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  “If you don’t mind my saying this…” said the general. “My government has taken unofficial notice of the fact that Cinnabar citizens were a major factor in bringing about this desirable state of affairs. This has been to the benefit of your government in the discussions.”

  I wonder how Midshipman Hale would have felt about that? But that was a foolish question: you did all the important thinking before you took the RCN oath. After that you went where you were sent and took your chances.

  Daniel gave a short laugh. Storn raised an eyebrow again, his hands still.

  “Midshipman Hale wasn’t on active RCN duty when she was killed,” Daniel explained. “She volunteered to follow me to the Tarbell Stars. I am quite certain that she was aware of the risks of her decision.”

  “She was aboard the Triomphante, was she not?” said Storn, proving how little he had left to chance in planning this meeting. He took the flask again and removed the cap. “Then I suggest we drink to her memory before I go off on my business.”

  “Yes,” said Daniel. “I’ll certainly drink to that.”

  * * *

  “Mistress Forbes!” said Adele. She grimaced and corrected herself: “Your apology, Minister Forbes.”

  “Come in and sit down, Mundy,” Forbes said from a wooden couch. She patted the seat beside her. “And shut the door. Your Tovera is welcome also. She isn’t going to repeat what she hears, and I’m not worried about her shooting me unless you tell her to.”

  Adele walked in. The hall was paneled in dark wood to mid-height and was white-washed above that. The ceiling was steeply arched with exposed beams. There was a display of projectile weapons—old ones—on the wall at the far end, and rigging suits in niches at the corners. The suits looked fake to Adele, though she would have to get closer to be sure.

  Behind her, Tovera said, “She doesn’t need me to shoot you, Minister. I think I’ll go talk with the commander.”

  Adele looked over her shoulder. Tovera grinned and hefted her sub-machine gun by the pistol grip. “I make him nervous, which is fun to watch.”

  Tovera closed the door behind her. Her mistress had more important things to think about now than what happened to minor officials who had once insulted Mundy of Chatsworth.

  Adele sat at the other end of the couch from the minister. It creaked and was no more comfortable than it had looked; in particular, the top back railing projected inward and caught Adele across the shoulder blades. She shifted slightly so that she was leaning on her arm rather than her back.

  “I took the place for privacy rather than comfort,” Forbes said with a smile. “Some of the other rooms may have better furnishings, if you’d like to move?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Adele said. “What do you want with me?”

  Forbes smiled, then said, “First, to tell you that the Senate sent me here with full authority to negotiate an amendment to the Treaty of Amiens. The arrangements I have agreed have already been approved in closed session by the Senate, and therefore by the Republic.”

  “Go on,” Adele said. “I’ve never been concerned with political maneuverings except as they touch me personally.”

  As when my immediate family was proscribed, executed, and their heads displayed on Speaker’s Rock. Everyone but me, because I had just left to finish my education on a world of the Alliance.

  “Second,” Forbes said, “Mistress Sand is aware of my remit and is in favor of the proposed settlement—if I was able to negotiate it.”

  Forbes smiled slightly. From what Adele had seen, the minister’s relations with Mistress Sand were professional rather than collegial; which was good enough, of course.

  “Mistress Sand told me that she doubted whether I would be able to reach the hoped-for agreement,” Forbes continued. “Thanks to you and Captain Leary, I have been able to do so.”

  “Go on,” Adele repeated. She didn’t like to hear someone crowing about getting the better of Mistress Sand, but Forbes was giving information. She would give more if Adele continued to act as a good listener.

  “The Tarbell Stars will shortly align themselves with the Alliance of Free Stars,” Forbes said. Her quick smile was forced, and Adele could see the tightness in the older woman’s cheeks. “The Republic has no pressing interests in the Tarbell Stars, so we’re giving up nothing of significance.”

  Except the principle of parity on which the Treaty of Amiens is founded, Adele thought.

  “I see,” Adele said aloud. “Go on.”

  “Yes,” said Forbes. “I don’t believe you were in the audience hall on Karst when I brought the Republic’s greetings to the new Headman, were you, Mundy?”

  “No,” said Adele, “but I watched and recorded the events as they occurred.”

  Headman Hieronymous had been a boy when he succeeded his uncle, Headman Terl, a close ally of Cinnabar for thirty years. His advisors had suggested that Hieronymous assert his own personality in dealing with the Cinnabar delegation, headed by Senator Elisabeth Forbes.

  “I’m sure you haven’t forgotten the way we were treated,” Forbes said. “But though you watched, the insults were sharper to those of us in the hall receiving them. I think Captain Leary would agree with me. Insults to the Republic, but to us personally as well.”

  “Yes,” Adele said. “I presume you’re correct.”

  “Because of the war between us and the Alliance at the time,” Forbes said, “the Republic couldn’t teach Karst the lesson the Headman’s behavior deserved. And because of the terms of the Treaty of Amiens, we couldn’t deal with Karst afterwards either.”

  “I see,” said Adele. Pieces were falling together in her mind. They formed a structure from what had moments before been a pile of disparate, generally unpleasant, incidents.

  “The Tarbell Stars were General Storn’s quid pro quo for giving Cinnabar a free hand to deal with Karst,” Forbes said, smiling. “The considerable help which Cinnabar personnel provided in quashing General Krychek’s attempted coup permitted Storn to convince his superiors. More accurately, his superior.”

  “I’m pleased to hear that news,” Adele said. I’m pleased that you’re not a buffoon, that Mistress Sand hasn’t lost her mind, and that Midshipman Hale really did die in the service of the Republic of Cinnabar…unlike what I believed a few minutes ago.

  “Speaking as the Minister of Defense,” Forbes said, “I am informing you that Captain Leary is being recalled to Cinnabar and to active duty. There will be formal orders to that effect before close of business, but I would appreciate it if you would inform Leary of the situation when you next see him.”

  “Thank you,” said Adele, rising to her feet. “Am I dismissed, Minister?”

  “You are,” said Forbes, who also got up. “Commander Huxford will return you to where he picked you up. Whereas I will take a hot bath, because the water lines to the suites of the Themis cracked on the third day out!”

  EPILOGUE

  Huxford rode back to the Triomphante’s dock with Adele and Tovera, but none of them spoke. Either Tovera had wearied of her game, or she had caught the air of cheerful excitement as Adele came out of the building. It would probably have been all right to speak in front of the commander, but there wasn’t any reason to do so.

  The aircar lifted from the dock as soon as Adele and Tovera had gotten out. At the sound of the fans, Daniel, Pasternak and Hogg came out of the construction office; Daniel waved and started toward them with Hogg a pace behind.

  Adele paused and looked up at the damaged cruiser. “When I was younger,” she said quietly to Tovera, “I would have believed that if the Montcalm’s transmitter had worked, I would be dead and Hale would be alive.”

  “And me dead as well,” Tovera said with a shrug. “You and Six would have been on the bridge of this one—”

  She nodded toward the Triomphante.

  “—and Hale would still have been in the BDC, as safe as if she was back on Xenos.”

  “Perhaps,” Adele said. “Perhaps. As
I’ve gained experience of the world, I’ve come to realize that book solutions aren’t the only things that can happen. Daniel might have been more alert to the Ithaca’s missiles than Captain Joycelyn was. Sun would probably have transferred with Daniel to the cruiser and might have been more alert than the Triomphante’s gunner. And our defensive fire might have diverted the missile into our stern instead of our bow.”

  Tovera shrugged. “I suppose,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter to me, except that I have to replace a sub-machine gun.”

  Tovera looked at the cruiser again and grinned. “It was a tool,” she said. “There are thousands just like it. Tools break and you replace them; or you break and somebody replaces you. We all break eventually.”

  “Yes,” Adele said. “That’s quite true. I need to stick to facts and not speculate. I’m not very good at speculation.”

  “How did your meeting go, Officer Mundy?” Daniel said. He was smiling, but Adele could see that he wasn’t relaxed.

  “Quite well, Daniel,” Adele said. “The Minister of Defense informed me that we—all of us, I gather, though she didn’t mention the Princess Cecile specifically—are recalled to Cinnabar and active duty. Formal orders are coming shortly.”

  “Indeed,” Daniel said, still expectant. “Did she say what sort of duty we can expect on our return?”

  “My understanding is that we may have dealings with Karst,” Adele said. “I don’t have any details as yet, but I hope to learn more shortly. I expect that matters will proceed in a more satisfactory fashion than they did when we called at Karst a few years ago.”

  “You know,” Daniel said, “I don’t think I could’ve heard anything that would have made me happier,” he said. He was beaming.

  “The minister also mentioned that the internal water pipes of the Themis broke on the way here,” Adele said. “I suppose they’ll be repaired by now.”

  Daniel shrugged. “Not necessarily,” he said. “The trouble with communications ships is that they mostly sit in harbor, but when they’re used, they’re strained way beyond the norm. Remember the air-handlers in the Aggie’s bow section?”

  “I was a civilian when you came to Kostroma aboard the Aglaia, Daniel,” Adele said quietly. “I was a civilian librarian at the time.”

  “I forgot,” Daniel said. “That was really a long time ago, wasn’t it?”

  Adele nodded. “A lifetime,” she said.

  “Well, what I was saying,” he went on, “is that you get whole systems going out. They’ll fix the leak, sure, but there’s a good chance the lines will break somewhere else as soon as they make a few insertions and extractions.”

  Adele felt herself smiling, something she did very rarely. This seemed a suitable time to smile, though. She said, “Do you think we could get back to Cinnabar more quickly than the Themis could, Daniel?”

  “Umm?” he said. “Under Captain Murgatroyd, isn’t she? Murgatroyd’s quite good—she wouldn’t be captain of a communications ship if she weren’t—but I know this region of the Matrix better than she does. At worst we could give the Themis a run…and I think we might be able to do better than that. Though I say it who shouldn’t.”

  “Then I suggest we offer Minister Forbes the option of making the voyage on a ship whose water pipes have always behaved properly,” Adele said. “Does that seem reasonable?”

  Daniel laughed. “It does indeed!” he said. “If you’ll make the offer on behalf of the owner of the yacht Princess Cecile, I’ll see about getting our crew back aboard. Fortunately, I’ve got most of them right here, working on the Triomphante!”