ROMA

by R. A. Ender

  “No, Jutus, I’m afraid I don’t know. Sorry.” Was the simple answer she gave, which resulted in Jutus nodding somewhat sympathetically.

  “Well, I hope our last report was accurate and they are floating out there somewhere in safety.” And with that, he touched a button on his handcomm which began its recording feature and turned on his pad.

  “Though I had wanted everyone here at the beginning of the meeting, the Praetor Imperator Legatus has informed me that she will be delayed for a short time as she is needed on base. She also has told me that Fleet Admiral Hilbornus is escorting her and they will arrive together.”

  Robin smiled. Richard and I have the same mind. She thought to herself as her preplanned excuse for him was communicated to the group by Jutus. That said, Robin continued to herself, if they show up all tired from a long night of romping around in bed, I won’t be helping him a bit! I slept alone and I’ll be damned if I’ll cover for him having the time of his life on a work night.

  Despite not having Heather or Richard present, Jutus continued the meeting spending the next half hour with Longus explaining the planning of the ‘action,’ as Jutus kept irritatingly calling it. Longus, never unprepared to defend his actions, had a full information package available that walked through every step of the battle. Throughout, he emphasized and defended every action despite Jutus offering no criticisms. In fact, he rarely asked questions, he simply typed away on his pad.

  But, after Longus finished, Jutus had begun to refer to his notes and pick apart the ‘action’ and especially the planning phase where no one had consulted with New Earth government. He focused primarily on the time between the landing of Admiral Hilbornus on New Earth and the ‘action.’ Jutus seemed quite annoyed that Heather and Richard had not made any effort to consult with the New Earth government.

  Longus kept deferring that issue until the two involved arrived, but Jutus kept asking about it which eventually led to Longus exploding and refusing to answer any more questions about that topic. At which point, after an irritating and condescending pause and comment, Jutus moved on to the atmospheric crash of the IAE Dreadnaught.

  In so doing, he immediately began to sharply criticize Longus for his decision to push the ship into the planetary orbit and have it fall into the ocean. Jutus went on a several minute long, uninterrupted criticism of the ‘action’ and even went so far as to accuse Longus of threatening the lives of every citizen of New Earth, as the ship could have fallen on a populated area. That accusation made Robin angry, as she knew that that had been planned ahead of time, that they had taken enormous efforts to ensure the battle occurred on the far side of the planet over the ocean, and never for a moment once the battle began, was that ever a possibility. The only time that a battle over the continent was a risk was before Richard and I exited hyperspace in the Nemesis. We didn’t know for sure where the IAE fleet was until then! She said to herself angrily.

  As Robin waited to see if Jutus’ criticism would cause Longus to explode violently enough that he would shout everyone out of the small room, she looked over at the door to humorously assess her ability to escape. And, just as she was looking, the door opened and Heather entered followed by Richard.

  Their entrance seemed to push and set Longus off.

  “About time!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, causing Heather to take a step back, and Richard to step in front of her. Before either of them could say anything, Longus barreled on.

  “I’ve been sitting in this room with this goat herding Gaul, this mountain living Etruscan, this incestuous Egyptian listening to him whine about how I rescued him the wrong way!” Longus was still shouting at the top of his lungs and pointing at Jutus with the most menacing gesture possible.

  “I wish I had a fasces to slice this worthless bowel movement into a lifeless heap of flesh to burn him into a pile of ash and bury him in the dump. Admiral,” Longus paused and respectfully addressed Richard, “I am leaving now before I do anything I’ll regret.”

  Richard said nothing. His eyes were hard and his gaze was solid. Robin could tell he was not at all impressed with Longus. But, he waved his hand toward the door, dismissing Longus as he had requested.

  Before he left, Longus turned back to Jutus and punched the air with his finger in his direction. “You, you ungrateful worm, damn you to hades! If I’d known my thanks for saving your planet was your company, I’d have stayed at Augustus!” And with that, he left the room briskly pushing past Heather.

  More quietly and respectfully, his Executive Officer stood and left the room as well.

  Standing in the doorway a little stunned was Heather. She clearly had been quite startled by the exchange. Richard, still looking extremely unhappy, now turned his attention back toward Heather. With as soft a tone as possible, he encouraged her to go and sit down and guided her with a hand. She moved to sit beside Robin, and gave her a wide-eyed expression which said without words, “What has been going on in here?”

  Once she was seated, Richard turned his attention back to Jutus, and resuming his hard look, he spoke with a deliberate and strong tone.

  “Why was Admiral Longus so upset?” He asked of Jutus without any kind of introduction or attempt to be nice.

  Jutus looked at Richard for a moment, sizing him up and obviously judging how to deal with this new character. It seemed to only take him a moment before he decided and spoke with an equally hard tone backed with an assumption of superior authority.

  “Admiral Longus was finding it difficult to justify his decisions during the action of a few days ago.” Standing up, Jutus extended his hand in an introductory and friendly manner. “First, Admiral, may I introduce myself.”

  Richard did not extend his hand. The action was enough to convey his mood.

  “I know who you are Fasces Lictor Jutus Balii. And I know your purpose and your authority, so let’s leave that where it is.”

  Richard seated himself and leaned back in his chair.

  “I know how you would like to conduct this meeting. The scene I observed when I entered is enough proof to conclude that I was correct in my fears. Admiral Longus is an arrogant and hot headed individual, but I’ve dealt with him for over a year and I think I can accurately read him.” Pointing toward Robin, Richard continued. “I know that I can read my Executive Officer. She has served under me for almost twenty years. Right now, she is very annoyed with you, she is angry at how you’ve been conducting this meeting, and she is accepting of how Admiral Longus reacted. That tells me all that I need to know about exactly what has gone on for the past half hour.”

  Richard now leaned forward in his chair and leaned with one arm against the table. “From now on, Lictor, here is how this meeting is going to continue. Any discussion of past battles, not ‘actions,’ are shelved. The past is not relevant to the future in this case. Besides, your bosses have already thanked us for freeing New Earth and I doubt their bosses, the citizens, are going to be open to any criticism of the soldiers that fought to free them.”

  “As for New Earth’s future participation in the war against IAE, your jurisdiction is limited to the ground. My fleet is free to operate anywhere in the Confederated Union of Worlds during a war, including New Earth near space. We will be operating from this planet’s near space for all future war efforts. If you don’t want us in your near space, your political masters will have to organize a planetary election to vote yourselves out of the Confederacy. That is a prospect I find doubtful.”

  “If you want to support us from the ground in appreciation for the defense we offer you in space, we will welcome it. If you do not, that is your choice. It is a choice I’m certain any opposing politician will be happy to convey to the citizens at the next election, which I believe is soon since the siege is lifted and an election has already been delayed during that time. “

  “Finally, Lictor, if you have anything else to discuss outside of those limits, I am here to help. Otherwise, I have a lot of planning to do for our future opera
tions and effort to free the Confederacy from a brutal, unprovoked and vicious invasion by the Imperial Alliance. Since I don’t know you, you are not welcome in those discussions. Do you have anything else to say?”

  And with that verbal avalanche, Richard waited for Jutus to speak. Robin smiled uncontrollably. She had been waiting for someone to put Jutus in his place without losing their temper in the process.

  Surprisingly for Richard, but not so for Robin, Jutus absorbed the initial volley of words and seemed unfazed. He simply touched a button on his pad to turn it back on, as it had gone to sleep during the past few minutes of verbal berating.

  “Yes, Admiral, I do. Admiral Longus provided me with extensive information about the planning and conduct of the action against the IAE fleet. Despite his hot-headedness, he gave me all the information I require for my report to the magistrates of the Planetary Defense Oversight Committee who tasked me with this investigation and report.”

  Jutus made certain to emphasize his authority, just as he had done with Longus. He even continued with that emphasis as he asked his question.

  “The ten Senators from the States of New Earth who are the magistrates that fill the committee that made me Fasces Lictor want to know much more about the decision making process from when you landed on our planet at our planetary defense headquarters until you communicated directly with your fleet and instructed them to jump to near space.”

  Leaning forward squarely facing Richard, Jutus folded his arms and looked him straight in the eye. “That is an area where the citizens of New Earth are quite interested and have complete jurisdiction. We are very interested in the private decision that was made between a Fleet Admiral of the Confederate Defense Force and his longtime friend and lover, the Praetor Imperator Legatus of the New Earth Defense Alliance. We are interested in why the Fleet Admiral risked the citizens of New Earth for his initial and riskiest military action without asking its citizens for permission. We are interested in why our civilian-controlled planetary defense force acted without consulting the government of the people. And we are interested in why two people with a clear and obvious conflict of interest, right up to their sharing a bed last night, are to be trusted with the future safety of every single man, woman, and child of New Earth.”

  Jutus paused for only the time it took for him to take a breath before he finished his statement. “That is what I am here to investigate and report upon. I will do so as I see fit, and I am not interested in how you feel about it, how the Legatus feels about it or how Admiral Longus feels about it. Feelings are not my concern. Ensuring the safety and security of our citizens is the concern of the oversight committee and therefore it is my only concern. Do you understand that?”

  Both men remained silent. They were both staring directly at each other. Neither man wanted to turn away, as it would be a sign of weakness and a defeat. For a moment, it seemed as though they would be frozen in those positions, silent, forever.

  But, Heather spoke up to break the stalemate. In so doing, Jutus lost his attention and redirected it to Heather. Only after that happened did Richard also turn to look at her.

  “Jutus,” she began, drawing his attention to her. “If you want to discuss why we acted without speaking to the committee first, I can answer that. Once Admiral Hilbornus exited his fighter craft at our headquarters, we immediately returned to the command center to obtain specific information about the IAE fleet.”

  “The Admiral made clear that his fleet was on a hair trigger waiting to jump to near space, but even at their best speed, there would be a delay of approximately one hour. Because of the battle plan, they needed to surprise the IAE fleet and jump as close as possible to be in a position to attack them immediately.”

  “Due to the Admiral and Captain Shelbus’ dangerous flight through the IAE siege line, several IAE ships were damaged and required rescue. The IAE fleet was organizing itself to protect the damaged ships, meaning that during the operation they would be remaining in a fixed location and closely grouped. This was such an ideal situation, and we both felt the need to act immediately.”

  “After the order was sent, I personally brought all our planetary defense assets to full battle readiness from the siege stand by. I wanted it to be clear that this was serious, not a drill, and that it was our one shot to free New Earth. I felt that a personal contact by the Legatus was the best way to spread that message.”

  Heather paused to straighten her uniform while she was seated before she continued. Without any visual display, she continued to look at Jutus and address him directly.

  “Finally, with less than fifteen minutes remaining before the fleet would enter battle, I attempted to contact the head of the oversight committee. However, both his personal line and his office line could not reach him. Both these attempts are well documented and I can provide the committee with those records, though the Senators appeared satisfied with that answer when I explained it to them yesterday.”

  Pausing for a moment to smile at Richard, she continued. “As for your remaining concerns, it is beyond the oversight committee to investigate why the Confederated Defense Force chose New Earth as the first step in freeing the Old Colony region. I doubt you’ll shed any new light on that that I have not already communicated during my debriefing. I am not an expert on interplanetary politics, but I’m sure there is a way for the New Earth state governments to request information on that decision directly from the Confederacy once it’s reestablished on New Rome.”

  Heather paused again, this time a little longer. She took a deep breath and swallowed hard, before continuing onto the final subject, showing physical signs of embarrassment. “It is true that Richard and I are close, but that does not prevent us from doing our duties and protecting the citizens of New Earth. As you know, we are both born citizens of this planet and we both still have family here. We aren’t going to risk that, whether we choose to share a bed or not. So, for me, that is the beginning and end of that discussion. You may report any way you want after that and I will accept the decision of the oversight committee.”

  Looking over at Richard, Heather smiled confidently though with a little sadness, knowing that her career was now threatened by their night together. It was worth it, she thought to herself as she exhaled a slow, long and controlled breath. That breath pushed all her embarrassment away and left her with only a strong sense of pride.

  CHAPTER 32

  Richard was staring with single-minded focus on the strategic map of the Old Colony region on his desk display. He was seated in his private study room, just around the corner from the Command Center of the Caesar Augustus.

  It was exceptionally rare that Richard spent any time in that office during his career, and it showed. Where some commanders adorn their private studies with a couch, paintings, statues or even an aquarium, Richard tried to never spend any time there and it was bare save for a single chair and the built in desk.

  Richard had always prided himself as a commander in the trenches. When on duty, he tried to always be visible to his crew, always showed that he was working hard, and willing to do anything, often assisting the crew with any task that needed a helping hand. However, he did avoid crew social events as he did not like fraternizing with the crew outside of work. He delegated that to Robin, it was one of her strengths as a commanding officer anyway.

  That method of command had served him extremely well. He had always held the highest ratings of crew satisfaction with his command and his ability to retain the best crew had served him well throughout his career. In the past ten years while commanding the officer training fleet he had had the opportunity to impart his command style to hundreds of officers in training which would hopefully serve the defense force in the future.

  But today, he needed to focus on the strategic map without distractions. Even an occasional disruption or noise could make him miss something, or so he thought. With that in his mind, he had assigned command to the senior deck officer and arranged to have as much unint
errupted time as possible. Even though the private study had no door, just a curve around a corner, it was very quiet and none of the command center noise managed to get through.

  Richard didn’t know how long he had been working. He still felt extremely energized. He loved looking at maps. It just gave him a wonderful feeling he couldn’t explain. He loved the virtual exploration and the mental planning that it allowed. This study was far more serious than the fun he usually had with maps. His usual mental planning was replaced with detailed note taking.

  Using intelligence that the Triumvirate provided unofficially, their strategic position was clear, if quite frightening. Robin had organized an entire officer trainee group to collect the intelligence, along with their own fleet derived information. This group was responsible for updating the strategic map, which Richard, Robin, and Longus poured over endlessly every day. The group was also responsible for bringing any detail of strategic importance directly to Robin for her evaluation. It was not enough to simply update the map. They didn’t want to lose any advantage. As a result of this work, Robin had had to relinquish some of her main duties, including fleet preparedness. It had been a great opportunity to work more closely with Mato.