. He spends so much time in his office that the men guarding him must have sunk roots into the hall by now."
Victor smiled as he heard the concern in the man's words. "I appreciate your frankness, Leftenant. I will see what I can do."
The Leftenant returned to his own office on the ground floor while Victor and Galen cl
imbed a broad marble staircase to the third floor. Turning right at a massive bronze statue of Ares, they entered a long corridor lined with white marble pillars. The walls were decorated with an elaborate mural depicting the history of House Davion. Victor slowed so Galen could study the painting.
"This is it, Galen, the history of humanity according to the Davions."
His companion grinned. "A tad solipsistic, but I don't have to mind it now because we're all one big happy family, right?"
"Well, it does help that the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth never really got a chance to go at each other." Victor sniffed the air in an exaggerated way. "Hmmm, no new paint. I guess they haven't immortalized the Revenants yet."
"Damn, ignored by history again!" Galen grumbled lightly.
The two guards at the door to Hanse Davion's office snapped to attention and saluted when Victor approached. Both Mech Warriors returned the salutes, then one of the guards quiedy opened the heavy bronze door. Victor and Galen slipped into the room noiselessly and shared a smile.
Hanse Davion sat in a big, wingback chair behind his desk. The chair had been turned so they could glimpse only a bit of his profile. The Prince faced the holodisk viewer built into the oaken cabinets on the far side of the room, but his chin had dropped to his chest, and he looked to be sleeping.
As Victor approached his father's desk, the holovid viewer speakers suddenly began to play muted strains of the Capellan anthem. Victor turned to look at the screen, which showed the Capellan crest dissolving into the image of Sun-Tzu Liao. He stopped short and Galen stopped behind him.
Sun-Tzu smiled slowly. "Prince Davion, in attending to the affairs of state subsequent to the deaths of my parents, I came across the holodisk your agent, Justin Allard, had left for my grandfather. I believe you are aware that this holodisk was the straw that broke my grandfather's last feeble grasp on reality. I also believe it unbalanced—or further unbalanced—my mother's mental state. In light of the effect it had on them, I thought I would return the courtesy and record this for you.
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