Silvie gave him a searching look.
‘And if I don’t agree to having a security escort?’ she queried, and Alex smiled.
‘Your decision,’ he said. ‘But the Telethorans would not allow you to go anywhere you like on their world without any kind of escort or protection. That was part of the agreement for your visit, remember, and a very important part, too.’
‘But…’ Silvie frowned, ‘human visitors can just arrive on a ship and go anywhere they want.’
‘Most can,’ Alex agreed. ‘But VIPs can’t.’ He smiled again, apologetically. ‘People think that being a VIP is all about status and privilege, getting first class upgrades and being taken about in limos. In fact it’s just as much about security. Being a VIP, by definition, means that you are a high profile person and as such liable to be targeted by all kinds of people from nutters to terrorists. Part of the Diplomatic Corps’ job on any world is to carry out risk assessments for any VIPs visiting that world and to provide whatever level of security is felt to be appropriate. Even quite a modest level VIP – someone like Kalesha Endenit, say, who carries VIP credentials because of an award for her charitable work – will be assessed for security risk. In her case, I know, the Corps has made sure that she is in a hotel with excellent security and has put an official car and driver at her disposal. And, as a general rule of thumb, the more high profile you are, the greater the degree of restriction on you will be. That may seem silly and incomprehensible to you but take my word for it on this, it is how things are and the only choices you have are to accept it, if you want to remain on Telathor, or return to the ship if you feel that those conditions are too onerous.’
Silvie gave another sigh, this time of resignation. ‘Well, I do think it’s silly and incomprehensible,’ she said, ‘How could the nutters and terrorists even know that I’m here? But if that’s the way it is and nothing I can say will change it, all right, I’ll put up with the escort. But does that mean that I can’t go anywhere unless they can come too?’
‘That,’ said Alex, ‘is exactly what it means. So before you go into any situation, ask yourself if it is safe for your escort, who will follow you regardless, and if it isn’t safe for them, don’t do it.’
‘All right,’ she said, then broke into an unexpected, mischievous grin. ‘Skipper’s rules,’ she observed, and ticked off on her fingers, ‘Rule one, check that wildlife responds to empathy before getting close. Rule two, check that situations are safe for humans to keep the escort out of danger.’ She gave him a playful salute. ‘Aye aye, skipper.’
They had to add rule three five days later, when Silvie was bitten by a giant eel.
‘But it did respond to empathy,’ she insisted, when Alex was once again called to meet her at the embassy. This time there was a whole host of people around her when he arrived and it took him several minutes to calm everything down and make them go away. He and Silvie went back to what now seemed like their table in the lounge, with a cup of tea for her and a mug of coffee for him. Through the wall alongside them could be seen a shoal of orange and black fish swirling in graceful unison, but neither of them took any notice of it. ‘I did check,’ Silvie assured him.
Alex looked at the medical dressing on her right hand. She’d been lucky not to lose fingers. Of course they could have been reattached, but they’d have had to be retrieved from the belly of the eel, first. Blood in the water had attracted other predators and scavengers, too, so the rescue had been both urgent and dramatic. Only Silvie herself had not been at all upset by it.
‘I know it’s an apex predator,’ Silvie said. An adult kondo eel grew to about six metres long, with teeth which could take off a man’s arm. They had a well-earned reputation as flat-eyed killing machines, swimming lazily about the reefs most of the time but erupting into a vicious frenzy when going after food. ‘But I followed rule one, I tested its response to resonance before I got close, and it did respond, I felt it calm and I knew I had rapport with it. And I followed rule two, too, the security escort was a good safe distance away.’
‘So?’ Alex queried, glancing at her injured hand again. ‘What went wrong?’
‘Not sure,’ Silvie admitted. ‘I had rapport, I know I did. But when I was up close and tickling it, it just turned its head and bit me before I knew what it was going to do.’ She saw Alex’s steady gaze and the emotion that was behind it, and grinned. ‘All right,’ she conceded. ‘Rule three. Do not tickle apex predators.’
‘Don’t touch any wildlife?’ Alex suggested hopefully, but Silvie just laughed. Asking a quarian not to interact with the wildlife around them was as ludicrous as asking a human not to tread on cracks in the pavement in case something calamitous happened. He was willing to settle for ‘Do not tickle predators’, anyway, and assured the Diplomatic Corps and security team that the incident had been resolved, no real harm done.
‘I just don’t know how you can be so casual about it,’ Froggy Croker observed, having asked for Alex to meet him in the Port Admiral’s office. ‘If it was down to me, I’d have her surrounded by people right there, ready to intervene.’
Alex shook his head. ‘You might as well lock her in a cell,’ he said.
‘So Mr North says, too,’ Froggy conceded, then, as they’d sat down with the port admiral behind his big, imposing desk, ‘but I didn’t ask you here, really, to discuss that.’ He assumed a more serious manner. ‘This situation with Harry Alington, Alex.’
Alex looked surprised. ‘What situation?’ he queried, since as far as he was aware Harry was doing excellent work at Telathor, taking a leading role in networking with civilian organisations as well as blitzing public relations events.
‘He came to see me this morning,’ Froggy explained, ‘And told me he wanted it to be a matter of record that Admiral Jennar had asked him to report to him in secret, via a third party, effectively spying on you for any information that might be used against the Fourth.’
‘Ah,’ said Alex, actually thinking Oh, no, the idiot!
It was, he realised, something he might have expected Harry Alington to do, with his quixotic notions of honour and nobility. Having felt that his honour had been compromised, he had evidently decided to reclaim the moral high ground by exposing both what he had done and the senior officer who’d asked him to do it.
‘Yes, ah,’ said Froggy. ‘I had to tell him, of course, that Internal Affairs certainly won’t take any action on this. Alington admits, himself, that there is no record of the meeting between them in which Lord Admiral Jennar asked him to send such reports, and the third party involved will certainly declare that they knew nothing of any such request and considered Alington’s letters to be unsolicited, personal and private. I have referred it to IA, of course, with a copy to Dix, but we both know there won’t be any outcome to it.’
Alex nodded resignedly, knowing very well that Cerdan Jennar was much too wily to leave any evidence that IA or the First Lord could use.
‘On the other hand,’ Froggy said, ‘you and I both know that Alington behaved disgracefully, betraying trust and potentially compromising a vital exodiplomacy mission in the process. All the evidence I’ve seen is that he’s a constant drag on you, too, always so negative about everything and so reluctant to do things the Fourth’s way that it’s like hauling a dead weight along. The missions you are undertaking are far too important to be compromised by any officer you can’t trust and isn’t giving you anything like the commitment you’re entitled to. You, I know, will stand by him as a matter of loyalty to one of your officers and I respect your integrity in that, but I have a responsibility here, too, and I have decided that it is best all round and certainly best for the mission for me to take him out of the equation. I am, therefore, going to take him off the Minnow, assign him as Port Captain and replace him with an officer from the Anubis.’
‘No,’ said Alex, without a moment’s hesitation, ‘sir, you are not.’
Froggy gave him a look in which exasperation and affection were about
equally mixed.
‘Look, it’s the best thing for everyone!’ he pointed out. ‘It’s no disgrace for Alington – technically it’s a promotion, and far better than he deserves, quite frankly, but knowing how ridiculously protective you are of your people I figure it’s the best way to get him off your hands without any scandal. My current port captain is itching to get back to Chartsey so he’ll be happy with it, and the officer I have in mind for you from the Anubis is brilliant; just the kind of go-getter you need.’
‘No,’ said Alex again, and as Froggy attempted a look of stern authority, met his gaze with steadfast determination, ‘sir. Absolutely not. I will not release him. If you want to take him, you’ll have to do it against official protest and I will fight you every step of the way both through the process and every possible appeal.’
Froggy shook his head, half amused and half despairing and not one bit surprised.
‘You’re an insubordinate hound, von Strada,’ he said, and Alex gave him a grin at that, recognising that it was a joke. ‘Well,’ the admiral observed, philosophically, ‘nobody can say I didn’t try. But just out of interest, Alex, why? Purely a matter of principle?’
‘That would be enough in itself,’ Alex said. He had already demonstrated more than once in the course of his career that he would go to the wall on a matter of principle, and he would here, too, on the principle of having given both the First Lord his commitment to do everything he could to mentor Harry Alington, and his obligation to Harry as one of his team. ‘There is more to it than that, though.’ He spoke thoughtfully. ‘For one thing, I don’t believe you’re being fair. Yes, he behaved badly, but if the Fourth is about anything we’re about giving people the opportunity to make good, and we don’t give up on people when they have a lapse, either, we just deal with it and move on.
‘But more than that – you say he’s negative and a drag on us, but I don’t see it that way. Yes, he’s conservative, inclined to resist new ideas, but that in itself isn’t a bad thing. By questioning and challenging as he does, he actually pushes me to clarify my thoughts and be certain that what I’m deciding is right, and that is a good thing, both operationally and for me personally. Oh, Buzz would challenge me if he saw that I was making a poor decision, of course, and Jonas Sartin would step in if I was breaching policy, as I hope any officers would. But Harry Alington makes me think about everything I’m doing. Even when he isn’t there in person at the time, I know what kind of questions he will ask and that makes me analyse every decision more carefully, which can only be good. And he does, too, bring strengths to the team. It took me a while to really appreciate that, myself, but you’re seeing it here. He really is excellent at the kind of networking I am really useless at myself, and that really does make a huge difference to how smoothly things go, particularly in our relationships with other agencies.’
‘He is good at that,’ Froggy admitted. ‘That’s why I’m prepared to have him as port captain – I do think it’s a role he’d do well in. But that, surely, is an argument for leaving him here, where he could play to his strengths, rather than taking him out on an exodiplomacy mission.’
Alex grinned. ‘You can never predict what skills may come into play in exodiplomacy,’ he observed. ‘You of all people should know that, Froggy.’
‘Perhaps,’ Froggy chuckled. ‘But I’m not nearly as experienced as you – and many others – seem to believe. Yes, I’ve been on exodiplomacy assignment, but other than the few months when Shion was with us I’ve only ever worked with Solarans. You have far wider experience of exodiplomacy than I do, Alex. And reading reports, of course, is never the same as being there. So do, please, enlighten me – do you honestly think that Alington’s ability to make pleasant small talk and grease inter-agency wheels could be of benefit to your mission?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Alex, frankly. ‘Honestly, I meant just what I said. You can’t predict what skills may turn out to be important, what factors may make the difference in relationship building. With the Gider, a key factor was that we happened to have a pet lizard on board.’ He held out his hands in a helpless gesture. ‘Who could have predicted that? And at Samart, one of the factors we realised afterwards had been significant in overcoming their fear of us was the discovery that we sing songs very similar to theirs. They didn’t learn that from the first contact data pack but from their first contact visitor seeing our choir perform a couple of songs for her. We only had a choir because Jonas Sartin started one, and I only included it in the tour because I felt we should have some kind of cultural content and it was either the choir or the guitar karaoke group who, with all due respect to their enthusiasm, I didn’t really feel could do justice to representing the music culture of the League. A demonstration of team sports we had high hopes of, on the other hand, fell totally flat and got nowhere. So you can’t tell, you just can’t, what will work and what won’t. You just have to give it everything you have and hope that something clicks. So who knows? Harry’s networking skills may be of benefit. But in any case, he has earned the right to come on this mission. He is committed to it and has put in hundreds of hours of training and preparation. And with all due respect to the officer you propose giving us instead, regardless of how brilliant they are, there is no way that they could just swing in to command of the Minnow, establish themselves as the skipper and catch up with all the training and drills we have been working on for the last three months.’
‘All right,’ Froggy said, ‘fair enough. I’ll accept your decision – I just hope you won’t come to regret it.’
Alex smiled. ‘I’m sure I won’t,’ he said.
He was even more certain of that after he’d talked to Harry Alington. Their schedules were both so manic that the only time Alex could arrange to meet with him was in a limo taking him to an event, followed by another car which would then take Harry on to the event he was attending. They had only a few minutes to talk, but Lt Vila was riding up front with the driver so at least they had privacy.
‘I wanted to tell you myself,’ Alex said, as the car pulled away with the usual police escort ahead and behind them. ‘Admiral Croker asked if I would be prepared to release you for assignment as port captain here – the current post holder wants to transfer back to Chartsey and Froggy has been impressed by your networking skills. I’m sorry if that’s something you would have wanted – I do appreciate that it would have been quite an achievement at this stage of your career and I hope you don’t think I’m blocking you, but I did play the operational imperative card. We need you more. Froggy accepted that once I’d made my case so the offer is now off the table – I hope you don’t mind that too much.’
Harry was lost for words. He knew very well what Froggy Croker’s real opinion of him was because the port admiral had told him, straight out, that he considered him a poor officer and no kind of gentleman. He knew, too, that the only reason Froggy Croker had made that offer was to relieve Alex of the burden of having to cope with him, knowing that Alex would not agree to anything which caused further damage to Harry’s career.
Alex was right too; it would have been quite an achievement at this stage of Harry’s career. The role of Port Captain was normally carried out either by a captain or a senior skipper already on the verge of achieving flag rank. Harry was still some years away from that even if his career went shiningly well, so it would be a mark of high ability for him to hold such role even temporarily.
For Alex to refuse that and insist on keeping him was amazing. For him to put it so tactfully made it doubly wonderful. A cynic might have thought that Alex really had been blocking him from an effective promotion, but Harry knew better. Alex knew very well how desperate he was to make good here, and more importantly he knew how very much Harry wanted to be part of the adventure.
Harry could think of nothing to say – nothing, at least, concomitant with the dignity of a Fleet officer in full dress uniform. His eyes were rather bright, though, and as they bounced out of atmosphere and the sky aro
und them turned black and full of stars, he held out his hand to the captain in wordless gratitude.
Alex shook hands with him for the few moments they were hurtling round the planet at hypersonic speed, then as they decelerated and plunged back into the rosy air of Telathor he gave the corvette skipper a brief but genuinely friendly smile. He wasn’t naïve enough to think that they would never have any disagreements again, but they had, he felt, come to a good understanding.
Harry was certainly pulling his weight on the courtesy visit, anyway. And it was he who stepped in to handle it when word arrived a couple of days later that the Senate Sub-Committee had finally made up their minds and decided that the Exploration Corps could have the Naos navigation system fitted to their ship.
Excorps were naturally very keen for that work to be done immediately and for their crew to be trained in using it as quickly as possible. It was Harry who negotiated with them, persuading them that it really wasn’t necessary or even beneficial for all that to be done right now. The Fourth had all the parts ready to install the system, anticipating that sooner or later the Senate would realise it made sense to let Excorps have the system. They could install it in a couple of days and it would only take a few hours to train their people in using it. And that would be best done, as Harry convinced them, when the Fourth’s ships were not overrun with hordes of visitors nineteen hours out of every twenty five, with a third of their officers and crew on groundside duties at any given time and everyone already working at full stretch. Even shoreleave had gone by the board, other than for the five hour passes once a week which Rangi Tekawa insisted on as a mandatory break. Longer shoreleave passes were scheduled and offered, but turned down, without exception, by crew who volunteered for social duties instead.
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