The Bright Black Sea (101 page)

'Yes, of course,' I replied, adding rather
sarcastically, 'Rather out of your bailiwick, I suppose.'

She gave me a quick, wicked grin. 'It was. The affair
was not a matter I needed to be informed of, since I never
identified you as a relative. Both the contract to kill and Boscone
contract were indeed out of my bailiwick and until the loss of the
Sister Sinister
, too routine to reach me here, even
informally. Had your family connections been on record with the
Order, It would've been different,' she paused to glance across at
me, and continued, 'I'm somewhat the black sheep of the family and
I've served on the outside, and in the Unity, for the better part
of a century – by choice. I raised your mother entirely outside the
Order because at the time, I was rather on the outs with the Order
and her father. The Order was, of course, aware of her, but the
fact that I didn't send her to Tienterra, our home world for her
education, and that she slipped out of my life before she was
eligible to enter the Order on her own meant that her life and that
of her children fell outside of the Order's active interest. So
when Covert Operations issued an order to eliminate a witness to a
botched operation, they'd no way of knowing they were issuing an
order to kill someone who was related by blood to two of the oldest
and most powerful families in the Order. Had the Covert Operations
Directorate known this, I assure you, no order would have been
given, at least without consulting your grandfather and me.'

'Which is a star fallen,' I said as we came to the
edge of the bluff. 'A planet astern.'

'That depends, Wil, on what transpired in the Despar
Reef. That's what I need to know in order to decide how to proceed.
Hold on, you can tell me all about it when we reach the beach...'
she added, as she started down the narrow sandy path that
zig-zagged down the grassy face of the bluff to the wide beach
below. Still holding her hand I followed her down, carefully
picking my footholds. I'd been downside often enough in the last
weeks to be pretty accustomed to gravity, but I didn't care to go
tumbling down the bluff, dragging Grandmama along with me.

Reaching the dunes and grass at the bottom she turned
to me, 'The
Sister Sinister
is a serious affair, Wil. I need
to know the truth – the full truth – so as to know how to proceed.
Please trust me with the truth – I have your best interests at
heart.'

Why not? I thought. I'd nothing to lose now that St
Bleyth knew we survived. And perhaps something to gain. So I told
her the nearly complete tale as we made our way through the steep,
grassy sand dunes towards the sea – including the fact that Min had
already sailed – making Nun's mission half a failure before it even
sailed – but nothing about Botts or the part it played in saving
us. With the breeze and rumbling hiss of the waves, everything I
said would've been hard to have been captured by any interested
party, which was why we were here – this was the Unity after all,
where security was a by-word. Grandmama was taking no chances. When
I finished, we stood silently on the hard sand beach as the foam
speckled seas slid up and back, while the tall waves crashed and
tumbled in white confusion on the outer bank.

'So you didn't continue the battle once you were in
the reef?'

'Trust me, once we entered the reef neither of us had
the computing power or the missiles to spare to continue the
battle. Everything we had was focused on clearing a thin lane
through the reef. And since the
Sister Sinister
was
depending on us to do that for them, they'd have been crazy to fire
on us.'

'Why did you do take the chance? It seems a foolhardy
gamble.'

'In the long run we couldn't outfight or outrun the
frigate – we were just barely holding our own and eventually we'd
run short of missiles. It was only a matter of time before we were
destroyed. Even a 1 in 192 chance – and I thought it was better
than that – was better than our chances if I continued up the
channel,' I replied. 'I'd hoped, however, to shake Nun off just by
making a wide turn into the reef and see if I could make our way
through at a more reasonable pace, but that wasn't the way it
worked out.

'Can you prove all of that?'

'It's all in the ship's log. And I assure you,
neither my shipmates nor I will soon forget it.'

'So why did you survive, and the
Sister
Sinister
didn't? You were the lead ship, after all.'

'Luck and an amazing pilot,' I replied. 'Well, mostly
luck. I can't say for certain why Nun's ship took a hit. Perhaps
our sensor records could shed light on that. Trust me, I wasn't
looking back at the time since we were in the densest part of the
reef, constantly blowing meteors out of our way and even , losing a
drone in the process. My guess is that pieces of one of the meteors
we blew apart struck another rock and ricocheted inwards, striking
the
Sister Sinister
, causing either the first big explosion
or forcing it out of the cleared lane and into the thick reef and
the fatal rocks.'

She gave me a hard, sidelong look. 'The truth?'

'On my word of honor, Grandmama. The
Lost Star
did not intentionally destroy the
Sister Sinister
. Even when
attacked, all we did was defend ourselves. I'm a pretty Unity
Standard fellow and all I wanted to do was escape. Nun, in my mind,
made the foolhardy decision when he decided to follow us into the
drifts. I had to take the risk, he didn't. He must've feared that
if we did, somehow, make it through, he'd lose track of us on the
outside, if we had survived, since following the passage would've
taken him time and left him heading 90º away from our course. He
decided not to take that chance and paid the price. And it wasn't
the first time I've seen blind devotion to duty in the service of
St Bleyth lead to needless death,' I added. 'I rather doubt Captain
D'Lay had many illusions about the outcome of his last battle
either.'

She shrugged. 'It can be a hard service.' and
pointing up the mostly deserted beach said, 'The harbor and yacht
club are ahead. We can talk as we walk. I'm planning to get my feet
wet, so you'd best take your boots off as well.' And with that, she
settled on a steep bank of one of the dunes to take off her shoes
and roll up her slacks. I followed orders and did the same.

She hooked her arm in mine as we walked on the edge
of the ocean, letting the sheets of cool, foam streaked water wash
over our feet and splash up our legs as we walked.

'You're holding something back, son. Are you sure you
want to do that?'

'I've told you nothing but the truth, Grandmama. And
anything I haven't said is not relevant to what you need to know.
You must remember, you're a member of an organization that's
actively trying to kill me, and likely my shipmates as well. I
don't fear you here and now, and I can run far, far away, so I
don't fear for the future – much – either, but, well, we are
opponents, and I reserve the right to look after my own skin.
Everything I did, I did defending myself and my shipmates from the
hired killers of St Bleyth. I've nothing to apologize for.'

She cast me a glance and a faint smile. 'If you've
told me the truth concerning the circumstances of the
Sister
Sinister
's demise, you have of those hired killers in your
corner. One of the, well, unfortunate features of the Order is that
families often matter more than the Order. I won't betray the Order
for family, but I will fight for my family within the Order. And
you're family. I will do everything in my power to dismiss the
execution order against you.'

'And against Tallith Min and my crew as well?'

'Tallith Min is a contractual obligation. There's
nothing I can do about her. I'd like your word that she's not
aboard the
Starry Shore
, for that would put me in a
bind.'

'You have it, as I said, she left the ship on
Despar.'

'Good. Then I believe there's nothing preventing me
from turning a blind eye to you at the present. If you weren't my
grandson, I'd never have known you or your ship as being Litang of
the
Lost Star
. The order against you is an operational
decree, and between you and me, a trivial one, which can be
rescinded in-house. I'll see to having it rescinded. That's a
promise, Wil.'

'Fair enough. I believe I can trust you, Grandmama' I
said with a glance across to her. 'But I don't want to put you in
any awkward position on my account. I can look after myself,' I
added, not without some misgivings.

She smiled, 'Oh, I'm an Abbess, which is not a minor
rank. I may be an abbess of an abby mostly concerned with
information and mercantile concerns, but our family, Wil, dates
from the foundation of the Order. Plus your grandfather is a member
of the Order as well. And he's far more important than I am, and
from an old and powerful family as well. I believe I can interest
him in your predicament as well,' she paused and laughed, 'Oh,
you're very well connected in the Order, Wil, even if you're only a
half-blooded St Bleythian.'

'Well, that's good to know. Who's my
grandfather?'

She shook her head. 'Best to keep that secret, I
think. We all need our secrets, don't we?' she said with a sharp,
but largely benign glance. 'You see, he and I are not on the best
of terms. Oh, we're civil on the few occasions when we meet, but
having said that, that's all I can say. We weren't a good match and
we split before your mother was born. I haven't seen him in years.
He's completely indifferent to the existence of his daughter and is
completely indifferent to his granddaughter and grandson as well.
However, he's not without an ego. Indeed, he has a rather inflated
one, which, I think, will work in our favor. I rather doubt he'll
look kindly on killing a grandson of his simply because the Covert
Operations Directorate wanted to eliminate a witness to a botched
assassination. It wouldn't matter if he has no personal interest in
you – it'd simply be the principle of eliminating an offspring of
his without his consent.'

'And when he finds out about what I've done – foiling
assassinations, the
Sister Sinister
affair, and even
witnessing D'Lay's defeat by the berserker – what ?'

She laughed. 'He'll be as proud of you as I am.'

'Huh?' I looked at her.

'You have 500 generations of St Bleyth ancestors in
your blood. What you've managed to accomplish against the Order,
avoiding being killed by someone who was at the time considered one
of the best young stealths, destroying the berserker after D'Lay
failed, surviving the
Sister Sinister
and the Despar Reef,
and destroying three Falcon Rock pirates... Neb, son, blood will
tell.'

'I've been unbelievably lucky.'

'You've made your luck. I don't think defeating that
assassin in a duel was luck alone...'

'Well, I have been training with a master two-swords
man for twenty-five years now...'

'Exactly. And you knew enough to use the rules of the
duel to shift the balance in your favor.'

'I would've been dead, and deservedly so if Cin
hadn't come along and pulled me out of the Legionnaire ambush on
Sanjoor, and did the heavy lifting in our flight and fighting to
reach Port Sanjoor...'

'And you deftly evaded her to make your escape
afterwards. Your grandfather would probably criticize you for
leaving her alive, but well, why quibble? You escaped two sets of
determined assassins. And the berserker...'

'I've the best systems tech man and hacker in the
Neb...'

'Right, and the
Sister Sinister
...'

'A poor choice by Nun, and a lot of luck...'

'And an amazing pilot...'

'Aye...' I admitted.

'And the three Falcon Rock pirates?'

'Fired first with a carefully planned and executed
volley. I've a talented fire control person...'

She gave me that look again, but simply said,
'Whatever role luck may play, you've more than luck on your side –
you're surrounded by a team that seems to be able to do the
impossible. In short, you've made much of your luck.'

She was right, so I could only shrug and say, 'I'll
readily admit I have a very handy crew, but I don't know if I can
take any credit for that... But anyway, Grandmama, this resume of
my career should serve as a warning. It seems I'm strangely toxic
to the Order. Captain D'Lay and his pilots and Captain Nun and his
crew, all died after becoming involved with me. And not just by
trying to kill me. D'Lay died defending the
Lost Star
. And
there's the stealth, Cin. I gathered her career took a decidedly
downward plot since we crossed orbits and I rather doubt her
performance on Despar will have reversed that. Yet, she probably
saved my life more times than she tried taking it. So you see, it
appears that mere proximity to me has adverse affects – 500
generations of St Bleyth ancestors notwithstanding.'

'It might seem so. Cin, by the way, was offered an
honor mission after Despar, and accepted it.'

'An honor mission?'

'Brothers and sisters who fail to live up to the
standards of our martial arts positions are dismissed to laity
service. To be dismissed is a disgrace to be endured. Sometimes
those dismissed are offered a chance to reestablish their
reputation by performing an especially dangerous assignment,
usually one which the operatives are not expected to, well, return
from.'

'A suicide mission.'

'More or less. But if the honor mission is
successful, the honor of the participant and their family is
restored in the annals of the Order.'

'Deceased.'

'We all hope to die as honored members of the Order,
Wil. Worthy of our families.'

'Well there you are – they're all dead, Grandmama.
And believe it or not, I feel sorry for them. Both D'Lay and Cin,
when she wasn't trying to hurt or kill me, were companions-in-arms,
and Nun – I gave him an excuse to kill me on Despar and he only
returned my stun dart. Anyway, you see the odds you're up against.
Being on my side is no guarantee you'll avoid their fate and I'd
hate for something similar to happen to you. You're rather more
than important to me than they were.'