A Rising Thunder-ARC (66 page)

“Whoa! Just slow down, Nathan!” Abruzzi said sharply. “If we start throwing terms like ‘treason’ around now, and start strong-arming
Assembly delegates
before this plebiscite of theirs has even been voted on, the rest of the delegates are going to raise merry hell. Not because they’re all that fond of Beowulf, either! You think they won’t see that as a precedent that could come home to bite
them
, too?”

“I’m not so sure it would be a bad thing if they did,” MacArtney shot back. “If they figure out we’re going to hammer anybody who looks like turning on us, then they’ll probably think twice—or even three times!—about doing just that.”

“This isn’t the Verge, and we’re not talking about OFS protectorates,” Abruzzi said flatly. “We’re talking about Core Worlds. We’re talking about star systems that have the internal industry to build significant navies of their own if the urge strikes them. We’re already looking at a confrontation against somebody whose weapons technology we can’t match, and you want to go around irritating our own star systems into deciding they have to build a military capability to protect themselves from
us?
”

The permanent senior undersecretary of education and information shook his head, his expression incredulous, and MacArtney flushed angrily. He opened his mouth to snap something back, but Kolokoltsov raised one hand in a “stop” gesture.

“Calm down, Nathan. And you, Malachai.” He shook his head. “You and Omosupe and Agatá have raised valid concerns, Nathan. But Malachai has a point, too. If we start resorting to the kind of tactics you’re suggesting, we up the ante for everybody, and right this minute, we can’t afford that.”

“We can’t afford
not
to,” MacArtney replied stubbornly, and Quartermain nodded. Wodoslawski seemed more torn, however, Kolokoltsov noted. “If we don’t get our heel firmly on this kind of thing now, we never will.”

“But Malachai’s right that we
can’t
get our heel on it right now,” Kolokoltsov said inflexibly. “We literally can’t. So if we try to grab Hadley and Carmichael, we only run the risk of alienating the other Core Worlds at a time when our weakness is going to be obvious to everyone. Especially when grabbing Hadley and Carmichael is the
only
thing we can do, because we sure as hell aren’t going to be able to follow through by arresting the
rest
of the Beowulf system government!”

He shook his head.

“No. We can’t make this about whether or not secession is legal. Not now. That’s something we’re going to have to address later, but it’s not anything we want to go anywhere
near
at a moment when we know other Core Worlds are at least considering it.”

“We don’t have any choice,” McCartney began, “and if you think—”

“Wait, Nathan,” Wodoslawski interrupted, gazing intently at Kolokoltsov. The permanent senior undersecretary of the interior looked affronted, but he also closed his mouth, and Wodoslawski cocked her head to one side.

“What did you mean ‘we can’t make this about whether or not secession is legal,’ Innokentiy?” she asked.

“I mean we have to make it about whether or not Beowulf’s actions threaten the security of the League in general and the Core Worlds in particular, instead,” Kolokoltsov replied. “I think we have to take a more or less hands-off position on the entire issue of secession’s legality for the moment. That’s something we should probably hand over to Reid and Neng once they get the inquiry into Beowulf’s collaboration with Manticore underway. I’m sure Reid will be able to come up with a whole stack of legal precedents he can convincingly claim have invalidated a supposed ‘constitutional right’ nobody’s exercised in seven hundred years! Jurisprudence and living constitutional law have moved on, you know.”

He smiled, and Abruzzi actually chuckled out loud. Even MacArtney looked a little more thoughtful.

“At that point,” Kolokoltsov continued, “we argue that secession from the League
isn’t
legal, but for now we formally reserve judgment on the subject. We make it clear we’re not conceding that Beowulf has the right to leave, but that we’re not prepared to make an ugly situation even worse until there’s been time for the courts to rule on whether or not their actions are legal.”

“We let the erring sister go—for now, at least—more in sorrow than in anger, you mean?” Abruzzi asked, his eyes narrowed in thought. “And when we do, we leave ourselves the option of deciding later that Beowulf was wrong and taking whatever remedial action seems appropriate
then?
”

“More or less.” Kolokoltsov nodded. “What I’m trying to do here is to defang the emotional aspects of the issue. I’d love to get this resolved before anybody else starts holding referendums on secession, you understand, but I doubt we’re going to be that lucky. So what I’m looking to do right this minute is to avoid handing any extra ammunition to the people who’d be likely to agitate
for
secession in the referendums we may not be able to prevent in the first place.”

MacArtney and Quartermain still looked profoundly unhappy, but Wodoslawski actually looked a bit hopeful, Kolokoltsov thought.

“All well and good,” MacArtney growled after a moment, “but it doesn’t do diddley about Beowulf right
now
.”

No, and it’s not going to make any of those transstellars any happier with you, either. Not right now, at least
, Kolakowski thought trenchantly.
Unfortunately, all we can do is all we can do!

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t take any action at all against Beowulf, Nathan,” the permanent senior undersecretary for foreign affairs said coolly. “Mind you, I’m not sure what kind of action we’re going to be in a
position
to take, but I’m in favor of doing anything we realistically can. I just don’t want it to be over the legality or illegality of secession at this point.”

“That’s what you meant about not making it about whether or not secession is legal,” Wodoslawski said.

“Exactly.” Kolokoltsov tipped back in his chair. “I think we need to get Kingsford in here, let him take a look at any military options we may have—
workable
military options, I mean—where Beowulf is concerned. If there’s one that will work, I’m entirely in favor of using it, but not because they illegally seceded from the League. At this point what we need to do is to make it over the security threat to the League Beowulf represents because of its association with the League’s avowed enemies. As Omosupe said, everybody knows about Beowulf’s effective proximity to Manticore. That means everybody knows Beowulf does, indeed, represent that ‘invasion highway’ Nathan was talking about. We’d be fully justified in taking military action against
any
star nation that was in a position to enable a Manty invasion of the very heart of the Solarian League. I don’t think they’d be remotely stupid enough to do it, you understand, but we can make an ironclad case for taking action to deprive them of the
capability
to do it. But making certain that they can’t would be a simple matter of self-defense, and one we’d have no choice but to pursue. We’d be derelict in our responsibilities to the rest of the League if we didn’t!”

“Which lets us hammer Beowulf as hard as we want—assuming we can find a way to do it, that is—without ever even touching the question of secession!” Abruzzi said enthusiastically.

“Exactly,” Kolokoltsov repeated. “And, Nathan, there’s no way anyone out in the Shell who might be thinking in terms of seceding is going to miss the subtext. There won’t be a single official word about secession in anything we have to say on the subject, but everyone will hear it anyway.”

“And once the immediate furor dies down, Reid and Neng’s committee reports back that Beowulf’s actions were
treasonous before it seceded,” Wodoslawski said thoughtfully.

“
After
which Reid produces the precedents to establish that the right of secession’s lapsed with the passage of time,” Abruzzi said, nodding energetically.

There was silence for several seconds, then MacArtney shrugged irritably.

“I don’t like it,” he grumbled. “We’re still pussyfooting around the issue, and a lot of people are going to realize it.”

“I agree with you, Nathan,” Quartermain said, “but I think Innokentiy and Malachai have made some valid points, too.” She shrugged. “Given the practical limits on what we can actually
do
at the moment, I’m afraid I’m going to have to side with them.
But
”—she glared suddenly at the others—“whatever our justification for going after Beowulf, we need to do it just as hard and just as quickly as humanly possible. Because Nathan’s got a point, too, people. The situation in the Verge is going to go straight to hell on us, no matter what we do, but the last thing we need is to have the Shell going up in flames right along with it. We need to get a handle on this, and we need to do it fast!”

* * *

“You’re kidding me,” Irene Teague said, staring at Daud al-Fanudahi. The two of them sat on benches across a small outdoor table from one another, eating their lunch as the warm summer sun spilled down across them. Lake Michigan’s waters stretched limitlessly towards the horizon below the restaurant perched on a two hundredth-floor balcony of the Admiralty building, and gaily colored sails and powerboats dotted that dark blue expanse as far as the eye could see.

Not that either of them was in much of a mood to appreciate the view at the moment.

“I wish I were.” al-Fanudahi sounded entirely too calm for Teague’s mood, and she glared at him.

“Calmly, Irene,” he said, gazing serenely past her towards the lake water so far below. “I don’t think anyone’s listening to us out here, but I’d just as soon not give anyone a reason to think they
should
be listening to us, if you know what I mean.”

Teague looked at him for a moment longer, then nodded and reached for her own fork.

“Granted,” she said. “But I stand by my original reaction.
Please
tell me you were just making a really bad joke.”

“Wish I were,” he repeated with a sigh. “Unfortunately, the official request for intelligence updates will be coming through this afternoon sometime. As far as I can see, they’re very serious about it.”

“After what happened to
Filareta?
” She scooped up a forkful of delicious tuna salad and chewed without tasting it at all. “I knew Rajampet wasn’t what anyone would’ve called brilliant, but I thought Kingsford had a working brain!”

“As far as I can tell, he does,” al-Fanudahi replied. “I don’t know that this is his idea, either. But given the kinds of intelligence data they’re going to be requesting, there’s no question what they’re looking at.”

“A military operation against Beowulf?” She shook her head. “That’s got to be the worst idea I’ve heard since Operation Raging Justice itself!”

“I don’t know.” Al-Fanudahi shrugged. “It depends on the mission parameters and the available resources, I guess.”

“
Mission
parameters?” She rolled her eyes at him. “Just what sort of ‘mission parameters’ are going to make our superdreadnoughts survivable against
their
superdreadnoughts, Daud?”

“None that I can think of right off hand,” al-Fanudahi conceded. “But the evidence from the merchies who’ve been passing through Beowulf since Raging Justice does seem to suggest that the Manty forces in Beowulf space are concentrated around the terminus, not the planet.”

“So what?” Teague demanded. “Superdreadnoughts are
mobile
, you know!”

“Yes, and the Beowulf System Defense Force is a nasty handful all on its own, which doesn’t even consider the system’s fixed defenses,” al-Fanudahi agreed. “What I suspect our lords and masters are thinking about is that the Manties
appear
to be trying to avoid stepping on any Solarian sensibilities, especially until the final tally is in on Beowulf’s plebiscite. It may be politics on their part, for all I know.”

“Politics?”

“If they want to encourage other star systems to follow Beowulf’s example—to encourage the fragmentation of the League—they’d want to avoid any suggestion that they’re using force majeure to turn Beowulf into some sort of Manty puppet régime, don’t you think? One way to do that would to be to let Beowulf defend Beowulfan space while
they
defend the terminus, instead of putting a batch of their wallers into Beowulf orbit. It avoids the appearance of iron fist pressure on Beowulf’s voters at a particularly delicate moment…and just happens to put their superdreadnoughts a couple of light-hours away from Beowulf itself.”

“You mean Kingsford and Bernard are thinking in terms of pouncing on Beowulf—coming straight in across the hyper limit and going flat out for the planet—before any Manty forces at the terminus can intervene?”

“I think that’s about the only thing they
could
be thinking of,” al-Fanudahi said. “I don’t know if it would work, but assuming Beowulf hasn’t been completely surrounded by new and nasty missile pods, a big enough force of superdreadnoughts, especially with enough of the new Technodyne missile pods, probably could fight its way in through the BSDF and the fixed defenses. And once they controlled the planetary orbitals, they’d be justified under interstellar law in demanding the system’s surrender.”

“And exactly where in this fascinating analysis of yours do the
Manty
superdreadnoughts come in?” Teague inquired politely. “You know, the ones over at the terminus? The ones who are going to come right back over to Beowulf and kick our sorry asses out of the star system?”

“Oh,
those
superdreadnoughts?” Al-Fanudahi smiled crookedly at her. “Well, I suppose the idea would be that once the system government surrendered to us, we’d announce special emergency elections—called at the insistence of the Beowulfan public, of course—in light of the existing Board of Directors’ high-handed and probably treasonous actions. And no doubt that new, legitimate system government would denounce the
previous
system government’s decision to even consider seceding from the Solarian League. Obviously, it would be incumbent upon us to recognize new, legitimate—I did mention that it would be
legitimate
, didn’t I?—system government’s position. And, equally obviously, Manticore would be on very thin ice when it came to
denying
the legitimacy of that new system government, given their desire to avoid the puppet master image. So the logic, I imagine, is that since what Manticore really needs is control of the Beowulf
Terminus
, the Manties would recognize a fait accompli when they saw it and let us have the Beowulf
System
back.”