by Kal Spriggs
“Yes,” Lizmadie nodded, “but there might be a pattern. Maybe we could even back-track when a call was made to this agent who helped her to escape?” She shook her head, “Since we don't have that information, we have to work around who might have had contact with her, which doesn't give us any concrete data.”
Tony pursed his lips, “Well, that's pretty close to Baron Giovanni's original investigation results.” He ran over the list in his head. “I had access to her prison as a senior officer. Colonel William Proscia was in charge of boarding her ship and transporting her to the planet. Reese Giovanni was in communications along with Ensign Tascon, you had access to her through your brother...” he trailed off. “Your brother, the Emperor, had access to her as well.”
“Trust me, I haven't discounted entirely that he might seek some alliance with her as some kind of leverage to hold over Lucius,” she said, “But I think we can shelve that particular idea.”
Tony shrugged at that. On the one hand, he wouldn't think Emperor Romulus would be foolish enough to trust Admiral Mannetti, but on the other Tony had seen just how desperate Lizmadie's brother had become to save the people of Nova Roma. “If we work back from the assumption that her agent was in contact with her, then we have another issue,” Tony said finally. “After Baron Giovanni's withdrawal from the Second Battle of Faraday, we had a lock down on communications. Only department heads had access and even then, only for official business.”
“That doesn't clear you,” Lizmadie said with a tone of exasperation.
“No... but it does narrow the pool of suspects if our assumptions about communications is accurate,” Tony said. “Which puts Reese at the top of our suspect list... especially given what happened between him and Alanis.” He saw Lizmadie wince at that, but she didn't disagree. Reese Leone-Giovanni, once Commander Leone-Giovanni, had been Lucius's brother-in-law and had been a close friend to Doko as well. He was also the communications and signal officer for the War Shrike. He and his wife, Alannis Giovanni had some sort of argument about her joining the military which had escalated rapidly. Tony hadn't heard the details, but he had found that Reese was now wanted here in Faraday... and he'd also found official divorce paperwork filed by Alanis.
That in itself was a hard blow for Tony. As Lucius's Executive Officer aboard the War Shrike, he had seen the growing divide between Lucius and Reese, particularly in regards to Lucius's decision to remain at Faraday when Nova Roma fell to the Chxor, rather than returning to fight them. Even Reese had to know that returning with one damaged battleship to fight an entire Chxor fleet was a fool's errand, yet Reese had seemed focused on his wife's safety. Tony could understand that, yet now he wondered if he had somehow missed an ulterior motive and how that might tie into the rogue Admiral Lucretta Mannetti.
“If it was Reese, then we'd have a hard time proving it,” Lizmadie said. “As communications officer, he had full access to the ansible, and he definitely has the technical ability to modify the logs.”
Tony nodded, “And that goes for Ensign Tascon, as well, who also happens to be related to Admiral Mannetti.”
Lizmadie waved a hand, “While I can't entirely discount blood ties, I think the investigators overestimate it a bit in his case.” She pulled up the profile that they had developed for Ensign Alberto Tascon. “He's a narcissist. His family couldn't inherit Admiral Mannetti's title and estate without her being killed or tried and found guilty of treason.” Admiral Mannetti's title as Baroness Kail, in theory was very valuable. After her implication in a coup attempt, Emperor Romulus III had ordered her arrested, but as a noblewoman, he had not been legally able to try her en absentia, which meant she retained her rank and privileges as a noblewoman. Lizmadie knew well enough that her father had taken the House of Kail’s estates and assets in custody until such time as her guilt (or innocence) was proven. “Ensign Tascon has every reason to hope she was captured, it would make his entire family wealthy overnight. I think that as the War Shrike's XO, you had to work with Tascon enough to detest him, so you'd rather it be him. He was also a recent transfer to the War Shrike which means you would rather it be him as opposed to someone you served with for years.”
She's not wrong about either of those points, Tony acknowledged, Ensign Tascon is a self-centered, detestable little worm. “Fine, but that doesn't clear him, just points out why I'd rather it be him.”
Lizmadie nodded graciously, “Of course. Of anyone, I'd rather it be him, too. Especially after I found some of his sloppy entertainment hacks that he's trying to sell on the side. I'm ninety percent certain that he would be selling information on Lucius if he thought he could get away with it.”
“Well,” Tony said, “Besides those two, Alicia Nix had access to the ansible to control her intelligence agents and assets.” He gave a glance at the hallway and his thoughts went to the men and women who worked for her and provided their security. If Alicia Nix was the agent, then she held their lives firmly in her hands at this point. Tony had worked with her quite a bit after her recruitment by Lucius to act as his intelligence officer. She was a native of Faraday and had worked intelligence for their military for years. She had also admitted that Admiral Mannetti had operated in the system for a few short months several years before Lucius's arrival. The admission had brought more trust, especially with the admission that they had bought pirated goods from her to augment their military forces. “It is possible that she used one of her assets to pass messages.”
Lizmadie nodded, “And she could have accessed prison files or even had one of her agents put into position to enable the escape.” Yet Tony could hear the doubt in her voice and he didn't blame her. There wasn't a motive to that action. As the late Lieutenant Palmer would have colorfully put it: she didn't have a dog in the fight. There was no reason for her to support Mannetti and every reason for her to support Lucius, especially after he'd liberated her homeworld from the Chxor.
“Other than her, Colonel William Proscia also had access as the Marine Commander, since he had security teams out escorting some of our retrieval teams,” Tony said. He saw Lizmadie nod at that. Most of the civilians they had sent out had a team or more of Marines, both as protection and as an added layer of security to ensure that no one gave away their position when they'd been most vulnerable. Given the fact that they'd been selling precious metals to fund their efforts at the time, Colonel Proscia's teams had been essential on more than one occasion.
“I'm seeing several names coming up on our lists,” Lizmadie said as she brought up the notes she had been taking. “You, Reese, Ensign Tascon, and Colonel Proscia.”
Tony nodded, though he felt his stomach twist at that. Before recent events, he would have thought that left only one suspect, but after Reese's destroyed marriage, he couldn't say that he trusted his judgment enough to discount Colonel Proscia or Reese.
For that matter, Tony thought as he examined the files, I'm not certain that I don't want it to be one of them, just so that I can clear my own name.
***
“Well,” Lucius said as he sipped at the wine, “this is one of your more effective ways to get me to attend a meeting, I must admit.”
Kate Bueller, his Foriegn Minister sipped at her own wine and simply gave him a nod.
Lucius enjoyed the wine for a moment longer and then set his glass down with a sigh. “Very well, go ahead and give me the bad news.”
Kate gave him a surprised expression, “Bad news, my Lord? Why would you assume that?”
Lucius gestured at the bottle, a vintage from his family's vineyards, one which, while not the best or most expensive, was literally irreplaceable since the Chxor had captured Nova Roma. For that matter, since Giovanni Vineyards was somewhat well-known for quality, he didn't know how she'd managed to find a bottle on the market.
Kate gave him a slight sigh in response, “I'm going to ask you a question and I need you to give me a real answer and to think about that answer.” She met his gaze, her expression serious, “We are rapid
ly approaching a point where we can't afford for you to be both a military commander and our leader... is it essential for you to be at the front and leading the attack on Nova Roma?”
In automatic response, Lucius said, “What makes you think we're attacking Nova Roma? Surely you've seen the Chxor's threats to exterminate all human life in the system if we even try?”
She gave him a reproachful look and Lucius sighed in return. “Very well,” Lucius said. He paused a moment in consideration. In theory, Admiral Dreyfus could handle most of the preparations and even command the fight of the plan that they had begun to develop. But that doesn't take into account the conspiracy, Lucius thought, or my own uncertainties over his capabilities in the current strategic paradigm.
The damage that Admiral Dreyfus had suffered at Tehran underlined that risk. Yet Lucius could admit to some measure of trepidation about trusting anyone with the various responsibilities upon his shoulders. Admiral Mund, while capable, prefers a background role or a slot training new officers, Lucius thought, and he's a Nova Roma officer.
Lucius regretted the growing division between the United Colonies personnel and the Nova Roma Imperial Fleet personnel. It was even worse for the fact that he felt there were many things that they could learn from each other. Even within the United Colonies Fleet, there was a sharp division between 'original' Dreyfus Fleet personnel and 'new' ones. The cabal seemed to play upon that division in order to create distrust and suspicion.
Could someone else handle everything going on as well as commanding the battle? Lucius had one clear answer to that. “I'm afraid that right now, I'm indispensable. There's a number of reasons, not least of which is with everything currently in motion, I'm the only one with visibility of it all.” It was one reason for Lucius moving to the Tehran system to see the status of Admiral Dreyfus's task force and to look at the situation on the planet itself.
“I was afraid you'd say that...” Kate said. “Do some of these reasons tie back to an investigation of senior officers within the Dreyfus Fleet?”
Lucius felt the blood drain from his face, “That is not something that I can discuss, nor is it something that you should be involved in. It is a military matter and the less attention drawn to it the better.” Lucius was very tempted to demand her source, but he wasn't certain that she would answer him if he did. That kind of breach could be devastating, he well knew, yet he didn't want to damage their working relationship by pressing her. Alicia Nix was probably her source. Captain Beeson had already begun an investigation into the conspiracy in conjunction with her as the head of the FIB. While he wouldn’t have expected Alicia to pass that information on, it wasn’t hard to believe.
“It's gone beyond a military matter when our Minister of War Newbauer is making promises and offering favors to ambassadors of foreign nations,” Kate said. “And telling them that soon he'll be the one calling the shots.”
“He's what?” Lucius asked. Julian Newbauer was the head of the War Party and the appointed Minister of War. He was also one of the civilians from the Dreyfus Fleet that Lucius had already heard some concerns about. If he had ties to the conspiracy, however, then it suggested that this cabal might have more support among the civilians... and possibly additional assets to worry about.
She gave him a grim smile, “I wondered if you had heard about that.” She slid a data chip across the table. “I'd heard about it from the Shogun's Envoy, originally, and Alicia Nix confirmed it. For that matter, President Cassin has heard rumors herself and came to me to see what I knew. The details that we've been able to find suggest that he has ties back to personnel within the Fleet and it looks very much like they are planning a coup.”
“I see,” Lucius said. He took the data chip and looked at it for a long moment. “Clearly I'll need to expand our operations a bit. I trust that I don't need to remind you to keep this information close?” She merely arched an eyebrow at him and Lucius sighed, “Very well, what else?”
“I'm not entirely certain about your plans to discredit both the Centauri Confederation Ambassador and Shadow Lord Imperious's Ambassador,” Kate said.
“You mean my 'fathers'?” Lucius asked. His actual father had been a traitor to Nova Roma, the illegitimate son of Emperor Romulus I, who had rebelled against Emperor Romulus II. Officially, his father had been executed only three days before Lucius's fifth birthday. Somehow, though, some forty-seven years later, not just one, but two men claiming to be his father had appeared. One was the Ambassador for the Centauri Confederation and the other was the personal envoy of Shadow Lord Imperious. Both men had credentials to back their claims and both men appeared, to the detail of fingerprints and DNA, to perfectly match every record of his father. Both of them had brought with them offers of alliance, which boiled down to varying offers to be subjects or a client nation.
It was not something that had made Lucius want to stop and consider his feelings. Lucius had built his life around being a success in the military despite his father's legacy. Atop the anger he felt over the sudden reappearance of his “father” had been the added rage at the blatant attempt to manipulate him. On almost every level, it didn't matter if one or the other actually was his father. His decision on how to deal with both of them came from that realization.
“You aren't certain about us stating that they are both liars and that their attempt to deceive us is a hostile action?” They had developed the plan with a bit more finesse than that, with the goal of putting both powers in a reactionary position. This would give the United Colonies long enough to solidify alliances with star systems and nations that would be far better allies.
She nodded, “I know you have the Iodans are working on the biology side and I don't doubt they'll find something we can use, but are you certain that it will prevent them from acting? I mean, neither the Centauri Confederation as a whole and President Spiridon in particular are known for being forgiving or easygoing and we're going to accuse them of lying in a diplomatic setting! That doesn't even touch on how vindictive the Shadow Lords can be!” Lucius snorted at that. The Shadow Lords were extremely powerful psychics, who controlled entire fleets and acted much like pirates and warlords. Individually their forces were on par with or even stronger than what a nation like Nova Roma might have mustered in its prime. Some of them were thought to be even more powerful than that. While Lucius had learned quite a bit more than he had ever believed possible about the five Shadow Lords, much of that was the type of nightmare fodder that made words like vindictive seem painfully inadequate.
The Centauri Confederation on the other hand was the most powerful human nation remaining, with some of the highest technology and the largest military. They were also in the midst of an ongoing civil war which had begun before Lucius's birth. President Spiridon had gradually consolidated power within the Centauri Confederation over the past seven decades, to the point where his homeworld, Elysia, was little more than a police state and many of the other worlds were controlled by state-run military and police forces. Those that weren't fell under what was commonly called the Tau Ceti Separatists, though there were a host of factions, insurrectionist movements, and constantly shifting alliances that made any look into the internals of the Centauri Confederation murky at best.
“I expect that they won't know what to do,” Lucius said. “President Spiridon isn't a forgiving man, but he's also not stupid. The last thing he needs right now is another war on another front, far from his borders and against a tough, well-trained and technologically equal opponent.”
Lucius sighed, “As for Shadow Lord Imperious... I'm expect him to be either unwilling or unable to directly act against us.” His hopes in that regard came from Kandergain, the mother of his child, and herself a psychic as powerful as or perhaps even more powerful than any individual Shadow Lord. “The Shadow Lords are kept in check by one another as well as some outside forces,” Lucius said, thinking again of Kandergain, “which should prevent Imperious from moving directly against us.”
&nbs
p; “I hate being the Foreign Minister and not having a good feel for what effects this will have on our foreign relations,” Kate growled. As Lucius opened his mouth to explain, she waved a hand at him. “Okay, I know how much the Centauri's are hated, even by their own people. Embarrassing them will give us a nice boost of good will. I know that this isn't the kind of thing that President Spiridon should want to go to war over... but I don't have a good feel for it. I've dealt with Colonial Republic planet and system governments. I know how they think. I know how they're going to act, by and large. I don't have the same gut feeling for the Centauri Confederation and I'm nowhere near that when it comes to powers like the Shadow Lords.”
Lucius nodded and he realized that Kate had taken on more and more responsibilities, well beyond her original scope as Minister of State. Part of that was because Lucius was focussed on fighting the war and he had done her a disservice by leaving her to shoulder those duties. “You're doing a fine job, Kate,” Lucius said.
“I know that,” she replied sharply. “What I'm concerned about is whether I'm doing a good enough job with the fate of humanity on the line.”
Lucius couldn't quite find a response to that. It was, after all, his own private fear.
***
Chapter II
Tehran System
United Colonies
December 15, 2403
Of all the worlds that had fallen under the rule of the Nova Roma Empire, Tehran was one of the few that Lucius had never visited. Part of that had come from his determination to avoid the planet. It was considered one of his father's victories from his prior loyal service in the Nova Roma Imperial Fleet. The privateers that had operated from Tehran had been a vicious threat to Nova Roma's merchant ships and Lucius's father had removed that threat, conquering the system in the process.
That was not something to endear Lucius's family name to the people of that system. The name Giovanni was tied into a painfully embarrassing defeat, where a single cruiser had destroyed or routed over a dozen privateers and commanded the surrender of an entire star system. The handful of officers and enlisted from Tehran that Lucius had encountered had viewed him as the very symbol of the Great Enemy... and they were the ones considered trustworthy enough to serve in Nova Roma's military.