Severyne
“Join the pursuit!” Immental shouted from the screen. “Transit the wormhole and go after this Vermilion !”
“I will do so if that is your order,” Severyne said calmly. “I would, however, advise against such an action.”
“Capturing Terrak is your only priority! What else should you be doing?”
“Waiting for Amina Azad to show up on this side of the wormhole, admiral.”
Immental frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I know Azad. She would not reveal her position this way. Appeals to the good will and good sense of the public are not in her nature.”
“But the Hacan – Azad can’t necessarily control him. He could have done it on his own. Maybe he even left Azad behind when he got this new ship.”
“I acknowledge the possibility,” Severyne said. “Which is why I am happy to let Duval rush off in pursuit of the vessel. I do not, personally, believe Azad and Terrak are even on the Vermilion . Perhaps I am wrong, and Duval will capture them – if so, Voyou will see to it that our interests are secured, and nothing will be lost. But if I am right… if this transmission is part of a scheme, and a distraction… we should not leave the wormhole unguarded. I think Terrak and Azad are still on their way. They know about Duval’s forces – Azad spoke to them from Huntsman’s Moon. They don’t know the Barony is involved, though. They will never expect us to be waiting here, ready to pounce when they appear.”
“That… may be so,” Immental said. “And I suppose by the time you caught up with the Vermilion , everything would be over anyway. Assuming Duval can even intercept the ship.”
“I believe his competence will extend that far, admiral. His ship is quite swift; I’ve used it myself. I will remain here, with your permission, and report if we detect any sign of the fugitives.”
“Very well.” Immental started to turn away, then looked back at the screen. “Captain Dampierre… Severyne… you haven’t asked me about the contents of that video. The Hacan spy’s outlandish claims.”
“It seems self-evident to me that Terrak is either suffering from paranoid delusions or making up an outrageous story to distract from his own guilt. Is there reason to think otherwise?”
“No,” Immental said. “That is our assessment as well.”
“At least he didn’t tell the actual truth – that he’s secretly a Barony agent. That would have been embarrassing for us. As it stands, Terrak has only embarrassed himself.”
“Yes,” the admiral said. “Indeed. Well said.”
Severyne affected a slightly confused look. “I am curious, though – do we know why Terrak and Azad actually want to visit this Coalition colony world? If there is no conspiracy, no cure to administer, what business could they possibly have with Fleet Captain Harlow?”
Immental said, “I… should think it’s obvious. Terrak committed a murder at a summit, doubtless intended to disrupt the Coalition. Now, he plans to attack Harlow, an architect of the Union, to further throw the proceedings into chaos.”
“Ah. Yes. That does make sense. But admiral… if their aim is to weaken the Greater Union… why are we trying to stop them?”
For just a moment, Immental’s expression was disturbingly blank. Then she narrowed her eyes and said, “Terrak is a rogue Barony asset, and your mission is to capture him, not to speculate about his plans, or the infinitely more complex and subtle plans of your superiors.”
“Of course, admiral. My apologies.”
“Get Terrak. I’ll await your report.”
The screen flickered off.
Severyne swiveled back and forth in her chair. Such nervous habits were unseemly in an officer of her rank and distinction, but there was no one here to see it, so she indulged. She was surprised to discover she missed Voyou. They’d gone through a lot together, including surviving a deathtrap created by an ancient alien tyrant, and as a result, he was one of the few people in the galaxy she felt comfortable talking with. Having someone to share ideas with was helpful in developing new and better ideas. She had so much to think about now. Like the fact that the admiral seemed to be–
Someone knocked at her door. Actually knocked, instead of calling ahead. She frowned, slid open a drawer, and wrapped her fingers around the grip of a pistol. “Come,” she called.
The door slid open, and Calred stepped in, ducking his head so he wouldn’t hit it on the way through. Severyne found the presence of a Hacan in her ready room as incongruous as seeing a toad on a dinner plate. The two of them had shared a ship before, when he was her prisoner, and she’d liked him better when he wasn’t allowed to wander about. Sadly, locking him up now would only strain her partnership with Duval, so Calred retained his irritating liberty. “What do you want?” she said.
“Just to talk over recent events.” He sat down in a chair without asking permission. The top button of his uniform jacket was undone. The Mentak were so slovenly . “I heard about the Vermilion . You think it’s a trick, right? Amina Azad doesn’t leave a trail that wide and easy to follow.”
Slovenly, yes, but quicker on the uptake than Admiral Immental, which was the problem. Immental was reckoned the finest tactical and strategic mind in the Barony. That was the reason her support of the Legion initiative was so successful, even though such an alliance went against basic Letnev principles of superiority and self-reliance. A ruse like Azad’s shouldn’t have taken the admiral in. She’d lost a step. The question was, why? The pressures of the upcoming summit on Arc Prime? Or something more sinister? She was increasingly concerned that the admiral was compromised, and if that were true, it meant a great many other things were probably true, too.
Severyne didn’t say any of that. She said, “The beads woven into your mane look very stupid.”
Calred chuckled. “I’m eager to take fashion advice from the Letnev. I understand the bold new look on Arc Prime this season is a splash of dark gray to accent all the black. So. We’re going to stay parked right here and wait for Azad to wander into our clutches, I assume?”
“That is my intention. Will you tell your captain that he’s almost certainly off on a pointless adventure?”
The Hacan crossed one leg over the other, getting even more comfortable in a chair that was designed to make comfort as difficult to achieve as possible in the absence of literal spikes. “Nah, I don’t think so. Someone has to check the Vermilion anyway, just on the off chance Terrak and Azad are on board, and if I told Felix I thought it was a fool’s errand, I’d just sap his enthusiasm. Felix does better work when he’s fully committed.”
“I can’t tell if you’re being loyal or disloyal to your captain,” Severyne mused.
“I’m being practical, which is usually better than either of those. How about all this mind-control-spore stuff Terrak spouted? What do you think about it?”
“I think it’s irrelevant to my mission.”
Calred snorted. “You can do the obedient-little-Letnev routine with me if you like, I don’t mind, but we’re in here alone, Severyne, and I’ve seen you try to murder people with a stick . You can talk freely with me.”
Severyne allowed herself to smile. “Our shared history as enemies creates a degree of closeness between us, then? In some ways, we are closer than friends? I have heard that position espoused before. I think believing it is a good way to get knifed in the back. But I will assume you speak in good faith, and offer my answer in greater detail: I have no reason to believe that a secret conspiracy is using weaponized Arborec spores to mind-control people in order to manipulate galactic politics. It is the sort of extraordinary claim that I will not credit until I see real evidence.” She left unspoken her determination to discover that evidence, if it existed.
“Sensible Sev,” Calred said. “How long do you think before Azad pops through the wormhole?”
“If I were her, I wouldn’t wait long. I’d begin the journey as soon as the bait was released and your captain went racing after it. She’s probably on her way now.”
“We need our guy alive,” Calred said. “So, no blasting them out of the sky, right?”
“I also wish to recover my target intact.”
“Right. What was I thinking? You wouldn’t kill Azad from a distance anyway. You’d want to do that up close, right?” He showed his teeth. “Though you’d probably have a hard time deciding whether to kill her or kiss her, if the way you two looked at each other last time is any–”
“You are dismissed, Calred. I will let you know if your services are needed further.”
He gave her a lazy Mentak-style salute and sauntered out.
Severyne went back to swiveling in her chair. A conversation with Calred wasn’t as good as talking to Voyou, but it was better than talking to herself, and had, indeed, clarified certain factors in her mind. She had a mission to fulfill… but she also had a responsibility , to serve the best interests of the Letnev people, and, of course, to look after her own future prospects. It would be a delicate balance, but Severyne thrived in dynamic situations.