Katya's World (26 page)

The Yagizban were tooling for war, there was no other possibility.
And who could the war be against if not the FMA and all the rest of the world’s people it represented and protected?

Then the lift compartment finished its travel across the work area and moved back into the bland tunnels. Katya’s mind was racing. Who could she tell?
Uncle Lukyan?
He was a great man in his own way, but what could he do?
If she told Petrov, she’d put his life in peril
,
along with the rest of his crew. She clenched her fists with frustration. This was crazy. The planet was on the brink of civil war and then into the mix comes the
Leviathan
. Perhaps the Yagizban fleet would be enough to defeat it. But then what? Uncle Lukyan said they’d left Earth in the first place to leave the politics behind. Now it seemed they had brought it with them on their boots.

Her train of thought was brought to an abrupt end as the car stopped and opened its doors. Beyond lay the FP-1’s bridge. Katya had imagined something like the bridge of the
Vodyanoi
or the
Novgorod
and was unprepared for what she found.

It made sense that the bridge was going to be a little larger, but the scale of it amazed and awed her. It was a great sprawling room, full of military and bureaucratic uniforms striding around with such a sense of purpose that she felt immediately that she was making herself obvious by the very act of standing still. Putting her head down and trying to look as if she had as much right to be there as anybody she walked out of the lift.

It was difficult not to stare
: the scale of the place was impressive as was the number of people working there. She’d never seen a free-standing holographic display before but this extraordinary place had three of them, the largest and most central being a colossal representation of Russalka herself in harsh display colours, a sphere ten metres across. She could see all the settlements marked, the current locations of the Conclaves, smaller icons that she assumed to be Yagizban ships and several markers in the less explored parts of the world. She had an ugly feeling that these were more aircraft stations, undeclared and unknown to the Federal forces. How could they know? The Federal forces were drawn as tight as a falling hawser just watching the standard shipping lanes between the main settlements. There was no possibility that they could just search millions of square kilometres of open sea on the off chance that they might find a secret Yagizban platform, even one as large as the FP-1, a small town by itself.

FP-1
, she thought bitterly.
How many more FP-somethings are out there
?

She kept walking, imagining herself to be a minor administrative assistant carrying documents for somebody
or
other in her case.
If you can fool yourself
that you’re who you’re pretending to be
,
she told herself,
it makes it easier to fool others
. She was just walking past a console near one of the great curving walls
at the edge
of the
chamber
when she saw something that stopped her in her tracks. Two men were standing with headsets on watching
a
scene on a bank of flat monitors. On each screen was a slightly different view of Kane being debriefed by Yagizban military personnel, military intelligence by the looks of them. Kane was relaxed, almost bored
,
as he answered their questions. Now and then he would look up at one
or other of the cameras and gaze
at it steadily for a moment before his attention wandered again. Whatever sound was being relayed she couldn’t hear, but the two observers with their headsets could.

“
This complicates matters,
”
said one of the men.
“
This was not covered in any of the contingency plans.
”

“
How could it?
”
replied his colleague.
“
Nobody expected anything of the sort. This is… outside our experience.
”

The first man nodded at the screen.
“
Do we trust him? He’s… in theory at least… he should be reliable. But sometimes…
”

“
Lack of motivation. We understand his limitations and can allow for them. Anyway, he’s only confirming what we’ve already been told. Now we need to formulate a response.
”

“
This complicates matters,
”
repeated the first man.
“
We’re not ready…
”

“
Oh, we’re ready.
”
The second man laughed humourlessly.
“
If this is all true, we’re ready right now.
”

The first man was about to reply when he half turned and saw Katya hovering around.
“
What do you want?
”
he demanded.

Katya’s eyes widened. She’d had her lie all prepared, that she was carrying a message from Mila Vetskya for the attention of Major Moltsyn and had been told to find him here. In the heat of the moment, the lie melted.

“
I, uh… a message. I have a message for the atten… from Vetskya… Mila Vetskya for… for the attention of…
”
The major’s name vanished entirely from her mind. She could see his face, hear his voice, even remember how his disdain for her borrowed FMA uniform had made her flush with anger, but she could not,
could not
, remember his name. She looked at the men, both of who had turned towards her now, their frowns deepening.

“
For the attention of whom?
”
snapped the second man.

“
For… the attention of…
”
She flailed for the name as it flickered around her memory, grabbed something and blurted it out.
“
The Chertovka!
”

For a horrible moment, they both just looked at her as if she’d opened her mouth and a spline squid had fallen out. Then the first man roared at her,
“
How
dare
you refer to a superior using that word, girl?
Colonel
Tasya Morevna is a valued officer and a model of loyalty to the Conclaves. She’s worth a hundred worms like you, you insubordinate wretch!
”

“
I’m… I’m sorry…
”
Katya stumbled. Her mind was racing.
Colonel
? Tasya’s a Yagizban
colonel
?
“
I meant no disrespect. I just…
”
A new lie presented itself and, sensing saying something weak now was a better strategy than something strong later, she went with it.
“
It’s just… she’s a legend among… among the lower grades, sirs… that name… she
scares
them.
”
She didn’t explain who
“
they
”
were, but she didn’t think she’d need to. She was right.

“
Developing a little personality cult, is she?
”
said the second man. He smiled wryly.
“
We’ve only ourselves to blame,
”
he said to the first man.
“
We’ve made the Federals fear her so much with all this ‘she-devil’ business, it’s hardly surprising that she’s becoming something of a heroine to our own people.
”
Then to Katya,
“
You’ll find the colonel in or around the holding facilities on Beta where the FMA people are being held. Go on, deliver you message, but don’t call her
Chertovka
to her face!
”
Both men were laughing as she turned and headed back towards the lifts.

“
Don’t ask her for her autograph either!
”
the first man called as she stepped into the car and the doors closed behind her.

Katya stood mute for a moment, then told the lift car to go back to the level her room was on. As it moved off, she leaned her shoulder blades against the wall and tried to think it through.

Tasya wasn’t really a pirate. Instead she was some sort of, what? An
agent provocateur
?
“
She’s something of a heroine to our side,
”
the man had said.
Our
side? Katya had been hoping there would an innocent explanation for the new warboats she’d seen. Now she accepted
with a sinking heart that
there was not
.
Was
it
Tasya’s
job to keep the FMA busy so they couldn’t use their limited resources to accidentally stumble upon what the Yagizba Conclaves were up to? That was part of it, she was sure, but was that all? A
nd all the time, the Yagizbans
had been building secret platforms, new aircraft – she couldn’t believe that their airfleet only contained a single submarine transporter – and those new submarines using the
Vodyanoi
as a template. The resources they ha
d
used to build all this
must
have been enormous and yet they were always starving the other settlements of supplies, citing manufacturing inefficiencies and mining difficulties.

The Yagizban were strong, the FMA was weak. She couldn’t see how the rest of the Russalkin could hope to stand against the Yagizban wolf pack. As if to punctuate her thoughts, the lift car emerged once more into the manufacturing facility and she watched with deepening dread the row of partially completed warboats. Every one of them was a mute threat against a peaceful future.

And Kane must have known every detail of this plan. Judging from what she’d overheard on the FP-1’s bridge, they might not entirely trust him but he was necessary to them. She wondered why. There were too many secrets around Havilland Kane, she thought; they followed him around like black smoke, obscuring his motivations, hiding the truth. A truth Katya knew she wouldn’t like.

This was not to ignore one last minor, trifling, unimportant little factor, of course. That given half a chance the
Leviathan
would kill the lot of them, Federal and Yagizban alike.

The lift compartment came to a halt and she walked out into the accommodation deck. It was as quiet as before and she saw nobody as she walked quickly but without obviously rushing to her door. A quick look around to make sure she was unobserved and she ducked inside. She could not repress a sigh of relief that she had got away with it and she leaned with her forehead against the cool plating of the door for a moment while she felt the tension drain from her.

“
Enjoy your walk?
”
asked a voice behind her.
“
I’m not sure that uniform suits you, though.
”
She turned very slowly. Kane was sitting in a chair off to one side of the spacious stateroom. She’d missed him when she’d come in.
“
Then again, I don’t think that shade of yellow really suits anybody.
”

Trying to look unconcerned, she walked to the bed, opened the case and took out the civilian clothes Mila had given her. As she straightened them out she asked casually,
“
Are you going to report me?
”

“
If I do, the chances are they’ll execute you. They’re very touchy about security at the moment. I’m concerned about what they may have planned for Lieutenant Petrov and his crew.
”

“
You’re concerned?
”
She tried to keep an edge of cynicism out of her voice but only partially succeeded.

If he heard it, he didn’t acknowledge it.
“
Yes, concerned. I’m hoping they’ll be declared prisoners of war, but as there’s no war actually on at the moment, that might be complicated. The Yagizban are sticklers for the formalities. The plan was always to declare war against the Federal Maritime Authority just before the first torpedoes struck.
”

“
How noble. To legitimise a sneak attack? To make themselves feel better?
”

“
The former, obviously. There have been similar events throughout history.
”

“
Earth
history, you mean.
”
This time Katya made no attempt to take the venom out of her voice.

“
Yes, Earth history. You don’t have a great deal to draw on yourselves here just yet. Just because it happened light years away and centuries ago doesn’t make it less relevant to your situation, Katya Kuriakova. History is about people and the Russalka and the Terrans are the same people. The geography may differ, but what goes on here,
”
he tapped his head,
“
and here,
”
he pl
aced his hand on his heart,
“
is
just the same.
”