Natural Selection

by Michael A. Stackpole

  Standing beside Victor and Galen were the other two members of Victor's command lance. Both men were of oriental descent, though Kai's lighter skin and the softer tilt of his almond-shaped eyes made his mixed blood obvious. Their gray color also contrasted sharply with the dark brown of Shin Yodama's. The Draconis Combine officer stood a few centimeters shorter than Kai and looked a decade older. Phelan thought he saw the edges of a black and gold tattoo peeking out from the neckline of his shirt.

  "Good evening." Phelan nodded to Galen, then smiled at Kai. "I can see easily why you are the Solaris champion." He shifted his gaze to Shin. "And why the Coordinator still has an heir."

  Shin stiffened and then executed a short bow. Phelan read a hint of shame on Shin's face. Coordinator Takashi Kurita had been murdered only a few months before, and Shin had been in charge of Takashi's bodyguards.

  Kai nodded at Phelan, the hint of a blush coloring his face. "Considering that my modified Centurion out-massed your Wolfhound by fifteen tons, you would be a favorite on Solaris. It would have taken many other fighters months of plotting to do what you managed on the fly out there."

  "Lucky shots," Phelan shrugged. "I do not think you have anything to fear from me. Even if I were allowed to travel beyond the treaty line to Solaris, I would not welcome a rematch with live ammunition. As I recall, neither one of us would have survived our fight."

  "Point well taken."

  Michelle Moran tossed off the last of the beer in her mug. "I wouldn't think that your getting to Solaris would be that difficult, Khan Phelan. His Highness seems to be quite adept at getting all manner of hostiles anywhere he wants them."

  "That may well be, Captain Moran, but for Khan Phelan to travel to Solaris would be an abrogation of the agreement the ilKhan made with ComStar." Ragnar kept a half-smile on his face. "The Precentor Martial has been reluctant to grant any Clan personnel the right to cross that line."

  Victor nodded. "At this point things are so touchy that even a rumor of a Clansman crossing the line would set off the war again."

  Moran waved that comment away with an empty mug. "Was there ever really an end to the fighting, Highness? Look at Morges and Crimond invaded last year, and now the raiding going on in the Lyran holdings. Anything this side of the line, including Arc-Royal here, is open season. The old Federated Suns seems to be intact, though."

  Victor stiffened and clenched his jaw. "Ja, Captain Moran, the Federated Suns seems intact, but it is not. It participates in the defense against the Clans by sending its men and women here to die. It supplies materiel for war and assistance for recovery."

  "But no one in the Suns is under the threat of invasion!" Moran handed the beer mug to one of her men and used her freed hands to help express her anger. "The

  Federated Suns never loses worlds. In the Fourth Succession War your father managed to increase the size of the Federated Suns by a fourth, then relied on the Lyran Commonwealth to foot the bill for his conquests. Never mind the fact that we lost worlds to the Combine. Now we suffer the brunt of the invasion and the Federated Suns offers us a band-aid to staunch an arterial wound."

  "Captain! Remember who you are talking to!" Galen Cox barked.

  "It's all right," Victor said quietly, folding his arms across his chest and turning back to Moran. "We are doing all we can."

  "No you're not." Moran pressed her fingertips to her temples, then brought her open hands down. "We opposed the Clans with one hand tied behind our backs. If all the troops in the Federated Commonwealth had been used to fight the Clans, we could have driven them back."

  "You don't seriously suggest that we should take all the troops from the Federated Suns and bring them here, do you?"

  "Why not?"

  The Prince looked surprised. "Because the Clans are not the only threats to the Federated Commonwealth. Romano Liao would have attacked if we had stripped troops from the border with the Capellan Confederation."

  Moran shook her head vehemently. "Nonsense. Besides, the St. Ives Compact, a nation that the Capellans still claim is legally part of their nation, devoted a greater percentage of its troops to opposing the Clans than the old Federated Suns did. And please don't say that the Free Worlds League was a threat. As long as you have Joshua Marik there on New Avalon as a hostage, Thomas won't do anything that could jeopardize his son's life."

  "There's something you're forgetting here, Captain Moran. It is that I am Victor Ian Steiner-Davion. I was raised right here, in the Lyran half of the Federated Commonwealth. I went to the Nagelring and graduated with honors. And all my service has been here. My only trip back to New Avalon came at the time of my father's death."

  Victor's voice began to rise and Phelan began to feel for him. "Captain Moran, I feel the pain of the losses we have suffered here in the Federated Commonwealth precisely because of who I am. I regret your brother's death on Trellwan, but I also rejoice in your skill. I am pleased and proud to have done all I could to defeat the Clans, and I wish I could do more. Yes, my father was Hanse Davion, but my mother is Melissa Steiner, and that ties me as closely to the Lyran Commonwealth as you can imagine."

  "Does it?" Moran's eyes narrowed. "There are times I wonder."

  Phelan took a moment to read the group. Michelle Moran and her people seemed more relaxed toward him and Ragnar than they did Victor and Galen. That only made sense if their heated discussion had traveled entirely out of the realm of the morning's exercise, or even the conduct of the war against the Clans. Phelan smelled politics and wondered what was really going on. When he noticed it, a second later, he could have kicked himself for missing something so obvious.

  Victor and Galen—both members of the Tenth Lyran Guards' elite Revenants—had abandoned their uniform jackets and instead wore exquisite green silken robes with black trim at the cuffs and hem. The crest embroidered in red on the sleeves and breasts of the robes looked like the Revenants' insignia, but the border around it showed little Kurita dragons chasing each other.

  The robes Shin wore were identical in design, though the crests on his kimono were appropriate, for the Dragon's Claws. It did not strike Phelan as remarkable that Shin Yodama was a member of the Combine Coordinator's bodyguard unit—by all accounts of the war, Shin had served the Kurita family faithfully and well. What did surprise Phelan was that Victor would wear a garment that so clearly resembled a Kurita uniform.

  Phelan sensed instantly that Victor's choice of clothing was not what had angered Michelle Moran, but what his wearing it meant. He had no doubt that many of the Kell Hounds had shared a smile when Victor rescued Hohiro from Teniente in the same way that the Hounds had helped save Luthien. That would have struck them as justice. Somehow, though, things went deeper.

  Watching Victor chafe beneath Moran's anger made Phelan uneasy. It was true that Michelle might have had a beer or two more than wise, but Victor was hung on the tree of politics. If he agreed with her and word of it got out, certain forces in the Federated Suns section of the Commonwealth would immediately pounce on him for leaving them open to predation by the Capellan Confederation.

  Just as the Crusaders have been hounding the ilKhan to repudiate the truce. Hearing the echoes of Ranna's words in his head, Phelan laughed lightly. "I assure you, Captain Moran, that from my point of view, Prince Victor acted, as did the rest of you, exactly the way I expected Steiner troops to act. After all you had done to harass the Smoke Jaguars and the Nova Cats, I had expected better."

  Moran, her eyes flashing, turned on him in a quiet rage. "You died quickly enough."

  "And because of it, Captain Moran, your company took only marginally more time to die. I set a bondsman and my nephew, a youth who has still not even been accepted into one of your military academies, to the task of drawing you off and leading you on a wild goose chase. You took the bait and your troops were scattered."

  Phelan brought his hands up to chest-height and deliberately pressed them fingertip to fingertip in a sign of superiority. "We let them pick off stragglers w
hile we crushed those you hunted. And though I did die in that exchange, I died at the hands of the only member of your company—save Chu-sa Yodama—who had the least claim to Steiner blood or training."

  Moran raised her head. "It was Star Captain Ranna who killed most of us. It took a real Clanner to do that."

  Phelan's nostrils flared. "Very good, Captain Moran, but hardly a killing shot. I have been ridiculed for my extra-Clan origins by the best in the Wolf Clan, hell, by the best of all the Clans. They hate me for what I am, and probably for the same reason you do. They hate me because they're afraid of me. They hate the fact that I, a freebirth from outside the Clans, could rise to the top of one of the most powerful Clans. They fear me more completely and totally than they know."

  "I'm not afraid of you," Moran scoffed.

  "Oh, but you are, Captain Moran." Phelan looked around the group, touching each of them with his frank stare. "You all are. You are all afraid you couldn't do what I did. You're afraid that when the Clans come again I will use what I know to guarantee that no force, no matter how huge, will ever stop us."

  Phelan smiled a predator's smile. "When I see you bickering like this, I marvel that anyone in the Inner Sphere was even able to slow us.

  "Next time?" He shook his head. "Next time you'll be lucky to even see us coming."

  9

  Arc-Royal

  Federated Commonwealth

  16 April 3055

  You arrogant son of a . . . Victor's hands balled into fists as he glared at Phelan. The adrenalin jolt he felt as his cousin returned the stare deflected him from immediately snapping out a furious reply. I am not afraid of him!

  "I can see your time with the Clans has not changed you at all, Phelan."

  Victor turned around as he recognized the gentle voice that mildly rebuked the Clan Khan. Standing eight centimeters taller than him, but sharing the golden blond hair they had both inherited from their mother, his sister Katherine leaned down and gave Victor a peck on the cheek. "Are you surprised, Victor? I hope so."

  "Katherine? I thought you were on Tharkad with Mother. No one told me. ..." Victor felt himself whip-sawed as his anger shattered against the anvil of surprise, then melted away into happiness at seeing his sister again. "When did you arrive?"

  Katherine ignored the question and extended her left hand to Shin Yodama. "Komban-wa, Chu-sa. Thank you again for letting me hitch a ride aboard your DropShip." She squeezed his hand, then let it drop.

  "And you for permitting me the use of your shuttle to get here ahead of the Taizai, Duchess Katrina."

  "You came in on the Combine DropShip?" Victor blinked in surprise. "Duchess Katrina?"

  Katherine glanced down at her brother, then laughed lightly. "Yes, Victor, I came in on the Taizai. I was on the Jadbalja, hoping to transfer to another ship as it headed from Tharkad to Morges. We ran across Chu-sa Yodama—Shin—at Hamilton and I invited myself aboard. He was polite despite the utter breach of protocol. I begged him not to tell you I was on my way, and use of the shuttle sealed the deal."

  Victor raised an eyebrow at Shin. "You could have told me.

  The yakuza from the Draconis Combine shook his head. "Once sworn to a secret, I keep my word, no matter the consequences."

  Katherine's cool blue eyes glittered mischievously. "And it is a good thing for you that he does, Victor. But to answer your question, we got in this morning while you and your friends were engaged in that combat exercise." She pulled her hands up and wiggled her fingers as if the wargame had been a long-dead creature left to molder and rot. "You were preoccupied, so we decided to plan a surprise for you. Morgan agreed, so our operation remained covert."

  The lilt in her voice made Victor grin. "But Duchess Katrina?" Victor voiced the question in a tone he knew would get her attention. "When did this happen?"

  Katherine knitted her brows with concentration and Victor sensed the urge on the part of the males in the circle to offer her any help they could. Because she was his sister, he had some difficulty understanding their reaction. If pressed, however, he'd have been forced to admit that the teal blue jacket and skirt complimented her slender figure. With its cleric collar, shoulder pads, and diagonally cut double-breast, the gold-buttoned jacket looked to him to be state-of-design for the current fashion season.

  Katherine, he recalled quite easily after a moment's reflection, had always been adept at beguiling even the sternest of courtiers and tutors with her innocent confusion. She claimed to have inherited the ability from their mother, but Melissa protested that she'd been too shy to flirt in her youth. The Archon freely acknowledged Katherine her superior in that area.

  "The news of Morgan's retirement got me thinking about our grandmother. As my middle name is Morgan in his honor, I decided to return to the original form of my name in her honor." She smiled and Victor felt the heat in the circle go up a degree or two. "After all, Katherine is the kind of name one gives a dowdy old empress with a taste for horses. Katrina is much more to my liking."

  Phelan nodded confidently. "And it suits you well, cousin."

  Katherine winked at him. "Is it the Clans who have taught you flattery, Phelan?"

  "No, merely to rationally assess situations and report on them."

  "You should instruct my brother on such things, then." She turned back to throw a smile at Victor. "By the way, I like the robes. You and Kommandant Cox look quite dashing."

  From beyond Phelan, both Caitlin and Ranna approached the group. Caitlin's look of happiness found a twin on Katherine's face. "Katrina, you look wonderful!"

  Victor frowned and turned to Galen. "Does everyone know of this name change except for me?"

  Galen blinked, then looked down at Victor. "Beg your pardon, sir?"

  "Never mind," Victor grumbled.

  "And you are Ranna?" Katherine cooed as she took the Clanswoman by the hand. "Caitlin said you were pretty, but she woefully underbid, didn't she? I would have started at 'divine' and then might have been talked down to 'absolutely gorgeous,' quiaff? I did that right, ja?"

  Victor took refuge in Ranna's momentary look of surprise. He rolled his eyes as the Wolf Clan warrior stammered out a reply. Katrina—Katherine—is a magician! The next time I bid a battle against the Clans, I want her with me.

  He watched his sister work the crowd. Though he always thought she went too far, no one else seemed to think so. Her combination of compliments and wit enchanted everyone she met. Even Kai and Galen had drifted forward to keep Katherine the center of the circle. As she linked her arm through Ranna's and whispered something to her, the circle drew tighter, leaving Victor a step back and forgotten as it squeezed him out.

  Not a little disgusted, he started the long away around the outside of the crowd in the reception room. He plotted a course to the refreshments table and wished he could have teleported there like a JumpShip making its way between stars. So fixed was he on becoming invisible as he skirted the assembly that he was two steps beyond the doorway when he actually translated the whispered sound into his name.

  Spinning about, he saw her, and his jaw dropped open. She wore a jacket and skirt similar in style to his sister's, but different enough to save them the embarrassment of arriving in the same outfit. Unlike his sister's clothes, however, hers had been cut from white silk embroidered with pink cherry blossoms.

  "Omi?" Victor recovered his wits, and swallowed hard. "I mean, komban-wa, Kurita Omi. "

  Omi bowed her head to him in return, her long black hair falling forward over one shoulder like a velvet curtain. "Your Japanese is flawless, Victor. You have been practicing."

  Victor nodded, unable to speak as his racing heart lagged a second or two behind the pace of his thoughts. To save her brother from the Clans on Teniente, Omi had been forced to enlist Victor's help. In exchange for allowing her to invite Federated Commonwealth forces to perform the rescue, her father had made Omi promise never to communicate with Victor again. Her grandfather, however, had overridden that command in gratitu
de for her role in saving Hohiro. He even appointed her head of the foundation that provided money for the education of the children of the Revenants, a job that required a regular exchange of messages with Victor.

  When leaving Outreach four years ago, Victor had thought he would never see Omi again. She had thought so, too, which may have made them feel freer to express themselves in the messages they sent back and forth. Their relationship had deepened to the point that Omi's promise to her father became a form of torture to them both. Still, the distance that separated them helped keep things in check.

  Seeing her again, Victor wanted to take Omi in his arms right here, but he refrained. He must have been staring at her, though, for she blushed suddenly. Averting his eyes in embarrassment, he felt the heat rising on his own cheeks.

  "Sumimasen, " he said. "I did not mean to embarrass you. It is just that it is so hard to believe you are really here."

  Omi smiled carefully. "The Draconis Combine owes a great debt to the Kell Hounds. My father would never allow us to be disrespectful. I have come to honor a great warrior. I also impressed upon my father that the foundation had urgent business that was best conducted in person here on Arc-Royal."

  "I see." Victor tugged nervously at the loose ends of the sash holding his robe shut. Another secret mission-one of which I knew nothing, but one I welcome wholeheartedly. "I had not thought I would ever see you again. I thought you might have been offended that I was unable to attend your grandfather's memorial service. I was grieved at your loss."

  She looked down at the white marble floor. "Takashi's passing was so unexpected, but he wanted no public spectacle to commemorate him." Omi looked up and met Victor's gaze for a moment before her eyes flicked down again. "That is not to say you would not have been welcome."

  "Thank you." Victor smiled at her and his chest felt like it would explode. "Come, I must introduce you to my sister."