Offices of the Supreme Council for the Preservation of the Faith, city of McNair, Commitment planet
“They’d have had a damn good reason to waste one of their precious landers like that,” Jeremiah Polk said. “The NRA and the Revival are gambling and gambling big, and we don’t know why.”
“Let’s be realistic, Chief Councillor,” Viktor Solomatin, the Hammer of Kraa’s councillor for foreign relations, said. “The only people who can help that heretic scum are the Federated Worlds, but with Caroline Ferrero as moderator, that will never happen.”
Polk leaned forward to look Solomatin right in the face. “Care to back that up, Councillor?” he said.
“That’s why I wanted to see you, Chief Councillor. The Fed charge d’affaires has just forwarded me a personal message from Caroline Ferrero. She wants to know whether we would agree to a cease-fire.”
“Kraa! The woman hasn’t wasted any time,” Polk said. He took a deep breath to control a sudden rush of excitement. “She’s been moderator for what … a week?” He paused to think. “Two questions,” he went on. “Why would the Feds propose a cease-fire, and why would we agree to one?” Again he stopped, a finger tapping his lips. “That said,” Polk said, “I think we know the answer to the first question.”
“One of my staff members summed it up nicely: Caroline Ferrero is the right appeaser at the right time.”
“So it seems, but should we agree to a cease-fire?”
“The Feds always believed they would defeat the Hammer of Kraa. It was an article of faith, but when we dropped antimatter warheads into Fed nearspace-” Solomatin’s voice was animated now, his eyes glistening, his excitement unmistakable. “-we destroyed that belief. Ferrero doesn’t think the Feds can win, not anymore. That gives us the leverage to accept their offer, but on our terms, not-”
Polk’s hand came up. “What terms?” he said.
“The Feds must halt their fleet rebuilding program; they must terminate all research into weaponizing antimatter and agree to verification inspections.”
Polk frowned, unconvinced. “The Feds will never agree to that,” he said. “Even they aren’t that stupid.”
“They’re frightened. Trust me; they’ll agree.”
“Morons,” Polk said; he shook his head dismissively. “The Fed fleet’s still a serious threat; given enough time to rebuild, it could defeat us. So I cannot understand why Ferrero’s being so lily-livered. She doesn’t have to be.”
“It doesn’t matter why. We need to negotiate hard to keep the Feds as weak as possible until the Hendrik Island antimatter plant comes online, which it will as long as we keep the Pascanicians happy.”
Polk looked hard at Solomatin. “I though we were keeping them happy,” he said.
“Oh, we are,” Solomatin replied. “We can’t afford not to.”
“No, we can’t,” Polk said, his eyes glittering in anticipation, “and if we have to tolerate those bloodsucking assholes to get our new antimatter plant, then that’s what we’ll do. And when it’s operational, the Federated Worlds will never threaten the security of the Hammer of Kraa Worlds again.”