Everybody’s always curious about me.she borrowed the habitat’s external senses to observe local space. They were in Mirchusko’s umbra, with Choisya and Falsia hovering just above the gas giant’s crescent horizon. Apart from the flotilla of blackhawks on patrol around the habitat’s shell, there was little spaceship activity. The Oenone was the first starship to arrive in seventy-six hours. Some MSVs and personnel commuters continued to glide between the counter-rotating spaceport and Tranquillity’s bracelet of industrial stations, but they were running a much reduced flight schedule. A lone dazzle-point of fusion flame was rising up past the drab grey loop of the Ruin Ring, an He3 tanker en route from the habitat’s cloudscoop to the spaceport. Program the squadron’s arrival into the SD platforms,she said. And warn the blackhawks, we don’t want any mistakes.
Naturally.
Meredith Saldana. That’s two family visits in less than a month.
I don’t think this is a family visit.
You’re probably right.
It was a suspicion which was proved unpleasantly correct soon after Syrinx and the admiral were shown into the audience chamber of De Beauvoir Palace. As she listened to Meredith Saldana explain the proposed ambush of Capone’s fleet at Toi-Hoi a swarm of ambiguous feelings lay siege to her mind.
I don’t want to involve us in front line campaigns,she confided to Tranquillity.
To be pedantic, we’re in the campaign, not the front line itself. And the eradication of the Organization fleet is not a strategic opportunity which can be overlooked.
No choice?
No choice.
I still think we’re too important for this.
But safe. The safest place in the Confederation, remember that.
We hope. I’d hate to put that to the test, right now.
I don’t see how it will. Not from this action. We will essentially be a supply and rendezvous base.
“Very well,” she told the admiral. “You have my permission to use Tranquillity for your task force’s port station. I’ll see that you get all the He3 you need.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Meredith said.
“I’m slightly concerned by this flight restriction you wish to place on starships until the ambush, although I do appreciate the logic behind it. I currently have over twenty blackhawks deploying sensor satellites around the orbit where the Laymil home planet used to be. It’s extremely important research work. I’d hate to see it jeopardized.”
“They would only have to be recalled for three or four days at the most,” Syrinx said. “Our scheduling is very tight, here. Surely a small delay wouldn’t effect the research too much?”
“I’ll recall them for now. But if you’re still here after a week, I’ll have to review the policy. As I said, this is part of the effort to find an overall solution. That is not to be regarded lightly.”
“Believe me, we don’t, ma’am,” Meredith said.
She stared at him, trying to work out what was going on behind his blue eyes. But his answering stare offered no clue. “I have to say, I find it ironic that Tranquillity has become so important to the Confederation and the Kingdom after all this time,” she said.
“Ironic or pleasing? Chance has finally brought you the chance to vindicate your grandfather’s actions.”
There was no humour in his tone, which surprised her. She’d assumed he would be more sympathetic than Prince Noton. “You think Grandfather Michael was wrong?”
“I think he was wrong to pursue such an unorthodox course.”
“Unorthodox to the family, perhaps. But I assure you it’s not chance which has brought us together. This whole situation will prove how right he was to act on his foresight.”
“I wish you every success.”
“Thank you. And who knows, one day I might earn your approval, too.”
For the first time, he produced a grudging smile. “You don’t like losing arguments, do you, Cousin Ione?”
“I am a Saldana.”
“That much is painfully obvious.”
“As are you. I don’t think every Confederation admiral would have coped as well as you at Lalonde.”
“I did not cope well. I ensured my squadron survived; most of it, anyway.”
“A Confederation officer’s first duty is to follow orders. Second duty is to the crew. So I believe,” she said. “As your original orders didn’t cover what you encountered, I’d say you did all right.”
“Lalonde was . . . difficult,” he said heavily.
“Yes. I know all about Lalonde from Joshua Calvert.”
Syrinx, who had been looking considerably ill at ease while the two Saldanas conducted their verbal fencing, glanced sharply at Ione, her eyebrows raised in interest.
“Oh, yes,” Meredith reflected. “Lagrange Calvert. Who could forget him?”
“Is he here?” Syrinx asked. “This is his registered port.”
“He’s away at the moment, I’m afraid,” Ione told her. “But I’m expecting him back any day now.”
“Good.”
Ione couldn’t quite fathom the Edenist’s attitude. Why do you think she’s interested in Joshua?
I have no idea. Unless she wants to punch him on the nose for Puerto de Santa Maria.
I doubt it. She’s an Edenist, they don’t do things like that. You don’t suppose she and Joshua . . . ?
I doubt it. She’s an Edenist, they have more taste.
Athene didn’t want him to come to the house. It would be too upsetting for the children, she explained. Though they both knew it was she who was discomforted by the whole idea; keeping him away was a way of establishing a psychological barrier.
Instead, she chose one of the spaceport reception lounges in the habitat’s endcap. There was nobody else in the spacious room when she arrived, not that there could be any mistake. The hulking figure was sitting on a deep settee in front of the long window, watching service crews bustling around the voidhawks on their pedestals outside. It was a squadron assigned to assist the Kulu Kingdom in the Mortonridge Liberation campaign, one of them would soon be transporting him to Ombey.
I missed this,he said, not turning around, I watched the voidhawks through the sensitive cells, of course, but I still miss this. The habitat perception doesn’t provide any sense of urgency. And my emotions were not suppressed exactly, but less colourful, not so keenly felt. Do you know, I think I’m actually becoming excited.
She walked over to the settee, an extraordinary sense of trepidation simmering in her mind. The figure stood, revealing its true height, several centimetres taller than she. As with all Tranquillity serjeants, its exoskeleton was a faint ruddy colour, although a good forty per cent of its body was covered in bright green medical nanonic packages. It held up both hands, and turned them around, studying them intently, its eyes just visible at the back of their protective slits.