by David Drake
“Have you been here all along, Grozhinski?” Robin asked. There were chairs in the loggia, but only Adele sat down.
“No,” said Daniel. “He just brought us warning that the Upholders have acquired a Karst battleship, though we’re not sure on what terms yet.”
When they met in the park, he’d caught a whiff of ozone clinging to Grozhinski’s clothing: the major must have crossed the boarding bridge only a moment after the crew had extended it. That had either been insanely dangerous—the ions were literally blinding at that stage, so Grozhinski had either been blinkered by goggles or he was as confidently sure-footed as a rigger.
I wonder what 5th Bureau training amounts to? Daniel thought, though Grozhinski might be a special case.
“A battleship?” Robin said. “A battleship? Good gods, what can we do about that?”
“Well, I think we can handle this, Minister,” Daniel said. He kept his tone professionally upbeat; that really was the way he felt about the situation, though when he thought about it rather than feeling, he knew that there were quite a lot of problems. “We’ll need to move promptly, but that’s always a good idea in wartime.”
Daniel stood with his back to the railing, looking past Robin’s shoulder through the glass doors into the lobby. An officer in Tarbell uniform whom Daniel didn’t recognize got out of the elevator, talked to another officer in the lobby, and strode purposefully toward the minister. On the other side of the door, Hogg shifted into the path of the Tarbell officer.
“Move how?” Robin said. His face was getting red. “Run, do you mean? That’s easy enough for a Cinnabar citizen, but it might prove more difficult for me!”
The discussion in the lobby seemed on the verge of becoming heated. Several armed Sissies came out of the Legislative Chamber and headed for the Tarbell officer.
Adele’s lips moved in her version of a smile, though she didn’t look up from her display. Daniel remembered that Cazelet was in the Legislative Chamber.
“I wasn’t hired to run from a fight, Minister,” Daniel said, hoping that his tone hadn’t been too sharp. “Especially a fight I think we can win.”
“The Almirante, the Karst battleship,” said Grozhinski briskly, “is poorly equipped. Her missile magazines are only half full, and Karst missiles are single-motor units. There are still nearly three-hundred Alliance missiles on Danziger. The rebels’ first operation will be to load with those missiles.”
“You said they wouldn’t dare do that because it would expose their backers,” Robin said, looking from Grozhinski to Daniel and back again. His voice was under control but the fear—or anger—underlying it was obvious.
“They will be willing to go public now,” said Grozhinski. “At the point they arranged for the battleship, they gave up all chance of keeping their operations secret in the long run. Now their only chance of survival is to gain a total victory and offer the Tarbell Stars as a possession to Guarantor Porra.”
“That’ll mean war with Cinnabar!” Robin said, sounding desperate. “Porra will never do that!”
“You’re more certain about Guarantor Porra’s intentions than I am, Minister,” Grozhinski said. “And I have spoken with him on several occasions.”
Is that true? Daniel thought. It well might be. In any case, it was a perfectly believable statement which gave weight to Grozhinski’s words.
“Are you going to push for your original plan of attacking the Ithaca System, Leary?” Robin said. “It was suicide then and it’s even crazier now, even if the battleship is on Danziger for the moment! I won’t allow it. Better to run!”
“I wonder…” said Major Grozhinski, looking at his well-manicured fingernails. “Where you expect to run to, Minister? Because you won’t have any friends in Alliance space, I assure you, and deserting Captain Leary and his backers pretty thoroughly cuts you off from Cinnabar and its possessions also.”
“The question doesn’t arise, Major,” Daniel said, smiling at Grozhinski and hoping that Minister Robin would find his expression reassuring. “Placing our fleet in the Ithaca System and waiting for the Almirante to attack us would indeed be crazy. What I propose to do if we can agree here—”
He dipped his head to Robin in deference.
“—is to attack the Almirante at Danziger, where they won’t be expecting us.”
“Captain Leary and I have discussed his plan,” Grozhinski said, nodding solemnly. “I think it has an excellent chance of success—”
That was an overstatement, unless Grozhinski had more confidence than Daniel himself did.
“—and in any case will convince my principals—who are your backers in the Alliance, Minister—”
Another nod.
“—that we’ve done all that was possible and that we can’t be held responsible for the failure.”
We’re giving you back your bolt hole.
“But can you defeat a battleship with a cruiser, even if you do take it by surprise?” Robin said. He still sounded doubtful, but there seemed to be a hint of hope in his voice.
“We’ll be attacking the Almirante with three heavy cruisers,” Daniel said with more certainty than he felt. “At any rate, the Upholders will think we are. Lady Mundy assures me—”
Adele looked up from her display and nodded to Robin, then went back to the display.
“—that she can give the electronic signatures of RCN heavy cruisers to the transports Montclare and Montcalm. We’ll make other modifications also to aid in the deception. My hope and expectation is that the Almirante’s Karst captain and crew will be unwilling to face what they believe to be an RCN squadron.”
Robin’s eyes narrowed. He was over the initial fright of learning that the Upholders had a battleship. He had returned to being the canny politician who had made himself the effective leader of a cluster in which he was an outsider.
“Lady Mundy?” he said, shifting his gaze. “What is your analysis of this plan?”
Adele looked up, then back at whatever she was examining on her display. “I think it has a reasonable chance of success,” she said. “Captain Staples doesn’t have a history of taking great risks, and he’s sophisticated enough to know that attacking a pair of RCN cruisers will mean at least a Cinnabar punitive expedition directed at Karst. The interests of Karst aren’t those of the Upholders or of the outside backers of the Upholders.”
“But would you recommend that I take this action?” Robin said, sounding a little testy. He had wanted a yes-or-no answer and had gotten a nuanced one instead.
“Yes,” Adele said. Her tone sounded thin also. “It appears to be the only way of accomplishing your objective of putting down the Upholder Rebellion. At any rate, I don’t see another way.”
Of course Adele doesn’t give any weight to the risk to her personal safety.
“I see…” said Robin, who was probably beginning to. “Leary, will we return to Peltry before proceeding to Danziger?”
“No sir,” said Daniel. “That would add a week to our transit time, and we’re cutting it close as is. I really want to be in position when the Upholders arrive.”
“But for reinforcements?” Robin said, frowning. “We weren’t prepared to attack a battleship when we set off for Chevalier.”
“No sir,” Daniel said. He was feeling buoyant as he considered the coming maneuvers. “But I’ve checked the stores here and aboard the Triomphante. We have sufficient for our purposes—and as for reinforcements on Peltry, there are none. None of the ships are serviceable, and I’ve taken all the spacers I’d want in a fight to crew our squadron here.”
He was always this way at the beginning of a project, facing a complicated game with infinite possibilities. It might have terrified him, but instead it made him feel alive.
“Ah, Minister…?” he added, suddenly considering another factor. “There are commercial ships in harbor here. We can commandeer one and put in a naval crew to get you back to Peltry so that you can resume your duties. Sir.”
“I’
m not a coward, Leary!” the Minister said. “This is new to me, the whole way of thinking is new to me, but I’m not afraid!”
No one spoke for a moment.
“Very well, then,” Robin said calmly. “Since you’re all convinced this is the correct course, it’s settled. I’ll be aboard the Triomphante and in titular command of the squadron, but I know better than to interfere with any orders Captain Leary gives. Is that satisfactory?”
“Yes sir,” said Daniel. “Now it’s just a matter for me and the rest of your navy to put down a rebellion for you.”
“Then let’s get to work,” Robin said. He opened the glass doors and led the way back into the lobby.
The Tarbell officer who had tried to break in on the meeting was now sitting across the lobby; he popped up from his chair. Yahn, a tech from the Sissie, put a big hand on the fellow’s shoulder and pushed him back. Beatty, on the other side of the Tarbell’s chair, glowered down at the fellow.
“That’s all right, Yahn,” Daniel called. “He’s the Minister’s problem now.”
Robin gave him a crooked smile and went off to meet the officer. Daniel followed him with his eyes.
Hogg stepped between Daniel and the man walking toward him from the wall between the elevators, “Hello, Joycelyn!” he called. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”
Daniel looked past Hogg’s shoulder; the servant had his right hand in his pocket. Captain Joycelyn, whom Daniel had last seen being frog-marched off the Triomphante on Ithaca, was wearing a Fleet utility uniform.
Joycelyn stopped, smiling, with his hands in plain sight. He said, “Hello, Master Hogg. I’m here because I hope to get a job with Captain Leary. It seems only fair, since he worked for me at one time.”
“It’s all right, Hogg,” Daniel said. “I don’t think Captain Joycelyn is the sort to pull a pistol on me.”
He chuckled, hoping that he was right. Joycelyn had probably thought the same about him when he greeted the draft of Sissies aboard the Upholder.
“There are chairs on the loggia,” said Adele. She made a curt gesture, drawing Daniel’s attention to the group of people clustering around them, many of them locals. “I suggest we adjourn there to continue this discussion.”
“Excellent idea,” said Daniel, stepping back into the covered balcony.
“I’ll leave you now,” said Grozhinski. He strode toward the stairs, though the doors of one of the elevators were open on this floor.
Joycelyn nodded Adele ahead of him, then followed. Hogg would have come out with them, but Daniel shook his head and closed the glass doors.
“Hogg did bring up a good point, Captain,” Daniel said, looking at his former commander. “How is it that you come to be here on Combrichon?”
Joycelyn struck a formal at-ease posture, his hands crossed behind his back. “Leary,” he said, “I had a destroyer flotilla in the past war. I got a job as operations manager of a trading line when I wound up on the beach after the Treaty of Amiens, but boredom was driving me mad. When a friend in the Fleet Directorate told me that the Tarbell rebels were looking for an experienced captain, I made inquiries and was hired immediately.”
“I can understand that, Captain,” Daniel said. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“I joined the Upholders to fight,” Joycelyn said. “I know you can understand that. And at the first rumor they decided I was disloyal and jailed me—until you stole the cruiser and they figured out what had happened. With my record, they thought I was a traitor!”
“They’re traitors themselves, Captain Joycelyn,” Adele said from her chair. She continued to adjust her display. “They see themselves in a mirror.”
Joycelyn grimaced, then shrugged. “I suppose you’re right,” he said. “Anyway, when they released me, I decided I didn’t want to work for them any more and headed for Danziger. When I heard that Captain Daniel Leary of the RCN had attacked Combrichon with the Triomphante, I signed on as second mate on a freighter to Brownsville. If you’ve got a use for a fighting officer, Leary, it’ll save me having to learn how to pack frozen fish for transit back to Danziger.”
“I can use an officer of your caliber, Captain…” Daniel said. “But before you make a decision, you should know that the rebels have bought or been given a Karst battleship. I intend to fight her.”
Joycelyn raised an eyebrow. “We were told that there were people behind us,” he said. “When I was with the Upholders, I mean. I didn’t expect it to be Karst, though.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have any higher opinion of the Karst navy than you seem to, Leary,” Joycelyn said. “I’m with you if you’ll have me.”
Daniel reached out and shook Joycelyn’s hand. “Welcome aboard, Captain,” he said. “I don’t know yet where I’ll place you, but I do know that you’ll be better than whoever would have the job otherwise!”
CHAPTER 25
Chevalier, Southern Hemisphere
Reasonably, Daniel should have held this Officers’ Meeting in the Triomphante’s large stateroom, though at least the Sissies present would have approved if he’d chosen the bridge of the Princess Cecile for sentimental reasons.
Hogg was probably the only person present who understood why they were standing in a glade overlooking the lake on which the ships of the Tarbell squadron floated. The foliage of the native trees was dark blue-green, nothing like the chartreuse of Bantry’s vegetation, and the individual leaves formed long curling strips rather than flat quadrilaterals with sharp corners. Nonetheless it was a chance to be outside on a beautiful day, in a wilderness which had been completely untouched until the squadron arrived.
Now the forest on the north end of the lake had been cut to provide platforms, temporary shelters, and the rafts by which spacers were transferring spars and sail fabric from the Triomphante to the Montclare and Montcalm.
“Are we going to have enough sails?” said Cory, frowning at the bustling activity in the near distance. He was using the display of his personal data unit as a magnifier.
“Yes, I think so,” said Daniel with an enthusiasm which was only partly assumed. “We’ll want to keep the transports bow-on to the Almirante, but we’d be doing that anyway. I don’t think we need be concerned about the sensor packs of the rebel destroyers.”
“The Ithaca isn’t new,” said Captain Joycelyn, “but Lieutenant von der Main is a very good officer and she’s got a crew of Fleet veterans. I don’t think you should write her off as a fighting force. You can say what you please about the Truth and Justice, though, and I won’t argue with you.”
“The battleship’s communications,” Adele said, “are almost certainly set to Karst codes and protocols. The Ithaca is operating on rebel codes, which are a variant on a commercial code which is standard in this region. If it were the other way around there wouldn’t be a problem, but I very much doubt a Karst crew will immediately adapt to unfamiliar codes and procedures.”
“You’re saying that the destroyers can’t talk to the Almirante?” Vesey said. Her tone was neutral, but a slight frown suggested her doubts.
“They can talk in clear,” said Cory. “And if the Ithaca is as good as the captain says, they may have Karst codes downloaded.”
“She’s a destroyer,” Cazelet said sharply. “Yes, I know, the Sissie is a corvette, but you can’t judge small-ship communications by Lady Mundy.”
How much pain is he in? Daniel thought.
Though some of what he read as Cazelet’s recent bitterness might have a psychological rather than a physical cause. Major surgery when the Princess Cecile had returned to Xenos could lengthen his femur, but according to Tovera Cazelet would never again have full feeling and movement in his right leg.
“A battle involves risks,” Daniel said. “Under normal circumstances we’d simply assume that the enemy ships could communicate with one another, so I don’t see that we’ve anything to complain about if that’s the case here.”
He looked around the group of officers. T
he biggest question he was facing now was who to place as captains on the vessels of his squadron, and—he grinned—as with most important questions, there wasn’t a good answer to that.
Overhead three creatures circled. They were so high that with his naked eyes he saw only the light rippling from their diaphanous wings. The database said they had exoskeletons, but internal struts provided stiffening and muscle attachment points.
Not for the first time, Daniel thought of a life in which Daniel Leary was a field biologist, accompanied on his travels by information specialist Lady Mundy. Hogg would be happy living like that. It was hard to tell how Tovera would feel or if she had feelings at all, but she seemed to be adaptable.
“Lamson?” Daniel said, looking at the Montclare’s captain. “How soon will the spars and sails from the Triomphante be loaded aboard your ship?”
The Tarbell spacer, about fifty and clearly a man who had learned his trade by example, spat toward an insectoid which had just landed on a shaggy yellow mass of florets. He hit the creature squarely.
“Three hours more, maybe two,” Lamson said. He grinned at Daniel’s raised eyebrow and said, “Yeah, I know you think the sun shines up the ass of your own people, but me ’n my boys’ve been striking down cargo for a lotta years. Maybe we can’t get from here to West Bumfuck as quick as you can, sonny, but we know our own jobs.”
Daniel grinned at the implied challenge. “Vesey?” he said without looking away from the civilian. “Do you agree with Captain Lamson’s assessment?”
“Yes,” said Vesey, whom Daniel had put in charge of the transfers. “The Montclare will be ready in that time frame. Ah—I’d like to add that some of the fabric which was loaded in Hold One has been transferred to Hold Six so that the large rolls from the cruiser will be easier to access in space when we mount them.”
Lamson’s smile was broad enough to show that he was missing upper incisors on the left side.