“Yes. A Mhar courier came in from their colony about an hour ago. It made a transmission as soon as it made real space re-entry.”
“Do we know what they said? Do you think it’s important?”
“No, they were using a high level military code we haven’t been able to break. But there’s been a lot of chatter on the military channels since then.”
“They are doing their autumn manoeuvres aren’t they?” Chris replied before finishing off the last of his coffee, “Surely it’s to do with that.”
“I’ve never known this kind of activity in relation to manoeuvres. Not in the four years I’ve been here.”
Thank you Commodore, Chris thought to himself, never leave out a dig that I’m not here long.
___________________
“Ambassador.”
Chris looked up from his computer screen.
“Yes Craig?”
“A messenger has arrived, sir. He’s from the Department of Off-World Contact and he’s asking to speak to you directly.”
“Oh Lordy. Better get my suit then.”
Why a race whose idea of ‘room temperature’ would freeze an Inuit put so much emphasis on face-to-face contact he didn’t know. It wasn’t as if the Mhar hadn’t invented electronic communication. But they did, and that was why a posting to Phton came with an arctic survival suit.
The messenger was waiting in the Mhar meeting room, the one room in the Embassy cold enough for a Mhar and still warm enough for a human. The messenger was a fine example of his species, nearly three metres tall and a metre across at the shoulders, topped by what seemed like a disproportionately small head. His two beady black eyes peered down at Chris as he started to speak - a high pitched squeaking one of the early human diplomats had uncharitably compared to that of a squirrel. Chris waited for the computerised translation.
“I welcome you this morning Ambassador Byrne. I am Face Speaker of the First Level Yawe.”
That made him a very senior government official, only one step below the forum of ministers. Any message he was delivering could only be a high level contact.
“Thank you Face Speaker. How may I assist you?”
“Ambassador, I am here on a matter that has arisen unexpectedly and is of the greatest importance to us. One of our messenger ships arrived here a short time ago. It reported that our colony on Second Phton has been attacked.”
“Attacked!” Chris gasped as his mind’s eye replayed his small part in the events of the previous year, when his diplomatic ship had been forced to flee from Nameless missiles. Surely it couldn’t be them. They were coming from the opposite side of human space. “The Nameless?” he asked almost fearfully.
“No Ambassador, it is not the species you have labelled The Nameless. Our attackers are Tample, of the star nation Uide. The messenger ship has taken eight days to reach here. When it left Second Phton, the guard ships had been destroyed or put to flight. Uide soldiers were already being landed.”
The translator’s flat mechanical voice lacked any kind of urgency, but Yawe’s fur was brisling and his shoulder crests kept flickering up. The Face Speaker was highly agitated and he was struggling to control himself.
“Face speaker,” Chris said after taking a moment to compose himself, “all nations of Earth will deplore this act of unprovoked aggression. It will be publicly condemned, of that you can be sure.”
“Ambassador, the Mhar need more than words at this time, particularly those of us on Second Phton.”
“What is it you ask of us Face Speaker?” Chris asked with a sinking feeling in his gut.
“If we are to eject these invaders and liberate our brothers, then we must ask you for armed assistance. Your war vessels are needed.”
___________________
“No,” said Commodore Latawski with a shake of his head as soon as Chris finished briefing his section managers. “Fleet is not going to send even a single ship.”
Chris nodded morosely. The Embassy got a lot of information from home, which was only passed to the Mhar in a filtered form. It had been the formal policy since the start of the war, so while the Mhar knew of Earth’s troubles in general terms, they didn’t know the full extent to which Earth was struggling. Anything that the Mhar received would ultimately find its way to the Aèllr, which made keeping up the illusion of strength important but now impossible.
“Have they approached the Aèllr?” Chris asked the Embassy intelligence officer.
“As far as we know they haven’t,” she replied, “not yet anyway.”
“Guess they know that would be scraping the bottom of the barrel,” someone else muttered.
In theory both humanity and the Aèllr were guarantors of Mhar security. A necessity since the Mhar were the least technologically developed of the five spacefaring races and at least two of the Tample star nations openly coveted the one Mhar colony. The Aèllr certainly did have the military strength but there was an unspoken understanding that the guarantee from the casualty-adverse Aèllr extended no further than the Mhar homeworld. That had meant that although nominally neutral, the Mhar were closer to humanity than the Aèllr. Refusal to assist was going to deliver a body blow to that special relationship.
“So the bottom line is that we’re going to have to tell them no, then try to do damage limitation,” Chris said heavily. He’d hoped for something to happen during his tenure, but this wasn’t it.
“No! That’s not acceptable!” said Joseph Adams, the Deputy Ambassador and a man whose sharp manners didn’t do him any favours. It was the reason why, despite being the newcomer, Chris had been dropped in as his senior, which certainly hadn’t done anything to endear him to Adams.
“Ambassador, you do not seem to grasp that military support for the Mhar has been one of the cornerstones of our policy towards them. If we refuse, the good will we have built up will evaporate. This embassy cannot throw aside more than a decade of effort because of temporary problems elsewhere!”
“Temporary!” Latawski exclaimed. The Commodore rocked back into his chair. For a moment Chris thought he had nothing more to add but then he lunged forward and roared across the table at Adams, “Read the files properly you fool! There is a war of survival being fought out there!” the entire room went completely silent.
Adams wasn’t easily cowed.
“How dare you!” he shouted back before turning to Chris, “I will not be spoken to in that fash…”
“Then get spoken to like this!” Latawski cut him off. “There, are, no, ships! Not now. Not next month, not next year.” The Commodore slumped back into his chair. “Like us, the Mhar are on their own.”
Chris shouted before Adams could take the argument further.
“Commodore, that language is not acceptable in this room!” He glared at both of them for a moment before adding, “I would ask that you issue an apology.”
“My apology is given Mister Adams,” Latawski said heavily. “I stand however by my position that no military aid can be given.”
Adams started to reply but Chris cut him off.
“Thank you Commodore. Mister Adams, to be the voice of dissent you must offer a real alternative. I have the advantage of having been more recently on Earth than any of you. I can tell you that the military situation is beyond serious. Direct strikes against Earth are a real fear for both the fleet and society at large. Obviously I do not know exact military deployments, but I do know that our forces around Dryad have been cut to the extent that a Tample incursion into our own territory is becoming likely. Battle Fleet’s military leadership will not send a ship or ships out here and the council will not overrule them.”
“Could we… stall them perhaps?” someone asked.
“We could simply tell them we’ll send their request by courier,” Adams said, this time giving Latawski a cautious look. “That will give us legitimate reason to delay answering.”
“That might work,” one of the Embassy’s intelligence officers replied. “They might be political
ly unable to wait for a reply, particularly if Earth sits on it for a week or two. By the time we have to reply, they’ll have had to made their move and either won or lost without us.”
“No,” Latawski said. “I don’t believe they will move without us. I don’t believe they can move without us.”
“And the longer they wait the greater I suspect, the expectation of Battle Fleet ships arriving in orbit,” Chris added, half to himself. “When our courier comes back with an officially sanctioned flat out ‘no’, it will be all the more a slap in the face.”
“What do you want us to do Ambassador?” Adams asked. Everyone looked up the table at him.
“There’s no happy solution to this one,” Chris said before looking up. “Commodore, I want the crew sent up to our station courier. I want all sections ready to upload to the courier all pertinent information within the next… three hours. We’ll inform Earth, we have to do that, but in the meantime I’ll need an appointment with the Mhar government. So I can tell them that their request for aid is going to be declined.”
___________________
Chris stared out at the tundra, lost in thought as he sat alone in monorail carriage to the Embassy, wrapped in half-a-dozen blankets. The meeting, with the entire Forum of Ministers, had been the single most uncomfortable experience of his professional life, facing a roomful of three-metre tall aliens, all of them wearing expressions of betrayal. They just kept asking the same question, as if they couldn’t believe the answer, as if they thought their translators were faulty. While he sat there and kept telling them that they understood him correctly.
“What a bloody day,” he muttered to himself.
There was no doubt that the day’s work was going to be felt for years to come. It had been a day for shattering illusions. Certainly the Mhar were never going to look at humanity in the same way again. A year ago, it would have been different. The mere threat of Battle Fleet would then have been enough to force the Tample, whether as separate nations or combined, to back down. Now it was beyond the fleet’s strength to face down even one. It definitely felt like an end-of-empire moment.
From beneath him came a clunk as the carriage shifted onto the Embassy spur line. After a few more minutes the carriage slid to halt. Much to his surprise someone was waiting for him on the platform. People generally didn’t stand outside unless they had a really good reason. It was Adams, heavily bundled up.
“What is it?” he asked as they both hurried towards the warmth of the building.
“You sent everyone back ahead and turned your phone off.”
“Yes, once the meeting was done I tried to make some personal contact to mend a few bridges,” Chris replied.
“Well something else has just come up!” The wind was starting to increase, making further conversation impossible.
“Now what?” Chris asked as they entered the lobby and pulled down their hoods.
“We’ve got visitors.”
“But I’ve only just been speaking to the government.”
“It’s not a Mhar. It’s an Aèllr official, with an escort.”
“What!” Chris exclaimed as he stopped dead in his tracks. “Are you kidding?”
“No, she arrived an hour ago. She wants to talk to the Ambassador but won’t say what about.”
“Is there an intermediary coming?”
Adams shook his head,
“She says no.”
“But the Aèllr don’t talk to us directly. They’ve never set foot in this building before. It’s always been on neutral ground with an intermediary in the room. Hasn’t it?”
“That’s always been the way Ambassador for as long as I’ve been here. They don’t simply turn up either. There have always been at least a few days of preliminary discussions just to agree the location.”
“But this time they have.”
“Yes,” Adams replied grimly. “This might be the point when they start making demands.”
Flustered as he was feeling, that didn’t sound too likely to Chris. If an ultimatum was being delivered you wouldn’t rush it. You’d deliver it at a time of your own choosing.
“What has she said?” he asked.
“She says it’s a matter of great importance. That what she is here to tell us needs to get back to Earth as soon as possible.”
“Oh no! Our courier is already on its way to Earth,” Chris groaned as the two of them passed through the main door and into the welcome warmth of the Embassy.
“The Commodore managed to reach it in time,” Adams replied with a shake of his head. “They’re holding at the edge of the mass shadow. I kinda got the impression that seeing our courier head off triggered them into rushing over here. But like I said, that’s just an impression.”
“Okay,” Chris started to struggle out of his arctic suit, “let me get into something more appropriate, then we’ll find out what they’re here for.”
The three Aèllr looked up from their position sitting close to the room’s heater as Chris, Adams and Latawski walked in. Chris paused, trying to work out who was important and who were the spear-carriers. The rearmost Aèllr rose gracefully to her feet.
“Ambassador Byrne?” she asked without the aid of a translator.
“Yes,” Chris replied, “I apologise for the delay. I was not in the Embassy at the time of your arrival.”
“We are aware of that fact. No offence has been taken.”
“May I ask your name and your purpose here?”
“I am Delegate Irpal, I have been charged by Prime Speaker Unqin with the task of communicating with you.” The Aèllr had an oddly musical voice, not unpleasant to listen to but still indefinably alien. She glanced at her two associates, “Please, leave us.”
“Gentlemen,” Chris said without looking around. He heard Adams and Latawski begin to leave.
A crease appeared on Irpal’s face. Chris couldn’t interpret the expression.
“I would request that your military adviser remain, to listen,” she said, her voice taking on a slightly disdainful note. Chris felt surprise start to show on his face and tried to suppress it. The day’s shocks just kept coming. The Aèllr damn near regarded Battle Fleet as a mafia like organisation. After the Contact War they’d pointedly convicted Admiral Lewis in absentia for war crimes.
Irpal waited until Chris had seated himself.
“I would like to start by saying that between Aèllr and human, there is no alliance, agreement or entente. We desire with you, none of these things. What I have come to speak of is your war with the Faceless Ones.”
“Who?”
“The race your people know as The Nameless.”
“I see. What is it you wish to tell us?”
“You wage war against them.” Irpal’s voice made clear that this was not a question. “Yet significant number of your armed vessels, they remain on our mutual frontier.”
Chris swallowed carefully and briefly wished he’d thought to have water brought in.
“We intend no hostility against the Confederacy. We have however always been in the practice of maintaining a border watch force. We have merely continued our existing posture,” he said carefully.
Irpal stared at him for a moment before replying, “yet were we to choose to move against you, those vessels would cost us little, delaying us not at all.”
Behind him Chris sensed rather than heard the Commodore stiffen. Irpal’s over large eyes flickered towards him before returning to Chris. Was this the moment some had predicted, when the Confederacy chose to stick in the knife?
“I am here to offer our assurance that this is unnecessary. Prime Speaker Unqin offers her assurance, her personal assurance, that there will be no move against you while the Faceless remain a threat to you.”
Chris considered his options before replying.
“Delegate Irpal,” he started, “as you have said, there is no alliance between us. The history between our races has not been… good. This is the first face-to-face contact between Aèllr
and Human in twenty years. I must therefore ask why this approach, why now?”
“The conflict against the Faceless, it is not going well. It is our belief that your defeat in this war is all but inevitable.”
“We aren’t beaten,” Latawski snarled, “We be…”
“Commodore! Stay silent or leave!” Chris snapped back over his shoulder.
Irpal again glanced toward the Commodore before looking back to Chris, who continued: “Delegate, whatever your government believes, the war against the Nameless is not lost and we will wage it to the end of our strength.”
“That humanity will fight is something we do believe. But we also believe that despite your bold words, your race’s chances of survival are limited. By retaining war vessels on our border, you limit those chances still further.”
“Be that as it may Delegate, I still do not understand, why this should concern the Confederacy government?”
“The concerns of my government are primarily internal, as is natural. But it would be a mistake to remain oblivious to events that takes place beyond our borders. As much as we have been able, we have therefore studied the Faceless.”
“What have you learned?” Chris asked.
“A number of facts, Ambassador, but among those, one is salient. Humans, Aèllr…” Irpal paused, and shook her head, an oddly human gesture, “…they make no distinction between us.”
“But… oh,” Chris hesitated as realisation dawned. This contact wasn’t about the Aèllr demonstrating their strength or their mercy. This was about fear, Aèllr fear.
“You think the Nameless will turn on the Confederacy as soon as they have destroyed us.”
“We do not ‘think’ Ambassador. It is another event that is all but inevitable.” Irpal replied evenly.
“You’re using us as a shield!” Latawski said. This time Irpal answered him directly.
“Circumstance has made you our shield,” Irpal replied. “Were our roles reversed, can you truthfully say you would do any differently?” she said before reaching down beside her chair and picking up an envelope, which she passed across to Chris. “This is little enough but it is all that we know of the Faceless. If we obtain more, we will make it available to you. While there are those within my government who view the extermination of your race as an undesirable outcome, we will not actively involve ourselves. We will defend our own territory but this is as much active assistance as we are willing to offer. But for as long as the Faceless remain a threat, we offer guarantees we will make no hostile move against human territory.”
The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) Page 15