Chapter 5
“Allow bravado only for balance attacks. For the kill, subtlety and the silent hand are your allies.”
Devlin Sinclair-Maru, Integrity Mirror
When Saef stepped through the doors of Lykeios Manor some hours after Winter Yung had departed, Hermes informed him that he was expected immediately in the central comm room, but no Family member arose to greet him. As always, Saef felt a mixture of emotion upon returning to Lykeios. Each year the small signs of decline leaped out, and he labored as hard as anyone to restore the Family, yet few of his betters seemed to regard him as anything more than a quaint member of the younger generation.
Saef had neither dined nor washed since his duel with Lars, and he spent his entire skimcar trip from Port City obsessively sifting through Fleet crew information via his UI. Since Cabot would share nothing about this mysterious summons over the comm channel, he tried to channel his tension over his impending command opportunity to good use. Now, aside from the impression of familial disdain, Saef felt rather tired and irritable.
He removed his jacket and placed it upon the hook that Hermes helpfully extended to him.
“Thank you,” Saef said. “No time to dine?”
“I am afraid not, Commander. I will send something down to central comm shortly, if you wish.”
“If you please,” Saef said. As he began walking, a notice pinged into his UI. Hermes had sealed Lykeios, shutting down all signal access, sparing only the internal Family Nets. Something serious indeed roused the Family.
Central comm lay in the depths beneath Lykeios manor, illustrating the war footing of the Imperium during the manor’s construction over five hundred years before. It served as a secret and secure location for the technological core of Lykeios, with the Family’s precious few QE communicators beside Hermes’ crystal stacks and all the other more conventional communication and control systems.
Since it was the Family’s holy of holies, Saef felt little surprise in seeing a gathering of Family leaders behind the massive doors of central comm, but he was surprised to see the tall, fair figure of his brother, Richard, seated beside Grimsby, the Family Trade leader. Saef felt far more surprise in seeing a youthful stranger standing casually beside the seat occupied by Bess. Strangers were never permitted in central comm or most other secure areas of Lykeios. The stranger compounded the peculiarity by leaning against a parapet wall, idly munching a bright red fruit. Saef observed that the stranger—a young woman—wore a sword, but her thin face, blue eyes, and short blond hair gave him no other clues to her identity. His UI displayed no further clues.
Saef barely paused in his assessment of the stranger, sweeping the rest of the small gathering with one level look and a curt nod. He stepped over to the refreshment dispenser and Hermes had a whiskey waiting.
“Saef,” Bess greeted. “This meeting regards you, in part. We’ve heard of your success in the command test.”
Saef sipped his whiskey and nodded again. Apparently not everyone had heard about the command test, because Richard and Grimsby looked sharply up at him, and Anthea Sinclair-Maru, head of Family security, raised her eyebrows in surprise. Cabot and Eldridge just waited without expression, and the holo projection of Kai Sinclair-Maru from his office way out in Hawksgaard remained unchanged. The transmission traveled the great distance out to his location at mere light speed, creating lengthy delays. Two other Family leaders were present only in text form via QE comm. The glowing characters flowed down two walls as Hermes transmitted every word spoken to their locations on distant worlds, reaching them instantaneously.
“Of course,” Bess continued, “this is a chance we have sought for many years, so we must act wisely.”
The central comm chamber lay in two rectangles beneath a high, arched ceiling, one rectangle within the other. The sunken inner rectangle held the large conference table and twenty-two comfortable seats, surrounded by tall parapet walls containing comm screens, holo projectors, and manual input banks. Stairs rose through the parapet walls to the second, larger rectangle surrounding the sunken recess of the conference area. Posh furnishings contrasted with defense stations, shield generators, and tactical computers filling the outer rectangle.
To Saef the chamber had always seemed an oppressive reminder of the Family’s overriding caution.
“What exactly is the situation here?” Grimsby asked in a gruff tone. Several eyes turned toward Saef, but he sipped from his whiskey, settling into a chair pushed far back from the conference table, letting the alcohol warm his tired core. He had suffered enough snubs through the years that he rarely spoke before the Family leadership except when commanded to.
“Saef’s success,” Bess said, “earns a Fleet captaincy.”
An appreciative murmur rose around the table, but Grimsby frowned and Richard audibly sighed, looking upward.
Eldridge alone visibly demonstrated much enthusiasm. “Why, Saef, that’s fabulous! After all these years, finally back in a Fleet command position. Well done indeed.”
“Wait a moment,” Grimsby growled. “A captaincy? Captain of what? We don’t have the cash to cover the outlay for a captain of much.”
Anthea spoke, her face nearly expressionless but her tone reproving. “Grimsby, you must jest. After all this time, finally in Fleet. And just in time for war. Sinclair-Maru, a command position, and war have been the second most profitable combination in Family history.”
“If my brother can finally figure out who to fight, and who to befriend,” Richard interjected with a snort.
Saef saw the flash in Richard’s eyes, but beyond Richard, on the far side of the table, he saw the strange young woman pause in her chewing and stare at Richard with a narrowing gaze.
“You refer to his duel today?” Bess inquired in a mild tone, though Eldridge’s and Anthea’s eyes flashed at Richard’s interjection.
“Of course,” Richard answered, adjusting his sleeve, avoiding the eyes of his elders. Thirty-four was considered a bit young to blurt out opinions in a House leadership meeting.
“What duel?” Eldridge and Anthea asked at the same moment, and even Grimsby turned a puzzled look in Richard’s direction.
Bess waved a hand, and one holo filled with the ratty interior of the demi-cit athletic school. Saef swallowed a gulp of whiskey and felt it burning down his throat. He suddenly found himself wishing he had fought his duel in more visually appealing surroundings.
As Saef watched his own figure on the holo lifting his sword and pointing it at Lars, he was suddenly distracted by another holo where the image of cousin Kai shifted position, smiling brightly and nodding. He must have just received the bit about the Fleet captaincy.
Saef’s gaze drifted back to his own figure blocking the last, desperate strike of the Thorsworld native, ending the fight in one quick motion.
“Well done, well done,” Eldridge said. “In heavy grav, no less.”
Richard made an explosive noise that may have been a stifled laugh. “Since when have the Sinclair-Maru become so ostentatious?”
Saef swallowed his last gulp of whiskey and looked very pointedly at Richard’s fashionable, colorful clothing, then up to his eyes. “When indeed, Richard?”
“I saw no ostentation,” Eldridge said. “That opening challenge was a classic balance attack. Perhaps you recall those, Richard?”
“Let’s move on, please,” Bess commanded. “The duel today has meaning for only one reason that I will share with you in a moment.” She swiped a hand and the holo disappeared.
She placed both hands upon the tabletop and looked at everyone for a still moment. “A Fleet captaincy in wartime is too golden an opportunity for us to miss. I have already agreed to a half-million credit outlay.”
“What?” Richard spluttered. “In Trade we could—” Grimsby covered Richard’s hand with his own, and Richard fell silent, shaking his head.
“A half-million credits?” Grimsby barked. “With even a quarter-million we could obtain the full list from the previous armada for analysis.”
“We’ve heard that more than once,” Anthea snapped. “And we’ve spent millions on Trade without ever reaching the first tier.”
“And we’ve brought millions back into the Family,” Grimsby argued.
“Perhaps breaking even?” Eldridge said.
“What?” Grimsby bit out. “What are you implying?”
They argued like this for some moments, and Saef watched each snarled phrase appearing in glowing text upon the wall, as Hermes dutifully transcribed every heated word. After a moment Saef found the blue eyes of the young woman fixed on him from far across the table. It appeared she had yet another red fruit that she steadily consumed as their eyes locked.
How many of those does she have? Saef wondered. Stashed in the pockets of her cloak? A cloak…? Maybe Claude was right and cloaks really are making a comeback.…
“What sort of ship will you command, Saef?” Anthea asked, jarring Saef from his idle pondering.
“They haven’t said as yet, ma’am,” Saef said.
“Probably a tug,” Grimsby said.
“We’ve been told it will be a light frigate,” Bess said.
All the voices murmured at once, but Grimsby’s cut through: “Told by whom?”
Bess flicked barely a look at Grimsby. “Because of the sort of opportunity we now have, I will spare no effort of energy on obtaining success. That means a cash outlay for crew bonuses, N-space fab patterns, and all the rest.”
“One disaster, Bess, one bad damned moment, and the entire investment’s gone,” Grimsby said.
Bess sighed, looking down at her hands resting on the table. “Listen, we all know the Family is dying. We are dying a slow death.” She held up her hand, darkened and beginning to wrinkle with age. “No one knows this better than I.”
Grimsby looked away uncomfortably. “Bess, we are all aging, too, but with that kind of investment in Trade, we could—”
Bess cut him off. “I have news for Trade, too. Perhaps I should have started with that and avoided all the…pointless discussion.”
Grimsby and Richard shared a look and turned back to Bess.
“Just today I obtained several items from the List…the incoming List.”
Grimsby’s gloomy expression disappeared. “How…how did you—?”
“But we must discuss one last issue of pressing importance to the Family. And this brings us back to today’s duel,” Bess said, turning from the stammering Grimsby. “We received information that today’s duel was an arranged event to eliminate Saef.”
Only Cabot and the strange young woman seemed unfazed by this intelligence. Of course Kai, minutes behind the conversation in Hawksgaard’s asteroid fastness, still frowned over the earlier bickering. And the two leaders attending via QE comm could very well be in matching comas for all their input.
“Apparently we have a rival of some sort who resents this captaincy going to our Family.” All eyes locked on Bess. “The intel I received suggests that they are heavyworlders, and they may attempt to eliminate Saef by any means necessary.”
“This Lars fellow’s family, perhaps?” Grimsby offered but Bess shook her head.
“Bigger than that.”
“This is unheard of! Are they mad?” Eldridge demanded.
“No,” Anthea answered, staring levelly into the invisible distance. “It’s not unheard of…just old-fashioned. We haven’t faced this sort of threat in many, many years.”
“That’s why I want security increased at every level, every Family holding, every Net,” Bess said. “Paranoia is fashionable once again.”
Richard grimaced at the comment, but he was far too caught up with the idea of a true List from the incoming Shaper armada to express any more negativity than that.
“Okay,” Bess said, slapping the table lightly with both hands. “Two opportunities and an apparent enemy developing all at once. We will pursue all three as best we can. I believe it to be the only sensible course. Last word on this, anyone?”
“You’re right,” Cabot said, speaking for the first time. “This rebellion is our chance. We push now and succeed, or we watch while our people fade and die all around us.”
Cabot looked around the room. As the eldest, and the former Family leader, he carried great weight. He nodded, and both QE comm feeds chirped at almost the same moment, spelling out the word AGREED on both screens.
“Very well,” Bess said. “Hermes, push the Shaper List to Grimsby and Richard, please. And if you will all excuse us, I would like to discuss some details of the captaincy with Saef.”
Everyone nodded and stood, moving toward the door, except the strange young woman, Saef, and Bess. The huge doors slid shut with finality.
“Saef, come nearer for an old woman, please. There’s more to tell, and I’m afraid you’re even more likely to be killed than I said.” Bess smiled. “Would you like your dinner now?”