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“Was it worth it?” Atkinson asked, voice bitter.
“The Covey successfully achieved orbit and has rendezvoused with the representatives from Earth. Transfer of the nerve agent is underway. Yes, Councilor, I would say it was worth it.” Phalkon’s pronouncement was blander than usual.
“You didn’t just lose half of your most capable ships to an avoidable accident!”
“Need I remind you, Councilor, this accident was a result of poor training and failure to follow basic safety procedures?”
“You stupid bitch, are you blaming me for this disaster?”
Phalkon’s voice didn’t change tone.
“Not at all, Councilor. I’m sure you’ve had far more important considerations than the minutiae of crew expertise, and you will take every step necessary to ensure it never happens again, starting with the staff immediately below you. Our faith in your ability to manage your Councillorship is undiminished, you see. For now.”
Phalkon abruptly turned and walked out of the meeting, leaving a still-incoherent Atkinson in her wake.
The Empress’ private chambers weren’t far from the council room, though Phalkon had to pass through three increasingly-stringent security checkpoints along the way.
“Enter,” the Empress called and the door opened.
Newling’s rooms weren’t opulent; in fact, they bordered on spartan. But when she could lay claim to anything within the largest and wealthiest off-Earth nation with a word, surrounding herself with baubles and trinkets seemed unnecessary.
“How did they react?”
“Most of them accepted my presence as yours, though Atkinson did address me most disrespectfully.”
“And what did you do?”
“I did as you suggested, Empress, didn’t react, and left the meeting.”
“Good, well done. We’ll manage these worthless jackals better if we can keep them off balance. I know how I am, and I’m not about to change now. You, however, are a clean slate, a relative unknown, so...”
“So if I seem more sympathetic and approachable, we can find the snakes in our midst. A venerable and proven technique, Empress.”
Newling nodded.
“As for the mission, the Covey is receiving the agent now and should be returning to Artemis by the end of the day.” Phalkon’s usually placid demeanor crinkled in thought. “What of the message from the Federation? Their embargo?”
“Illegal and unenforceable,” Newling said, dismissing it. “Contact the UE and add it to the complaint against the Federation and ask for a summary judgement.”
“And if they fire upon the Covey?”
“Ensure they do not.”
*
“TOTAL EMBARGO? ARE you sure?”
“That’s what the Admiral told me, Autumn.”
“Damn, Chief. That’s more than I dreamed of!”
Stone’s avatar nodded, which was a bit off-putting. The Q-Net system Mac had secretly installed didn’t have the computational power for full holograms, so it was just her head and neck floating in mid-air. Autumn thought about turning off the feature but then, as she had every other time, put it aside.
“Quite. I’d be minding my p’s and q’s right now, though. Odds are better’n average that they’re going to have to do something. I’d lay money on that bloody cow who calls herself ‘Empress’ getting aggro and moving against you, sooner rather than later.”
“Sharon and Nour are working on a defense plan.”
“Yeah, that won’t be good enough. You don’t have the bodies.”
“What do we do, then?”
“Attack.”
“Chief?”
“Attack. They outnumber you, what, three-to-one?”
“About that.”
“And they have all the ships. They probably think they can just cut you off and let you wither on the vine.”
“They can’t. We have most of the food production, which also gives us plenty of air exchange capacity, and water isn’t a problem either.”
“And how long until your citizens of Free Luna get restless and long for a return to normal? It won’t take long until the fools who supported Vasilia get brave and start talking about how things were better under her and shouldn’t they just go back to the way it was, and you can’t crack down on them or you’ll be just as bad as she is.”
“I know, but attack?”
“They have two advantages: bodies and ships.”
“Yeah, you said that already.”
“But we’re going to take care of their ships. They can’t get close to you, not if we have anything to say about it.”
“That still leaves bodies.”
“Which is cancelled by the element of surprise. Besides, I’d wager that a sizeable chunk won’t fight, either because they don’t care or they’re actually hoping you’ll win.”
“You might be right.”
“I’m a bloody Master Chief, of course I’m right!”
Newling laughed, a relatively rare occurrence for the chief executive of the emerging government of Free Luna.
“That’s better. You have to lighten up occasionally, Autumn, or you’re going to turn into your cousin. Now, let’s start planning.”