“Indeed. We know they have new warship designs, in addition to the picket ships, but we know almost nothing else about them. Nothing of their capabilities. Not even how many of them they are making. We can make some guesses based on the number of spacedocks they have available. Our spies can tell us that. Assuming a normal turnaround, they’re replacing their existing ships at their normal pace, pretty much on a twenty-year lifetime. They actually stopped for a couple years there, so their ships now are older on average than they historically were.”
“If that’s the case, Anne, our odds of prevailing against Sintar get worse over time. In some perverse way, it’s actually better for us if war comes sooner than later.”
“Catch them with their old navy, and not enough of the new ships to make the difference. Yet. So yes, nobody wants war, but if it’s inevitable, it’s better for us if it comes sooner than later.”
“What a mess.”
“You said it, Albert.”
“So, circling back, what do we do about James’s meeting?”
“I think we need to go. I don’t want James and some of these others to dominate. They’re too likely to react and not think. Together, you and I can have a lot of influence.”
“All right, Anne. I’m agreed with that. And you and I maintain our own council and coordinate our actions.”
“Of course, cousin.”
Dunham and Peters were up on the roof, on the pool deck. Peters had swum her laps, and the kids were playing in the pool with the staff. The sounds of happy laughter and squeals punctuated their conversation.
“A year old already. I can’t believe it,” Dunham said.
The kids had had their first cupcakes at lunch, for their birthday. The ‘Mmmmms’ when they had their first tentative taste of those had been epic. Dee had methodically picked hers apart, gobbling up the pieces, while Sean had tried to shove the whole thing into his mouth. He simply held it to his mouth and kept pushing while he chewed his way through it. By the time they were done, they both looked like the cupcakes had exploded, in their faces, on their hands, and on the trays of their high chairs. They even had cupcake in their hair.
They had gone straight from lunch to the showers in the cabana at the pool.
“I’m just glad my breasts have finally stopped hurting,” Peters said.
From six months, nursing had been supplemented by bottle feeding. Nursing twins took a lot of milk as they grew, and there was only so much she could produce. They had increased the bottle feedings with time, and the twins had been completely on the bottle for several weeks now.
“It looks like they’ve settled down about halfway between what they were before and what they were at full production,” Dunham said.
“Yes,” Peters said. “That’s a bit of a relief as well. I like having a bit fuller figure, but full up, they were just a bit much.”
Dee let out a particularly loud squeal and Sean joined in to make it a duet.
“They sure do like it in the pool,” Dunham said.
Peters nodded. It was a very contented time. Not the time for business, particularly, but she was curious.
“I know you met with Michael yesterday. What did he have to say?”
“King James of Garland asked around about having a meeting of all the independent star-nations to discuss what to do about me.”
“About you?”
“Well, about Sintar. And it looks like they’re going to have a meeting. The big issue was whether Phalia, the Rim, and Annalia would attend. Without the big players, it probably wouldn’t happen. But they’ve all decided to attend.”
“If Annalia attends, the DP might as well be in attendance. They’ll hear about everything that goes on. For that matter, so will you, through Michael.”
“Yes. But the good part is no one will know I’ll hear about everything that goes on.”
“What do you think they’re going to do?”
“I think they’ll use their combined power to issue some ultimatums to me. Stop escorting freighters. Stop using what the DP called robot ships.”
“Do you think it will come to war?”
“When alliances start issuing ultimatums in violation of long-standing treaties? Probably.”
“That’s a shame. And we’re going to win?”
“Yes. No question. The question is whether I can turn it into a peace.”
“How do you do that?”
“Do we ever have wars between sectors of the Empire?”
“No. Of course not. The whole idea is silly.”
“Well, there you go.”
Sean swam over to the stair out of the pool and, using the railing, got out and a bit unsteadily onto his feet. He carefully plop-plop-plopped on his wet feet over to Peters’s chaise and hugged her, kissing her arm. He signed ‘I love you.’
“I love you, too, Sean.”
Sean climbed up on her chaise and curled up in her lap for a nap. Not to be outdone, Dee climbed out of the pool and, a bit more unsteadily, made her way to Dunham’s chaise, and climbed up, scaling his chest until she could give him a wet kiss on the cheek. She lay there on his chest, her head on his shoulder, and was soon snoring softly.
Peters would never have listed ‘a lapful of soggy, wet baby’ as something that would make her happy, but life was full of small surprises.
The Meeting
It was several months before the meeting finally happened. At that, it was breakneck speed for such a gathering. Some people wanted assurances, others a detailed agenda, still others proposed resolutions. In the end, it was billed as an information-sharing meeting only. No actions would be taken. This had frustrated some, like King James of Garland, but first steps were first steps.
When Queen Anne and her prime minster, Bruce Mallory joined the meeting, she looked around curiously. The VR simulation was of a room much like a legislative body, with chairs in three successively elevated rows facing down into a speaker’s well. There were nineteen large comfortable chairs, each with a somewhat less ostentatious companion chair to one side and slightly behind. Nineteen independent star nations of note. There had been twenty, but Pannia was no longer independent of Sintar.
There were hundreds of smaller polities, of course. A few hundred planets, or a few dozen, or even just a few. They were not represented here. Most of them were satellite nations of the nineteen largest, ranging from Berinia, with thirty-five hundred planets, to Annalia and Phalia, with over eighteen thousand planets each, to the Rim, with twenty-two thousand sparsely populated planets. Where the Rim had sixteen trillion people, Phalia and Annalia each had about forty-five trillion people, one on either side of Sintar, with Annalia between Sintar and Earth, and Phalia the other side of Sintar from Earth.
Of the nineteen, eleven were kingdoms. Four were as good as kingdoms, but with different terminology: the Autarchy of Annalia, the Dominion of Cascade, the Captaincy of Midlothia, the Satrapy of Sirdon. And four – Abelard, Bordain, Doria, and Westhaven – were electoral democracies. Queen Anne wasn’t sure how they even made that work, but she suspected there was a ruling elite whose members ran for office competitively against other members of the ruling elite. It seemed inefficient to her.
Missing from the meeting were the two four-hundred-pound gorillas of human space, the Sintaran Empire, an absolute monarchy, and the Democracy of Planets, another nominally electoral democracy.
She recognized many of the rulers, of course. Her own second cousin, King Albert VI of the Rim. King James III of Garland. Captain Mark Roberts of Midlothia. King Michael VI of Estvia. Roi Francois XII of the Royaume de Terre Autre. In fact, she recognized everybody except the current elected rulers of the four democracies.
They had all agreed to forego all the royal robes and ceremonies for this meeting. They were all rulers of nations with thousands of planets, so there was no one to impress. They all attended with their avatars dressed in normal business attire.
King James of Garland had called the meeting, and he sat in his chair in the speaker�
�s well of the room. Francis Schmitt-deVries, his foreign minister, sat to one side and slightly behind. King James had no prime minister, not wanting anyone uniting the branches of government other than himself. When everybody was present, he called them to order.
“Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming. Let’s all be seated, please.”
The conversations broke up and people drifted back to their seats.
“Thank you. We’ve all agreed to do without titles and honors here today, or we’ll be Your Highnessing and Mister Prime Ministering all day and not get anything done. Besides, I think most of us know most of the others already. If you turn on IDs in the VR, my people have set it up so it will tag everyone for you.”
Queen Anne found the button in the controls and turned on IDs, and saw she actually did know one of the presidents of one of the democracies, the president of Westhaven, Graham Bentley, but hadn’t recognized him in the crowd.
“I called this meeting today to discuss what I think are important issues,” King James continued. “I myself have very strong views on these issues, however, and Garland is one of the smaller of the independent star nations, so I am probably not the best choice for chair. I’m afraid it would be difficult for me to remain impartial to differing viewpoints, and I would exert an outsized influence. Can I have nominations for a chair?”
“I nominate Queen Anne of Phalia,” said Captain Mark Roberts of Midlothia.
“Seconded,” said King Albert of the Rim.
Queen Anne turned to King Albert, seated next to her.
“Why me?”
“Because Phalia is the biggest and you’re trusted.”
“The Rim has more planets.”
“And a third the population.”
“What about Annalia?”
“The Autarch? He’s allied with the DP.”
Queen Anne sighed. She couldn’t argue with his logic.
There were two other nominations, but they declined in her favor, and she found herself the chair of the meeting. King James manipulated the controls of the simulation, and Queen Anne found herself sitting in the speaker’s well of the room facing out at her peers, six across and three rows deep, and their prime ministers, while King James was in her former spot next to King Albert.
“Well, I guess the first thing we ought to do is nail down what we’re talking about. What’s our topic?” Queen Anne asked. As she did so, ‘Topic:’ appeared on the display wall behind her.
“The problems we’re having with Sintar,” King James called out.
“The problems we’re having with Sintar,” Queen Anne repeated. “Is that it?”
“That’s as good as anything,” said Queen Catherine of Nederling.
Several others voiced assent, and Anne tagged the display. The display now read: ‘Topic: The problems we’re having with Sintar.’
“All right. So what problems are we having with Sintar?” Queen Anne asked.
“They’re running robot ships into our systems,” King James called out.”
“Are we sure about that?” King Albert asked.
“Let’s put them all down and then discuss them one at a time,” Queen Anne said.
“Fair enough,” King Albert said.
“What else?” Queen Anne asked.
“Escorting all their freighters with warships and attacking anyone who approaches them,” said Gerald Monroe, the Regent of Preston.
“What else?”
“Telling us what they will do in our space, and then bringing warships to enforce it,” said Queen Jingda of Jasmine.
“What else?”
“Threatening to destroy our commercial space station when their spacers were detained by police after they destroyed a visiting cruiser,” King James said.
“What else?”
“Well, destroying a battleship when their spacers weren’t released as fast as they demanded,” King James said.
“What else?”
Everyone looked up at the display and considered.
“Those last three just add up to being really heavy-handed in their diplomacy,” King Albert said.
“Blowing up a battleship is more than being heavy-handed,” King James said.
“We’ll discuss them once we have them all down,” Queen Anne said. “Is that it? OK. So where do we begin the discussion?”
Captain Mark Roberts of Midlothia raised his hand.
“I have a question. Maybe someone here can shed some light on the issue for me. Are we sure those are robot ships?”
“Of course, we’re sure,” King James said.
“I’m not so sure,” Roberts said. “What if they’re just remotely piloted?”
“Let me ask a question,” Queen Anne said. “How many people here first heard they were robot ships from the DP?”
She raised her hand, and hands went up across the room. King James didn’t initially raise his hand and Queen Anne stared at him and raised an eyebrow. He raised his hand.
“OK, and who here first heard they were robot ships from someone else?”
President Fritz Kunstler from Abelard raised his hand.
“I first heard it from Graham Bentley. I called him before I met with the DP ambassador.”
Queen Anne turned to Graham Bentley.
“And you first heard it from the DP ambassador, Mr. Bentley?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“It doesn’t matter who we heard it from,” King James said. “It’s borne out by the facts. That’s why they’re so willing to suicide them against other ships. They’re no more valuable to them than a crate of spanners.”
“And what of the suggestion they might be remotely piloted?”
“In hyperspace? Without communications? In hyperspace, at the least, they are robot ships. There’s no way around that.”
Queen Anne had to admit King James’s point. There was no way to remotely control a ship once it was in hyperspace. It would come out where it was set to come out. Or not.
“I think we have to concede the point there,” she said.
“But I think the offensive decisions – attack or not attack – are made by human operators, whether remotely or not,” King Albert said. “You said you had some data on that, Anne.”
“My people have compared the response times and maneuvers of all the Sintaran escort ships for which we could obtain sensor data. The variations indicate they are not running from a program, or at least not the same program.”
“Robot ships,” King James said.
“Unmanned ships might be better,” Captain Mark Roberts said. “Less provocative, and a more precise statement of what we actually know.”
“Who votes to call them unmanned ships rather than robot ships?” Queen Anne asked.
A clear majority of the room, perhaps sixty percent, raised their hands.
“Against?”
King James and several others raised their hands.
“All right. We’ll change it for now. We can review the decision later if we get more data.”
On the display wall, ‘unmanned ships’ replaced ‘robot ships.’
“Those escorts were in response to commerce raiding. One question I have is, Who was doing the commerce raiding?” Queen Jingda asked.
“The DP ambassador told me one or more of our number had said they were going to begin commerce raiding on Sintaran ships,” King Michael of Estvia said. “I told him they’d better not try it in Estvian space. I’ve tangled with Sintar before.”
“So who was it?” Queen Anne asked. “Was it one of us?”
No one said anything into that gap, until King Albert said, “It wasn’t us.”
There followed a chorus of “It wasn’t us,” from every member of the group.
“How interesting,” Queen Anne said.
“The other thing I find interesting is there was no commerce raiding in Estvia,” King Michael said. “I warned he DP ambassador against it in the strongest possible terms, and he said he would spread the word around not to r
aid in Estvian space, but he couldn’t be sure it would be a hundred percent effective. But it was.”
“So one question we need to ask ourselves is whether the Democracy of Planets has been the instigator of all the tensions out here from the start. From the initial warnings about Sintar, and selling us all warships, to the commerce raiding itself.”
“The DP didn’t decide to send robot ships into our space,” King James said. “Or to be so belligerent with us. That’s all on Sintar.”
Once again, Queen Anne had to concede his point.
The meeting had gone on all morning. They would meet again in a month. Afterward, Queen Anne talked with King Albert.
“So what did you think of the meeting?” Queen Anne asked.
“I thought it went pretty well, actually. King James is obviously very hot about Sintar’s actions, but some of the others are more skeptical.”
“Most are pretty quiet. Most didn’t say anything at all, as a matter of fact.”
“Keeping their own council for the moment.”
“I worry about this, Albert. I worry about it a lot. This could erupt into a full-blown war, and I don’t know we have a whole lot of control over it.”
“I don’t think it will go there, Anne. And we still get to make the decision whether to participate or not.”
“Thanks for meeting with me, Robert,” King Michael said.
“No problem, Michael. It’s always good to see you,” Dunham said.
“Maybe not so much this time.”
They both took their seats in the featureless room in VR.
“What’s going on?” Dunham asked.
“The independent star nations had a meeting to discuss ‘what do we do about the problems we’re having with Sintar.’ The ruler of every single independent attended. That’s not a good sign.”
“Has everybody gotten together before?”
“Never.”
“You’re right. That’s not a good sign. What went on?”
“Oh, it’s much as you’d expect. They don’t like your escort ships. They repeated the DP slur about robot ships. Queen Anne of Phalia was chair, and she made a motion to call them unmanned ships instead, which passed. But King James of Garland noted they couldn’t be remotely piloted in hyperspace, because there are no communications in hyperspace. Unless you’ve solved that problem?”
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