Within five minutes they reached Ravill Pryde's office in the headquarters building, where Diana was struck by his neatness. Not a paper was out of place. As he eased himself into an ornate chair behind his ornate desk, he commanded Diana to sit on a hard bench placed against the wall across from the desk. She noticed that he looked more normal-sized seated at the desk. He must have had the chair built up so as not to look like a child sitting there. But she still thought he totally lacked the appearance of a warrior. His soft looks and somewhat graceful demeanor had little of the Jade Falcon aura about them.
He briefly glanced at some papers set in the desk's center, then disposed of them in several trays and upright slots on the right side of the desk. Wiping away a spot from the surface of the desk with the cuff of his well-creased sleeve, he turned his attention to Diana. "I have studied your codex, MechWarrior Diana, as I have all the warriors in my command. I have also examined the files and computer records left behind by the former unit commander."
He peered coolly at her as if he expected her to ask what he had found. Fat chance, she thought.
"You are, MechWarrior Diana, a most interesting warrior, especially for a freeborn. Most superior officers have little desire to know about most freeborns. Freeborn warriors do not, after all, have much opportunity to rise in the ranks, no chance to compete for a bloodname, and little prestige within a unit. Their codexes usually go unread and often the contents are not kept up to date."
Again he looked for a response from her, and again she supplied none. He took a single sheet from one of the upright file slots and examined it for a moment. It occurred to Diana that he was subtly structuring the entire speech, with planned pauses and expressions, inflections, and gestures.
"I see that your mother was a scientist known as Peri Watson. To all intents and appearances, then, this was the surname of your father."
For once Diana could not hold back a response. "My father?"
"Well, yes, this Watson is listed as your father. That is correct, is it not?"
"Not in a—" Diana stopped suddenly, wondering why she had the feeling that he was trying to trick her. "Yes, he is my father."
Ravill Pryde smiled in that annoyingly cheerful way so characteristic of him. "No, he is not. Assigning a surname is merely a village custom, common when a warrior sires a child."
Even though Diana was freeborn and knew the caste system well, she was nevertheless rendered uncomfortable by direct references to conception and birth, particularly when they were not used to insult.
Ravill Pryde put the paper onto the surface of the desk, his hand lying flat on top of it and rearranging it so that each border of it was parallel with a side of the desk.
"I admit I am trying to provoke you, Mech Warrior Diana, and I can see that is the wrong tactic with you. What I mean to say is that I know this Watson is not your father. I have studied you for a while, since before I was assigned here."
"Me? But why?"
"Because I was so fascinated with the career of the great hero Aidan Pryde, I launched a study of him. Originally I intended to compile information that I could use to write a history of his achievements."
This Ravill Pryde was full of surprises, she thought. In addition to his exploits as a Jade Falcon warrior, he was also a Loremaster? Scholars were so rare in the Clan that Diana—who, after all, had some respect for books—could not help but feel a bit of awe for Ravill Pryde. She still despised him, but now it was a slightly different him she despised.
"I came across documents, dry records listing who was on duty and not on duty, that contained an indication that Aidan, then an astech, was away from Ironhold for a long while. Searching further, I found some travel documents involving no less than our quarrelsome Star Commander Joanna, so I sent transmissions to places she had visited."
"Wait," Diana interrupted, her interest in the man's words leading her to drop her aloofness, "why was it necessary to track Joanna's trips?"
Perhaps pleased by her interest, Ravill Pryde spoke with even more enthusiasm, his smile of pleasure making him look like a child with a new toy.
"You see, I had already established that Joanna was one of Aidan's falconers, and I saw that she had also been involved with the freeborn unit where he did his second stint of training. The possible connection between them during the missing time period tantalized me."
"What happened then?"
"I received a transmission from one place, a planet named Tokasha. It seemed that the files of one law enforcement administrator at a spaceport contained a notation of Joanna's arrival there with a tech named Nomad. I already knew that Nomad had been Aidan's tech back on Ironhold. The return trip listed a third person, an astech with a different name from Aidan. Of course, I knew immediately that it had to be him. You get a sense for such things when you are engaged in research. Such pursuit can be every bit as exciting as chasing another 'Mech across a battlefield."
Diana resisted commentary on that absurd idea. How could anything so mundane be as exciting as combat—for a warrior, at least? This Ravill Pryde was an oddity and a half.
"I was able to take a brief leave and so I went to Tokasha, where I traced Joanna's movements to a science station that was doing genetics research. The files yielded very little, but there was a man at the station who at first I could not abide because he was quite old. My experience with extreme age had been rare and, initially, merely looking at a person so old made me nauseous. All the wrinkles, the stringy white hair, the palsy, the brown spots on the back of the hand—all such characteristics were loathsome to me. I think we come out of the canister with feelings of repulsion toward age, quiaff?"
"I would not know, Star Colonel. As you well know, I came out of no canister."
For a moment he seemed ruffled. "You are quite right in correcting me. I would certainly suffer shame if I made such an error in public, attributing true birth to a freeborn. I apologize."
"You need not apologize to a freeborn.”
“Perhaps for you I should make an exception. I will explain. This old man, who heard my questions to the station leader, came to me that night in my quarters. He told me his name was Watson. Your alleged father."
"Alleged, sir? Your records verify it, do they not?"
"Those records verified a lie. This man, this Watson, would die soon. You could smell death on him. I told him I was tracking the travels of a former warrior named Aidan. He saw through my story. 'The hero of Tukayyid?' he asked." Ravill Pryde picked up the paper from the desk and handed it to Diana. "This is what Watson told me. Read it."
She took it, guessing what it must contain. It was a detailed account of how Aidan came to Tokasha, found Peri— who had once been a member of his sibko—and hid away in the station. Joanna and Nomad located him there and took him away. Nine months later, Diana was born. Watson testified that Diana was the daughter of Peri and Aidan. Records did not indicate the details of birth, since by someone's official dictate Aidan had become a nonperson. He would not really emerge again until many years later when he revealed his true identity after he devised a plan to defeat the Wolves at Glory Station. Watson had allowed himself to be named the father purely to satisfy the demands of recordkeeping.
Diana had known Watson, but never as a father. She had spent her earliest years at the Tokasha science station, and he had been around. A man of immense girth with a slurred, sarcastic way of speaking.
"So you see, Diana, although you are a freeborn, you are at the same time something more than a freeborn."
"I do not understand," she said, placing the paper back on his desk, at a deliberately skewed angle. Ravill Pryde did not reply until after he had rearranged it to its former geometric symmetry.
"You exist in a state between free birth and true birth. Yes, you were conceived and birthed in the disgusting freeborn manner, but at the same time, look who your blood parents were. For a freeborn, your genetic heritage is astounding. I have never come across anything like it. First, your pare
nts were both canister-born. Usually freeborns have only one trueborn parent. Two is a definite rarity. Second, not only were both Aidan and Peri trueborn, but they came from the same sibko. This establishes a fine genetic heritage. Technically, your genes have almost the same purity as that of a trueborn. That, in my view, raises you somewhat from freeborn status."
"Will you make me a trueborn, then?"
"Diana, you know I cannot do that. What satisfaction you may take from this must be purely personal, the knowledge that you are genetically advanced among freeborns. Of course, you still rank below trueborns."
"Which puts me in some kind of limbo?"
"How do you know the concept of limbo?"
Diana shrugged. "Am I dismissed now?"
Diana enjoyed Ravill Pryde's look of exasperation.
"No, you are not dismissed. I do not understand you, MechWarrior Diana. I tell you something that should please you, and you scoff."
"You told me nothing I did not already know, except that Watson posed as my father for bureaucratic purposes. Having others perceive that detestable man as my father is not, well, pleasing to me."
"Do you not even derive some satisfaction that your commanding officer regards you as more than a mere freeborn?"
"For all I care, you can call me freebirth till Sudeten's sun goes nova and I will not be, as you say, satisfied. All you are really saying is that I am halfway between acceptable and not acceptable. But halfway is essentially the same as not acceptable, since there is really no such thing as half-respect from others. May I go now? Sir?"
"Sit down. I will speak no more about your origins. When you are ready, we may discuss the matter again. I also see in your codex that you have scored high in the literacy aspects of your training, and I know from camp rumor that you do most of Star Commander Joanna's reports and recordkeeping for her. You are wasted on such low-level administration."
Ravill Pryde did seem to have an obsession about waste, Diana noted.
"As a MechWarrior you do not really have the rank for your new post, but neither does anyone else in the command. I have decided to appoint you coregn. Of course, as freeborn you cannot have a full coregn appointment. I will specify that it be only for administrative duties. You will represent me in some situations, but you will have no command duties. And I will excuse you from any duties of coupling with me, as some coregns are required to do. I do not think, frankly, I would derive any satisfaction from the experience."
"Because I am freeborn, quiaff?”
"Aff."
"I see. I have never heard of a freeborn as coregn."
"That may be so. It probably is. But we are in a combat zone, and compromises must be made. If some qualified trueborn is assigned here, I may change your assignment. Until then, you are coregn. You may not, as you know, refuse me on this. Now you are dismissed."
After she had left, Diana was not sure what had happened. She had come to Ravill Pryde's quarters expecting to be disciplined for the fight with Cholas and Castilla, and had come out as a warrior in genetic limbo—and coregn, to boot.
It was difficult enough to have to take it all in. It was harder now to envision telling Horse.
Even worse, telling Joanna.
11
Falcon Guard Compound
Pattersen, Sudeten
Jade Falcon Occupation Zone
13 July 3057
Joanna's dreams, like her life, became more chaotic. In her current recurring dream, Aidan still turned into a BattleMech, a different type in different dreams, but now he seized her in his 'Mech fingers and lifted her off the ground. Bringing her up to his 'Mech head, he held her close to the cockpit. Peering in, she saw Ravill Pryde at the controls. The sight always shocked her awake.
She was scheduled to return to the Clan homeworlds in just over two weeks. Whenever she thought about it, her anger seemed to take control of her body, to make her heart beat faster, to force throbbing tension into her limbs, to make her feel she wanted to smash the nearest object worth smashing. She hated being made a nanny, even a ranking nanny.
The stravag has even ruined my last days. First he takes Horse into the Command Cluster and then he makes Diana coregn. He is promoting freeboms all the while encouraging hatred of them in the ranks.
She asked Horse what the new commander was up to. The conversation took place in her quarters one morning, just an hour after she had awakened from a vivid dream.
"Up to?"
"All this extra training, the assignments of you and Diana, the emphasis on correct procedure, the reports and all the rules."
"What do you object to?"
"What is not there to object to? The man is unClanlike.”
“You want my, well, interpretation?" Interpretation was not a word Joanna cared for. It was too much like decoding what was not decodable. "Go on, Horse."
"Ravill Pryde is obsessed with Aidan.”
“Obsessed?"
"Think about it. He performs a legendary cadet trick during his Trial of Position, then he finds out that the cadet who started the legend was Aidan Pryde, the hero of Tukayyid. He is excessively proud of bearing the same bloodname as Aidan, whom he hero-worships. He arrives on Sudeten to find he will command the remnants of Aidan's unit. Then he takes me into the Command Cluster. Why is that?"
"You proved yourself a hero, too. You may not know it, but some legend has gathered around you."
"Mere campfire tales. My assignment to the Command Cluster is irrelevant to my experience. It's mainly because I was Aidan's friend and fought side by side with him that Ravill Pryde wants me at his side, too."
"I was on Tukayyid, too. I fought side by side with Aidan. Look how contemptuously Ravill Pryde treats me."
"I'm not sure why, Joanna. Perhaps it's because you're being rotated out, and so aren't of any use to him. Or maybe you conflict with his general cheeriness. You're darkness, he's sunshine."
"Does he let you use so many contractions around him?"
"Not a one."
"And you obey him in this?”
“For the most part."
Joanna grunted and looked away. She thought of her dreams and Ravill Pryde inside the cockpit of Aidan's 'Mech. Ravill Pryde mimicking Aidan. Perhaps Horse was right, and she was seeing it, too, in those dreams.
"What about Diana? Making her coregn?"
"Diana told me that Ravill Pryde knows her background. Do you see the implications?"
"Keep it simple."
"Diana is Aidan's daughter. Ravill Pryde is obsessed with Aidan. He gives her a position close to him. It's as if he has substituted himself for Aidan, her father."
"You could be right. I saw him look at her yesterday. There was something in the look that he could not hide. And it makes me sick to my stomach. A Jade Falcon warrior, who grew up in a sibko, thinking of himself as a parent! It is, it is, well, disgusting."
"Only to a trueborn. We freeborns understand the miracle of birth."
"Now you are taunting me with foul words. Go away, Horse.”
“Joanna—”
“GET OUT!"
With fierce effort Joanna got control of herself. Her stomach settled.
It seemed to her that Ravill Pryde was some kind of monster. Yet, she realized that, for others, he was a forceful leader. True, he was a taskmaster, but one who was welcomed by all the warriors. He was renewing the spirit of men and women who had been somewhat soured by the frustrations of the truce. He himself was a superior warrior who had earned his rank in a spectacular fashion. Even Horse seemed to tolerate him.
She must fight him. But how? He had found ways to slip out of every challenge. He obviously considered it wasteful to go up against a warrior soon to leave. He did not want to fight her, but it had to happen. Somehow Joanna would make it happen.
As it turned out, it was Diana, and not Joanna, who made it so.
12
Falcon Guard Compound
Pattersen, Sudeten
Jade Falcon Occupation Zone
Diana came very close to taking the entire high pile of hardcopy left her by Ravill Pryde and transforming it into trash. She considered ripping the papers to shreds, then feeding them to someone she hated. Cholas or Castilla, maybe. Maybe both. Ravill Pryde had said he wanted someone efficient enough to perform the coregn job; what he really wanted was a bondsman.
She muttered frequently under her breath as she did the figuring, noting, arranging, computering, file searches, keyboard entries, and general tasks of extreme boredom. The work was bad enough, but the publicly cheerful Ravill Pryde was not much help. The good humor he displayed outside the office was absent inside, where he was intense, sometimes fidgety, and irritable. As soon as someone else came into the room, he would instantly resume his sunny demeanor. She wondered whether he had appointed her coregn just to have someone with whom he could reveal his true colors. Since she was freeborn, no trueborn would believe her if she claimed that Ravill Pryde had a nasty side to his character.
Even complaining to Horse did little good. When she mentioned her problems with Ravill Pryde, Horse merely said he was glad to hear the Star Colonel had a dark side and that he had seen hints of it himself. And forget talking to Joanna. It only cheered her up to hear about Ravill Pryde's character flaws.
Much of the work Diana did seemed remarkably unimportant, and there was definitely too much of it. Any idiot could see that, and she was just the idiot to keep doing it.
Yesterday she had discovered something else about Ravill Pryde. A temper that might have startled anyone taken in by his cheerful act. It had surprised Diana, anyway.
While examining some daily reports she had printed out at his request, he suddenly gave out an exasperated sigh.
"Diana, this is wrong!"
She looked up from a report whose statistics she was checking.
"What is wrong, sir?"
"Look, this column is off by one, and that put the total off by five."
I am Jade Falcon Page 10